3. How have your skills developed and
what benefit has this had on your
work?
I have developed my skills in a range of ways. Before I started the
main task, I knew how to do certain things in Photoshop and
InDesign but I had never sat down and taken the time to learn the
ins and outs of the program. I had used Photoshop for a few things
at home but nothing major and therefore knew only certain
methods of editing. After using Photoshop a great deal in my main
print task, I have followed tutorials on editing pictures and have
learnt a lot about how the program itself works and have been
able to apply it to my magazine task.
My skills developing have benefited my work by allowing me to
create a more professional looking product while still using the
same program, just with different skills. InDesign for example
allowed me to design the pages with the layout that I wanted, and
Photoshop has allowed me to create some great photo effects
which I can then apply to future work.
4. Did you produce work more in line with
professional practice as you have a more
detailed understanding of the forms and
conventions of real media products?
I believe I have produced my magazine in a style and with
the conventions of a much more professional quality in line
with current magazines. After exploring other magazines
and what they had to offer, I found that I began wanting
to include these things and making drafts that included key
elements. When I analysed indie magazines, I found a key
element was a “Sticker” on the front-page that included
special features. I felt this was really eye-catching and so
included it in my own work. I believe the standard of my
work has increased and it is more in line with a professional
product than my initial task was.
The Photographs used in these magazines were all of ultra-
high quality, so I wanted to mimic this in my magazine and
as such I sourced a really high quality camera from a friend
to take the pictures with.
5. Did you manage your time
better?
My first task I was quite lazy with initially because I
felt that I could just do it all towards the end and
not bother too much with it and still produce a
good product. I realised for my main task that I
wanted to improve my product greatly and so I
set myself deadlines and made sure I stuck to
them. I paced my work throughout the duration of
the deadline set by my teacher so that I could
complete work throughout without getting too
bogged down with it all. I made sure to plan all my
work before I started it for instance with drafts so
that I wasted less time on the actual production
stage.
6. Was your work well planned?
I think that I planned my work out quite well. At the start of
the project, we were given a checklist of what we had to
do and one of the first things I did was break it down into
sub-categories and different tasks that I wanted to achieve
within certain time frames. I set myself dates for each task
to be completed by. I made sure to draft all of my work
before doing it and to make sure that when I sat down to
work on the project that I knew exactly what I wanted to
do and how I would go about doing it? I looked into
roughly how long it would take me to complete each task,
and then set time aside for myself to ensure that I would be
focused while working on it. If I was to do the task again, I
would do the tasks in a different order as some of the things
I had done later on could of helped me out greatly in some
of the earlier tasks. I feel I could of planned slightly better in
this instance because of that.
9. Comparing the Initial Task to
the Main Task
Looking back at my Initial Print Task, its easy to see that my Main
Task has improved a great deal because of my increased
knowledge and the use of Photoshop. I previously used Publisher for
mine and you can tell just by looking at the two next to each other.
The Main Print Task has a much more interesting front cover image
in a much higher quality and resolution. This helps to create a much
more professional look to it. My Initial Task doesn’t play around with
typography and sticks to a few fonts I already knew. I feel
experimenting with typography has been a key element into
making the task more professional.
After completing the Main Task, I feel that I didn’t research the
conventions of a school magazine in enough detail. I believe for
the Main Task I have spent a lot more time researching and finding
out more about what I was producing and my target audience.
Finding more about your target audience helps a great deal as you
can refer to them for feedback all the time and to make sure your
sculpting your product for them and not for yourself.
10. How did your skills develop using software and
hardware and how has this improvement
been evident in your work?
Using software and hardware different from what I used for my
Initial task, I have been able to develop my skills greatly. I didn’t
have any idea how some of the more complex cameras work
when I first started the project and now I know how to adjust the
settings accordingly to capture the best quality image for the
situation. I have read tutorials and watched YouTube clips some of
which I have included on my blog which have helped me to learn
all the different techniques I can apply to the photos and the
magazine itself. I used Photoshop to edit all my photos. This is
evident in all my pictures, especially the ones on the double page
spread. I went for a Vintage-look on these images and so it is very
easy to see how I have edited them. I have also uploaded all my
original and edited images onto my blog which you can see the
changes I have made. I played around with an array of different
online tools that allowed me to create power points online, such as
Prezi and SlideShare, and word displays such as Worldle. I Explored
the use of a TTS(Text to Speech) website .
