Question 7 to Evaluation

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

My preliminary task was to create a college magazine front cover. 

In order to do this I looked at college magazines to get some ideas.  I then talked to my friends and one of them agreed to have their picture taken for the front cover.

I used photoshop to edit the picture and used lots of colour to enhance the image.

It took very little time to complete the preliminary task in comparison to my music magazine.

Premliminary Task

Music Magazine














These are the steps I took to make my final magazine:

•                     Research genre of music magazine and create a profile

•                     Video of friends + opinions

•                     Front cover picture (used photoshop)

•                     Created contents page (inserted images using photoshop)

•                     Interviewed featured artist – created double page spread (used publisher and photoshop)

•                     Researched music magazine and publishing companies (large and small)

•                     Got creative thinking of ways to keep my magazine unique but at same time keeping costs down (selfie poster, superfan competition, prices)

•                     Review font used

What skills and knowledge did you develop in order to produce this magazine? What have you learnt and how did you develop?

I have learnt that you need to do a lot of research to make sure you are creating a magazine your target audience actually want.  I made the decision to to make my target audience 16 to 25 year olds as I fit into this category and so do my friends.  I could then relate to the people I wanted to sell my magazine to.

I learned that you have to try lots of different placement methods before deciding on a final version. Images, colours, fonts, props, even where to put the bar code can have an impact on your magazine's attractiveness. 

I learned that there are lots software programmes available online, for example Prezi, Goanimate and Photoshop, which can help you to create the look you want for your magazine and enhance images or animations that will generate more interest from your target group to buy your product.

The biggest challenge for me was learning how to plan for this task.  I realised, after a lot of struggling, that I needed to be specific about my target audience and not try to reach a wide age range.  Once I made a decision about this it was easy to consider what the target group may want and to use my friends and family to talk through ideas and get instant feedback.

Once I understood what my target audience wanted to see and read I then had to think about how I could provide these at a low cost.  I thought about software applications I could use and free services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr to highlight my magazine.

I also thought about cost, and how this may impact on my target audience who may have little disposable income.  I decided I would have two prices; one for my published magazine and one for my online version.  In order to encourage readers to buy the higher cost published magazine I needed something to entice the target group to buy it.  I decided to get featured artists to take a 'selfie' that would be a two-page poster that was only available in the published magazine and could not be copied from the online version of the magazine.

I also decided to use competitions as a way to attract readers, using items that would attract younger readers such as festival tickets.

Why was it useful to carry out the preliminary task?  What would you change about your magazine? (compare college magazine to music magazine)

The preliminary task helped me to learn how to put a front cover together and how to use Photoshop in order to make the cover more appealing to readers.

The music magazine was a lot more challenging and at times I became confused because there was so much to think about and so many decisions to make.

Looking back at my college magazine I think I didn't really think through what the purpose of the magazine was or how I could make students want to read it.  If I had to do it again I would do more research on my target audience and try out different ways of presenting information and do more to enhance the front cover image.