^^^^My initial first draft of my contents page.
I started to create this using Photoshop
from the designs and ideas from my contents page research, digital mock
ups, hand drawn drafts and electronic drafts. I used the
conventions of other similar music magazines contents pages, of
a similar genre, like Q and NME to create this. I did by this by including a
issue date, masthead, splash, logo/brand name, list of features and
sub-headings, page numbers and relevant images. As my target audience
predominantly are ranked C1-E in the social class system I included competitions to
win things as well as free posters to encourage them to buy the magazine as
they have the chance of doing/seeing things they can't usually afford. The
competitions and posters were linked and carried on from those on the front
page so that both pages like there part of the same magazine and for continuity
and reinforcement of teasers to the audience. I continued the colour
scheme and house styles (font, themes) on from the front page for
continuity so that they link together, look like they belong together and
appear professional. I tried to put contrasting colours next to
each other so that everything could be easily seen, eye-catching, clear and
bold. I included a subscribe box like other popular magazines like NME has, to
promote it and remind people subscribe, another bargain for the
target audience. I continued my sell line 'the new music revolution' by writing
'be part of the revolution' as an encouragement (teaser) at the
bottom of the page making my audience want to turn over and read this
revolutionary magazine. I placed an arrow at the right corner of the page as it’s
at the reader finger tips and is prominently pointed towards the
concept of turning the page, keeping the audience in suspense by
teasing them in wanting to read on to see what the full articles
are about. I used the colour red, being the most eye-catching colour to
highlight the areas of importance to draw an audience’s attention towards them.
I used the images as teasers as to what's to come in my music
magazine. I used language/sub heading that are relevant to my young
audiences and are often used in weekly magazines of my genre such as
'Regulars'' 'live!', 'exclusives', 'news', 'reviews', 'radar' and 'Hip'. These
words are typical jargan associated with the music industry and music magazines
as well as being words used and understood mostly by my target audience’s age
group 15-25. I tried to include features/articles that fitted with my target audience’s interests were relevant to
the present day/week, were typically included within music magazines and
were interesting enough to make people want to read the them. I wrote
'This Week Inside HIP' as my masthead instead of 'Contents' to give it that of
the edge less obvious feel, make it feel friendly not patronising and emphasising
that it’s a weekly magazine which reinforces this concept into the audiences
minds, reminding them to buy the magazine again next week. This also makes it
sound like a useful page than just a boring factual page like the word
'contents' does. When writing page numbers on my Artist Alphabet and on my
images I made sure the numbers used on both linked in with each
other accurately and was random so that it was believable,
conventional and accurate of a music magazine. Magazine contents pages like NME
include a 'Band Index' on their contents page which makes it easier for their
audience to find the articles, music, information and gossip on their favourite
bands there the most interested in. However I thought it would be
more useful to include Artists in general 'Artist Alphabet' as my music
magazine features all different types of Artists, not just bands and therefore
this would be the most useful for my magazine and target audience. I called it
an 'Artist Alphabet' as that literally defines what it is, a list of artists in
my magazine in alphabetical order along with the pages their featured on.
However I also thought this was catchy and rememberable as it uses
alliteration also making it sound 'HIP' and relevant to the brand. When
using my brand name on my contents page, I always used my specific 'HIP' logo
in the same font, style and colour so that the audience will familiarise with
the brand, remember who brought them this amazing music magazine and it will
become easily recognisable by its bold style and colours
thus increasing its popularity. I also started to focus in on detail
to make it accurate and precise like a professional music magazine would be by
including things such as 'Full T&C available on the website' in italics
which are needed to be included as legislation by law but I put this in smaller
font 'small print', which is conventional of music magazines and other
magazines as it maintains the audiences focus on the most important,
eye-catching and attractive things about my Music Magazine contents page. I
also tried to display my images in a 'hip', cool and interesting was
with the most interesting main images/articles being largest and
the ones that weren't as interesting main slightly smaller.
^^^^I continued to make my music magazine conventional
by adding conventional, needed things onto my contents page that I hadn't
yet included such as an issue number and page numbers down the side of my
features/articles list. I placed these numbers down the left hand side of my
features/articles as its conventional of music magazines. I also made all the
page numbers on my page red, unless it was hard to see them, as it fitted with
the house styles (brand logo) sand drew attention towards them as its
the most eye-catching colour which I felt was important as the page numbers are
the main point of a contents page thus making it easier for as audience to read
and find them. I used black on the Alphabet Artists list and articles/features
list writing as it contrasted clearly with the red of the numbers and the light
background making them easy to distinguish, read and find. I placed block
colours behind my sub-heading, titles and masthead in order for them to stand
of the page and my read much clearly as there against contrasting colours, to
fit with the house styles and themes along with the continuity of the blocking
theme from the front page making it feel like both the front page and the
contents pages belong together. As the masthead/main heading was black with
yellow behind it and the sub-headings/smaller titles were yellow
with black behind it made them link together well along with making
an audiences eyes clearly distinguish that there titles but of different kinds.
