Front Cover Alterations

I decided that after altering my contents page and double page spread that although individually all of the pieces looked good, the front cover didn't match the double page spread and contents page as well. The main issue was the colours used. I tried to use orange because at the start I felt that it is quite a versatile colour that I could use almost anywhere in the magazine, but as constructing both the contents page and double page spread went on I felt that instead of orange, I felt that a maroon/red colour would suit the magazine better.

This meant that the front cover didn't match the rest of the magazine, a simple colour alteration meant that the whole magazine matched each other with the colours, fonts and the way each page was set out and presented. The one thing that I didn't change was the small 'PLUS' section beneath the masthead on the left hand side, this is because I felt changing everything to one colour would make the front cover boring, it also meant that the particular coverline stood out over other things on the page that were less important

This slight adjustment meant that my magazine was now complete and ready for evaluation, the following posts will be the evaluation posts question by question.

Contents Page: The Complete Redesign

As well as the Double Page Spread I also thought that the contents page wasn't up to scratch, so I decided to redesign that as well, below are the old and new versions (old=left, new=right).


















I decided I didn't like the contents page of my magazine, it was too dark, and as I thought about it, how many magazines have a black interior and exterior background colour? none that are successful, I thought it was too dark and needed a bit of light. I felt that some of the tacky things needed to go, like the subscribe widget/section, and treat it more like a contents page, with everything that is of interest to the reader on the right hand side, not splitting apart the regulars and features, because it could give off the feeling that in my old design - the top half of the contents of my magazine is what you came here to read, the bottom half of the contents is all the rubbish that comes with it as a filler, which isn't true, so I decieded to keep them all together instead of splitting them apart, which may be seen as a problem as far as showing what I know about magazine design, but I also know what looks better, and in this case I went with what looks better and more presentable.

I got my inspiration for my contents page from an older edition of FHM magazine, I felt that the coloured box with the front cover and the feature artist was a main feature I wanted to include in my magazine, and the coloured accent of the page number I wanted to be a coloured page number and page description title, with the actual description of the page in black. In my magazine I decieded to make a background by getting a standard image of crumpled, brown stained - white paper and making very opaque over a layer of white that would fit the page, that way it isn't just white and black but a bit of a variation - something different. I decided to go for the headline I did by taking an example from the FHM header lines, which are in groups of 4 or 5. There were a few things I thought suited the FHM contents, but on experimenting with my magazine I felt they didn't work, for example the row of images in the middle of the page, I felt I didn't have space for them, and the dotted lines that the individual pieces of writing on the contents page just didn't work with the font and the way I lay my magazine.

I'm now happy with my contents page after completely re-designing it, I'm happy with my front cover the way it first came out, with just a few things altered to make it perfect in my mind, and happy with my double page spread after completely redesigning it as well, overall I think they all fit together quite well, the fonts and the colours making them the linking factor, I feel after changing my contents page, and changing the background colour especially I have made it a lot better, the layout is a lot more clear, and easy to pick information from, it's a vast improvement from the old contents page, it just took time to get there.

Magazine Draft Pieces

Below are the different parts of my music magazine project, at the moment they're in their draft stage and will be developed as I change things and cut things out of it, but these are the basic layouts for the magazine, because I'm only planning on changing a few minor details.

 I am quite pleased with how my front cover of my magazine has turned out. This is the final version as the tweaks to the magazine front cover were made as I went along, I am happy with this completely, and I don't feel anything needs changing. I am very pleased on finding the Masthead font - 'Theano Didot' which is very similar to the font I wanted - 'Albion Didot' which the BMX magazine Albion BMX uses. Another thing I am quite pleased with is the footer at the bottom, I had that space free towards the end of creating it and I looked at other magazines to see what completes them, so I felt this was the thing that was missing, the orange vertical highlights fit in well with the rest of the magazine and also gives it a more professional look.

Overall I am very pleased with how the Front Cover turned out and is something I will be using as my final piece.

The contents page is something I feel where bits need changing, for example there is a huge space in the bottom left of the page which I think the social networks doesn't really fit, so I think I might need to extend the Tom Kane Feature paragraph or put another feature article in there to make sure the space is effectively filled, maybe even taking the Little Comets interview, which is the one of the main coverlines on the front cover and put it into the gap. Another thing I think I could change is the date, and the gap between the Contents Heading and the rest of the text, maybe add a volume number and other things. Overall it's a good start but could do with some more things.

My double page spread, which I feel is nearly complete is something I am fairly pleased with, more so than the contents page, but a lot less so than the front cover. I think the title for the page is set out well along with the text and the 'TOM KANE' in the top left hand corner of the page, I think I need to put another page footer on the bottom right page, because after all it is a DOUBLE page spread, and not just on one single page. I think after some fiddling around with the double page spread it will work out and match the standard of the front cover.If I did the double page spread again I think I would change the colour of the background, and make it lighter, because the grey isn't really a nice colour and doesn't really compliment anything else like the text of the subject of the image, I mentioned this in the analysis of the photography I took for this project.

IPC Media

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