TEMPLATE OF FRONT COVER, CONTENTS AND DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

RUQAYYAH OPEOLU

I started my magazine by creating a template in order to figure out the positioning of the features of my magazine and also included the masthead with the name I had chosen.

To further enhance my magazine, I began to add some features, for example, changing the background to forest green, the masthead to white and filled in the skyline and also one coverline.

Here I have altered the positioning of the magazine features, for example the coverline saying the name of the artist from the bottom to the top to make it seem like a conventional feature of a magazine.

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My next draft consisted of me changing the font type of the coverline which reveals the name of the artist featured. I felt this was a better option as it is the same font as the other coverlines. Additionally, I altered the features of the masthead by outlining around the text using the ‘Stroke’ from the blending options in Photoshop, which made my magazine appear more bold.

Despite changing the font type of the coverline revealing the name of the artist featured in my magazine, I changed it back to the ‘Inner Glow’ font as after surfing the web to attain inspiration from other existing RnB magazines, I found out the fonts used for the coverlines are hardly fancy. I also removed the outline and inner shadow of the masthead as I thought it did not appear similar to a magazine masthead.

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After further analysing my magazine, I changed the font of the masthead to ‘Crackvetica’ as ‘Sandre’ did not appear bold and eye-catching, which is what I was after. I also changed the coverline ‘Caliph Yibz sex, drugs and fame’ back to ‘Blacklisted’ as I thought it matched with the new font of the masthead.

To improve, I re-positioned the red bar at the top of the page so that the skyline would be displayed in a more effective way. Additionally, I brought the coverlines from behind the direct mode of address to the front in order for the consumers to visualise them well. I also included the barcode behind the coverline at the bottom as the front cover was getting full and so I was confused as to where to place it.

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Here, I changed the colour of the skyline and also the colour of the main coverline to make it stand out further.

I added a barcode but placed it at the back of the main coverline as I was lost for space.

After further analysing my work, I decided the position of the barcode was not conventional and rotated it to the bottom of the page.

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Here, I decided to change my model as I was satisfied with the quality of the previous images. I also changed the colour of my issue date as the yellow did not fit in well with the house theme. Additionally, I also included the price of the magazine at the bottom, as that is a conventional feature of one. The name of the model was also altered as I wanted to give my magazine a slight new look. After further analysing the positioning of my magazine features, I decided that this will be my final draft of the front cover as I included a : masthead, cover -lines, skyline, barcode, house style, issue date, date, main image, and price, all which are the essential conventional features of a magazine.

This is my first draft of my contents page where I placed the magazine features in the position I wanted them in. I also included my image which I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to remove the background so no stray bits remained.

I added content to the sub-headings and also included an editor’s letter and a footer which immediately made my contents page appear conventional. I deleted the previous image as I also removed the same model from my front cover which meant I could not include him on my contents page.

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2CONTENTS PAGE

To make my contents page stand out, I used the Blending options in Photoshop, choosing the ‘Stroke’ tool to make the ‘P’ stand out further as there was no colour included. In addition, as I had took new photos for a different model, this meant I could now include an image back on my contents page.

For my last draft of my contents page, I changed my image as I decided that the previous one was un-conventional for a contents page as it was a close-up, which meant my target audience would not be able to see the model properly.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREADI had found doing the double-page spread proved a more difficult task as I had to come up with appropriate images and text in which were relevant to the genre of my magazine, which is Hip-Hop. To assist me in gathering ideas for this, I researched some double-page spreads of ‘NME’ and ‘Rolling Stone’ magazines. Due to this, I found using sub-headings, columns, a drop cap and adding a footer was very conventional.

Similar to ‘NME’s’ double-page spread, ‘Rolling Stone’ has also included sub-headings, a footer and drop cap, all which I knew I had to feature in my double-page spread. However, I noticed ‘Rolling Stones’ double did not have columns, but a paragraph, which is also very conventional.

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Using Photoshop CS5, I created a double-page with a 4961 width and 3508 height. I then used guidelines to position where I wanted my features to be placed in. Due to my effective research, I included a title “PROFANITY MEETS” and also a sub-heading with columns of text. I was also mindful to be consistent with my house theme of white, black and red. Additionally, I aligned everything to the left as the cover-line on my front cover and the features on my contents page were also aligned to the left.

After analysing my work, I realised it would be very hard for my target audience to be able to read the text due to the clashing background. For this reason, I cut the image into two, in order to have the right-side of the page white so that the text could be legible. Additionally, I decided aligning my text to the left looked silly and unconventional, and so I changed it to the right which immediately improved the appearance of my double-page spread. I removed the quote as I thought it was not necessary and moved ‘PROFANITY MEETS’ to the right side. Being left with a bare image on the left, I designed a name and rotated it 90° anti-clockwise, which I decided, went really well with the image used. Lastly, I included a footer, so that my target audience would know the double-page spread is from this particular issue of my magazine.

After deciding on my final-draft of my front cover, contents and double-page spread of my magazine, I put them all together to further analyse what they look like as separate pages of the same magazine. I have decided that they look well together as the house style is consistent with the colours as well as the font types.