Introduction to Evaluation

I have now finished creating my Front cover, Contents page and Double page spread for my magazine "Smash". My magazine is aimed at the dance and party genre and is for both males and females starting from 16 to around 25. I choose this genre because it is an interesting style and I thought I could be creative with how I made it, e.g-lighting. To help me get a general idea for how I should start and get inspired I did 5 textual analysis' for a Front cover, Contents page and Double page spread of some current different genre magazines to help me decide which one to choose. 

Conducting this research also helped me understand what  features I need to include in my magazine which was useful because I could see different styles and very different colour schemes. Throughout conducting this research my designs have changed a lot as you can see from my draft ideas previously in the blog. 

I am happy with the end results for my magazine but I think there could be some slight adjustments that would make it better. I now am going to do a further evaluation including 7 questions so I can see what went right and wrong.

Double page spread inspirations

This double page spread from Mix Mag which is a dance magazine, inspired me to create mine because I like the way it looks simple and you can see the artist as you are reading there interview. I changed the layout  of the spread so that the artist is on the left hand side of the page and made the background black so that it is slightly different.

Feedback 4- Jill's Review

Front cover

The front cover is good as it has the 2 colour effect which is effective to create a multi sex audience.

Feedback 3- Beka's Review

Front cover

"I think that the overall look of the page fits well with the dance genre because of the setting in the picture, I also like the way the picture matches the colour scheme"

"Some of the cover lines could be bigger to show that some stories are more important but otherwise I like this page"

Contents page

"For this page I also like the way the colour scheme is carried on but I think you could introduce some more colours so that it does not look to plain"

"I think some of the images on this page could be bigger and some of the text smaller to make it just right"

Double page spread

"For this page it is my favorite because I think the black background and white text looks different and interesting, I also think that using the florescent blue and green makes the page look even better"

"I think the way that some of Beka's actual quotes are highlighted because it makes sure the reader sees the important parts"

Feedback 2-Amy's Review

Front cover

"I agree with Megan that one of the colours for the front cover and contents page colour scheme could be brighter so that it is not to bland"

"I also feel that the main cover line could be made bigger as it is the most important thing on the page"

Contents page

"I think it would look better if there was less writing or it was made smaller because it looks very compact and like there is to much"

"I think the pictures work well especially for the prizes but i think that part of the page could be made smaller to allow space for the important things"

Double page spread

"The double page spread could have more text over the image as there is not a lot going on"

"It also could also have another colour so the overall look is more interesting, only something subtle as the other colours are extreme"

Feedback 1-Megan's Review

Front cover

"I think the colour scheme could have a more florescent colour in it so the page looks brighter, I  like how the colour scheme links in to the contents page it makes the magazine look more organised"

"Some of the front cover cover lines could be a bit bigger so that you can tell which ones are more important and the best stories"

"The image could be slightly more edited so that the models face is brighter"

Contents page

"The contents page could be better organised on the page so that all the text lines up, also some of the text could be smaller so that it fits better"

"The colours on the contents page could be organised better and not just randomly placed so that the magazine looks more stylish"

Double page spread

"The double page spread could have another colour added to it, so that it is not to plain"

"The quotations could be smaller in text size so that they aren't the only thing the reader looks at"

Double page spread written article

Beka white is an upcoming new music artist who has recently released a new album called vibes. This promising artist is rising fast in the dance style music charts and is sure to be a face well recognized in the future. She is a happy entertaining act that is enjoyable to watch for everyone. The young singer first started her career in singing at school and college where she took any chance she could to be in the spotlight. Since then she has developed into more public showings and then to her point in time now where she is noticed by a much wider audience.

 She has been working on her new album throughout 2012 and says that she is proud to have finally released it although it was later than she wanted. She quotes on the cover of her album “Taking the stage.. Feeling the vibes” which has been a like quotation by many fans. She says it is how she sums up the experience she has when she sings and performs to her fans and it is also where she got her inspiration for her album name. Lots of fans have reviewed the album and name and the comments are all very positive about it. So far Beka says that her album has been a big success and we will defiantly see more very soon. The album contains her best hit “vibes” which is starting to rise in the charts.

This upcoming artist is proving popular among adults not just teens, some reviews from people are “sophisticated music style, the words have a meaning” showing people feel beka’s words. Beka says that she is thrilled that her music has become appealing to a wider audience because she can get her message across to more people. She said that she puts a message into her music to create a different feeling to her music compared to most average stuff.

This artist has not always had the luck on her side she said, before her career first lifted off she was only working in a bar and was not living the dream that she wanted. It was only when she started doing pub singing nights that people discovered her well hidden talent. Soon after this move she continued to progress with her wishes and finally produced vibes in late 2012.