I also added a block yellow colour behind the 'Win X-factor tickets' so that it
fitted with the house/styles/colours and blocking theme, was conventional and
stood out from the page drawing the audience’s attention towards it. I continued
using the same stencil and Calibri fonts for continuity so the page felt like
it belonged together and with the front page. I moved some of
the articles features around do that they were in the order they
would be in throughout the magazine as so that the page numbers
made sense and related to the page numbers used on the Artist Alphabet
for continuity and believability of this being a
real, professional magazines. Under each sub-heading the page numbers
were listed in order as its conventional and makes it easier to find
the pages of the articles the audience want to read which is the point of a
music magazine contents page in the first place. I extended
James Arthur's article/feature title so that it sounded more appealing
to the audience and gave away a bit of information so that the audience
would want to read the article to find out more.
^^^^I experimented with altering the style of my contents page to
see what it looked like, I did by this using my using my contents page research
and using the conventions of similar style music magazines to mine. I kept the
background and the style of the display of features down the left hand side and
there conventional, look effective and fit with the house styles of my Front
Cover. However I made the list of features a larger font so they were clear,
bolder and easier to read. I used a traditional Masthead title of 'contents' to
make it blatantly obvious to an audience what this page of about and
for. I made the masthead red with a yellow shadow and black inner shadow
effects to make it bold, eye- catching and stand out along with making it the
same font used on the Front Cover so everything fits with the house styles and
general style of my music magazine. I displayed the word 'contents' on 3 lines
like other music magazines to make it look contemporary
and relevant to my 15-25 target audience. I experimented with changing
the picture and using one large image as I felt the smaller images looked tacky
and unprofessional on my previous draft as they were too
similar, didn't stand out and had to be stretched out of proportion to fit
the style of my contents page design. I put a page number next to the image as it’s
conventional and is the point of a contents page so an audience can find the
article about this particular artist easily. I added twitter and Facebook
contact information onto my contents page as from my focus group I found that
these social networking sights were popular with my indie-pop loving 15-25
target audience and would be another way to boost the popularity of
my music magazine, keep people up to date (personal touch), advertise, link my
page to artists accounts and get feedback from my audience. I kept
the splash on my contents page as its relevant to my features and
front cover as well as acting as a teaser. However I made the splash fit with
the house styles by changing the colour and made it stand out, look
more professorial and bold by putting the real V-Festival logo on it
and using more contrasting colours. I edited the images by using auto select
tools and faded eraser to get rid of the images background, make it look
natural and rid of lumps and bumps like my models baggy trousers and top.
I changed the arrow as it looked dull and ineffective and I wanted to
make it look attractive and stand out so I used a 3D arrows that pops out from
the edge of the paper making it more noticeable, contemporary and like
that of other music magazines. I felt the subscribe box was effective
and conventional however I moved it to the left to fit with the design like on
other music magazines like NME.
Despite all this I feel that this contents page looks unprofessional, unattractive and the design doesn't look like it fits together very well. I feel that the 'Artist Alphabet' was an effective idea on my other draft and this draft isn't conventional or bold enough and doesn't fit the purpose of a contents age as there isn't enough information on it and there's lots of blank space. I feel that the masthead isn't bold enough and the design isn't box-like enough to be as conventional and effective as other music magazines.
^^^^I experimented with changing my design
again. I did this by applying all the elements that were effective from my
previous drafts like the Artist Alphabet, splash, brand name and boxed features
and discarding all the ideas I didn't think were as effective. I then found
contents pages from other successful music magazines like NME, Q and Billboard
that I personally liked and looked attractive and effective and applied some of
their conventions and styles to create an effective and attractive layout and
design for my music magazine through attention to detail. I used a block scheme
and continued my house styles from the front page as there
conventional, relevant effective, making my magazine stand out and
dominant. I kept the subscribe box and Facebook/Twitter section as I felt they
were effective and conventional but I merged them together to fit with the
theme and style of my magazine. I used the typical Facebook and Twitter icons
so that it was more official and obvious to an audience as to what they were
there for as these symbols are automatically associated with the Facebook and
Twitter Social Networking sights. I defined both subscribe and social network
sections by a clear line to make each side obvious and clear to an audience's
eye and I also thought it looked casual and contemporary like designs on other
music magazine contents pages. I added mini magazine front cover images to my
subscribe box like other music magazines do on their contents pages to make it
believable that my brand has produces several previous issues before this one.
I used magazines of the same house style and colours to my front cover to make
it a realistic and believable that they are from the same brand. I put my brand
name/logo within my masthead as its conventional and reinforces to
the audience who brought them this magazine. I used a typical, conventional
blocking theme to display on my features and used the contemporary style of NME
for the subtitles as I felt it looked effective, modern, fresh and attractive.
