From the preliminary task to the final front cover and contents page, the author learned several layout and design skills. For the front cover, they learned to add banners, enlarge the masthead, use different fonts and colors, and properly layout cover lines and pricing. For the contents page, they learned to include more images and columns for easier navigation, add section titles and page numbers, and include the issue number and date in the layout. Overall, the preliminary task helped the author improve the visual design and reader experience of the key magazine pages.

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

2. Front Cover
From my preliminary task to my front cover I think I learnt a variety of different skills. The
first skill was how to add banners around my positioning statement. By doing this it has
made the positioning statement on my front cover much more attractive and it stands out
so the audience can see it. This compares to my preliminary task as it was just in plain text
which couldn't’t be noticed from a distant. Another improvement I learnt from my
preliminary task was to enlarge the size of my masthead on my front cover. This is so its
readable, and most importantly the biggest piece of text on there. On my front cover I
made it in a colour that stood out to the rest of my magazine and in a font that was
different, unique and could be recognized by my target audience amongst other magazines.
Also from doing my preliminary task I learnt how to lay out my cover lines and make sure I
had several band names with the cover line about that article underneath, to give the
audience an insight to what they will read about. In my preliminary task the price was such
a big feature on my front cover so from this I learnt it had to be much smaller when I was
producing my real front cover. I did this by resizing the barcode in the bottom right hand
corner and the price was positioned in a small font of 11pt and it was positioned on top of
the barcode. This was so it didn't’t become such a main feature within my magazine and
wasn't’t something my audience was drawn to straight away. From doing my preliminary
task I learnt that I needed something to engage my audience to my magazine. I did this by
inserting a splash in the top left hand corner. This was directly addressing my audience as it
was informing them and telling them to enter a competition for a chance to win an
amazing prize. By doing this I learnt it would a attract a much bigger and wider audience.

3. Contents Page
From my preliminary task to my contents page I think I have developed a different range of
skills. The first skill was by researching a correct layout for my contents page. I did this as
audiences can focus more when there is colour and lots of images. This is why I decided to
have a good chunk of my page to be filled with images of different artists. This way it will grab
the audiences attentions and draw them in to wanting to read the articles. This is different
from my preliminary task as I only included two images and they were at the very bottom of
my page so in reality the last thing the audience would lay their eyes on, that’s if they didn't’t
lose interest before hand. I also tried to put my articles into columns as audiences can
navigate around a magazine much more easier when things have an order and starting point
to them. I also learnt from my preliminary task that I needed to add sub titles and section off
the cover lines, I made this different from my preliminary contents page by adding boxes
around the text and having them in a colour that wasn't’t on my front cover, to make it
different ad stand out amongst the other colours on the page. I also learnt from the
preliminary task to add page numbers on my images that correspond to the correct cover
lines within my features. This makes it much clearer and easier for the audience to find what
page a certain image of an artist is on. I also learnt that I needed to add issue number and
date within my contents as this was something I didn't’t do on my preliminary task. So I added
these next to the title ‘Contents’ in the top right hand corner, so the audience could easily see
it but it wasn't’t to noticeable that it took the focus away from the rest of the contents page. I
also added a banner around the title ‘Contents’ as this made it look more noticeable and it
matched the banners around the sub titles. So it was keeping to a constant colour scheme,
which audience like to see when reading a magazine as it looks more professional.