Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have come a long way in the process of my preliminary task to creating my media product of a music magazine. I feel I have learnt a lot about the different skills included in creating a successful product. Skills including technology use, researching and knowing your target audience and also knowing the product you’re trying to put across.

The first way I have developed my knowledge is through the use of technology. When I first started using software such as InDesign and Photoshop I was very unsure on what I was doing. My skills were very amateur.  My student magazine is very simple and doesn’t include any techniques that take it that one step further. I progressed much further when it came to making my music magazine on InDesign. I extended my skills. Not only did I know how to add pictures, create a mast head and add cover lines, I now also knew how to warp text, add columns, change colours of background and text and many other skills. This I feel made my second product of the music magazine much better and sellable as it looked much more like a real product, rather than an amateur front cover of a student magazine.

I progressed my research much further from the preliminary task to my music magazine. For my student magazine, which was aimed at boys and girls at college, I feel I didn’t do enough research into what they wanted from a magazine as their opinion was most important. Things that were important were attractive to the audience were pictures, cover lines, colour etc. Although I feel that I picked these things to suit my audience I think that maybe if I had carried out research into what my audience wanted I could’ve created something better. I learnt from this when it came to making my music magazine. From knowing who my target audience were (girls aged 16-25 with the preferred music genre of alternative/acoustic/rock music) I made sure I carried out lots of research from questionnaires to buyer profiles to really find out the best way to design and make my magazine so it was attractive to the audience. I progressed also in the way my research was actually presented by creating an online questionnaire and making Prezi’s. This research really made my decisions easier when making my magazine.

When creating my student magazine I wasn’t really sure of what a magazine included. I carried out simple research but not enough and not specific enough to get the most understanding to make my student magazine as good as it could be. I learnt from this and in the process of making my music magazine I progressed my research into conventions of magazines and also into media institutions to learn more about the media world. I presented this research effectively on Prezi and it helped choose the context of my magazine.

In conclusion I feel I have made a lot of progress from the preliminary task to the production of my music magazine. I feel I have done this in many ways including learning more about technologies, understanding conventions of magazines and also really dissecting my target audience to understand what they want. I feel the second time round my product was much better and the research leading up to it was more valuable and helpful. I feel in the future if doing this again I could make even more progress as I have learnt so much on the way.