Front Cover Flat-plansPlaylist Magazine - Planning

Mock-ups created using found images and placeholder text.

Design 1

This flat-plan is definitely my weakest design. The black and white colour scheme does not link well to the positive identity of my magazine and has connotations of different genres such as metal and grime, rather than indie, rock, and alternative music.Another issue with this design is the lack of information conveyed about the contents of the magazine; there is only one cover-line and two puffs. There is no strapline to introduce the topic of the magazine, and the main cover-line is smaller than the circular puff, making it appear to be less significant than the puff. This could cause confusion for readers.

Design 2

This design is a vast improvement on design 1 in terms of how it represents the magazine; a strapline has been added to the top of the page to quickly introduce the topic of the magazine to readers. In addition to this, the background image is now much more attractive and links with the magazines positive identity. However, the

Design 1 – Version 2After my initial flat-plan for this design, I asked my peers for some casual feedback. From this, I found that the central placement of the speech marks was causing confusion, so I moved them to the start & finish of the quote. Another criticism was that the use of serif fonts looked too old-fashioned, so I added a byline, page numbers, and a smaller title at the top of the page, all in sans-serif fonts, creating a timeless effect and making the design look more interesting overall.The final criticism I received was that, whilst the white space design looked good, the page looked too empty. To resolve this, I added multiple thin black lines to separate the various sections of the page, creating a more interesting design.

Design 1 – Version 3After version 2, I asked for further feedback from my peers. Their only criticism at this point was that the main body text of the article looked dull, so I added a drop-cap to make the article look more interesting to the reader.

Design 2 – Version 1For my second design, I went for a more modern approach by using sans-serif fonts for the entirety of the article, creating a very modern design. As with design 1, I used white space to create a very fresh image. For design 1, I split the DPS vertically with the article on one page and the photo on the other, however, for this design I split the DPS horizontally, allowing for more body-text and more images.I personally don’t think this design would work particularly well with my magazine’s style as it doesn’t feel personal to the artist and feels like it could work in any type of music magazine, rather than just Playlist.