By comparing his preliminary magazine cover and contents page to his final products, the author learned many improvements. For the preliminary tasks, he had limited editing options by using only Microsoft Word and focused more on photos than design. However, for the final products he learned photo editing software like Photoshop, researched magazine layout conventions and target audiences, and organized a photoshoot. This allowed him to create covers and pages that were more creative, visually appealing and aligned with industry standards. The author concluded that thorough planning, research, and applying lessons learned from preliminary tasks helped transform his final magazine products.

1. How have you learned from your
preliminary task in the progression
to your final products
By callum hemmings

2. Preliminary Front Cover

3. Preliminary Contents Page

4. Improvements on the Front Cover
• Looking back on the preliminary task, I feel like I have made many
improvements. For starters, back then I had no knowledge on how
to use photo shop and simply edited it on Microsoft Word. This
limited my effects on image manipulation and fonts. In my new
front cover, I am able to use any background that I think works. The
subhead present on my preliminary was basic and uninteresting
with small text. In my main front cover, I think the subhead is more
improved as it is bigger and has a powerful pull quote along with
the “exclusive” tagline. The sell lines on the preliminary front cover
were also basic and no unique font to make it stand out from the
subhead. In my main front cover, I changed colours, and used
different fonts and less sell lines, which made them more unique
and interesting. The dominant image is more clearer on its
communication of intent and tells us more about the magazine, the
preliminary task simply doesn’t have that.

5. Preliminary task
• The preliminary task front cover, uses basic
conventions. It has a masthead, a subhead
and sell lines. In the contents page, it has
more subimages. We focused more on getting
the shots right than colour schemes and
focused on layout. Since it was edited on
Microsoft word, our editing options were
limited. It looked unprofessional and too basic
for it to be a magazine. There was no effort in
its design.

6. Comparison

7. Comparison

8. Improvements
• I was able to improve my skills used on the
preliminary task. I learned how to use photo
shop and other software programmes. I plan
to get more inspiration from existing music
magazines and use this to further build my
magazine.

9. My Blogger
I didn’t have much time to really complete my work on the
preliminary,, therefore I had no audience feedback and thus,
make improvements. I didn’t have time to look at existing
magazines, thus my product looked unprofessional. For my final
products I looked at similar products, researched potential
target audience and organised a photoshoot . All of this
combined to make my final products a success as I learned
what goes into a good magazine

10. Layout and composition
• At the time of making the final products, I had no clue on
the traditional layout of a magazine and no knowledge on
the codes and conventions. This caused me to position
them in areas that would normally cause them to be
overlooked. There was a lot of dead space as well, so this
made the magazine look bland and uninteresting. Through
research, I found out that many have the dominant image
overlap the masthead which makes room for more creative
sell lines. I also learned that a better contents page can be
made through no subimages. The contents were fine on the
preliminary task. This also works with my target audience
as they are a mature audience so need less images.

11. Fonts
• When making the preliminary task, I never
knew of da font, I used the default font for
Microsoft Word. However, with the
introduction of da font, I used fonts more
creatively. I used a separate font for
masthead, subhead and sell lines. They can be
bold or graffiti to elegant writing. This made
text stand out more and made them more
varied which kept the magazine from being
boring.

12. Conclusion
• In conclusion, looking back on my preliminary
tasks, I feel like I have come a long way from
making a basic and boring product to a
interesting product with long term longevity.
Doing research and planning helped create
the magazine I wanted to make and I learned
what makes a good magazine in the first place.