Evaluation- technologies used in construting magazine

Through the process of constructing my product I learnt alot about technologies such as photoshop and indesign.Firstly, through using photoshop I learnt how you use layers to allow quicker selection and manipulation of your work- for example when making the front cover of a magazine it allows you to have seperate componants (masthead, straplines ect) and change and manipulate them without having to select everything at the same time. With layers you can also use change the layer visbility so you can see whats on each layer and makes it easier to control layers.

Secondly,the range of effects available on text allow you to create different effects on your fonts, for example on my masthead I used an outer shadow, inner glow and drop shadow, I used a neon blue colour which created the effect of an LED light bar. Therefore photoshop allows you to create different effects for different styles and themes. 

From using indesign I learnt various things. Firstly, when designing a document such as a contents page, you dont have to start from scratch you cqan build a template first to decide where you would like everything to be positioned e.g pictures, text and titles. This helps as it means you know exactly where everythings going to go and you can then just find the pictures you are going to use and think about the content of the text. By using the template it is easy to see what the text will look like when positioned on the place as you are able to fill the boxes with placeholder text. Creating a template using inspiration from other magazines gave my contents page a more professional look as I had never made one before and needed a guide on what to include and where to position things.

Secondly, indesign has built in features that helped specifically with constructing my magazine, for example the graphology of the contents page- drooped capitals at the start of the text a common feature of magazine articles this allows it to look more professional.

Since the preliminary task-making the school magazine I have learnt alot about the process of constructing my magazine. Firstly, front covers and contents page must follow a particular style and have certain aspects included for it to look real and professional. For example a contents page should include a varying range of text, pictures and information. In my original school magazine there was only one box with a list of what's included in the magazine, it did not look like the typical page of a contents page as it was too simplistic and small but noticeable details were missing such as a varying range of information and the name of the magazine printed, date ect. The fact I created the music magazine contents page on indesign meant it looked more professional and real than the school magazine cover.

This is the school magazine cover:

                              This is the music magazine contents page: