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

Firstly, when creating my preliminary task of a school magazine, I used Adobe Photoshop,  CS5. Although Photoshop can produce a professional looking magazine, I feel that InDesign allows you to give the magazine more of a standard structure that all magazine have. Also I had rather limited Photoshop knowledge and therefore struggled to make my magazine look as professional as possible.
My prelimiary task looks rather unprofessional for several reasons. One of these is the lack of power that the masthead shows. The name ‘Haydon Magazine’ lacks any creativity or appeal to my target audience of schoolkids, and the style of it doesn’t help this problem. The font I’ve used is bland and very standard, whilst the colour blends in with the outfit of the model on the cover photo. The colour scheme chosen is boring and the use of more than one photo featuring on the cover looks unprofessional and confusing. When taking photos for my preliminary task, I did not take into consideration the type of photos I wanted, or the type of models I wanted, to fit my magazine style. This made it difficult to make the images fit in with the magazine, and to think of magazine articles that could relate to them. As well as being unplanned, the photos I took were in boring, everyday settings that make the photos look very unprepared and unappealing. However when creating my final product I put much thought into the photos I wanted before carrying out a photoshoot, and I was so particular about it that I even did it twice, to fit my magazine genre.
The front cover holds no key information, for example price or website, or even a barcode. The text is difficult to read on the left hand side as the text colour barely differs from the background. There are merely three sell lines on th e front cover, meaning the magazine as a whole lacks value and will not appeal to readers. The contents page also only displays ten stories that are featured inside the magazine - this is very unprofessional. The background to the contents page is completely irrelevant and it is clear that I didn’t think through the genre of my pictures before taking them. It is unlikely that anyone will buy a magazine that holds such little content, especially when the price isn’t even displayed. Again, the choice of font on this page is boring, unappealing and hard to read when up against such a busy background. The contents displays more of the background image than it does text, which is completely opposite to how a professional magazine should look. For my prelimiary task I carried out no research into my target audience and so it’s clear I was unsure of how to attract particular readers.
However, by looking at my final product, you can tell that elaborative research and planning has come before the making of the magazine, so I know that it will be suitable for my target audience and their preferences. It is clear what the main focus of the magazine is by the front cover, as the popstar’s name is large and stands out amongst the rest. The background image clearly applies to this, making it appealing to readers who are attracted by this singer. My colour scheme and choice of fonts is well thought-out so that it is both clear to read, and appealing to both sexes.