Along with using the names for the subtitles that were typical of music
magazines similar to mine, conventional and relevant to the
vocabulary used by my 15-25 aged target audience. I made sure each of my list
of features where catchy, interesting and relevant to a
contemporary audience. I also added descriptions under each of my titles of
features as its conventional, makes them sound more interesting and
acts as a teaser or kicker to persuade an audience to want to go ahead and read
the articles. I added a plus section to my list of articles as I felt it was
effective on the NME contents page, conventional and allowed me to display details
of every feature and article that's in my entire music magazine which
is the point of a contents page in the first place. I used a bright yellow
backing behind my artist alphabet to make it stand out, fit my blocking theme
and suit the house styles of my music magazines - I also did this with my main
feature title for the same reason. I also spread the list of Artists out so
they were clearer and easy to read for the reader/audience looking at them
making it easier for them to find articles about their favourite Artists.
I kept the splash as it was effective and fitted with my features and front
cover too. I used the masthead 'HIP THIS WEEK' as I felt this was effective on
my other drafts as its contemporary and informal however I changed the design
slightly to suit the theme, make it as bold, attractive and eye-catching as
possible and also because it looked effective on one of NME magazines contents
pages, which has a similar target audience to mine. I displayed the date line
and issue number within the design of my contents page so that they looked like
a page of the design rather than just thrown on which I felt made it look
more professorial and attractive. I moved the arrow section to fit
with the new theme and layout of my contents page and changed some of the
colours and background of the wording so that they stood out from there
background and could be read clearly. I used an image I had taken from a
physical model and one I had taken from an Olly Murs Album front cover as the
main images of this contents page. I felt these images complemented each other
(similar poses) well with Olly Murs being relevant to the genre of my
magazine and the week this was published. I also made sure these images related
to the features and Artist Alphabet. I edited the images using faded and blunt
eraser and the auto select tools in Photoshop to get rid of
there backgrounds so i could place the images together as a joint
article/story/feature. I felt the images were a good contrast in style but as
if they had be taken specifically in the same pose by a photographer for this
particular article about them competing for an award. I used their last names
to create a catchy and punchy headline through alliteration 'Murs Vs Manson' to
attract an audience’s attention/eye and make them interested in
wanting to read the full article. I made it clear the article was about them
competing for something with the bold 'VS' sign in between them in a
clear red colour and stencil font, fitting with the dominant house styles. I
put the headline underneath the images with a description as it conventional, act’s
as a teaser and is similar to that of successful music magazines like NME. I
chose to do all the writing under the images (headline and article description)
in block capitals so they look dominant, eye-catching and almost shouted at the
audience to make them feel like they must read the rest of the article. I also
used rhetorical questions and teasers within my article description
to make an audience want to read the article to find out the answers to these
questions. I made my main feature/article of the contents
page relevant to the Front Page as well as about the Brit Awards as
this is a major awards ceremony which involves many indie and pop top chart
artists which is the predominate genre of my music magazine.
^^^^^I made subtle edits to this draft, paying attention to detail to make it as effective, attractive and as much like real music magazine contents pages as possible(professional). I started to edit the mini magazines on my subscribe box by adding the hip Logo/brand name as the masthead to make it look as if there images of previous music magazines, making it look like I have had several music magazines out already - making it believable. I changed the line separating the subscribe section and tweet/Facebook section as it looked like it didn't belong there and had just been accidentally rubbed out. I therefore used a dotted line as I felt it looked more professional and fitted with the style of my music magazine better. I made the writing on the subscribe box slightly bigger to make them more bolder, clearer, attractive and dominant in appearance.
^^^^I perfected my design my moving around my features so they were evenly spread out making my magazine look professorial conventional as well as easy for my audiences eyes to read. I removed the line dividing my subscribe and social network section as I felt it was unnecessary, didn't fit the theme, wasn't professional and didn't look like it was meant to be there. I added an extra 'Hip' masthead onto my third mini-magazine Front Cover image for believably of it being a previous issue. I added a large page number (in conventional house styles) to my Main Headline/Feature as it's the points of a contents page, conventional and allows my audience to find the article clearly and easily. I changed my splash so that it contained the real V-Festival logo so to make it official, professional, believable and allows an audience to instantly recognize the logo and the festival it stands for. However I kept the colour of it red to make it eye-catching and fitting with the house styles but used an inner shadow effect to make it appear 3D and stand out from the page.
^^^^I added and experimented with changing different elements of this contents page design/draft to make it look as effective, conventional, professorial, attractive and as relevant to contemporary 15-25 aged target audience as possible(attention to detail.). I added a page number to my splash as it's conventional and the point of a contents page is to make it easy for an audience to find the articles/features they want to reads page numbers. I edited the Artist Alphabet by adding a white box around each of the individual artists names which NME have also used on some of their contents pages 'band index' and there music magazine has a similar genre and target audience to mine. I also did this as I felt it gave my contents page an edgy, modern, young feel making it attractive. As well as highlighting the Artists names therefore drawing the audience's attention/eyes towards them making the design effective, professional, dominant and also fitting to the conventional blocking theme.
