Preliminary Task

For the preliminary task I had to create a magazine cover and contents page for Woking College’s magazine; Pulse. The reason this task had to be completed is because it would eventually help me once I started the construction for my final magazine cover and contents and also a double page spread article. However the article wasn’t needed for the preliminary task, only the front cover and contents was required. This will help me know the conventions of a magazine cover and contents page but also I can get to grips with the software ‘Adobe Photoshop’ which again will help me when constructing my final music magazine. Furthermore I can learn from my mistakes and see what I did good so I can add it to my final construction but to see what I did bad so I can discard it from the final product.

 

Hand Drawn Draft

Front Cover

Contents Page

For the preliminary task I had to create a front and contents page for 'Pulse', the college magazine. So before I began to create it on Photoshop I had to plan and design the pages. 

Firstly the feature of the front page that catches the eye is the masthead or the image. For the image it's a student with a content facial expression, this relates to the headline; How to survive College. So it connotes with his bag he is all prepared for the two years of College. It would appeal to the audience who are students informing them how the college life is and will be like for the next two years. As for the masthead I have kept it plain and simple because I want to test how it would look on the preliminary task and if I liked the look I could then use it for my final piece of coursework. There are also lines behind the masthead connoting the word pulse which is also the name of the magazine. This cover follows the conventional features with the strap line, headline and pug; furthermore there are brief summaries on the news articles, free prizes and a cheap price highlighted in a pug to attract the audience.

As for the contents page I made it follow a house style similar to the front cover. The conventions of a contents page is followed with page numbers and images, also the main cover story is the largest image a feature that is usually seen in magazine content pages. Besides from the images I included the features included in the magazine to inform the reader and make it look more professional. This is a task to see what works and what doesn't work so it's okay if I make mistakes and change something from this to the actual coursework piece. In fact it's an advantage because I would've then learnt from my mistakes.

Construction of the Preliminary Task

 

After I made my draft for the ‘Pulse’ magazine it was time to produce it. To begin with I had to take some pictures to include on the front and content pages of the magazine. So with the front cover image I got my friend ‘George’ to stand there and look as if he is happy to be in college and it was superb because I only took one picture of him and was perfect the first time. The shot of the image was a mid shot, a camera shot used variously on magazine covers. As for the content pages I took pages of the newly built sports hall as it is an article that people would read. I also took a picture of the LRC as it is a place where the whole college goes to when they are free in college, again this would make a great article.

 

Final Front Cover and Contents page

 

Evaluation of Preliminary Task
This is my final front cover and contents page of my preliminary task. As shown in comparison to my hand drawn drafts I have made a couple of changes. The features I have changed are the placing of the price, it’s now near the headline and the cover lines are also located differently from the hand drawn draft. The reasoning behind why I decided to change these features is because either they didn’t appeal to my liking or it didn’t fit within the space given. Although it was a preliminary task I wanted it to look as attractive as it can be and I am proud of my efforts that it has become everything I had planned on my hand drawn drafts. To complete the task I had to use the software Photoshop and although I have never used it (I have used similar programs such as Paint.Net) I knew the basic skill of which I incorporated into the front cover and content page. I would have to learn more advanced skills and features to make my actual music magazine look much better than my preliminary task. Not only would there be a difference but there will be evidence that I have improved my skills in that time. Another note of improvement would be the font used for not only the cover line but also the masthead. I thought something very simple as this masthead would look appealing and classy that I would also use for my music magazine. However it didn't look as good as I expected so when I actually use a font I'm going to look for a more stand out font, a typeface so unique that someone would actually remember it.