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

Masthead

These are the two mastheads I have used in my work, in terms of layout they are very different pieces of work. By looking at the first images (my preliminary work) we can see that the words are balanced on top of each other, I wouldn't say that this looks particularly professional or effective, however, comparing it to the second piece of work you can see a vast improvement. The improvement comes from the layout and the positioning on the page amongst other aspects. As you can see, the masthead dominates over two-thirds of the page, this is creating a balanced sense for the page in which the focus is not only on one side of the page. The font is also an aspect that adds to the difference of the two pieces, as you can seem the text in the preliminary task looks much softer, smaller and therefore less effective whereas, in the main task a standard font has been used alongside bold capital letters, this looks far more effective and stands out from the page more. To further this, I have employed the use of a drop shadow on the masthead of my main task, this emphasises the effect of the words standing off from the page. I have also included a sub-line on my masthead just to soften it a little bit.

Front Cover Image

The variation between the two cover images is quite a contrast, this is due mainly to the way in which the photographs have been taken. When looking at the preliminary task we can see that the colour pallet is quite cold and the picture looks washed out, this is due to the location of the picture, there was very little warm natural light and so the effect is shown in the picture. Comparing this to the main task however, the colour pallet is very warm and has lovely rich tones to it. The photo was taken in a room where only natural light was used, this makes the picture look more attractive to an audience and it is therefor more effective.
Another aspect to consider is the positioning of the models in the photographs. With the preliminary task the photo is not very focused on the model as such, this is because the model is sat in the middle of the photo and the work surrounding her is also a focus of the image. In contrast, the main task features the model filling most of the page with her being closer to the camera and slightly to the right of the page. This is more effective in two ways, the first of which I would say is the connection the audience have with the character on the page, she feels and looks closer to you, and the second being that with the model slightly off centre it creates a more interesting image and allows a better use of the space.

Layouts of the Contents Page

Looking at the layouts between the two tasks you can see that they are quite similar. I wanted to use one main feature picture in both of the pieces however, I think the image for the main feature in the main task is better because it is a photo that really addresses the audience. The preliminary task does have quite a structured layout, however, I think after looking into the conventions of magazines more, I was able to develop a better layout which is separated up and easy to look at. By using the lines between features on the page the contents looks professional and stylish. What's more, I decided to have a focus on the middle of the page with my main task by using an enlarged centre column, this is subtle but effective, in contrast to the preliminary task it does create more of a focus. I also decided to separate the features and the regulars, this was once more to create a more organised feel.

Font used on Font Cover

In terms of the font used on the front cover I have learnt a lot since the preliminary task. You can see the difference with the style of font straight away, the preliminary has sans serif font which means it is quite soft and looking at it in comparison to the serif font of the main task it looks far less effective. By using a serif font  it is far easier to attract attention to the page and using a bold serif font, as I have for the masthead, emphasises this more.

Another aspect of the font that I have changed is the use of capital letters. The preliminary uses capital letters all in the wrong place, it has lower case letters in the masthead and the smaller features use capital letters, this really goes against the conventions of a magazine and does not look very good at all on reflection. However, the main task has used capital letters in a very effective way. As you can see, the masthead and the main feature use capital letters, conforming to the conventions of a magazine and looking very effective at the same time, it is a vast improvement from the preliminary task.

The colours of the font have remained very similar, I chose a white font because 

I believe it challenges the conventions of a magazine by steering away from the typical black colouration however, to a certain extent by doing this I have conformed to the conventions also.  I did decide not to use colours other than black and white because I think they would look a little tacky on my magazine, also it makes the colours on the main image stand out more by removing the bright colours.

Text on Contents Pages

I have taken three different aspects of each of the contents pages because the text within them varies due to styling. Firstly though, by comparing the text of the mastheads for the page there is a vast difference. The preliminary task uses the bland word "contents" this looks potentially boring for the audience, I learnt that I could make the page look more interesting by renaming "contents" to "In nu-folk... this week" this, in my opinion is far more effective. Also looking at this, as discussed previously, the use of capital letters improves the piece further.

The actual contents of the page is also presented very differently, since the preliminary task I learnt that I needed to present the features of the magazine in a better fashion, with this in mind it was necessary to present the page numbers in a better way, I made them the same large size as the title for the feature, I also needed to make the main aspect of the content stand out more to the use of larger capital letters was employed with a small explanation of what the feature was.

I wanted to include pictures as a way of presenting features in my magazine, in the preliminary task i wasn't sure how to do this but I made an attempt which allowed me to progress to the final piece on my main task, as you can see the preliminary has very small text which isn't effective at all really, however, changing just a few aspects of this in my main task worked very well.  The use of the larger page number by itself worked well in highlighting the actual feature but also moving the text into the corner of the page was more effective.