^^^^I moved the page number of my main headline as it looked out of place and it wasn't made clear as to which feature/article it was associated with. I also changed it to a red colour to fit with my theme and the rest of my page numbers as well to make it as bold and as eye catching as possible as the page numbers are one of the main points of a contents page and also an audiences/readers made focus. I added a white shadow around the arrow in the subscribe box in order to highlight it to make it clear to a reader/audience that the contents information relates to how to subscribe to HIP music magazine. I highlighted the last names Manson and Murs with the colour red to make the point of the headline clear as well as red being the most eye-catching colour to the human eye. I made the writing of the description of the main headline of my contents page larger to fill the page and to make them stand out to catch the audience's eyes as much as possible. I did the same with the 'Tweet + Like Us!' section to make it as clear, dominant, noticeable and eye-catching as possible. I changed all my features to capital letters as its conventional (Like in NME and Q), eye-catching, dominant and almost shouts at an audience therefore grabbing there attention to want to read the full article. I moved the 'VS' up to fill the space as it looked out of space. I also spaced out the words in my subscribe box to make it more in proportion as well as making the Facebook and Twitter symbols as in proportion and noticeable as possible for a professorial (attention to detail) finish.
^^^^I changed the writing on the headline description/detail to a bold font so that it complemented the bold and dominant theme/design/house styles. I changed the words 'Brit Awards' on the headline description to a red colour to highlight the point of the article, make it seem more official, relate it to the brand logo/colours and red is the most eye-catching colour to the human eye making it noticeable and dominant. The main thing I experimented with and changed on the draft was the image. I did this to see what it would look like against the other image and if it was better to have them in similar poses or different poses to show individuality. I felt it looked quite good to show individuality and contrast despite the image being slightly not in proportion. I also experimented with editing the image through photo manipulation such as using liquidify tools to make my models muscles bigger, corrector and heeling tools to perfect my models skin and blending options to improve the brightness and quality of the picture. I think this helped make the image appear more professional, effective, attractive and eye-catching. I also added a tattoo to his arm relevant to being a music artist which says 'life is nothing without music' which I feel complemented his look and pose, giving him individuality and making him a believable Singer/music Artist.
^^^^On this Draft I wanted to maintain the general
structure as I felt it was effective but I wanted to experiment and change some
of the additional effects, displays and image's to make this contents page as
believable, attractive, professional looking and effective as I
could. For this draft I was inspired by other similar music magazines of my
genre like NME and Q to make my magazine look believably professional
and effective as a contents page. I took aesthetic and structural elements of
these music magazines and combined them with my own ideas, experiments and
house style to try to create an attractive and effective contents page. One of
the mains things I changed on this draft was the central focus structure. I
felt that on my last draft the 'Manson Vs Murs' idea was relatively
attractive, believable and effect but I also felt it looked
rather childish, fake and non-professional so I wanted to experiment with
using one image as a focus point to draw the audience's attention towards
the page so they also don’t get an information overload (like in the previous
draft with two images). I chose a photo that I felt looked attractive and
stylish in order to automatically persuade my 15-25 stylish, hipster audience
to want to read the whole article. I also feel that using one image is more
effective than the two images in my last draft as it gives the page a clear
focus point, making the magazine seem personal as if the artist 'Danny Manson'
is actually looking directly at the audience/camera (conventional,
professional), improving their likeness of the magazine/Artist thus making the
audience more likely to buy my music magazine again. I chose an image
that was looking directly at the camera in order for it to draw an audience’s
attention towards the page, giving it a personal touch with direct address also
being conventional of music magazines therefore making my magazine look professional.
I decided the get rid of the background of the image as it was dull, boring and
would of distracted an audiences focus from the main image, I did this by using
the various eraser and auto-select tools in Photoshop. I then replaced it with
a plain coloured square background which is conventional of music magazine
contents pages (especially NME) which I felt helps to draw an audience’s
attention directly towards the Artist image which is the main
part of the article/a music magazine, which was effective in eliminating the
distractions of the original images complex background. I used a grey colour as
I felt it contrasted well with the colour of the Artists top to make the image
stand out as much as possible as well as using a white shadow
effect around the image which I felt made it look more professional, effective,
conventional and stand out from the page in order to capture the audience’s
attention when they look at the page. I also felt that by using a box around
the images it fitted with my house styles, blocking theme and the conventional
use of blocking on music magazine contents pages. I placed a page number
in the corner of the box as it’s conventional and is the point of a music
magazine contents page (to find the pages/articles easily). I chose to make it
a large font, red and with a white box around it so that it complemented and
fitted in with my house styles as well as to make it stand out more than any of
the other numbers, as its the number of the main article so I wanted to
highlight it the most. The white box is also conventional and complements my
house styles/blocking theme. I chose to make the writing underneath the font
styles Calibri and stencil in black colours so that they went with my
house styles, complemented my artist 'Danny Manson' and my music
magazines 'Hip' 's Indie-Pop style/genre and also to make the words
dominant, bold, clear, stand out and easy to read. I made the title of the
article the stencil font as its the bolder font and therefore would highlight
the most important piece of information by making it stand out and the most
dominant. I used the pull quote 'My Grandma Still Does My Washing' in order to
give my audience an insight into what's to come in the article/interview, which
acts as a teaser to the audience making them feel the need to read the article
in order to find out more. This pull Quote is also conventional, adds a
personal touch, making the article/contents page realistic, believable and
professional. I used a black font and a yellow shadow on the pull quote in
order to complement my house styles/themes as well as to stand out from the
page and the writing around it as it’s the most interesting, important and
significant information compared to written the information surrounding it. I
used a yellow colour behind the title 'The World Went Mad For Manson' to
