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?

Looking back at my preliminary task it is evident that my designing skills have developed and improved. In my preliminary task, I did not take much time in planning my layout and the content. You can see that the front cover does not have much content, I have used the left-side third concept and this works effectively to attract the eye, however the cover is too empty.Therefore, after my preliminary task I knew it was important to research magazine layouts and find out what the conventions were for the amount of content used of a cover.  My music magazine cover is far more professional looking and there is a good amount of content and prominence on the cover to attract my audience, and importantly, make the cover look attractive.
 For a school magazine targetted towards a younger audience, the long shot of the children jumping is suitable as it connotes fun, therefore fulfills its purpose. My music magazine also fulfills its purpose in terms of using a suitable image; the medium close-up provides a closer relationship between the viewer and the woman on the front. This makes it attractive for my reader. In terms of photographic composition I was fairly confident after my preliminary task that I understood what photograph was suitable for an acoustic magazine.

The contents page for the school magazine was far too empty and unconventional; there are not enough pictures and text, the guttering and kerning are not conventional of magazines and the fonts are not suitable for a younger audience. This showed, that I really needed to work on InDesign and develop my typography skills in order to create a conventional magazine. I feel that I effectively corrected these errors on my music magazine. I have used conventional guttering and kerning so that the blocks of text are quite narrow; short and snappy. The fonts suit the style of magazine and the layout is much more appealing. Each section has been clearly broken up into sections and there is a good balance between pictures and writing. 

Overall, the preliminary task proved that I needed develop my skills in InDesign and research the traditional conventions of magazines and I feel that I have been able to fulfill this in order to achieve a professional looking magazine, well suited to my audience.