Double page spread

 

For the first step of my double page I decided to have the background grey to co-ordinate with the magazine's theme, then added a photo of my artist in the middle, I realised after I placed this photo that when the page would fold my artist would be cut in half, but due to my design I decided to keep it like that. After the first stage was completed I decided to add my Polaroids, I used the ruler tool on photo shop to limit the area I could put my Polaroids in, so I would still have enough space to put in my interview. Due to the space I gave I was able to rotate some slightly for a less edgy effect, I believe that the spacing an angles of the Polaroids were good as they were to plan and looked professional, the colours were varied which made them stand out on the grey background and obviously the white Polaroid frame went in line with the theme colours of my magazine. I left more of a gap on the right hand side of the Polaroids for I had made an album cover which the interview is promoting as well as finding out more about my artist.

The third step was to add the album cover and a small message stating when the album was available to buy and download, I decided to add the download option as with current times more albums are being downloaded from the Internet rather than being brought. I used a red rectangular shape and then white text for contrast and to keep up the theme. The album cover I believe is very indie fitting, the colours of sepia I used and the font are very rough and rugged along with the nature of what the artist is doing (holding a guitar walking away from a train station, which in the interview you'll see that's how the artist started out). I aligned this well and left me with enough space for my interview.

For the interview I decided to split it into three columns, for the opening column I used black to highlight the fact its the start of the article, I made the first letter of the article a lot bigger than the rest as this a common trait used in magazine articles/interviews. For the questions I used red for the question being asked and white for the answer. I believe that this was a good choice for it contrasted on the background and again kept up with the theme. It wasn't until I got to the last column I realised I was running out of space, so I made the font smaller by 2pt and worked, it was still readable and in proportion with the page, I used the same font than the front cover and contents again for the theme, after this I double checked the columns were aligned perfectly and there you have the final product.

Contents Page

From looking at other indie/rock magazines their contents pages seems quite plain but very crowded so I decided keep my background white and have my theme colours, my first step was to create headers for my different factors so using photo shops shape tool I created to along the top of the page where the word 'contents' was to go, 3 slightly smaller rectangles which was to have 'Regulars', 'specials', and 'exclusives' as three main parts, a minor mistake I have made personally is that I haven't included every page that would be in your average magazine but looking through NME I notice they do this too so hopefully this won't be a down point. Finally I added another page long to signal the end of the page and for design purposes.

For my second step I added the word 'Contents' in between the two black lines I had created, along with the issue number, a common trait I had seen in other magazines. I used the same font, Rockwell to continue my theme and again used red as the colour, on the right hand side of that I added the issue number, I made it smaller font-wise to emphasise the word 'contents' after this I added three photos that interlink with what I was writing in for my contents, by using a separate photo editor I edited one of the photos to have rounded edges so that the page wasn't too basic, I placed the pictures evenly around the page so I avoided any clogging up. After this I was ready to add the main body text.

When adding the text and page numbers I decided to again use the theme colours black and red, which I think was a good choice for they contrast together and on top of the white background, a few times I had to alter the sizes for they won't fitting in the space I had given for each part, yet with the way I have alligned them I think they look very professional, I especially like the way I have the 'Exclusives' inbetween the photos without it looking cramped. I thought I was fnished at this point but I felt like there was too much blank space, so wasn't entirely sure what to put, so I looked back at Q magazine and saw they had a letter from the magazines editor, so decided to feature one in my own, I used a small black font and made it very informal so it would interact with readers, I used a blue italic font for the name to make it as if it was a signature, and in red gave the job title of who was writing the letter. After complettint this I still felt it was too plain, so using the shape tool I placed a rectangle, using the fill tool I made it red for contrast, then again using white font featuring my competition again.

Front cover

My front cover was the most challenging for me. Firstly I decided to use the whole image I had taken of my artist and to fit the text I needed around it and by using colours I had decided to use throughout, red, black white and grey. The photo itself I had edited, originally it was colour, but edited it so that the picture was black and white, and my artist being in colour so that it stands out, espectially since it was my main image, and the only image I planned to have. I also used a focal zoom for the same effect. After creating this I used my plan to see if my text and such would work. Due to the Harlow Town side above my artist I decided beforehand anyway to have the main headline below but did have second thoughts to have it above, but kept to my plan to keep it at the bottom. Due to the bollard on the left hand side I decided not to have any left thrid, although this could be a bad move in sence of advertising if it was on a rack stand it could intrege the buyer to what is on the page, and keeps more focus on my main image.


After this was done I decided to put in my title, I decided it to be red as it will be a very strong contrast on the background, obviously the title needs to be big, so set the size to be 320 pt, I used Rockwell as the font for in my opinion seemed fitting for this genre type. After creating the title I felt that it wasn't enough, it seemed to plain, so went into the effects I could have and chose a drop shadow, inner shaddow and glow, and a bevel and emboss, these gave me a very different looking title and seemed more 'indie' so kept it like that.

The next step was to add my main headline, barcode and date/selling price. This for me was easier for most parts, I decided for my main headline to first have a quote from the interview for the double page spread, starting with this would bring readers in to wonder what this quote 'no one knows the real me', I used a different font too for the same effect. The underneath and using a slightly larger font size and red to go with the theme I put the artist's name, 'Greg' so if 'Greg' wasa  real artist people would be able to recognise and interact with the idea that this is the main feature of the magazine. Then using white and slightly smaller having the cover line 'reveals all' would attract anyone into what 'Greg' has to reveal, if someone has a particular musical interest they would be interest to know more about him. Underneathe and as said without clashing with the coverline/headline I put the barcode in the right hand corner, and with the selling price/date of sale framed around it, I have set the price as £3.50, this is quite reasonable price for a monthly magazine as after some research I found that some can be up to £5.

The final step was to add cover lines to the bottom of the page, selling line underneathe the title and a competition I decided to feature. I used white for my cover lines to contrast with its background, and using a star as a separtor you could presume gives a 'rock' feel, I added the names of people I will mention in my contents page so it interlinks and not there just to feel space, I made the writing at 70pt with the same font as the title to continue the theme. The text at this size fitted well as I didn't think I would have enough room for the names I wanted to feature. For my selling line to put underneath my magazine title I decided to use an italic, more rural font so contrast and give a more sophisticated feel, my selling line was what my title 'M.I.E' means, 'music is everything', I made the font alot smaller than the title to emphasise the title. For my compettion I decided to put it in the top right hand corner, I used the shape tool on photoshop and chose a triangler shape, I used red again for theme and contrast, and used white font for the same effect. My competition was to win tickets to V! festival, which features alot of rock and indie bands so would be of interest to my target audience.

Magazine ideas.

For my magazine I have decided to have mine as an indie/rock genre of music. There are many magazines that follow the same route such as Kerrang! NME and Q as the main ones. Compared to pop magazines they are more 'mature' due to the fact their target audiences are different. The typical target audience for these types of magazines are late teenagers and young adults. I am particularly interested in NME and Q, for their magazines are more indie compared to Kerrang! But as you can see from their main images of Eminem (NME) and Q (Paul McCartney from The Beatles) they focus on other genres also. Looking through these magazines have given me many ideas when it comes to colour, images and style of writing I need for my own magazine, and what type of things I could have as advertisers, and the descison whether to have my magazine as a monthly or weekly editions. Also by looking at these magazines their positioning of headlines and whats on the left third and even their bar code vary.
On my magazine I plan to have the bar code away from clashing with anything and to have it on the right hand side instead of left third as the left third is used for when magazines are stacked on each other for example when they are in supermarkets/newsagents.

Magazine plans