In the progression from her preliminary sixth form magazine to the final music magazine, the author learned that in-depth research is important for a professional-looking magazine. She developed her photography and Photoshop skills. The author also improved her skills in InDesign, learning how to properly layout pages and include design elements like columns and drop caps. Overall, she gained valuable experience making her final magazine more polished and appealing to the target audience.

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

2. In order to make my music magazine of a high quality I needed to research into the
music industry in depth. This is something that I did not do for my preliminary task
of a sixth form magazine and I learned that research is extremely important for a
magazine to look professional and follow typical codes and conventions. It is also
extremely important to research into the target audience by creating
questionnaires for my focus group and gaining audience feedback. I did not do this
in my preliminary task and this largely helped me when constructing my final
product.
I developed my photography and camera skills. In my
preliminary task the camera was not on a suitable
setting and I was not very confident in actually using
the camera, as I had not really used on before. This
resulted in my pictures being of a low quality and
looking quite unprofessional. I learned that I should
keep the camera on ‘auto’ or ‘sports’ and this helped
my images become more focused and higher quality in
my music magazine.

3. In the progression from the preliminary task of a sixth form magazine to the
full product of a music magazine, I have also learned and improved many of
my skills in Photoshop and InDesign. I learned how to insert columns into my
double page spread article in order to help me know where I should place
my text and what the size of my text should be. This also helped me to follow
the typical codes and conventions of a magazine, which made the magazine
look more professional and overall more appealing to the reader and the
target audience.

4. I learned that the masthead and the
cover lines should never be on the
model’s face or hair on the front cover,
because this draws the audience’s
attention away from the central image.
Therefore, I moved my masthead
upwards and moved the cover lines
outwards in order to make sure the
audience’s focus is mainly on the
model. I also developed my skills in
Photoshop. I improved my skill of
cutting out photos and erasing the
background. This showed another
technique, which is seen in my
contents page and made the
magazine look more appealing to the
target audience.

5. In InDesign, I also learned how to move my double page spread copy
around the images of the two models, so the text was framing the
model’s bodies. This again made the overall aesthetic of the
magazine look more professional and followed typical codes and
conventions of magazines.
In addition, I learned how to
insert a drop cap into my
text. This helped to break
up the text and made it
easier for the audience to
read the copy, as well as
following codes and
conventions.

6. In my preliminary task of a sixth form magazine, I did not feature many cover lines, which made
the magazine look extremely bare. From my research into different types of magazines, I learned
that more cover lines are needed to make the magazine look more professional and to engage
the reader. Various cover lines are extremely important for pop magazines, because pop
magazines are usually very busy. My magazine therefore looks a lot more professional and
appealing compared to my preliminary task, which is very plain and unattractive to the reader.

7. What would I do differently?
• Even though I took a range of photos for my magazine, I would take
more images of the same models in lots of different outfits, rather
than just one or two. This would ensure that my magazine has a large
variety of images and also allow myself to have a larger choice in
which images would be most suitable fro my music magazine.
• I would also view more YouTube tutorials for InDesign and Photoshop
in order to develop my skills even more and include unique elements
to my magazine, which would make the overall aesthetic of the
magazine look more professional and attractive to the target
audience.