Evaluation Questions 6&7… 6.What have I learnt about technologies from the process of construction of the products? 7.Looking back at my preliminary what have I learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

What have I learnt about technologies from the process of construction of the products? I learnt how to create my own blog by using Weebly to showcase my progression throughout the course. I found this site difficult to use at the beginning as I was unfamiliar with the site. I learnt how different programs can be used to help create the best final piece. For example, InDesign didn’t have a spell check therefore it was more efficient to use word when typing up my text for the double page spread and then put the text onto InDesign. From using InDesign and Photoshop to produce my final music magazine, I believe I can now use the programs with more confidence then I would have had before I started the course. I think from the time I spent looking through the different features on both programs enabled me to edit my photographs that I used in my final magazine to a professional level. For my photos I used a camera with flash as I wanted to ensure that the facial features of my models were noticed compared to the background of the photos. The flash brightened the faces of the models more than the natural light. I learnt how to use InDesign as this is how I created my cover page, contents page and double page spread. As well as learning the different features that Photoshop allows you to do with images. I learnt how to use Prezzi from the development of my music magazine which I never knew how to use before. My prezzi’s helped when designing my final product and what I could do to improve on the design of my planning compared to the final.

Looking back at my preliminary what have I learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Preliminary To Final From my preliminary task I noticed that my text blended in too much with the background and that the their was too much going on in the background of the main photo which showed unprofessionalism and also that I never planned the photos very well. Therefore I learnt from my mistakes and made sure that if my photos were to have a background in would be either white or of a brick wall. I also made sure that all my text stood out against the background without it the colour scheme being affected. This is why I decided to go for a white background for my front cover to allow the main images and masthead stood out to draw the eye to the key areas of front cover. With the preliminary task I also positioned the photos overlapping each other which made the front cover look more like a poster then a magazine. For my final front cover I took into account where I wanted my photos to be and decided to keep the main photo to the one side of the front cover and the extra photos on the front cover to the opposite side. I decided to layout my front cover this way as they wouldn’t overlap and the main photo, which was what I wanted to aim the most attention to, wasn’t being covered.

Preliminary To Final From my preliminary task I didn’t make the contents page very creative which made it look dull. This wouldn’t have been an effective design to use for my contents page for my final contents page as it wouldn’t have been appealing to my target audience as they are more likely to be drawn to colour which my preliminary contents page is lacking. Therefore from looking at my preliminary contents page, I decided to go for a more creative contents page by using a variety of different shapes to point out the main stories and the key information on the page. The shapes are also liked to the target audience for example the heart wouldn’t be found of a male magazine whereas it is on a females. I also made my colour scheme for my magazine more noticeable by continuing to use the colours from my masthead when creating the contents page. The colour scheme for my preliminary task continued to change between the two different pages which was what I noticed that I needed to learn from in order to make sure my magazine looked as professional as a real media product. For my final contents page I also included a personal touch to the page with a editors paragraph which I learnt from researching other media contents pages which I believed improved the contents page as it didn’t look like I had just included a lot of images and a small amount of text.

I think I improved on my skills from my preliminary task to my final product as I can see from my front cover and contents page that I have taken into account what I thought was wrong and what feedback I had to produce a more professional piece of work. My skills using Photoshop got better the more I used it which reflected on the images I used for my final music magazine as they were more toned and less flaws were shown on the models for example any spots or the colour of their skin was two toned I was able to remove the spots and make their skin all the same colour. This has enabled me to become a lot more confident when using Photoshop so I became more likely to experiment with different features on the program. I learnt that by planning my photos out made it easier to design how I want my final product to look like and allowed me to make changes to ensure that the photos were the way I wanted them to be like. As well as learning that I needed to ensure I was planning the font and how the font would fit in with my target audience and colour scheme before I started developing my final piece, this helped as when I was doing the preliminary I was constantly changing the font as I didn’t plan anything out.