Finally, to sum up this wonderful singers start she told interviewers today that this year, 2013, she plans to release a number one single which will be her break through and what she said will be her real start into her busy career. 

Double page spread before changes

This is my double page spread before I have had feedback for it and before i have made any changes.

Double page spread screen grabs

For my Double page spread i have used different colours and styles, I used black, green and blue because the colours stand out together.

The headline on this page has 2 parts two it..

Along the top of the first page there is a quotation coming from the artist so you straight away know what the article is going to be based on. 

The page numbers at the bottom are white so they stand out because the page is mainly black.

For the first paragraph on the right hand page I have used a large letter to start the text off, this makes the first sentence have more of an effect on the reader.

Throughout the text there are comments from Beka written in different fonts and colours so that those parts stand out better and there is also a review section on the page.

inspiring similar magazines: Cover and Contents

When I started to create my magazine front cover, contents and double page spread I chose another magazine that I was inspired by, of the same genre, to use as a sort of template for my design. I then made my pages similar to the these so that I know my magazine will fit in with the genre it is supposed to.

Mixmag was an inspirational magazine for me due to it relating to my genre and it also has the same sort of colour scheme due to it using black and white and then the two colours.

contents page before changes

This is my contents page before I have changed it from the feedback result.

Contents page screen grabs

For the title of my contents page I decided to replicate the front cover font so that you can see a clear colour scheme throughout the magazine. I also did the same for a smaller subheading on the contents page.

As you can see the text is the same and both the words are underlined by the purple thick line. It took me a while to choose the pictures for my contents page because I couldn't make them the right sizes.

For the text on my contents page i changed my design a few times, first all of it was mounted on boxes so that it looked bolder but then i changed it so only one subcategory was mounted on a box so it stands out. 

You can see that the text on the purple box is the most bold and stands out more on the page. At the bottom of the page in the quiz sub-category there are some pictures of prizes to be won in my magazine. 

Contents page photo shoot

These images are from the second photo shoot that I did for my contents page, there are some mistakes in some of the pictures so not all of them got used in my page.

                                 
                                        The image above is slightly blurred so it cant be used.

Feedback for Front cover

Feedback 

Some feedback that I got from asking people what they thought of my magazines first copy was..

That my front cover could have some other smaller images so that there is more colour and it looks more interesting. Some suggestions were that I could advertise a prize on the cover that can be won inside the magazine. This would also attract more audience.

Another improvement that I could make is to change some of the text colouring around so you can read it better against the background image.

Lastly a few people suggested that i could change the font to Gill sans ultra bold all over instead of Rockwell because it is a more interesting font.

Overall, only minimal changes need to be made to my cover so that the audience will like it and so that it is clearer.

First version of cover before changes

Front cover-other screengrabs

Barcode

Date and issue number

Front cover-screengrabs of coverlines

Main Cover line

Other Cover lines

                                      

Front cover-Font and colours

Font choices.

For the title of my front cover i did not choose a special font to stand out i just made the text design interesting by creating a different coloured outline. For my first idea i used 2 different font to choose, Gill sans extra bold and Rockwell extra bold. I also tried using the fonts with a variety of colours to see how they would look.

My final choice was to put the two colours together and use Rockwell extra bold for the title and gill sans for the rest of the text. As you can see my title is slightly behind the artist so that it looks more 3D and looks like she is coming off of the page. The colours that i used on my front cover in the end were black, white, purple and yellow.

Chosen Colour scheme

Chosen colour scheme

The colour scheme that I ended up choosing was purple, green, black, white and yellow because it has he two base colours black and white which i can use to create gradients with later on in the magazine. 
I choose my colour scheme based on my front cover image because it has got purple and green strobe lighting which i thought looked good and would be a nice idea.

As you can see from the photograph it has created a interesting background, this is now easy for me to make a background for my contents page because you can see the basic colours. 

Photo shoot 1- Front cover images

The images on this blog are the pictures from the first Photo shoot before i have edited them. You can see how some of them have some faults to them that would effect there use in my magazine. Some of them have got different artificial lights so that the atmosphere is more like a disco/club night.

 The final front cover image that i choose  a few times due to lighting problems and the style of the picture did not fit my cover the first time. Due to my changing picture it meant that my color scheme changes a few times to. The image above has not been edited yet so has got to much green light but I edited it to fix this. I choose this picture because people said that it looked more natural than others because the artist is slightly to one side. Some of he pictures are good but cannot be used due to blinking or there to dark.