Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Did you plan your magazine? If not, what have you learnt about the important of research and planning?

I did not plan my preliminary task magazine. From not planning the magazine I have learnt that it is important to develop a draft structure of the layout, text fonts, colour schemes, images and key themes that may be used. Without planning I learnt that it becomes very difficult to choose where and what to insert into the magazine cover, this of which cost myself time and may have shown inconsistency in relation to a specific theme.

What technology did you use to compete the task and how did you use it?

To complete this task I used a desktop computer and a camera to take photos with. On the computer I used photo manipulation software (Serif PhotoPlus X8). I used this software to make fine adjustments to my images and crop out the backgrounds to them so that they looked professional and clean cut. Similarly I used Serif PagePlus X9 in order to make the actual magazine and additionally create all elements for the magazine such as boxes, borders and background colours/gradients.

Did you encounter any difficulties? If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?

One difficult I encountered was using the tool to crop out the backgrounds to my images. At first the crop was not clean cut and left some of the background in the image, which looked messy and unprofessional. Therefore I practiced on a stock image and then understood that I needed to increase the zoom on the image and then reduce the width of the special crop tool in order to cut out the small background shapes placed inside images. After overcoming this difficulty my images looked much neater and fitting with the magazine cover.

How successful was your magazine? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I think that my magazine was relatively successful. I believe that the retro/vintage theme I attempted to implement had an aesthetically appealing visual. I used bold double white lines under text and images to create this theme. Next time I would change the background colour to a light grey or bage/white colour. The background would potentially include a shape or use matte layers. I would do this because it would make the front cover have more depth than just one layer with text and images placed on.

What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?

From completing this task, I have learnt that planning is an important pre phase before creating any magazine cover or pages as it allows myself to draft designs and see what themes and styles work within my ability on the magazine software. This will help my future coursework as I will be able to ensure that I make drafts and plan out the ideas and designs of any work such as magazine front cover layout.