The student learned several important lessons from completing their preliminary college magazine task to their final music magazine product. They improved the professional appearance of the magazine, conducted extensive research on magazine design and content within the music genre, and developed their skills with InDesign, Photoshop and targeting audiences. The student was able to apply what they learned about planning, designing, editing and developing cohesive branding to create a higher quality final magazine.

1. Question 7: What do you feel you have learnt in
the progression from your preliminary task to
the full product?
I have made lots of improvements in comparison to my preliminary task (college
magazine). I have made the magazine look more professional and related to the genre of
magazine that I decided to do. Throughout the process, I have been able to expand my
skills and develop them further to benefit my final designs.

2. College Magazine Music Magazine

3. • For the college front cover magazine, I didn’t plan or research into anything when creating this magazine. I
simply used ideas and thoughts which I personally believed would appeal to the target audience. But with
my music magazine, I did extensive research into all parts of the music and other magazines of that genre.
I researched designs, layouts and content of similar magazines of this genre for example ‘KERRANG’ I also
found it easier to make this music magazine as it is a genre I’m interested in so I used a lot of my own
knowledge to back up basic information I had found out.
• In the design of my college magazine, I used generic styles and fonts, without giving much thought
into how the page would actually look to the target audience. Whereas with my music magazine, I knew I
needed to make it appealing and interesting, I used quirky fonts and tried to design an eye-catching front
cover. When taking photos for my college magazine, I was happy with my image I had taken, but didn’t edit
these in any way. With my music magazine, I used and developed my skills with Photoshop to make the
photos I had taken look more striking and distinctive. My skills using InDesign improved considerably from
when I used it for the first time when creating my college magazine, to my music magazine. I was able to
try out more interesting designs and use more complex features on the programme as I became more
familiar with it; I know I will be able to use these skills in my A2 year.
The content of my college magazine wasn’t specifically targeted at a certain social group, whereas with
my music magazine I narrowed down the target audience and this made it easier to decide on the
content and how to attract an audience.

5. I also continued to make improvements with from college contents page to the music magazine
contents page. I picked a definite colour scheme which appeared throughout all of the pages I
completed, whereas with the college magazine, the colours and design wasn’t necessarily linkable from
one page to another.
I think that throughout the process, from the preliminary to the music magazine I have made
substantial improvements to both the actual design of the magazine and also the way in which I went
about researching and coming up with material for it. I have developed my skills, in Photoshop, browsing
the internet, taking and editing photos and InDesign. I also think that I know have greater understanding
of how to research and create a magazine, making it appealing and targeting the correct audience, as my
main task (front cover, contents and double page spread) is a lot more interesting and links well to the
genre at which it is in. The skills I have learnt in this process will be useful for any other aspect of media
and also my second year.