Question 7: what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Throughout the time spent designing and creating my magazine front cover, contents and double page spread, I have developed a lot of skills. From the preliminary task, I have been able to use Photoshop a lot easier. This has extended my use on Photoshop which means I can use better techniques and better effects. When started my preliminary task, I knew Photoshop's basic features, but as time and experience has evolved, I have become much better at it. I have a much better attitude towards my work as it looks and feels much more professional. I think that I could always make room for improvements but I needed to make sure that I set myself a deadline. When I was designing my college magazine, I was very limited to ideas and thoughts because I didn't know about a lot of features in Photoshop. Once I learnt and extended my knowledge, I experimented with different options and effects on my final product. My college magazine had very limited colours too. This would not be suitable for magazine shelves as this would not stand out to anyone. So I thought that the best thing to do would be to add more colours but still keep it simple.
In the preliminary task, my target audience was college students however, when designing my music magazine, I had to focus on different types of people and their habits. I found this harder to do because the use of bright colours and borders could have been inappropriate. I tried to keep the colours bold and simple instead of having lots of different colours and shades throughout the whole thing. I wanted my magazine to look professional with no faults just like Kerrang! or Smash Hits. I've tried my best to keep a simple but professional style. I have also tried to make use of empty space but to leave some of it empty. I believe that if all space is filled, it would be too crowded and too much going on.
If I were to do the magazine again, I would use more pictures and instead of text to fill up the space. I have made my music magazine much more professional than my college magazine with more pictures, more text and more information but if I had time, I would still try and make final improvements.