I have learnt how to research and analyse professional products so that I could take idea's from them and re-invent them into my own product. In order to create my product I learnt how to use certain software such as Photoshop and InDesign so I could make my product look as professional as possible.
Photoshop
To make my product look as professional as possible i learnt how to edit and reconstruct all my photographs if needed. I learnt how to use a certain tool called a clone stamp which allowed me cover any blemishes which were on my models. I also learnt to alter the levels and brightness of my images to make them look more bright so that they would look more summery and link into my magazine style. From using photoshop i also learnt how to export images and convert them into JPEG's.
Although I am not 100% confident when using Photoshop and still have to ask for assistance and guidance when using some tools I think i will learnt how to use all the tools I need as I progress through the year and make a better product.
InDesign
While using InDesign i learnt how to:
- What all the appropriate tools are and how to use them.
- How to download new fonts into InDesign and use them on my product.
- How to insert and arrange images.
The different forms of research which I did was 'textual research', this included me selecting two professional music magazines (MOJO and NME) and analysing and deconstructing the front cover, contents page and double page spread of both and expressing why certains colours, layout, fonts etc were used in these magazines, this helped me to understand the real conventions of media.
I then did 'secondary audience research' where I looked at an audience profile from both of the magazines which I had previously collected data on to see whether they appealed to a young/old/female/male audience. From this research I think created my own audience profile for my magazine.
I then went on to complete 'primary audience research' where i collected opinions from an audience suitable to my magazine using videos, questionnaires and post-it notes and then used the data which I had gathered to improve my magazine.
I then completed 'instituational research' where I collected data on two publishing groups (Bauer and IPC) and looked at other magazines which they published and then stated how this research would affect my ideas.
I also collected researc hon different font types to see which fonts would be suitable for my music magazine genre and which would not. I did the same research again but this time with colour.
After creating my first drafts of my magazine pages I collected feedback from other students in my college and my teachers which I then used to improve and create my final product.