highlight its importance, as its gives away the main summary of the
image/article making it one of the most dominant and significant pieces of
information on the page. The use of boxes surrounding the title also fit
the house styles, conventionally complement the blocking theme of a music
magazine contents page and make the words stand out from the page in order to
dominantly catch an audience’s attention. I chose to use the phrase 'mad for Manson'
as it acts as a form of alliteration and a pun, making an audience more likely
to remember it as its catchy, therefore more likely to remember to read the
article and buy my music magazine again. The use of alliteration/pun
is also a conventional aspect included within many professional music magazines
like NME, Billboard and Q which makes my magazine even more professional
looking, believable and effective. I made the word 'Manson' a red colour as it’s
the most dominant colour to the human eye and larger font as he’s the
artist behind the article and therefore the main point of it, so by doing this
it highlights the Artist as the main feature, making his name appear bold,
dominant and eye catching. Using the colour red and stencil font on the
Artists name also directly links the Artist with the Hip Brand, as my music
magazine Hip uses the same colour and font, reinforcing to the audience the
brand that brought them this exclusive Article (increasing popularity, more
people will want to buy the magazine again). I felt that the colour red also positively
connotes the artist as loving, passionate, dominant, bold and attractive (relevant
positive connotations of the Artist). I decided to put the
description of the article in italics as its conventional and less important
but I also made it a bold font in order for it to appear dominant,
clear, noticeable, attractive and fitting of the house styles. I used my
research of contents pages in order to come up with 'The moment that...' idea
as it’s a similar concept used on NME's contents pages, who are of a similar target
audience and genre to my music magazine 'Hip', which I felt was an effective,
attractive, interesting and dominant design feature for a contents page. I feel
that the phrase 'the moment that..' is effective in making the audience feel
like there reading something exclusive and new and is an informal phrase that
makes the contents page feel personal to the Artist/audience as well as an edgy
phrase that connotes the brand positively and complements the brands modern
pop/indie-pop genre. I would use this phrase as a motif/design concept on every
current contents page made for Hip Magazine for continuity and so that an
audience would familiarise with it and the brand (increasing
brand popularity) which would also help them to understand the layout so
they can easily find the articles they want to read the next time they purchase
it. I maintained the blocking theme throughout as its conventional is complementary
to the house styles, effective, dominant, attractive, suiting of the indie-pop/modern
pop genre and defines the page, making it as easy and clear to read as possible
for my audience. I used shadow effects where I felt necessary to make elements
stand out from the page, eye catching and dominant also helping to highlight
the most important aspects of this draft. I decided to add an extra 'win
X-FACTOR tickets' section onto my draft as it linked to my front cover and
articles on my contents page and I also felt this was something that would
attract an audience into buying my magazine again as well as predominantly
interest them as my target audience are reality show mad people who are lower
on the scale demographically and therefore wouldn't be able to afford such luxury’s.
I decided to use a stencil font for continuity and to suit the house styles of
my music magazine/contents page in order to make my contents page effective,
attractive, professional and successful. I used the real X-Factor
symbol/logo in this section to show its official and to make
it believable and professional in appearance. As it’s an important/main
section, I used the red and yellow house styles to highlight the page number
that the X-Factor competition is on dominantly so an audience can easily
find it (point of a contents page). I decided to move the V-Festival splash up to
the top of the page as I felt it complemented the new layout better, filled
the blank space and allowed for overlapping which makes the splash
feel connected to the design (unlike in the previous draft where it felt
disjointed), stand out, conventional of similar genre Music
Magazine (like NME and Q) and complements my music magazines edgy,
contemporary, indie style thus directly targeting my modern, stylish,
indie/hipster contemporary 15-25 target audience. I wanted to change the
presentation of the splash as I felt the 'V-Festival' splash on the
previous draft didn’t work well with the contents pages/magazines house styles,
looked unprofessional, dull, fake and didn’t give clear information about why
the V-Festival is relevant within this music magazine. I therefore decided to change
it in a way that an audience would understand, that was clear, dominant,
attractive, aesthetically pleasing and effective. I decided to use the real
body of the 'V-Festival' logo within my splash design to represent it as
official, believable, professional and so that an audience instantly
recognise/establish what it is about. I used a faded background from red to
yellow as it fitted/complemented the house styles (unlike the background in the
other draft), connotated the happy, summer-y feel of V-Festival and the colours
of V-Festival as well as overall making it look attractive, unique, dominant,
effective and stand out from the rest of the page. I made the page number
yellow to highlight the main point of the splash and the 'Exclusives Inside'
black and in capitals so that it contrasts with its background so its bold
and clear to read, suits the house styles/genre and almost shouts to the
audience the information as a way of persuading them to want to turn to the
page to find out more. I decided to experiment with placing black dominant
lines between the articles which I felt was a successful way to define each
section of the contents page, make them clear and complemented the house
styles/blocking theme. However I wanted to make them edgy, qwerky and unique in
order to make my music magazine contents page stand out from the crowd (other
music magazines) so I used the eraser tool in Photoshop to break the lines
up which I felt was an effective and attractive way to complement the rest of
my contents page, my music magazines genre and make it unique/stand out
from other music magazine contents pages. On this draft I predominantly
tried to space out, correct and define each element as much as I could in order
to create the best final draft I possibly can. Overall I feel this Draft is the
best contents pages draft I have created so far as it appears the
most professional, dominant, conventional, attractive, full of information, relevant
to the front cover, effective, bold, unique, fitting of the genre/house styles
and stands out from the crowed. However I still feel i can perfect some small
details like the writing, accuracy of placing/layout, making the dominant black
lines the same pattern and experimenting with changing the image as the current
one isn't the best quality. On my next draft I want to use some of
these current ideas to experiment with the effect it would have if I used
more than one image for separate articles. I then want to continue to develop
and perfect my best draft in order to make the best final draft I possibly can.
