Evaluation - Question 7

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

When I created the school magazine I was new to many technologies, as discussed in Question 6, these include Blogger, Slideshare and Photoshop. In Photoshop I was not very educated on what the purpose was for each tool, but throughout this project I became very well acquainted with Photoshop which I think is demonstrated by my final media product. I learnt how to use a variety of tools including the eyedropper tool, rectangular tool, eraser, crop and also learnt a lot about layers and the options on each one e.g. the ability to create a drop shadow on text, which I did. Slideshare was useful because it allowed me to add work I had completed on Powerpoint to my blog and it also taught me how to do a similar thing with YouTube, copying the embed link into the HTML section of a blog post - I'm sure this will be helpful in the future. Learning how to use Blogger was imperative in order to document my journey of creating my music magazine and I think I have learnt a lot more about it since my preliminary task. At first, I knew how to make a blog post, a simple one. Now, I feel very confident in using Blogger as I am able to edit many things as well as being able to add labels and re-arrange posts to my liking. This is important because it means I could make my blog seem more professional and also make it creative be adding colours, headings, images, videos and so on to my posts. Doing my evaluation has also taught me a few websites to use in order to perform presentations e.g. Powtoons and Padlet offer creative ways to present a project/or information.

My magazine creation made a huge improvement from my school magazine to my music magazine. During my preliminary task, I did not do much in depth research as to what the common features of magazines were, I mostly just did what I felt looked best. I took the image for the front cover on an iPhone and looked at other magazines which inspired me to add cover lines across both sides of the page and a masthead as well as a barcode, strip and puff. For my final media product, I carried out a lot more research (by annotating magazines, researching house style, colour, typography, star image and other stuff which can be shown under the label 'research' on my blog) in order to create the most professional looking product I could. I found out a lot of things that helped me to create an aesthetically pleasing product that in turn made it seem appear more professional and more likely to be bought by my niche audience.

I think my double page spread is a good example of what I have learnt in the progression of making my magazine. It is clear that I have manipulated images well and efficiently to create the best end product which demonstrates the valuable skills I have acquired since my preliminary task. I have also learnt how to gather feedback from focus groups in ways I did not know before, what questions are best (open/closed) and also how to present the results. 

Being able to manage my time effectively was crucial in creating my product. I had to carry out all the research and planning stages of my product so that I could get on to the creation stage which involves; taking the photoshoot/s, choosing images to use in my magazine, starting my project on Photoshop and being able to finish that product and complete the evaluation for a deadline. This taught me a great deal about how to manage my time and also improved my ability to write in a concise way that enabled me to accurately document the process of this creation since my preliminary task.

The contents page mirrors the way I improved as well as my front cover. I think it is appropriate to make the judgement that there is significant difference between my two magazines, all of which was done through my research, planning and ability to learn Photoshop. I learnt a lot about how to structure my contents page, that I did not know doing my preliminary task which made my magazine finish looking effective and professional, similar to that of magazines that inspired me like for example, NME. I think overall, I have learnt a lot about conducting research and embedding that research into my product. I made sure I incorporated elements of what I learnt about other magazines into my product which will help me when I conduct research in the future. Time management is also an important thing this project has taught me, it will help me in my school and work life when I need to complete future tasks and meet future deadlines.