Preliminary Task

In the opening 2 weeks of our AS level media course, we were tasked with completing a Preliminary task. This would allow us to get a taste of perhaps what is to come in the future, as well as allowing our teachers to get an idea of our capabilities. Our task was to create a magazine designed for any schooling age group, to inform them of something important going on in their year or in the school as a whole. I chose to aim my magazine at year 9s, who were just preparing to think about choosing their options. It includes articles on what options to take, as well as a few quizzes to help entertain the reader.

I chose to title my magazine ‘Crunch Time’. I chose to title it this because it has relevance to the time, with the GCSE results needing to be chosen, as well as it having a reference to Lunch time.  I chose not to include too many sell lines on the front cover, firstly to not draw attention from the picture, which itself is very important, but also because I wanted my magazine not to be sold because of the features, but the whole reason behind the creation , to help the student in picking their GCSE’s.

I also had to create a contents page, which would give the reader more of an in-depth idea on what was included in the magazine. I spent only 1 lesson on this contents , which is why it is not very detailed, however it includes all the required information that would be seen on any other magazine, such as page numbers, what’s on each page, and a few pictures.

I used several tools throughout the process. I created the magazines solely in Photoshop. I didn’t tend to use many effects on the magazine either. I did not edit the pictures in any way, however, I did add a back shadow to most of the texts, to help draw attention to it and to help it stand out.  I also added several effects to the masthead, as this is the first thing the person will read, so it needs to look attractive.

Overall, I think my magazine turned out quite well, given the amount of time we were given. I managed to get a basic magazine made in only 2 hours of work time, which means, given the time we are allowed to create our official coursework piece,  it should be of a much higher standard. 

These were the original designs that I had created for my magazine. Generally, they are the same, other than a few minor changes, such as different  text or a different picture.