7) Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task now, I realise the lack of thought and care that went into it. Because the target audience for the college magazine was reasonably broad (the only specification was 'college students'), my magazine didn't have any genre specific features or planned colour schemes etc, it just had to contain photos and text that captured events taking place around college.

The photos I took were not very organised or well composed because they were taken during a lesson with no real thought behind them. I went into the Skills Improvement Center and took a picture of my friend working. I felt that this would be a good image to use as it showed the hard work ethic that students in the college should have. Despite the thought being there, the actual quality of the photo was not present; the photo looks kind of blurry and the composition makes it hard to fit onto the front cover of the magazine. This is a mistake I learnt from and considered when making my real magazine. When taking photos for my main task I remembered how the photos' composition effected how they sat on the page. I decided to take photos of people doing poses like a real band / musician would but then cut around them on Photoshop so that 1) they could fit on the page wherever I wanted them too, and 2) so that they gave the magazine a more graphic feel (something that my target audience has an interest it). I didn't want to have one main image like I did for my preliminary task as I felt that this limited what I could show my readers; it looked too similar to every other magazine and I wanted mine to stand out in the design of it. The photo used for my preliminary task was taken at an unusual angle; it didn't capture anything amazing and so the photo looked average and bland. By taking the photo above the girl (a high-angle shot) we are belittling her and making her seem small Had I have chosen to do a photoshoot for my main magazine, I would have also learnt to consider lighting as well.

Since creating the college magazine in the preliminary task, I have learnt a lot of techniques and skills regarding Photoshop. With the help of the skills I had learnt in my photography classes, I developed an understanding of how to edit my own photographs to make them appear more suited to my target audience. Most of the photos went through changes in regards to contrast, levels, colour selection and saturation. I often decreased the saturation and contrast, but heightened the levels as I felt this gave the images a more 'urban' and hard feel; if I increased the saturation, the images would have been really vibrant in colour and this would have been too much given the bright colours in my magazines house style.

The fonts and shapes used in the preliminary task are very amateur and childish; the clashing bright colours and the simple given shapes make the magazine look tacky and unprofessional. From this I have learnt to be more creative and graphical when adding shapes. With my main magazine I decided to do the text in chunks so that the sizes varied and the composition was easier to experiment with. I think that this works a lot better than the text used in the preliminary task as it makes the magazine appear professional and detailed; the time that has gone into it is visible and most of all, it looks more like a real media product.

When creating the masthead for my college magazine I literally just picked a Photoshop samle font and placed it into the conventional position on my front cover; I didn't take any care with design and style and how this can reflect the values of both my magazine and my readers.

Not having produced a double page spread for the preliminary task meant that I had to take inspiration from already existing feature articles from magazines such as NME, Kerrang!, and Q. I took ideas from these magazines and used my new found skills and already existing ones on Photoshop to make them my own.