The document reflects a transition from creating a simplistic school magazine to a more professionally designed music magazine. The author discusses improvements in planning, design, and understanding of magazine conventions, which resulted in a more visually appealing and targeted product. Knowledge gained from research and practice led to enhanced skills in software usage and a better grasp of effective magazine construction.

1. Question 7
Looking back on your preliminary task (the school magazine), what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

2. Front covers

3. Front Cover Comparisons
When comparing the front covers of my music magazine and school magazine, I believe there
is a clear contrast. My music magazine looks more professional due to the amount of research
that had gone into planning and constructing it. This meant I could make better informed
decisions about how I wanted my magazine to look and what to feature in it in a way that
would best appeal to my target audience. My school magazine is simplistic, follows a plain
colour scheme, leaves gaps and doesn’t look as eye catching or attractive to the audience. The
lack of puffs and a main cover line makes it look unappealing and doesn’t demand the
attention of the audience. Considering the skills I have learnt now, I feel my school magazine
front cover doesn’t meet the standard of my music magazine as I have more knowledge of
how a magazine cover should be constructed to ensure it sells. I believe the masthead for my
music magazine ‘Voltage’ reflects the genre and magazine really well whereas I don’t believe
‘Chislehurst Highlights’ is very original and reflects the magazine as it sound more like a
newspaper than a magazine. My school magazine image was taken outside so it doesn’t look
as professional as I had less control over the lighting. Although it was taken in a mid-shot
which is a common convention, the photo doesn’t use direct address which doesn’t grasp the
attention of the reader to encourage them to read the magazine. I spent more time on details
on my music magazine front cover such as, adding a web address, shapes, and was cautious of
the spacing and placements of text and images.

4. Contents Pages

5. Contents Page Comparisons
When creating the contents page for my school magazine, there wasn’t as much in depth planning behind it
compared to my music magazine so I believe there are many key differences between them. I feel that my
music magazine was easier to create due to the amount of planning and organisation that went into it as it
allowed me to feel more prepared regarding what needed to be included and how I would include them. It’s
clear to see that the school magazine contents lacks any main features that allows it to stand out as it is very
simplistic and doesn’t include as many of the conventions as I presented with my music magazine. My colour
scheme was too consistent and plain with not much to attract the attention of the reader. This taught me to
think about when considering the colour scheme for my music magazine, I wanted to be able to highlight
certain aspects I wanted to be more noticeable and attract the reader rather than keep it all looking too
similar. Before creating my music magazine, I conducted research about the colour wheel and what colours
are complimentary and applied this knowledge to my planning in hope of my magazine looking as
aesthetically pleasing and appealing as possible to my target audience. By using other magazines such as
NME and Kerrang as inspiration, I had a better idea of how to make my product look as realistic and
professional as possible by following as many of their conventions as I could. My contents shows relevant
photos in both magazines, however, my music magazine displayed them better with page number references
to show their relevance to the rest of the magazine rather than seemingly adding a photo to give the readers
something visual to look at. When taking my photos, I used a phone to take the images for my school
magazine whereas I used a professional camera for my music magazine and took a wider range of photos at
different angles and locations. This gave my music magazine a better variety and higher quality photos to use
in my magazine to get the best possible selection to choose for my final product.

6. Time management and planning
When creating my school magazine, I didn’t plan my time as effectively resulting in it
looking rushed with little planning and behind it. I didn’t have a clear schedule or time to
take the photographs which meant I had less time to construct my product on Photoshop,
which I believe was reflected in the quality of my work. I wanted to ensure I organised my
time sufficiently when researching and creating my music magazine. I did this by
preparing a lot more research beforehand which would allow me to make my magazine
look as professional as I could make it and have it comparable to real music magazines. I
arranged the location, dates and times for my photo shoots with my model to make sure
we had a good schedule that worked for us both. I planned the outfits and makeup before
taking the photos so I was fully prepared and knew I’d be capturing the type of image I
wanted for my music magazine. This is unlike any preparation I did for my school
magazine where I had to improvise the locations and go with whatever outfits my models
were wearing as I didn’t do any preparatory work for it. This resulted in my photos looking
rushed without the variety of angles and shots I could have used to improve my options.

7. What I learnt
Since my preliminary task, I believe I have gained a better understanding at researching the
relevant information that goes into creating a legitimate magazine. I didn’t have any tuition on
how to use the software for my school magazine so had little knowledge about how to use it
effectively. When designing my music magazine I had some previous experience which helped me
get it to the standard I wanted using Photoshop. When planning for my magazine I did a lot of
research into real magazines and their conventions such as NME, Kerrang and Q which inspired
my ideas for layouts, style of photography and what the target audience will be drawn to. I was
able to identify the regular conventions and adapt them when constructing my own magazine
which enabled me to make it look as realistic as possible yet still unique. I paid more attention to
what I’d include in my magazine using social media feedback which allowed me to get a better
understanding of what would appeal to my target audience and taught me what works and what
doesn’t. I feel I have a better understanding about what a professional magazine entails and the
work needed to make it successful among its audience. I feel like my skills have definitely
improved since my preliminary task. I feel more confident using software such as Photoshop to
create a product as close to my vision as I possibly could and became more comfortable using
the tools and learning how to use things I didn’t understand at first. Overall I feel I have learnt
about how to style my product in a way it will best attract my target audience and resemble
professional media products. I have also learnt about the structure, layout and features of a
magazine which allowed me to reflect this knowledge when creating my own.