Evaluation of Preliminary Task

Evaluation

The Zine magazine will show the progress I have made through doing my coursework. While doing my Zine magazine I have learnt many things that have enabled me to construct the magazine in a better way, for example with the use of photoshop. Photoshop has enabled to me to learn how to change the features of a picture, by changing the background of a image, or using the healing tool to help clear the spots and other things that are in the image. With the Zine magazine I started off with a drawn picture of my front cover and my contents page, of what I wanted my magazine to look like, while I was constructing my magazine I decided to change my initial idea to something more mature. As Zine magazine was for the college magazine, I decided that my target audience would be for college students aged 16 to 19, and for it to be for both genders. I showed how the target audience will relate to the Zine magazine with the colour scheme, suitable for both genders, with it beginning, blue, pink, white, and black. When you look through all the articles and features your able to see that they are all to do with college, and things that go on in college, for example: coursework advice, Top tips on revising and college dance. All the articles relate to college students, on how to handle stress, or just fun things like the college dance.

While constructing my magazine I used photoshop to help me to change things with my images and to put the magazine together. Using photoshop on my Zine magazine was the first time that I had ever used it, so for me I had to learn how to use a lot of the tools from a guide booklet and people showing me how to use certain things, But most of the time I was learning how to use the tools by practising them and seeing what each tool did in my spare time and in the lessons provided to practise using photoshop. When using photoshop I have learnt how to use the healing tool, the magnetic lasso tool, the airbrush tool, and how to change the colour of certain parts of an image.  The magnetic lasso tool was much easier to use than carefully going round the image, this helped me with getting the parts of the image that I want and cutting the image form the background. The healing tool was very useful for healing the spots on the open skin of the image, making the image look more like a actual magazine cover.

In the process of creating my magazine I had to choose various different fonts for my coverlines, headlines and my masthead. In the process I picked various different fonts that I could uses that included, ‘Ariel’, ‘Tempus sans ITC’ and ‘Lucida Bright’. I decided to use ‘Lucida Bright’ for my masthead, and because I was unable to pick a font for my coverlines and headlines so I decided to use various different fonts for my cover page and contents page.

When looking back at the planning and construction phases of the Zine magazine, the things that I would do differently for my main piece is that I will make the coverlines of the cover of the magazine stand out more. I will use photoshop more on the images to make them look more realistic and a more magazine style. I will spend more time on the background and to make it suitable for my audience.
For my presentation on my Zine magazine I was given lots of constructive thoughts that I could include in my magazine these included: The image on the front cover should be a mid close up, make the colours for both the contents and the cover of the magazine to be more clear, column structure for the contents and better images on the contents page. All the comments that I got from the presentation, I will take and make sure I will do the main magazine better, and I will change the Zine magazine to look more like a real magazine.