Preliminary task

Preliminary task

• 1.
  Looking back atyour preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? This is my front cover I made for my preliminary task. I decided to keep the name of my magazine simple and not complex so that the reader can tell straight away what the genre of my magazine is based on. The masthead is based at the top of the magazine like my contents page so that the reader can clearly tell what the magazine is called and about. I kept the masthead in a simple font so that the target audience have no difficulties trying to work out what letters what, and that they have no trouble stating that the text is too small. Just below the masthead I included the price and the issue number as this is a necessity and is never not included on any magazine supplied. This is a must have piece of information when producing any genre magazine as the audience always wants to know the price of the product that they have an interest in. Once again I stuck to simple colours and large enough fonts so the amount of bad feedback is reduced. All the text included on the front page has been made sure that it has kept to the house style of the magazine (only using whites, blues and blacks.) Sticking to a house style is vital when making a successful magazine as the target audience will only purchase a product that sticks to a sophisticated and professional look, they will not spend their money on a product that looks tacky and too complicated. On the front cover of 'Haydon News' I decided to include a main bleed (main image) that took up the majority of the page. The image illustrates a student on the school grounds, which links in with the rest of the context that the sell lines portray. The above two images illustrate the changes and the ways in which I have improved since starting this A-Level course. The ‘Haydon News’ front cover illustrates what I produced without any real experience and only from basic knowledge of the software and technology. However the ‘Base’ front cover on the right visualises how much I have improved since the beginning of this course as it is what I am planning to hand in as a final piece of completed coursework. Although I have made many changes from the two opposing magazine genres I also kept some aspects of the magazine to similar format. For instance I kept the masthead of my magazine at the top of the page in a large bold simple font in order for the reader to see straight away what the name of the magazine is. Similarly I decided to stick with the masthead being placed at the top of the page as I personally believe that
• 2.
  the specific areaof the page is the most effective and successful when wanting to achieve a professional outcome and standard. Likewise similarities that stayed reasonably the same were the sell lines as I made sure that they didn’t distract the audience from the main bleed by aligning them around however I kept to the sell lines being on both the right and left hand side. Throughout the process of producing my final magazine I felt myself improving on not only knowledge based items however on the skilful side from getting to know the technology better and in further depth. I felt like I improved on the production side when trying to create a professional piece of coursework as I got to know what colours and fonts were acceptable in order to be successful. Therefore I ensured that once again like my preliminary task I stuck to keeping a house style which in my final case ended up to be black, white and red. By only having a few colours has a larger impact on success in comparison to using a wide variety as it doesn’t confuse the reader and it influences them to interpret that they are more likely to buy a trustworthy and professional style magazine as they have a presentable format. Furthermore I feel whilst going through the drafting process of my magazine that I have improved and developed many new and existing skills throughout the software and technology. I feel a lot more confident on using certain programmes such as photoshop and indesign as these were significantly important when producing a successful magazine, and were a necessity when wanting to achieve a higher grade. When I first made my preliminary task I had no idea how to use indesign therefore just made a basic magazine on photoshop, however as the course progressed we were introduced to new programmes such as indesign where we learned new skills such as text wrapping etc. Learning these new skills such as the text wrapping was very beneficial as it made the production side of the magazine a whole lot easier when wanting to layout particular images around the page, and when we wanted to move something the way it automatically reacted and moved the text around the image or layer. The two images above display the ways in which I had learned to apply the text wrapping technique in order for paragraphs to make sense and follow on effectively in order for the reader to easily navigate themselves from section to section. Overall I believe that I have made a massive progression from my preliminary task to the final piece as I have been able to expand, improve and develop on my knowledge enough so to make a professional looking final piece. This is all due to the fact that I have learnt about new software and technology which includes photoshop and indesign and was able to apply my newly found knowledge to improve on the basic skills that I had when producing the preliminary task.