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

Mast head.The mast head on my student magazine is simple because this was made when I had only first started using Photoshop and didn’t understand how to use all of the tools yet. I understood how to put a slight shadow behind the writing to make it stand out against the background more than it would without. The mast head on my student magazine may be slightly to big as it almost is taking up half the page, but on my music magazine you can see I have reduced the size to allow more room for headlines and the photo.

However when you look at my music magazine you can see that I now have been able to place the writing to make a stylish masthead and I have also been able to add a stroke to the writing in pink to make it bold and stand out more.

Headlines.

The headlines on my student magazine cover are mainly made up of one word headlines. On my music magazine cover I have made sure the headlines are more interesting and made them something my audience will be interested in. However I also did this on y student magazine cover where the headlines include ‘contests, discos, prizes’(things that would interest students)

The way I have presented the headlines on my student magazine cover isn’t as eye catching as it could have been, but the colour of the fonts do match the green and white colour scheme and I have found out how to put a plain black font around the writing. I think I have improved the headlines and the style of them on my music magazine cover. I've improved by using different fonts not just one and I have used more colours in the headlines to draw more attention to them. By this time I also have learned how to change the colour of the stroke around each letter and line, I have also been able to change hoe thick I would like the stroke to be. There is also more information on my music magazine cover.

Comparing headlines.

Conventions (cover)I think when making my student magazine cover I understood that it need a date, a price, a masthead and headlines that would interest my target audience. However the a convention I may have broken on my cover and contents page is the lack of eye contact, I also could have added more headlines and information on the cover to draw in the targeted audience.

On my music magazine cover I made sure the subject was making eye contact to connect with the audience. I also put a quote underneath their headline to give the audience an Idea of what the magazine and the subject is about. I also put an offer at the bottom of my magazine to attract a larger audience. On my music magazine cover I also understood I needed a date, a price, a masthead, headlines and a colour scheme. I learned how important it was to have a colour scheme after making my student magazine because with out it the magazine would just look jumbled and thrown together.

Photographs Cover & contents. The first thing that I personally think I have developed and altered the most is the way I have taken the photographs. In the first magazine I have only used natural light and used a lot of heavy editing on the saturation and contrast/brightness of the photos (more than I’d like, if I had instead taken them with the strobe lights/ soft boxes I won’t have to edit them as much and they would look more professional) The photos on the magazine also haven’t been edited with the healing brush tool where as on the cover of my new magazine I learned how to use this tool and did in order to make the artist look more polished. Another thing I notice about my student magazine is no one is making eye contact (yes they are doing activities) but its more likely the audience would connect if the subject was making eye contact with the camera. For the photos on the contents page the subjects could have linked arm for example and all looked in to the camera, to look more engaged with the audience.

Title (contents) For my student magazine I had a large clear title reading contents and the top of the page with a black stroke around it and the page listings(contents) listed below in a bold font (white with a black stroke)

For my music magazines contents page I put the mast head from the cover at the top with the title to keep the contents page consistent with the cover. By putting the mast on the contents page it keeps the magazine not only consistent but also keeps a house style through out the magazine

Colour scheme (contents) For my contents page colour scheme (student magazine) the colour scheme was kept consistent with cover. I could improve this on my music magazine because I learned how to use more colours on the palette and I could add more strokes to the writing in colour to brighten up certain aspects of the page.

Conventions (contents)My student magazines contents page breaks a few conventions, it doesn't have the mast head from the front on it to keep it consistent with the cover. I also haven’t used any quotes on my contents page, I also didn’t have categories.

However on my music magazine I have added categories to divided my columns, I have included the mast head from my cover on my contents to keep a house style and keep the magazine consistent. I have also added a quote to the images of the artists.

However on both contents pages I haven’t included an editors letter, if I had the chance to remake the student magazine I would have added one but for the style and theme of my magazine I chose not to add one on my music magazine contents page.

On my music magazine I have also added a issue number, the date and I have included some offers to draw draw attention to particular artists. (I didn’t do this on my student magazine contents page)

Adding an Article and over view. Unlike my student magazine in my music magazine I also created an article using the skills I had learned from making my two covers and contents pages.

Over all I feel I have have learned a lot about how to not only use photoshop but about conventions of magazines and how to design and put a magazine together.