Preliminary Task - School Magazine

Preliminary Task - Planning Stage

Preliminary Task - Production

Preliminary Task Self Evaluation Sheet: MAGAZINES

In the pre-production stage, planning and organisation were very important. The use of planning allowed me to research around the brief and determine what content would be appropriate for the design. As well as this, the planning allowed me to decide on a good layout, based on what I had collected from my research. In terms of organisation, it was important because I could structure the way the production process was to be carried out.

All of the requirements of the brief have been met, such as the preferred shot of the student in the photograph. The shot used was a relevant mid-shot, as required, and the magazine cover was created using desktop publishing (adobe InDesign). The text has been appropriately and conventionally laid out on the page as well. Along with my pre-production plan of the magazine cover, I have also sketched a potential contents page for this magazine.

One of my strengths on this task was the fact that I easily grasped using the new software. I did this by looking into tutorials and guides online, and this was found to be very beneficial. Another strength on this task was my use of consistency in terms of the layout of the page. In other words, I maintained a colour scheme within my work, and all of the fonts were consistent as well, making it look more professional.

A difficulty which I encountered when using the cameras, was taking the shot required, and from the right angle. Many pictures had to be taken before the cover picture was confirmed, because of the fact that the shot was not right, and it was not an appropriate mid-shot. Another difficulty was the focus of the camera, and getting the image sharp enough, because I later came to find that the lack of focus on the image would be a problem when it was uploaded onto the software.

InDesign. 

I also had difficulties with the DTP software. An example of one is how images uploaded would look blurry and this did not look professional. To overcome this difficulty, I had to edit my image in Photoshop, before taking it further to Adobe InDesign. As well as this, because I hadn’t used the DTP software before, it was very confusing to change things according to my preferences, such as font sizes and colours. To overcome this, I looked at tutorials online.

I think that my magazine looks quite professional, because it is very consistent in terms of presentation. In addition, the layout of the magazine is conventional of most magazines, and I know this from what I collected from my research. Despite meeting the conventions, I did try to give the magazine cover my own individual mark, to give it more originality.

When analysing professional, leading magazines, I compared the fashion magazine Vogue with my magazine cover, and picked out similarities and differences. What I found similar between both covers was the effective use of the mid-shot photography, because it draws attention to the subject and puts more emphasis upon it, as this shot intends to do.

A difference that I found was the use of fonts. Vogue keeps a consistent use of serif fonts, whereas my magazine cover mixes serif and sans serif fonts, to make the content seem more exciting, and it adds emphasis. Vogue uses a consistent serif font to maintain its fashionable theme.

Despite this, I found that both Vogue and my magazine try to feature less headlines on the cover, so it doesn’t take the audience’s eyes away from the image itself.

I chose the image of a Sixth Form boy, because the magazine is intended to appeal to that audience, and is based around their future paths and where they will go next. The image has the boy facing forward, into the camera, which is effective in showing how the magazine aims to teach Year 12s and Year 13s to look forward and have more of understanding of their future plans.

I chose to mix both serif and sans serif fonts, because of what they represent and how this will affect my target audience. The serif font is effective in the sense that it makes the magazine look professional, but the sans serif font for the headlines makes the cover seem fun and not too serious, which will contribute towards attracting the target audience.

My weakness in this task was the fact that I didn’t do enough research, and I feel that the research is the most important part of the process. Another weakness was that I did not have a full understanding of the DTP software, or the different types of camera shots, and how they can be taken.

I plan to improve, by spending more time on my research and doing better plans, and looking into the software being used in advance, so that I am fully prepared to start my production, without facing any difficulties in between.

If I could do this task again, I would change the type of pictures being taken, because I would like to experiment with other kinds of camera shots, and add originality to my magazine because of this.