- The document summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of the student's production work for a magazine front cover, contents page, and band article spread. - For the front cover, strengths included using appropriate models and angles to look professional, while weaknesses were having to use two coverline colors and the model being too high. - For the contents page, strengths were good organization and structure, while a weakness was one picture not fully linking to its article. - For the band article spread, strengths included using engaging fonts and writing a high-quality article, while the model showed little expression.

1. SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT
Front Cover, Contents Page and Double
Page Spread

3. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of your production work?
Strengths
• I used an appropriate model to suit the genre of the magazine
using improved camera skills and different angles to add to the
stylistics of the genre and make the front cover look professional.
• The front cover has a colour theme of blue and white as well as
using all of the same fonts to add continuity to the page.
• The model has direct mode of address with the reader to entice
and address the audience.
• I edited the photo using photoshop to make the models head
appear in front of the title to make the image stand out more and
add impact to the main image.
• The cover lines are framed around the models face to draw the
readers attention to the central image and keep it as the main
focus.
• I followed the codes and conventions of a music magazine to
ensure it looked professional.
Weaknesses
• I had to use two different colours for the
coverlines instead of just one due to the clashing
colours in the background.
• The image of the model is too high to the top of
the page. If i could do it again I would make sure
that I took the picture with more room at the top of
the image for a title.

4. • I found importing the image easy as you just had to drag the image onto the page
and then scale it to the size you wanted it to be.
• Writing the text was also fairly easy to do as the site is easy to use and the tools
are clearly shown. The symbol to write text was a simple ’T’ so all I had to do what
write my cover lines in.
What did you find Easy?

5. • The most difficult part of this page was making the head of the model appear to be in front of the
text. I had never done it before and the fact that the models hair was spiked up makes it harder.
This task took a long time to do however I would now know how to do it in the future.
• I found taking the picture difficult as I had to find the right angle to make the picture look
professional as well as fitting the genre of the music magazine.
• I also found finding a way to make the main coverline stand out against the background. Due to the
contrasting colours of the background it was difficult to see the blue in front of the black jeans and
difficult to see the white infant of the white background. I overcame this by putting the opposite
colour outline on the text.
• Importing the title was also difficult as it was an image title as opposed to the normal text off
photoshop. I found it difficult to scale the title to the correct size so it fitted in the space behind the
models head.
What did you find difficult?

6. • The tool that I used most when I was creating my magazine was the text
tool. I used this to put in all of my cover lines and to edit the text to make
it fit with the theme of the page.
• I also used the quick selection tool to remove the white background from
my title and the barcode as they were both imported images. I had to re
do this a few times before it looked right as sometimes the wand would
select parts of the image that you needed.
• I also use the eraser tool a lot to make the models head stand in front of
the title. This took a lot of time as I had to go slowly to make sure I went
intricately around the spiky hair.
What were the main tools you
used in photoshop and why?

7. How does your use of photoshop compare
to the preliminary front cover you produced?
Throughout the course of this project my
photoshop skills have developed greatly.
There is a clear contrast between the
preliminary and the main task due to their
professionalism. The front cover from the
preliminary task is messy with little structure
attached to it whereas in the main task, the
cover lines and the title were strategically
placed so that the main focus is on the model.
This reflects on my photoshop skills as it
shows that since the beginning of the
production, I have learnt how to import new
fonts, position images in front of the title by
erasing parts of the layer using the eraser tool
and position text so it fits with the structure of
the cover. I also learned how to use the quick
selection tool on the barcode to remove the
white background, this makes it look more
professional.

9. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of your production work?
Strengths
• The page is well organised so that the text and the
images fit together nicely, leaving no gaps adding to the
professional look of the page.
• I used Quarkxpress accurately to split the text into
columns of three so the structure of the page is
noticeable to the readers.
• The Feature, Regular and page titles are all in bold and
in different colours to make them stand out so the
reader can navigate around the page easily.
• The house style is continued through the contents page
to make the magazine identifiable and make the page
look sleek and organised.
• The pictures are appropriate to the content of the
magazine and all link to individual articles.
Weaknesses
• The picture of the recording equipment does not
link fully to an article as the equipment is not
brand new or innovative whereas the article is
talking about how the new equipment will ‘change
the way you listen to mucic’
• In my audience feedback I was told that the page
had too much of the colour blue in it however I
purposely used these colours to create a house
style.

10. • I found importing the pictures easy as once you had put the
box where you wanted the picture to be, all you had to do
was import the picture and scale it into the frame.
• I found putting in the columns very easy as well. To do this
you had to just go on edit page and then choose how many
columns you wanted. I chose three becuase it fitted better
with the layout of my page.
What did you find Easy?

11. • I found it difficult to figure out how to use Quark in the first place as I had never
used it before so it took some time to get used to the system.
• I also found it difficult to remember to add the extra cover page when first
making the page so that the work was on the left hand side.
• Making all of the numbers and subtitles was not necessarily hard however it
was very time consuming as you had to do each number individually.
What did you find difficult?

12. • The tool I used most whilst producing my contents page was the text
tool. I used this to put in all of the text on the page. This was easy to
do as i had columns so all of the text fitted in perfectly.
• I also used the picture tool to create the space where my pictures
would be then imported the picture and cropped and resized it to
make sure it fit within the allocated space.
• I also used the shape tool to make the heading of the Feature and
Regular articles stand out. I used the colour tool to fill them in in black
so they were noticeable on the page.
What were the main tools you
used in Quarkxpress and
why?

13. How does your use of photoshop compare
to the preliminary front cover you produced?
The difference between these two pages are
drastic. This shows that my knowledge on
how to use Quark has improved a lot. When i
first made the preliminary task, i did not know
what i was doing so spent a lot of the time
figuring out how to use the programme. The
preliminary task is filled with white empty
space and the pictures are not lines up. I also
did not insert any columns so the page is not
very well structured. My main task looks much
more professional as I had learned how to
use columns so everything had a set place
and lined up. I also experimented more with
colours and fonts to make the headings and
numbers stand out.

15. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of your production work?
Strengths
• I downloaded a wider range of fonts to make the
page more exciting and fit better with the genre of
the band.
• I used my english skills and research of the band to
write an article of high quality, pulling out the most
interesting points from my interview to create an
article that would be engaging to an audience.
• I used pull quotes to show some of the key points of
the article to entice the reader.
• I learned how to use drop caps to make the article
look more professional.
Weaknesses
• The model in the image does not show much
expression and looks quite boring on the page.
• I had to experiment with the text size to make it all
fit in the text box so each column was equal.

16. • I found putting in a pull quote easy as there was only one
tool I had to use and then Quark moved the text around
the quote for me.
• Inserting the image was also easy as I used the quark
picture tool which created the space for the image and
then I just had to import the image.
• Making the drop cap was also easy because there was a
drop cap tool so all I had to do was decide how many lines
I wanted it to take up then Quark did everything else for
me.
What did you find Easy?

17. • I found downloading new text fonts difficult as I had never done it before
and there were lots of steps to it.
• I found making the text line up with the other columns difficult as I had to
make sure the pull quote was in the right place, all the words fitted fully
on the line and that no text was missing off the end of the paragraphs. I
had to experiment a lot with this before I got it to work
• I also found choosing a font that was appropriate to the genre of the band
difficult as there were lots to choose from however only a few suited the
spread.
• Lastly, i found writing the article difficult as I didn’t know which parts
would be interesting to the reader
What did you find difficult?