Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task- Producing a front cover and contents page for a new school magazine. 
            

Prelim task evaluation questions:

1. Did you plan your magazine? If not, what have you learnt about the importance of research and planning?

No I did not plan my magazine cover and contents, the reason for this being I wanted to experiment with different features on the program I used. However, I think that researching and planning will help to save time creating the material because I will have a rough idea of what I want the end product to look like and research will help make the magazine be more appropriate to the targeted audience.

2. What technology did you use to complete the task and how did you use it?

To create the preliminary task I used Serif PagePlusX6. I used a large majority of the features in the asset bar, like the background and graphics tabs to create the base for my magazine cover. I also used the colour and text tools to create different effect with the colour and fonts of the text. Along the top of the task bar I used the "clean design" mode to create margin lines, which came in particularly useful when creating my contents page. I also used the cut-out studio to cut out my photo for the front cover.

3. Did you encounter any difficulties? If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?

I think my main difficulty was actually getting to grasps with using the serif program, being unfamiliar with it before, however after playing around with the different tools and formats, I quickly overcame this problem.

4. How successful was your magazine? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I think that my magazine design actually went quite well regarding it being my first attempt at creating one. In terms of what went well I think that the overall layout of the front cover specifically does look quite professional and relatively suitable for the age ranges intended. If I were to produce this again I would definitely spend more time researching school magazines to get an idea of what they look like and would probably try to make the contents page look more professional as I feel it looks quite rushed and lacks colour.

5. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?

From completing this task I have gained a better understanding about how the serif platform works, which will be extremely significant when creating the next stages of my coursework. I have also found out how essential it is to plan and research beforehand, this is something I will do extensively before completing my final tasks.  I also have a wider range of ideas regarding how my final product could look as well as specific layouts I might want to consider using. This will also come in useful when creating my final design because I can adapt my planning and research around those ideas.