I have made a big progression from my preliminary task, this is because when I first started to generate my first magazine in Photoshop I was inexperienced and I didn't really have an idea how to use the controls, and also I was unable really to grasp how to edit the different layers and make them go where I want them to go. I have also gained a better understanding of where my magazine would fit into a certain target market, which I feel as though with my preliminary task I was unsure who would really be attracted to my magazine because I didn't really cater it for a college audience. My knowledge of how to use the program Photoshop CS6 and also CC (for use at home) has really developed and with the help of the grid and also being able to zoom in and out of the magazine, I have really been able to get a professional look to my magazine which I can be proud of and be sure that in a retail environment this magazine would in fact sell rather well. I also feel like I was able to develop my critical eye from the preliminary to the final product because of the fact that when I look back onto my prelim I see that some of the text is not exactly in the centre and it does not look professional enough. For example the text directly underneath the masthead is slightly off centre, whereas now I have been able to see if I stand back from the piece where all of the off-centre components and layers are and rectify them easily to achieve a more thought through and professional finish to my magazine. Also after continually editing and developing my magazine for many weeks I have been able to pick up basic editing techniques that when I was doing my prelim I would have been stuck in how to move a layer. An example of this which I have quickly learnt through this task is how to move a picture from a new tab in Photoshop to the actual tab in which my work was on; this sounds like a very easy task however with certain pictures (especially JPEGs) they are locked onto the background of the new tab. This was a problem for me in the preliminary task because whilst trying to find an appropriate bar code, whenever I had found one that I wanted to incorporate onto my magazine it was locked onto the other tab. To rectify this you simply have to right click on the layer itself and click 'layer from background'. This is something that I wouldn't have known before and with this knowledge I was able to complete my final magazine with ease because I knew exactly how to incorporate pictures into my magazine.
I also feel as though I have developed a keen understanding in how the actual process of generating magazines works and I feel as though I have gained a certain respect for the magazine editors that do this kind of task in their everyday life. I have gained an understanding, through extensive research, how magazines attract their audience and how they layout their magazines in order to gain a certain audience to be attracted to their publication, and how they presented the type of genre that they were writing about. Also after the preliminary task I have been able to realise that getting feedback from peers on my magazine (in the first draft) has been very helpful as it has helped me to see exactly what I need to do to develop my magazine and create a more professional finish to the final piece. These improvements that I then made were very drastic when looking at my first draft compared to my final draft; however when looking at my preliminary compared to my final draft you can plainly see that this understanding that I have gained has been very vast and extensive because comparing the two, especially considering they have almost the same style of layout, you can see that everything just looks more put together and thought through. Also the photography that I have done for my final magazine is a lot more developed and distinguished in comparison to the prelim task. This is because the prelim task was done in a matter of days, no general thought or consideration was really put into it. By that I mean, the photographs were taken in minutes and the general layout of the magazine was not as thought through and developed as I have done for my final magazine. This was because of the fact that I was not taking precise measurements and making sure everything was in its place, I was purely concentrating on the fact that I wanted it to look as conceivable as possible for a school magazine and with the minimal skills that I had had at this point this was something that was not necessarily achieved in a professional way. Whereas in comparison to my final magazine, you can see that I have spent more time looking at how I want everything to be placed and I have used measurements (using the grid) to make sure that everything is to my standard of work. When looking at the two comparisons of the prelim and my final magazine, you can really see a level of difference in the quality of the front cover and contents pages.
With the front cover of my prelim I had quite a dull and poorly lit main image, which I thought with the whole colour scheme of my work it really dragged down the vitality and fun nature that would be expected of a school magazine. Also I hadn't really taken into consideration the modelling choice; such as the clothing, look and style of my model. Whereas when looking at my final piece I had told my models exactly what they should be wearing and told them exactly how to stand and pose for my magazine. This helps with the appeal and standard of my magazine because it looks like the type of magazine expected for my target market, a more upper class and stylish indie magazine. I feel as though this is clear in the finish of my product, whereas compared to my prelim even though I had still strategically placed everything on the canvas, it was a piece that was unsure of it's target market and it was lost in the limbo of not really knowing what it wanted to be. I think research has a lot to do with this vast improvement, also the practice that I have had in between doing both the tasks was really useful and with the building of my knowledge for my first draft I was then able to use those skills that I have already learnt and generate something that was both different from my prelim and my first draft.
Also then looking at my contents page for both my preliminary and final design, you can see the level of development I have had whilst going along this process. The level of improvement has increased dramatically and I have noticed that the placing of the text and all of the other components such as the pictures and placing of additional information has been more stripped back going into my final design and I have compacted everything so that it doesn't look overly forced together and I hope that with the addition of separation lines between the text that I have been able to add definition to a page that I was unsure of how I wanted to look and work out in the first place. Compared to my prelim, it is plain to see that the ease and development I have experienced in this whole process has allowed me to be able to generate something I am really proud of and something that I am able to say that it looks really professional and up to a standard that I would expect to find in a retail shop.
One thing I cannot take into comparison however is the fact that I have not done a double page spread for my preliminary which was part of the brief not to do that, however I have have also learnt a lot of skills just going from my first draft of the DPS to the final piece. I developed so many skills, such as the layout of the text and how to place the pictures on the page. Granted, I did not change a lot of aspects of my design from my first draft to my final one however there were tiny movements and photo changes that I needed to make to bring up the quality and believablity of the magazine. Such as the addition and movement of the separation line at the bottom of the page with the title of my magazine in one corner and the page number in the next. This required a lot of careful and strategic movements to achieve the best placement on the page. This progression however from the first draft to the final was due to the help and research that I had done to achieve my final piece, for example I had had feedback from my teacher and my peers as to how I needed to change the design and what I needed to do to make it more accessible to my target market. I hope that I have been able to challenge the normal conventions for a traditional indie/alternative magazine, especially considering the layout and style of my magazine throughout all areas. It is completely different in many aspects to what I would normally expect to see on a music magazine however I feel as though this is irrelevant because I think on a shelf this would go in the magazine's favour and make it appear as a more credible and professional looking magazine.
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