Final Drafts - The Finished Product

These are the finished pages for my magazine. The planning and production has taken months, and there has been a lot of changes, especially from the initial flat-plans, and the feed-back I've received helped me to make changes immensely.

Time Management - 16.02.16

I managed to finish my second front cover this week, and have received feedback on it and my contents page, so I can begin working on the final drafts of both of them as I am happy to continue. Next week, I'd like to create the final drafts of everything so that I can finish my evaluation questions as soon as possible.

Front Cover - Progression of second draft

After making the decision to re-design my front cover, I chose an entirely different style altogether and decided to go for a red and black house style throughout. I chose a mid-shot of my model, which had her holding up a flag and a guitar, with a chocolate box pose. I chose this image as I thought it looked incredibly powerful and gave a lasting effect that would entice my audience. Once I had selected my image, I placed it on a gradient background, and then used the polygonal lasso tool and magic wand tool to cut out my model. I duplicated this layer, and filled it entirely with black before using the Gaussian blur effect and turning down the opacity to create a shadow outline.

To create my heading, I decided on something more simple than last time, with plain red, fixed width text with a single divide. I placed this all the way along the top of my magazine by adjusting the tracking, size and height of the letters. Under this, and under the layer of my model, I placed my slogan/tag-line, allowing the tiniest bit of the 'T' to go behind my model's flag and create a layered effect.

I experimented with other titles, particularly the one shown below, using different fonts but a similar theme. I found the black one did not work as well as the red one, and the drop shadow behind it looked unusual, so I decided not to use it for my final design.

For my banner, I decided to create something diagonal and striped, with an image and a few lines of text. I used an image of a concert I attended, as it bore reference to the story of the Brit Awards, which I focused on here. I used the rectangle tool to create black and white boxes, on which I put contrasting colours of text, in fixed width fonts. I made these, along with the image, diagonal. With the "exclusive" text, I added a line under the E which came down and acted as a base for the rectangles, helping make sure it looked as tidy as possible. My banner also had a drop shadow on it, so it stood out from the model.

Next, I created the main sell-line. I wanted to go with something similar to last time, however keep with the theme of rectangles I had used in the banner, so I used a white rectangle with a solid drop shadow, to hold the first three words of the article title, and had the name of the artist and the most eye-catching part in a different, more exciting font and in red. I used two different shades of red by using the gradient tool and had the text on a slight diagonal, adding a drop shadow.

The last thing I had to do was add sell-lines and cover-lines. I decided to position these to the right of my article, and placed them stylistically around my model. I again, stuck with red and black rectangles and text, creating an easy to follow effect. I made sure the text fit perfectly inside the rectangles, so it looked as neat as possible. I also added a bar-code, but decided to use a QR code instead of a traditional bar-code, as the younger generation and my target audience are more accustomed to seeing this. It gives a suggestion of a new generation of magazine, one that is more modern and somewhat digital, so would attract my target audience.

I like this design more than the first, however there are still things I might change so I am planning on receiving feedback from my target audience before I continue.

Time Management - 07.02.15

This week, I created my first draft of my contents page, and re-drafted my double-page spread so I have my second draft. I received further feedback, and my next draft will be my final. I will draft my contents page once more, and next week I plan to re-design my front cover. I would still like to finish my production before the end of February so I can start work on my evaluation questions, however I am beginning to struggle to cope with the work-load at this point as the deadline draws closer.

Contents Page - Progression of first draft

I decided to keep the house-style of my magazine as red and black, so I used this color scheme for my contents page. I created a white background, and used lighting effects to create a gradient. I added colour curves and a gradient map to alter the colours until I had something subtle enough.

Next, I created a guide out of the line tool, and split the page using it. I created three rectangles, using the pattern overlay tool, the colour fill tool, stroke tool, inner shadow tool and drop shadow tool to add the effects seen below.

I copied my mast-head from the front-cover and placed it at the top of the page, then added a photograph of a microphone that I took and used the magic wand tool to mask it, placing it at the right of the page under the bottom banner. I used the rectangle tool and the font Dream Orphans to create a features heading, and then used Dream Orphans Italic to create the "episode 17" text.

Next, I used two lines as guides and created six white rectangles. On these, I added the page numbers of major articles using the font Dream Orphans, and kept this consistent with the article titles. Under this, I used the font Eras Light to create short  descriptions of the articles to give my readers an insight into what they could expect without giving anything away.

I then created polaroid-type vectors using shape tools, as I thought it was a nice effect and polaroid cameras are becoming increasingly popular within my target audience, as I found while I was doing a reader profile and audience research. I chose three photos to put in the boxes that I'd taken during the photography session or previously, and initially decided to put a "?" and a "!" on the images, putting the text layers on overlay, however I decided after this that I didn't like how it looked so I eventually took them off.

I used a different, more decorative font to add captions to the polaroids and added page numbers using the Dream Orphans font. I kept this font consistent when I added a pull-quote to the bottom right, using a range of different colours - shades of red and white. Finally, I added a black rectangle with text on, with the page number, name of magazine and name of the page.

For feedback, I was told that it would be good to replace the pull quote at the bottom left with a subscription offer or editors note. I also realised I should add a website, and links to social media, so I will fix this in my final draft.