4. My PreliminaryTask
When starting my preliminary task, I was told that I have to create a a School magazine front cover and
contents page.At this point I had never done something like this and I had to start learning the basics of
everything. I created this product on Fireworks which I had never used before so I was already very
limited to how good and professional the end product was going to be like. At this point I did not know
how to use guidelines, how to change layers, add drop shadows, kerning and leading etc. I only new the
basics of inserting a photo, using the text tool, and all the basic tools such as cropping, resizing etc. So
once completing my first product, all aspects conformed to the typical conventions of a magazine cover
as I was not very creative and didn't know how to try out new things which shows the reasoning behind
it looking so basic. From this I learnt the basics of how to use Fireworks which made it a lot easier to
make my music magazine as I already had basic practice.As well as using Fireworks, to create my school
magazine I did my first attempt of taking many different potential photos to use on my magazine.
Whilst taking these photos I learnt the importance of camera angles, lighting, rule of thirds etc. which
are all aspect that will affect the quality and overall look of the photo and throughout this process, I
found out that having a perfect photo can change the whole look of the magazine. So when taking
these original photos, it enabled me to have practice and this helped when it came to taking pictures
the second time round as I knew what I needed to be doing. My school magazine front cover and
contents page clearly show they are not professional in the slightest, however it aloud me to gain basic
knowledge on some technologies which I used when it came to making my actual music magazine,
which sped up the process and gave me more confidence when beginning.
5. My Music MagazineTask
After creating my school magazine, I then began with the research stage for my music magazine where I found out almost
everything that I needed to know about my audience, similar magazines, my genre. From this research I also found out little details
such as what kind of magazines and mastheads attract to my audience of 15-25 year olds, how much should the magazine be priced
at etc. An example of this is that I made a few different samples of potential mastheads for my magazine and added them to a
survey to find out what masthead suits my target audience most. I learnt that the research stage is so important when making a
product for a certain audience because if not, the magazine won’t attract them and won’t be doing it’s job properly. I learned that I
should do this after I did not research for my school magazine, and that ended up being unprofessional and not attractive to the
audience.Another aspect that I learned the second time round whilst creating my music magazine was that the photo is one of the
main parts and most important parts to a magazine, and to get a good photo is important as this is what starts off the making of the
front cover. From when creating the school magazine I learnt that the quality of the camera should be high in order to have a high
quality photo, which is why I changed the camera I used in hope that my music magazine photos would be better quality. Another
aspect that I learnt whilst creating my music magazine was how to use Fireworks to a high standard, and learn how to use all the
extra little parts which I didn't use when creating my school magazine. Some new things which I learned were using guidelines when
creating a product, as this makes it look professional and organized, and so that everything is lined up.As well as this I learned how
to use Leading and Kerning (the changing of space between letters and lines) on Fireworks, and the importance of changing texts to
different fonts, sizes and colours to create more of an affect and to make certain words stand out.Another aspect of Fireworks
which I learnt the second time round was the importance of layers within the page, and what order everything on the page should
be in so that nothing is over lapping or being covered. From the school magazine to the creation of my music magazine, it shows
how much I have learnt when looking at the difference between the products, which shows how I have developed my understanding
on how to use different technologies, but also to use them to create a professional, attractive product which pays attention to all
the most important aspects of a magazine such as the audience, the genre, the photography skills, importance of drafting etc.
