Evaluation Activity 7

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

From the preliminary task I learnt the basics of magazine layout, when making my magazine I quickly realised just how hard it is to produce a magazine to a professional standard. My preliminary cover features a mid shot, with a few cover lines. The image was taken on a digital camera so the quality was not the greatest, the cover lines overlap the image which makes them look a bit out of place. I feel my preliminary cover was very poor and far too basic. The font I used was a very basic and plain font, it looks very boring. On my final cover I feel the more condensed fonts I used are a bit more eye catching and interesting. I feel I eventually, with my final cover, learnt how to make a magazine eye-catching and professional-looking. The preliminary contents was also quite poor, I knew that I had left too much blank white space and did not include enough information. My final contents page was made to fill the page, but still with the aim of a simplistic style and to not overload with content. My research helped me a lot, when I was searching through many indie magazines, I also looked at some other magazines which carried a similar class that I was aiming to achieve.  Esquire was a great inspiration, this magazine has a great mix of content and style and I felt elements from the magazine helped me to get a better idea of how to make a magazine look good. I think with looking at so many style models, through a variety of genres it built up my level of creativity and knowledge in how to make a magazine look good. Overall I feel when putting the final pieces together that it takes a few tries to get the layout right and looking the way you want it too, but when you have the layout right your magazine looks good and has a professional feel.