Evaluation - 7

                Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the
                                               progression from it to the final product?


During the progression of my final product i learned a series of techniques, styles and conventions presented from various different magazines relating to my chosen genre (Jazz).

Front Cover - For my front cover i learned how the background can greatly alter the desired effect of the model therefore it has lead me to experiment with different background colours in order to achieve my desired out come. I found that darker coloured backgrounds are less eye-catching which means in order to use the dark background effectively the foreground i.e (the text, models clothing, shapes) must contrast against the dark background, this will make the magazine standout more to the audience. Most music magazines use white backgrounds, perhaps this is because it stands out a lot when using strong colours such as red (e.g Q magazine) it is also versatile when working with a range of other colours (Not necessarily the house style but the models choice of clothing).

Feedback has been one of the main ways i have learnt and base my improvements on, I have learned to utilise space on the front page varying the size of the sell lines and where they are place around the model, in doing this i also learned how to place the model in the magazine, through the way i crop them out their previous backgrounds and blend them into the new background using photoshop to adjust the contrast and the brightness of the model.

Contents page - For my contents page the main issue i had was making sure the page numbers were consistent and i was using the spaces correctly in order for the page to look well organised and professional. I maintained the consistency of the page numbers by checking over the different pages (mainly the front cover) in addition to this i have to make sure  i use the appropriate images such as using the front cover model, making sure it is the featured article otherwise, it does not support the front covers story. In comparison to the contents page from my preliminary there are signs of great improvement because i managed to develop an house style across all my pages and the colour scheme of my front cover in comparison to the old one has allowed to look more appealing and professional where as the old one looked very rough and did not appear to be from an existing magazine.

In my research and analysis of other magazines i have learned what conventions are present in a typical music magazine in which i have tried to apply to my own magazine by comparing what is present in my magazine and what is present in multiple music magazine (To help validate and distinguish what is classed as a convention)

Double Page spread (DPS) - For my DPS i learned how to manipulate my DPS model to suit the text layer above it in the foreground i did this through analysing various different types of music magazines and going based on my own experience and instinct which lead me to applying a blur effect on some of the areas on the model doing this added a great effect however it was still not perfectly clear. I overcame this by seeking feedback and was advised to add a black transparent shape underlaying the text to make it standout more, this helped make my text look more defined.