What I have learnt

Through the preliminary task I have learnt a lot of useful tips and programmes to help me produce a better product for my music magazine. As said before in a previous slide I also learnt Photoshop, illustrator and many other technological programmes. Other factors I have learnt:

 

• •Time management
• •Get a wide range of images
• •Illustrator
• •More research

 

 

A Nikon SLR camera was used to produce images. This was used again to create a professional feel.

 

Illustrator was the main technological device of the project as this is where the final copy was produced.

 

Photoshop was used to manipulate images to get a professional look.

 

Final Versions

Here is the final version of the school magazine in which I produced:
The front Cover:

This is the final version I produced:

                Excellent Header      

Colour 

Clear 

Reader friendly

These were some words which I got from audience feedback when shown my final product.

The Contents Page:

This is the final version:

Clear images 

Great Colour scheme 

Easy to read  

Strong

Again here are some words/phrases which were gained when showing my final product.

Preliminary task: Contents page production

After gaining audience feedback from the drafts/sketches and questionnaire i then decided to act upon the feedback and start to design my final product. Below is the changes which were made throughout to gain a stronger product. Following a consistent house style and layout here are 3 versions of the contents page which were produced:

Again only slight defects have been changed due to the clear understanding of what I had hoped to gain from the final product die to the research.

Preliminary: Front Cover Production

After gaining audience feedback from the drafts/sketches and questionnaire i then decided to act upon the feedback and start to design my final product. Below is the changes which were made throughout to gain a stronger product. Following a consistent house style and layout here are 3 versions of the front cover which were produced:

As you can see not much has been changed throughout the production line this is due to getting audience feedback from the drafts as i had a clear image of what I wanted as well as what the target audience wanted.

Prelimainary Task: Drafts/Sketches

The following sketches were designed to enable the best production to be produced. By sketching ideas on paper it helped visually to see the layout and how it would look if produced as a real magazine. The images show the initial ideas:

 

The results from the hand drawn sketches had a massive impact upon the final version. It helped me decide:

 

• •Clear Image
• •Simple Text
• •Simple lay-out
• •Primary Colour
• •Bold Title
• •Exclusive story
• •One model/image

Prepared a questionnaire to hand to peers and fellow pupils to gain the relevant information. This questionnaire will be handed to the target audience and will included information about font, content and other relevant information. Below is a copy of the questionnaire which was issued.

Research: Contents Page

After researching several school magazine contents pages the codes and conventions are extremely dominant and are easy to classify. As done with the front cover below is an example of an existing product of which will be analysed.

Here are the regular codes and conventions shown within a school magazine the analysis below has given me an insight into which I hope to provided within my school magazine.

• The consitent house style will follow onto the contents page. However the examples I have used are not the same magazine therefore the house style is not the same.
• One main image- This is usually the main story so it can be easily identified.
•  Images relating to stories
• Topical stories

Research: Front Covers

Currently I have researched the conventions of school magazines. Researching many different front covers on school magazine the analysis below of two of the covers will show the typical codes and conventions in existing products.

The above front cover is from a school magazine in America named 'College'. There are several typical codes and conventions which a typical school magazine follows, below i will pick out the key points which i have seen from existing products of which will be used in my final product.

• Bold Title- This will mean that the magazine is easily recognised. A house colour is usually used for instance in the example above a yellow title with yellow statement writing. Also the title is usually linked to 'School'.
• There is a brief overview of the contents. These pages may hold interesting or top story's.
• Usually one model is used gaining eye contact of which would gain gaze theory and also the eye contact would produce a contact with the magazine and reader.
• Also Primary colours are used 'Red, Yellow, Blue' which can be either from the fact it is a school magazine or as they are stand out colours.

Research Preliminary Task

The objective of the AS preliminary task was to design and compose a school magazine, front cover and contents page. Researching different magazines, questionnaires and hand drawn sketches to help produce the perfect school magazine following the codes and conventions which was found due to the research.

The Start

The Foundation Portfolio will consist of an ancilliary task aswell as a main project.
The ancilliary task is to create the contents front page of a school magazine. This current task will see me researching the conventional features of current exisiting school magazines and transfering these features into my own work. After researching the conventions of 'images', 'content' and 'layout' I will have to create designs of the front page and contents page of my school magazine.
This will then lead into the production of draft work which will help me to create a strong 'final version' of the front and contents page of the magazine.
This work will help me in gaining skills for the main task of creating the front page, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine.