Development of skills and understanding
I feel that looking back at my college magazine in comparison to the magazine that I have just created there is a massive gulf in class. In the preliminary task I rushed lots of things that I did and it ended up coming out tacky whereas with the music magazine I spent lots of time working on it which resulted in a good end product. It also went better as there was a lot more planning that went into this version with things such as: audience questionnaires, annotating of existing magazines and just generally studying magazines. One of the key features in me creating a good magazine this time around was my concept that I chose. It’s unique to pretty much all other magazines on the market and although I have taken snippets of ideas form magazines like: NME and Kerrang, the idea behind having a whole magazine that battles two different genres has created a hybrid identity in itself and is also a unique selling point for my magazine. In contrast to this, last time around I had no real unique ideas. I also believe that the first crack at Photoshop helped me this time around as I was more experienced and did then not experience as many hiccups and therefore wasn’t as time consuming so I could spend more time on other things. Receiving feedback from other students for creative ideas was also helpful, as I could compare ideas with them and take them if they’re better at certain aspects of the course. Another thing that proved a big help in the creation of my magazine was how after my first attempt I was much more willing to be attentive to detail. This will help me attain a better grade as the work will be of a lot higher quality. The main thing that I focused on in creating my magazine this time around was how much effort was put into my journalism. After my first attempt having rushed things like the cover lines and them coming out a little shoddy and generic, I worked harder to try and put more effort into making them funny and witty and therefore being a more satisfying read for the audience.