Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

QUESTION 7

For my preliminary task, I had to create a college magazine for the students that attended to Leyton Sixth Form College, and in order to make this magazine a success I had to use students as my models because it made the magazine a whole lot more realistic and I had to use cover lines that would interest college students as well.

The differences between my music magazine and my college magazine would firstly be the price. My college magazine was £2.99 but my music magazine was only £2.00. the reason for this is simply because, after I had done some more research about the target audience, I realized that not every teenager that loves to read pop music magazines could afford to buy magazines, hence the reason why I made the price cheaper for them in my full product.

Another slight difference would be the age group and the target audience itself. The age group for my college magazine was between 16-18 because it was a college magazine for LSC students, therefore it was aimed at a smaller range of audience. However, my music magazine is aimed for teenagers aged between 13-19, who love reading about pop music magazines, which suggest that its aimed at a wider range of audience, and ready to be marketed.

INTRODUCTION

Front cover

Looking back at my college magazine, you can see that there is a clear contrast and some major improvements on my music magazine. My front cover for the music magazine looks very professional and realistic compared to the college magazine. For example, on Photoshop I’ve learnt that I could manipulate the masthead more, so I made my masthead bigger, bolder with backdrop effects, which grabs the audiences attention right away. My image for the front cover has a really high quality, which again adds on to the fact that it looks professional. Whereas, in my college magazine, my image was not that good due to the fact that I used the DSLR camera for my Teen Beat magazine. I learnt to focus the camera better which made it easier for me to get good quality images. Furthermore, my main cover line is bigger, which informs the reader what this issue will mainly focus on, however, in my college magazine, the main cover line was not that big, therefore, it wasn't as noticeable. In addition, I’ve gained knowledge of how I could use splashes to make a certain cover lines stand out more, like the ‘Get the Stefan look!’ cover line.

IMPROVEMENTS I MADE…

I made the barcode, the Facebook and Twitter icons smaller because on my college magazine, I was given feedback that said how I should make those symbols smaller because they were unnecessarily big, which is another thing that I have taken into consideration. I included a pull quote saying “I'm just being me” because I thought that it was one of the things that should be included on the front cover of a magazine in order to engage the audience more. On the other hand, the college magazine didn’t have any pull quotes, and as a result, it didn’t work quite well. Another factor that really stroke the audiences attention was the colour scheme. They really liked the mixture of the two very eye catching colours red and purple, it really gave the pop genres vibe, which was one of my intentions. Moreover, in both magazines, I made sure that the models had eye contact with the camera because I thought that it resembled something like the models wanted the audience to take a look at what they're doing, as if they're inviting them to take a look at the magazine, which also manipulates the reader to buy the magazine in some sense.

College Magazine

Music Magazine

Contents Page

For my contents page, I changed the layout completely and made the page a double page spread, which gave me more room to fill in with information like the Editor's Letter and the subscription box for Teen Beat. These elements really gave my contents page some realistic look because you’d also find these things on a real magazine contents page. I was given feedback from my college magazine that the red really worked well and that it stood out, which is another reason why I chose to used red for my music magazines contents page. I included 6 images on my contents, which shows a variety of things to look at, as well as professionalism. Additionally, I included the ‘Regulars’ and the ‘Features’ to inform the reader about what's new and what's been updated through this issue, which I'm sure would interest the reader. I’ve learnt to manipulate the font better through InDesign, as this is a software that specializes in this, adding effects like italics, bold and bold italics to certain text really gave my contents page a better look. Furthermore, my brand name is much bigger and bolder on my contents, which helps me promote my own magazine in a way. I like the fact that the page numbers stand out just the same way it did in the college magazine because it makes it easier and quicker for the reader to flip the pages and find the page they want to read because the numbers are just there. Also, I included captions underneath some of my images because it was another important fact a contents page should have.

Like I mentioned before, I think the only thing I’d like to change with my music magazines contents page is the layout because I don’t think it looks professional at all. I could possibly change the background, maybe add some sort of vanishing effect instead, which will attract the audience because it would be as if the music and the vibe makes the teenagers vanish into their own little worlds. I could also use black and white images to contrast the whole look, which will be interesting.

College Magazine

Music Magazine

DPS

For my preliminary task, I did not make a double page spread but from the comments/ feedbacks I have received, I was told that my DPS looked very professional and realistic. This is because I have a clear, bold, title ‘Vicky’s new career…’ which captures the reader’s attention. Furthermore, I used drop caps, columns and a subheading, which made my DPS look professional as well as it giving my DPS a more aesthetically pleasing look. My image was taken in a full body shot and my models pose illustrated power even though her face seems innocent and cute. This shows contrast though her posture and facial expression, which also connotes her passion for music as well as her seriousness towards her career. The gutters in between the columns are evenly spaced out, which would portray that it would be easier for the audience to read the piece of journalism. Similar to my contents page, I’ve included page numbers and the brands name; this proves that the reader would not have difficulty in finding the page again if the wanted to read it. Lastly, I used the same colour scheme and house style, which again shows professionalism in my work.