What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When creating my magazine, I used lots of different technology for the planning and designing. My magazine was designed and made on Photoshop. I really enjoyed using Photoshop as I haven’t ever used it before. I found it quite challenging getting used to the way it all worked, but I picked it up quite quickly, and managed to produce something I found quite impressive. I think that if I had more experience, I would have done a lot better, but once I had a basic design for my magazine, I went over it again and again, playing with different effects and changing the layout. Because of this, I found it was very time consuming. I enjoyed editing my main image before adding it to the magazine. I played about with the contrast, brightness and used tools to give an airbrushed looked finish. I never really considered using Photoshop in the past, but after getting used to the layers and different tools I found that it is an amazing piece of technology that can be used by professionals and armatures. As I had never used Photoshop before, when I finished my magazine, I felt extremely proud of what I had achieved, and wanted to show everyone.

I used Flickr to analyse and present some of my planning and evaluations. I had never used Flickr before either, so I had to make a new account and get used to the way it worked. I found that Flickr was quite simple to use, and with help from my friends, I picked it up very quickly. I found that Flickr was a really good website to use to display some of my work as I could upload my picture, then add a note, meaning that if someone was to look at my picture they could hover their mouse over certain parts of the picture and see different annotations.

I decided to use Blogger too showcase all of my final pieces. Blogger allows you to upload images, write text and customise my blog. Blogger is free and there is no word limit, so I could do as much annotating as I wanted. I found that when uploading pictures, I couldn’t lay them out very neatly. I feel that this made my blog look messy and not half as presentable as I could have had it. I had a lot of trouble trying to drag the pictures to where I wanted them to go. Also the spell check didn’t work for me either, meaning that I had to type up my text into word (so that I could correct any spelling mistakes) then copy and paste my text onto my blog. I found this quite annoying, but I would rather have done it this way than had lots of spelling mistakes, as it would have looked really unprofessional. But although this website could be improved, I can’t complain as it is free to sign up and is a good, clear way to present my work.

My front cover

My contents page

My double page spread

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

Now that I have completed my preliminary task I feel that I had started to understand how Photoshop works. As it is my first time using it, I originally had no idea what I was doing. I opened a picture and played around with different tools to help myself to find my way around, and it really helped me out. After completing my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt some valuable skills which will come in extremely useful when designing my final magazine product. I have decided that I will edit my final images before I put them on my magazine, this way I will be able to play around with my picture without messing up the layers, as I am still getting used to these.

Comparing my preliminary task to my final music magazine, you can clearly see that my skills have developed really well. The difference between my two magazines is clear. Unlike my preliminary task, I obviously went over my final magazine a lot more and made sure that I felt everything was perfect. During my preliminary task, I didn’t do half as much research, which shows how effective my main task planning work has been. I think as I didn’t research as much for my preliminary task, the finish to my college magazine looked unprofessional and boring. This could be to do with me having no exterior knowledge about the industry, or any other magazines. Once I researched other music magazines, I started to realise what kinds of things I had to include, what types of pictures were popular and how I should lay things out. When using Photoshop, Flickr and Blogger, I learnt lots of different techniques that could be used not only for my magazine but may come in handing in other subjects or projects. I feel that due to this, my knowledge of technology has dramatically increased. This was shown in my work when I used techniques such as; text alignment, rulers, the softening tool, colour picking, quick selection tool and correctly using the layers. I found that one of my favourite features was the blending and softening tool. This helped me to manipulate and soften the edges of my images giving them a professional, smooth finish.

I defiantly put a lot more effort and concentration into my final music magazine. I researched a lot more, I experimented with the editing tools and played about with colours so as my magazine would appeal to my target audience. I feel that my progression and new skills when using Photoshop defiantly made my final music magazine what it is (a success!) Without learning new skills and experimenting, I wouldn’t have been able to give such a professional looking finish.

My audience research

I handed out a questionaire to students at my college. This way i would be able to find out what kinds of things college students would like to see. From my questionnaire I found that only 50% of the students chosen would actually read the college magazine. This shows that although 15% of students would pay for a magazine. This shows that my magazine will have to be free. I have found the kind of things that people would want included in the magazine such as university information, fashion and events etc. From this information gathered I have found what I would have to include in my contents page. I have found that on my front cover people expect to see a main image, and a masthead. These are the two main things that are expected, although I would put my main stories on the cover so that people would know what to expect from the pages inside. 70% of people said that they would be more likely to buy a magazine if it included freebies. Although I would not be able to charge for the magazine in the first few issues, when I attract a more of an audience by understanding what they want. When I first brought out the magazine I would have to have a small amount of pages. If the magazine became more popular, I would be able to charge a small price for the magazine, meaning that I would be able to increase the number of pages included. I would have to publish a new magazine monthly to make sure that enough time is taken on the production of the magazine. Also to make sure people take an interest in the magazine, I would use an online version that people can easily access. 20% of the people questioned said they would be willing to help with the production of the magazine. This means that we could maybe include students in the production if needed.

Analysis of a college magazine

The front cover is one of the most important aspects of a magazine. It is the selling point of the magazine and initially attracts the reader. The front cover of the magazine is a taster as to what the rest of the content within the magazine is going to be like. Any magazine institution must thoroughly research into their target audience to understand what they could relate to or what may interest them.

The colours used on this front cover are fairly neutral. The white masthead could give connotations of purity or innocence and the colour continues evenly around the magazine cover. There is a big statement red used on his shirt straight in the middle of the page. This could show a big contrast to the white, bringing in connotations of romance, sex, naughtiness and maybe even danger. This bright colour is used on the main features of the article to draw attention to the eye. The white shows that the target audience are good or ‘pure’ people that want to go to university or college to study and earn themselves a good living. But the red says that although they are students, they do not necessarily have traditional values and it shows connotations of promiscuity and a bit of danger and excitement.