^^^^Many Contents pages from professional
music magazines like Billboard, Q and NME highlight more than one article
and use more than one main image and therefore on this Draft one of the main
things I wanted to experiment with was the effect using more than one main
image and main article would have on my current effective, conventional,
attractive contents page layout and design. I chose two of my most interestingly
and effectively edited images (of different models), which have been
edited in Photoshop using various colour and perfector tools, that looked
attractive and effective when on their own. I then removed their backgrounds
using the various auto-select and eraser tools in Photoshop, and placed them
onto my contents page in a conventional staggered position, similar as
suggested in my hand-drawn drafts and contents page research. I then chose to
replace their backgrounds with conventional block colours which I felt
complemented and contrasted well with each image to make them look dominant,
attractive and stand of the page in order to grab the audience/readers
attention. I conventionally placed the page numbers onto the top corner of each
image/background in a red colour, stencil font which suited the house
style, modern/indie pop genre and was bold enough to be clearly read and noticeable (there
the point of a contents page, to find articles easily). I then placed pull
quotes in the remaining spaces next to the images in order to conventionally
give an audience an insight into what’s to come within the articles, which act
as a teaser to an audience, persuading them to want to read on to find out
more, also making the articles seem personal and exclusive to the Artist. I
chose to make them a red colour and Calibri font in order to suit and
complement the house styles, stand of the page, be easy to read, noticeable,
eye-catching and bold with red being the most noticeable and dominant colour to
the human eye. Despite this I feel that changing the central focus has not been
as effective as the central focus/article layout in the previous draft design.
This is because the images and there backgrounds go against the house styles
and don’t suit the layout, the backgrounds of the images haven’t been fully
removed, the pull quotes have been squashed and stretched into a tiny space, there’s
are no shadow effects to make the words/images stand out and overall looks
unprofessional, ineffective, disjointed, doesn’t suit/complement the design/
layout, is unattractive and dull. To make this design work I would have to use
backgrounds/ images that suited the design and complemented the layout, use
images taken horizontally not vertically so the pull quotes can be spread out
not squashed, smooth out and get rid of the white edges around the images and
use more boxing (boxes) and overlapping as its conventional, to fit with the
blocking theme, the house styles and to make the design idea feel
connected to the rest of the design/layout. Overall I feel the display of
main articles /features/ images worked better on the previous draft anyway as
they were displayed in a conventional, professional and box like way,
complemented the house styles and themes, fitting the design/ layout the best, didn’t
make the page seem as disjointed (information overload) and allowed for clear
focus points of attention that drew at audience’s attention towards the main
points. Other small details I changed and altered in order to perfect my
layout/ draft design of my contents page were using the same Zebra pattern
effect on all black defining lines for continuity, to create clear house styles
and to make the layout more attractive, unique, interesting and stand out
against other music magazines for being different (an audience are more likely
to remember the brand, increasing its popularity). I also added various shadow
and highlighting effects on many of my texts to highlight important areas, make
them look attractive, dominant, clear, bold, noticeable and stand out from
their backgrounds, complementing the house styles edgy, bold appearance and
genre. I also defined and accurately placed some of the sections in my
subscribe/contact box to make them clear and obvious to an audience as
well as putting the words 'Tweet and Like us' on a slant to suit my music
magazines edgy, contemporary style and to clearly define the subscribe and
contact sections within the box. I made the words in my subscribe box as large,
bold, bright and clear as possible in order to make them appear bold,
effective, attractive, dominant and eye catching to the audience so they are
clearly noticeable and easy to read. Some other negative points I could
improve upon on this draft are placing the word 'Inside' back inside its
splash, giving the bold black defining lines equal patterns and making
sure everything is accurately positioned and placed to make it as attractive, believably
professional and effective as possible. On my next draft I want to improve upon
the best draft I have created so far (previous one), adding the extra positive
elements I have put into this draft as well as developing and experimenting
with improving detail on it as much as possible in order to create an
effective, attractive, professional, aesthetically pleasing, eye-catching and
successful final draft of my contents page.
