The student reflects on how their skills and work improved from the preliminary college magazine task to the full music magazine product. For the preliminary task, they rushed the college magazine and did not fully utilize design tools. However, for the music magazine, they took more time, learned new Photoshop and other software skills, and produced higher quality layouts, images, and content. Key skills learned included advanced Photoshop techniques, using Word for writing and Publisher for layouts, and new ways of presenting work online using Prezi, SlideShare, and blogs. The student recognizes significant development from their initial limited Photoshop skills and preliminary task to a stronger final music magazine project.

1. Looking back at your
preliminary task, what do you
feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full
product?
Evaluation Question 7

2. Preliminary Task
Here is the brief for my college
magazine; using DTP and an
image manipulation
programme, produce the front
page of a new/college
magazine, featuring a
photograph of a student in
medium close ups plus some
appropriately laid out text and
a mast head. Additionally you
must produce a mock up
layout of the contents page to
demonstrate their grasp of DTP
Music Magazine
The brief for my music
magazine; To design a
front cover, contents and
double page spread of a
new music magazine. All
images and text used must
be original, a minimum of
four images must be used.

3. Preliminary Task Outcome

4. Usefulness of the preliminary
task;
I found the preliminary important in terms of the tasks itself, it set
me up for producing a better, higher quality and over all good
piece of work when it came to my music magazine. I didn’t like
my college magazine as I rushed it and didn’t use the tools I felt I
could of to make it better. In my music magazine I tried to do
everything to the best of my ability and to make sure I used tools
that I could use comfortably but also to step out of the comfort
zone and try something new. I ensured the music magazine was
timed properly and I produced it at the pace I wanted but it
wasn’t rushed or overdue.

5. Photoshop/Word (Preliminary
Task);
Before creating my college magazine I never had any prior
experience with Photoshop, I think this is evident by the basic
techniques used on my college magazine. I used YouTube to
help me grasp Photoshop as well as a prior task to help
understand Photoshop. I didn’t use Photoshop initially on my
college magazine which is noticeable to see, I used word and
publisher as I felt most comfortable with this software at the time.
To create my mast head I used a logo design tool which after
editing still had a white background as I didn’t remove it properly
which made my work look poor in terms of development.
Consequently my front cover wasn’t the correct dimensions nor
did the image fit the brief of a medium
Shot.

6. Music
Magazine
Outcome;

7. Photoshop (Music Magazine);
While creating my music magazine I had to engage in many more tools
on Photoshop to get the desired look for example removing a
background from an image, add layer lasso tool or magic wound
tool delete. Also adding text and creating edited images I found at
first difficult and frustrating to not fully understand but as I created and
edited my images I print screened to ensure I had evidence of my
Photoshop work while creating my magazine. I learnt how to merge
layers and how to create a new background as seen in my front cover.
Adding my existing images into a polaroid frame was used also on
Photoshop by opening a separate file  new layer magic wand tool
delete background  add new image  save. I blended my images
together to ensure they looked like they belong by the tool on
Photoshop. I created all of my magazine with the use of Photoshop.

8. Word/ Publisher;
For my music magazine I had to use word and publisher in some
circumstances. I used word for writing up my articles as Photoshop
doesn’t have a spell checker on the software I used word for this to
ensure my spelling and grammar was completely correct. Publisher
helped my create my digital layouts of my magazine for both my
college magazine and my music one. I used word to write my
interview for my double page spread and then transferred it onto
Publisher for me to use. Publisher has a word text wrapping feature as
well as a columns and drop cap option to make my magazine look
like a magazine as Photoshop doesn’t have these features it would
have been time consuming for me to use Photoshop for this method.

9. PicMonkey;
I used this website to create my Google mock ups for research
before my music magazine and I used it for creating my plug
and my mast head. I used the font text option to create the mast
head of ‘Phoenix’ of my magazine, I used this website as the font
looked like flicked paint of certain letters and looked different. I
used this website and saved the image and transferred it onto
Photoshop. I used the circle tool on this website to create my
plug, I liked the colour variation on the website so I chose it to
help me create my music magazine, I then used the text tool to
add the competition onto the circle. The website is really easier
to use and quick which saved me time in terms of creating things
and transferring them onto Photoshop.

10. Prezi/SlideShare/Fotor/ Blogger;
Not only have I have learnt how to use technology creating my
magazine I have learnt new aspects in terms of coursework and how to
present my work. Before starting this coursework I would only type things
in block text and now I have developed skills with using websites such as
Prezi, SlideShare and Fotor for collages. These devices help me keep me
engaged in my work to keep motivated to carry on as it was a fun way
to present my work. Even in the construction of my blog I learnt how to
embed codes onto my blog by clicking the ‘HTML’ section on Blogger to
add my Prezi’s and SlideShares. Consequently some of my coursework
was not in order and I had to change the date on the side of the
options to make the post come in order. Using Blogger itself was a new
experience, I had used it before this course but never to the extent of
learning to post photos and videos. Even editing my own blog to a
theme I liked was a new experience finding a theme compatible with
the videos and other devices on my blog. I used Fotor to collage my
images together to make them look pleasing on my blog rather than
posting one after the other.

11. What have I learnt?
I learnt the ins and outs of Photoshop and new device software
to produce my work. Photoshop has helped me understand how
to create all sorts of images and what you can do with an image
in terms of adding new backgrounds.
i would change the artist on my magazine to a male to fit my
target audience better and to make sure my music genre is
understood 100% rather than having a female as it can be
indecisive what genre or audience my magazine is.
What would I change?

12. Comparison to my college magazine development of new skills are evident;

13. Comparison to my college magazine development of new skills are evident;