Contents Page - Planning

As part of making a music magazine i need to make a contents page. After looking at several different magazine contents page and images of contents page if have come to a conclusion that i would like my contents page to be set out similarly to this 'Q Magazine' contents page. As i feel this contents page looks very interesting and the layout out is simple to read and understand. I also like the use of the review section at the bottom. I also feel that this layout will be appropriate for my RnB magazine and its target audience.



Here are my plannings and designs for my potential contents page:

PLAN 1:

PLAN 2:

I want my contents page to not only look good but to look informtative. So i have come up with possible subheadings that can healp me do so. For example:

• FEATURES
• BAND INDEX
• EXCLUSIVE
• REVIEW
• NEW ARTISTS
• TOP INFO

Contents Page - Peer Assessment

I though it would be a good idea to get some constructive criticism from a few friends so i asked them to give me two things that were good and two things that could be improved on my contents page.

Arnold:

• Good use of colour
• Layout is well thought of with interesting headings
• First image is too big
• Should cut the bottom image better

Eugene

• Loads of text, looks very informative
• Good use of colour, not too many colours used. Helps reduce clash between colours
• Should centralise the headings as too much and colour of box is being showed
• Add some more effect to the bottom image to make it look a bit more interesting

Anita

• Layout is good and interesting
• Images are quite interesting
• Too much text should add some shapes or something to grab readers attention even more
• Too much space in heading boxes

Research Into Magazine Double page Spreads

This is a double page spread for vibe magazine. This spread is on Solagne Knowles who is Beyonce's Sister who is said to have made one of the best R'n'B albums of the year. From the page we can see that there are several pictures. There is a main image in which she is enlarged and placed near the centre of the page but more towards the right. She is in a dressed which has been brought out in full colour. This makes her stand out. From her pose we can say that she has attitude and is fashionable. On the top of the magazine we can see that there are several other poses. These poses are much smaller than the main image and are also in gray scale not full colour. Personally i think this is very creative as these pictures do not fight to stand out with the main image but are in the background. In the images she is doing model like poses which reinforces that she is a fashionable person. The text is set out in away that it does not crash with the main image. There is a whole load of text on the right page and less text on the left side. As we can see from this magazine there is not much use of colour, the main colours seen are blue and red.


This is another example of a double page spread. Here there subject is The Black Eye Peas. We can see from the page that much of the room is taken up by the image which has left very little space for the writing. The use of the large image grabs the readers attention as it is so big it cannot be missed, It is also an interesting image as we can see that two of the band members are faded and the other two are not. In this spread there is a lot of use of colour as the images are in colour and so are the background and some text.... 

This double page spread is different from most of the ones i have seen. I think this as most music magazine double page spreads normally have about one or two images of the main musician and a load of writing. But in this one as we can see, there is different images. There are images of the main band and towards the left there is three or four more images of other bands and musicians. So this double page spread is not focused only on one one band but it has little information on other bands. From the spread we can see that the main image stands out bold and we can clearly see the band members faces. The picture of the band also links to the title of the double page spread and which is also there name as they look like typical teenagers both look wise and dress wise. In terms of text there is not a lot of text. There is also a good use of the pull quote which stands out in blue. 

Personally i like this double page spread as the picture is clear and the background looks very good. You can tell this is  form a music magazine by two things, the picture of the musician (Dizzy Rascal) and the picture of the stereo. The picture and the background relates to the type of music this artist makes. For example his spray painting the wall and there is graffiti in the background, this represents his music. We can see that there is not too much text but there is a reasonable amount. The heading/title of the double page spread is very clear and bold. There is a good use of colour and objects in this spread.

Research Into Magazine Contents Pages

Here is a contents page from a music magazine called NMN. We can tell already from the set out and format that this magazine is mostly likely going to be rock. This may be because of the uase of the font and colours. For example the fonts here used for the sub titles do not look like the font that would be used in a RnB contents page. In this magazine there is not much use of colour. As we can see there is only about 4 colours used and the contents opage still looks a but dull and boring. This contents page only uses one image and most other contents pages use about two images. There are also a lot of subheadings which makes the contents page and the magazine look very informative and interesting. The name of the magazine is also in bold big writing which catches the readers attention.

