Contents page feedback

After asking people in my target audience what they thought of my magazine this is what they replied:

Standfirst

Here are a collection of standfirsts that I put together to inspire my own text.

After looking at these existing pieces I have drawn the conclusion that my own standfirst should mention the artists name and lightly touch on the main subject of the article.

My standfirst:

Ahead of her first ever tour Enimsay gets personal on her past and where the main theme of darkness in her songs rose from...

Contents page features

Contents page colour choices

Double page spread research

Paper interviews:

Here are two examples of double page spreads available in the media today. Both of these articles are taken from Kerrang! magazine. I have taken both from this magazine as the majority of my magazine so far has been inspired by this magazine.

After reading both of these interviews I have noticed that they have a similar structure. They both begin with an introduction to the artist giving the consumer a bit of background information on the artist. They then go on to ask questions. The questions do have some relation to the artist for example in the second interview they ask Taylor about her parents and where the darkness in her songs springs from. For my own interview this is most likely the structure I will follow as it is used in real media texts and works successfully.

Contents page image choices

Here is the main image on my contents page. I chose it because the model looks slightly moody and rebellious just as many other alternative rock artist do. As this was an 'attack of the girls' edition it was only right to have a female model. I chose to do this to subvert the norm of alternative rock magazines which are usually male dominated. Along with this the image is clear and the model has a good angle of gaze as she is staring directly into the camera.


Here is the second image present on my contents page. It goes with the editors note. The model is casual as the editors note in kerrang! magazine (which is my main contents page inspiration), the editors note image is also casual. The model in the image also has a good and clear angle of gaze improving the image and attracting the consumers attention. The image clarity is also good and contributed to why I chose this photo.

Contents page layout

This is a slide share that I created to show the process of creation for my contents page.

 

Contents page research

To the right I have tried to show how my contents page links to some of the existing alternative rock contents pages existing in real press today. Each different colour bubble shows a convention of the magazine that I had decided to pull across into my own work to make it fit the genre better. Below I have deconstructed a magazine contents page and analyzed the main features of it.
  

To follow conventions and make my work look more like an alternative rock magazine I chose to include all of the main features from the deconstruction above. In doing this and keeping a similar layout it keeps my magazine style close to that of a real life text. I have done this as I wish to make my magazine look as real as possible.

Editors note

On many alternative rock magazine contents pages there is a small section on the page where the editor has a small piece of fun and informal written text introducing the issue. To follow conventions I am going to add one of these onto my magazine. Below are two existing editors notes that I used to help inspire my own by writing a piece of text similar to theirs.

My editors note

Audience feedback

 

Front cover linked to research

Model with consent form

Front cover features

Font decisions

Main body

 

 

Masthead

 

Options:

 

Above are the three options that I chose to be my magazine masthead. Eventually I came to the decision that font number 2 would work best on my magazine and even looks a little like the masthead on Kerrang! magazine.

 

Pull quote fonts

 

To get an idea of what font would best suit the genre of my magazine I did some research. I conducted this research by googling alternative rock magazines and then taking screenshots of the pull quotes then creating a mood board. From here I then went onto dafont.com and found some options which I thought might work.

 

Options:

 

 

From comparing the font options to those really available in the market, I came to the decision that I would use option 1.

 

 

Photograph manipulation

I manipulated the lighting on the photo to make the background seem lighter and cleaner. Alternative rock magazines tend to have white backgrounds, not grey so this also helps me to fit conventions of the genre.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

I also manipulated the models hair making it more red. I did this because many of the women in the alternative rock genre tend to have bright and vibrant hair colours.

 

Before:

 

After:

Cover layout decisions

Model with consent form

Final shots

This is the final shot that will be featured on my magazine cover. I have chosen it because it fits the theme of my magazine well and also matches the artist profile which I created.

 

 

Below is the image of my flat plan which matches the final shot above almost identically. This shows me sticking to the plan that I created because it works well.