^^^^On this Draft I chose to take
the best existing draft I had created so far and developed
it, adding positive elements and developments from my other drafts in
order to create the best final draft possible. I also then continued to develop
my contents page draft by experimenting with different design concepts and
using my Contents Page research and conventions to continue to improve upon my
contents page draft as much as possible. Some of the new things I improved
upon, developed and changed on this draft are firstly the page number on the
main image/article which I changed from a white square to a yellow circle with
shadow effects which I felt made it look more attractive, dominant, stand
out, professional, effective, bold and complemented the house styles,
colours and themes. I placed the word 'Inside' back inside the splash so that
it wasn't random, disjointed and unprofessional but
made since and was conventional. I added more shadow effects on my
main image in order to make it look more believable and stand out
from its background in order to capture an audience’s attention when they look
at the page. I also used the perfecting, healing, spot healing,
clone and blending option tools in Photoshop to smooth out, even out and
perfect the artist in my main images Danny Manson's skin in order to make him
look more attractive and dominant as well as improving the quality of the
image, making it appear effective, professional and conventional. I
experimented with removing the background behind the words 'Mad For Manson' as
I wanted to emphasis and highlight the Artists name more as
there the point behind the article and he's the person who's going to make an
audience instantly want t read the article/interview. I also added a bright
yellow box around the article description in the centre of the page
as I felt it clearly defined the section making the information easier to
understand and take it, complemented the house styles and conventional blocking
theme, highlighted it and made it look bold, attractive,
eye-catching, noticeable and even easier to read. I added the
effective, professional and attractive improvements from my previous
draft onto this draft such as adding shadow/highlighting effects onto the most
important/dominant text, making the 'Tweet + Like Us!' session to a
slant to suit the house styles and define this section, spreading out and
making words larger on the subscribe and contact box to define each
section, make them look professional, noticeable, readable
and complementary of the bold house styles and I also made also the
bold black defining lines the same zebra pattern for continuity, so
they complemented each other and the house colours as well as to make them look
unique, bold, attractive, effective and stand out for being different. Overall
I feel this is my best design so far as it’s my most
attractive, unique bold, dominant, effective, conventional, stand
out, professional and eye-catching. However I still feel
some improvements could me made such as experimenting with changing
the image for one more eye catching, professional and better quality
one, placing the yellow box back around the 'mad for Manson' section again to
clearly define the section, highlight it, complement the layout and make it
appear dominant and also edit the arrow so the writing fits inside it and so
the whole thing feels like part of the design rather the disjointed. On my next
draft I want to continue to develop and improve the minor negative points about
my current draft and mainly focus on experimenting with the effect it
would have on my draft if I changed the main image.
^^^^My main focus on this draft was to
experiment on the effect it would have on my current design if I changed my
image completely I therefore chose an image that was of good quality
and on its own looked attractive, dominant, eye-catching, effective and
attention grabbing. I then edited the image in Photoshop to
make the skin look more perfected so that the image looked as
attractive, effective and professional as possible and also so that
the colours of the image were bolder so that they complemented the bold house
styles, colours and themes of my contents page and music magazine I then
deleted the dull, unnecessary background using the auto-select and
eraser tools in Photoshop and placed the image as accurately as I
could into the space where the previous image sat effectively and
conventionally. I feel the quality of the image and bold colours instantly made
the draft design look more believably professional, effective,
attractive and complementary of the house styles. However some of the
negative points about using this image are that it doesn't fit as neatly inside
the box, looks lost and dull on its background not in proportion,
makes the artist look like a thug and not as lovely and attractive and
feels disjointed from the design. I overall feel the image on my previous
drafts looks more attractive, effective,
bold, complementary and connected However I feel my
previous image can be improved my using the bold, dominant colours of this
current image to make my previous image stand out from its background,
complement the house styles, look bolder and more professional. On
this current draft I also placed the yellow box back behind the 'Mad For
Manson' so the design felt connected, bolder, more dominant and easier for an
audience to clearly define, read and understand. I also made
the article description a thinner font as its conventional, looks
more professional and clearly define the title and the description. I
also moved around some of the central writing elements until they
were as neat, professional, accurate looking and attractive as
possible in order to create the best final contents draft I can. However some
improvements I could make to this draft are changing the image to a more
attractive and effective one, spreading out the list of articles evenly, making
the writing on the large arrow fit the shape of the arrow and experimenting
with altering smaller details to make them look as good, attractive, professional and
effective as possible. On my next draft I want to experiment with replacing the
current image with the more effective previous image and improve upon it as
well as perfecting some of the smaller details in order to make the best final
draft possible.