 

This is a contents page from Q magazine. This contents page looks very clear and interesting. The first thing that catches our attention is the image. The image is had been enlarge to not only catch our attention but to also clearly show the faces and the poses for the band. The colours used here a simple and kept to a minimum. Unlike the NMN contents page there is not as much sub headings, but i think this is okay as the format is neat and very clear. Personally i like this magazine contents page a it looks like something that can be used in an RNB contents page.

Front Page - Planning

Here i have examples of music magazines in which i  would like my magazine to look like. To make my magazine look somethiung like these two magazines i would have to maje sure that my magazines image is very strong and clear which is obvious from these two frontpages. I also have to make sure that my colours are not too much and i keep them to a minimum. THis is because if there is too much colour it would make my magazine look akward and unprofessional. I also have to make sure the my writing is neat and there is not too much space on my page. From observing these two magazine i have found out that i can use up to 3 different fonts on my page and also that the size of the font is down to the importance of the word.

Here are some plans for my front page:

Plan 1:

Front Page - Final Product

This is the final result for the front cover of my magazine page. Here i have tried to include what i have found and researched from existing magazine front covers to help construct and make mine. On my front cover i have made sure that  the colour of my writing and shapes flowed and went well with the image it self. I made sure this happened because from my research i found that the most effective front cover have not only good images but very good colour organization, and that everything flows. Here i have tried to do this, by using the colour of his clothing and one or two more colours that went well with his clothing to make sure that the writing and the image flowed. As for my image i made sure that the image stood out. I did this by not only increases the size image but by also....

Front Page - Construction

This is how i made up the front page of my magazine:

This is the image i first started with. I needed to get rid of the background and take only the main image in which i needed, so i used the "Magnetic Cropping Tool" in photoshop to cut him out.

When i put my image into my magazine page i found that it was a bit crooked on some of the edges. So i went onto youtube and found a tutorial on how to smoothen out the edges. It then came up with me using the tool "Refine Edges" which helped me make the edges smoother.

This is my image on my background after smoothening it. I then felt that my image was not strong and bright enough, so i decided to increase the brightness and contrast.

So i went to "Brightness and Contrast" to increase the brightness and contrast.

Here is my image after...I  then decided to add a drop shadow to my image for more effect

Here is how i added the drop shadow.

To add text i use the text box tool.

Here i added text in my text box, highlighted all the text and used the paint box tool to change the colour.

For some of my text i wanted to add an outer glow to them, so i clicked on the text  box and went to outer glow.

Here is my text with outer glow added to it.

To create my cirle i had to use the elipsises tool and then filled it with colour using the paintbox tool.

Whilst making my front page i found that i needed a font which photoshop could not provide. So i hade to search different websites to find the font. I finally ofund the font i wanted on "dafont.com" and i downloaded it and used it

Here is the new font i found and used.

Some of my text i thought needed to be stronger and clearer. And to do this i thoguht i would be a good idea to add drop shadow to the text. So i used the "Drop Shadow Tool" to do this.

Front Page - (Peer Assessment)

This was my magazine whilst it was still under construction.
As we were still making our magazine's our teacher stopped us and asked us to peer assess 3 different peoples magazines. This was a way of helping us to find out where we were at that moment and also to give us ideas and guidance into making our magazines better. As we did this we gave both good and bad criticism. I found this very helpful as i was able to see what i was doing wrong and whether there was anything i could change to make it look better.

"The colour match with the cap is good"

"No barcode and large space in top right hand corner"

"Top 20 RNB - is unclear as to what it is (chart, videos, songs)

"The circle with poster may look better in blue or green"

"Picture is not cut out well"

"Green and blue text goes well with the colour gradient"

"Too much space to the top right"

"Font is repetitive, add in different ones"

"Need to look at how the picture is  cut out"

"take the "-" out of the title"

"Work on alignment of text"

"Colour scheme works but the top cover lines do not match the others  in colour"

"I like the little fonts it works well for the magazine"