^^^^The main thing I did on this draft was
replace the image on my last draft with the most effective previous image. I then
attempted to make some improvements on it in Photoshop using
tools such as liquidify, clone, healing, blending options and spot healing
to perfect, brighten and highlight the image as much as possible
in order for it to look as attractive, effective, good
quality, professional stand out and dominant as possible as
well as to complement the bold house styles. I feel this makes the draft look
more effective,
attractive, complementary and professional therefore making
it more dominantly eye-catching to an audience. I added all the
positive improvements made to my last draft in order to progress and make
this draft as believably professional, effective and attractive as
possible. I then made improvements from my last draft such as evening
out the features and subscribe box which I felt gave my contents page draft a
more professional, perfected, eye-catching, understandable feel, progressing
from my last draft. Despite this I still feel that small improvements
could be made to this draft such as spacing out the features, placing the sell
line into the large arrow shape properly, using contrasting and dominant
colours in all areas, making all writing bold and noticeable, highlighting
areas of importance, replacing the number '9' and making my pull
quote relevant to my double page spread article for continuity.
Therefore on my next draft I want to improve on all these points and
experiment with improving all the elements of my contents page in order to
create the best draft possible. I feel that by doing this my next draft will be
my last draft and will be my most attractive, dominant, eye-catching,
effective, attention grabbing, stand out, effective, bold
and professional draft I have created.
^^^^This is my final Contents Page Draft.
On this draft I basically wanted to improve each element of it as much as possible, using the positive elements from my other drafts to improve it as much as possible and getting rid of any negative points I found from my other drafts. On this Final Draft I experimented and perfected each element of the design I felt could be improved upon in order to create the most attractive, effective, eye-catching, professional, bold, dominant and attention grabbing design I could. One of the main things I completely changed on this draft was the actual image. This image is of very similar style to my previous one however it is of much better quality making the page look much more professional and more edgy which suits the artists indie-pop style and is more intimidating looking which is conventional of music magazines of my genre making the page appear more noticeable, mainstream, attention grabbing, attractive, effective and eye-catching as well as connoting the artist positively as bold, dominant, stylish and strong willed. I also made the image appear brighter and bolder by making the shirt a darker blue colour using the auto-select, colour and opacity tools in Photoshop which I felt complemented the house styles bold and dominant colours as well as contrasting well with the red and yellow colours making the image stand out dominantly making the page look attractive, eye-catching, effective and bold. I added a bow tie onto the Artist image as well which I felt gave the artist a unique, qwerky and edgy feel, making him rememberable and stand out from other similar Artists for being different, making him/my model seem like a real and believable artist. In addition to this I experimented more with shadow and highlighting effects on the image and its background as much as I could in order to make the image and its background look joined together realistically to give it a sense of realism, believability and professionalism as well as to make the photo look attractive and stand of the page as much as I could in order to capture the audiences eyes and attention in order to make them feel the need to want to read the exclusive 'Danny Manson' article. I also edited the writing in the large arrow (a negative point from my previous drafts) so that they fitted into the arrow neatly in a curve to link them together and make this design element make sense which I felt made it look more attractive, understandable, eye catching and effective. I then placed a coloured background around the edge of each word, a white colour but yellow around 'Revolution' as its the key term in the phrase, in order to make the writing readable, noticeable and attractive as on previous drafts they were hard to read, dull, unattractive and blended into the background. I feel this suits the house styles and bold, dominant layout/theme of my contents page/music magazine. I made the 'Tweet and Like Us' phrase larger and more noticeable by adding white highlighting effects around it, as on my last few drafts in blended into the background and was unclear. I feel that by doing it its more noticeable, eye-catching, readable, effective and clearly divides the sections of the box more predominantly and effectively. I made the 'Manson Mania' at the beginning of the main article description in capitals and bold as I felt this was a key term in the phrase that sums it all up and is catchy and memorable by being a form of alliteration that makes a pun out of the artists name (conventional) and I therefore felt it was most affective to highlight its importance. I then chose to make the bold zebra-like patterned dividing lines bolder to emphasis there uniqueness and make them more attractive as there was make my contents pages stand out from those of a similar genre (like Q, NME, Billboard) for being different. I also felt by making the lines even bolder it complemented my house styles and bold, dominant blocking theme. I changed the pull quote to "Sometimes I feel like I've lost my soul.." in order to link the contents page to the double page spread article/interview for continuity, believability reliability and professionalism I also feel this quote is more of an interesting and conventional Kicker, that leaves the audience with a shocking fact that withholds information and therefore makes them feel the need to read on to find out more, it teases them. I placed this pull quote on a slant to make in look more interesting stand out, noticeable and attractive and also thought this complemented the edginess and dominant of the magazine, artists and brand style and mainstream indie/modern mainstream pop genre. I also made some small finishing touches to this contents page such as spreading out the list of features and subscribe box neatly and evenly to make my contents page believably look like its from a real music magazine as well as for it to look as perfected, attractive, understandable and effective as possible and I also added various highlighting and shadow effects around the edges of lots of writing to make them look as clear, attractive, dominant, noticeable and stand out as much as possible to create an effective contents page the grabs an audiences attention in wanting to read the rest of my music magazine. I overall tried to perfect this design as much as possible in order to make the most effective and professional contents page I could. I overall feel this is the best contents page draft I have created by far and that it does appear attractive, dominant, bold, stand out, effective, believable professional, links to house styles/other pages, adds to continuity, attention grabbing, eye-catching and is an all round good contents page Final Draft design.
