Final Product Feedback - Double Page Spread

Double Page Spread

The grade I was given for this design was an A and the mark 16/20, which I am very happy with but can hopefully get a few more marks with the secure this grade.

+ Conventions are understood well
+ Utilised specific features well

First draft of final design

+ Main image is appropriate

- Some minor tweaks needed in article
- Final paragraph should be in bold for emphasis

From this feedback I have realised that the aspect which needs most improvement is the accuracy of language and register, as there are a couple of minor errors in terms of language used in my main copy of the article which need altering to improve my mark slightly. For example I was advised to rephrase the direct quote "I'm so glad you like it" into "I'm delighted it's a success" as this sounds more like the language which would be used in a real article. I also took the advice to put my final paragraph in bold as it contains a lot of important information and conventionally double page spread articles do this, it has added a bit of variety to the look of it and emphasised this section so if a reader only wants to read in the important information, along with the flash in the centre, their eyes will be drawn straight to this section.

Final design of double page spread

Final Product Feedback - Contents Page

Contents Page
The grade I was given for this design was a C and the mark 13/20, which I am hoping I can improve to a B and maybe an A with my final design so it doesn't lower my overall grade.

First draft of final design

+ Good, well designed layout
+ Easy and clear to navigate
+ Understand conventions well
+ Subscription box is a particularly attractive feature

- Competition again needs a more specific prize
- Some articles again need more specific focus
- More variety of models need to be used in images

From this feedback I have realised that the aspect which needs most improvement is the images as I have used the same models repeatedly, but tried to dress them differently and portray them as separate artists. However one of the criteria is to shoot a variety of appropriate material therefore I had to use some other images with different models to ensure this variety is clear and make the magazine look as non-repetitive and realistic as possible. As with my other final products another major problem with this design was the accuracy of language and register as where I had listed the sell lines in my contents list such as 'Competition Time' and 'Festival Update' I had used the same wording so I changed the wording here and added more detail about the articles as they were too general.

Final design of contents page

Final Product Feedback - Front Cover

Front Cover

The grade I was given for this design was a B and the mark 15/20, which I am pleased with but can hopefully improve to an A with my final design. 

First draft of final design

+ Striking and effective main image

+ Excellent layout which is neat and attractive

+ Visually appealing style

+ Conventions of magazine design understood well

- Sell lines are far too general

- Competition needs to be much more specific

- May be a few too many tones of blue

- Could experiment more with different font sizes/styles

From this feedback I have realised that the aspect which needs most improvement is the accuracy of language and register, as the language used in my articles doesn't reflect or relate to my target audience very well, so to improve this I made my sell lines much more specific so it is clear what they will be about and used language such as "confesses" and "reveals" which is relevant to a young adult/teenage target audience. I also changed my competition from a generalised thing to tickets to the Brit Awards which is a huge event which will apply to any music fan and especially my target age group as not many people get a chance to go. This specific competition will attract more readers to buy the magazine as they know exactly what will be available. 

Final design of front cover

Double Page Spread Development #2

Here is my almost complete double page spread design. The changes I have made are to add a hooker/introductory paragraph in the red colour to tie in with the lighting of my image to draw the readers eye to this and guide them to the start of the article. Tying in with this house style I have inserted a red box with all of the important dates mentioned in the article such as tour dates and an album release date. This was one of the things which my teacher identified as missing from my article so I decided to include this in a more inventive and interesting way which will stand out to the reader, so they can find out this info at a glance. 

I have put the page number in pale blue and in boxes so that it does not blend in with the article copy and is in the conventional place on the page. I have used a different colour to the main text for the drop caps to highlight the start of the article and guide the readers eyes, and I tried to create the columns for my text on InDesign however found it much easier to do on powerpoint then copied it in which as worked really well. The only improvement I want to make on this is the layout of the recto page as I wanted my article to be slightly smaller on the page which will look more compact and professional. like in a double page spread article found in Q.

Double Page Spread Development #1

This is my progress so far on my double page spread final product. I have chosen this full length shot of my model sitting elegantly on a chair as it connotes maturity and sophistication which is the topic of the article - the star growing up. Her black clothing, fur coat hung over her shoulders and pinned up hair give it an element of vintage and I really like how the mise-en-scene of this image have turned out. As the lighting I arranged on this image is bold and dominating, I have chosen not to carry this through as a background for the recto page of the spread because I feel by using white it looks more simplistic and professional. The pinky-red of the lighting carries through the splash of red in the house style of my front cover and contents page and towards the right of the image there is some blue lighting which again integrates well with my consistent colour scheme and article titles. To ensure there is little blank space I have anchored my image with a pull quote which looks effective and flowing in the way her body shape fits around it, I don't plan on adding a pull quote in-between the main body of text so this is a good compromise I think. 

To complete my double page spread I now need to add necessary information to this page such as page numbers, and most importantly the main copy to the blank space on the right, which I plan to arrange into 3 columns. I will also add a hooker/introductory paragraph and a box in the centre of the text with important dates about tours and album releases by the topic artist Lily Walker.

Contents Page Development #2

I have made a lot of changes and progress on my contents page since my last development post, the main one being I have changed the layout. I have varied the sizes and arrangement of the photos and put them on the left hand side of the page so the reader will first see something very appealing to the eye and then read the list of contents after as we read from left to right. As I didn't use the word 'Contents' as a page title I used it to title the list to separate it from the rest however I might separate this further into categories. 

As a way of including new media, I have added a subscription box to the bottom right of the page which has a QR code which relates to the younger target audience who are familiar with new technology like smartphones, so will be able to scan the code and be linked straight to the website they need in order to subscribe. I now needed to add the list of contents which will be included to finish this.

Contents Page Development #1

I have started putting together my contents page. The colour scheme of blue and white ties in with the front cover creating a consistent house style however I think by having a whole blue background it looks too full on and I might change this. I tried out different titles for my contents page including simply 'Contents', 'What's Inside' and 'Inside This Issue' but decided on this one as it fitted on the page the best and looked most interesting rather than saying 'contents' which is quite boring. 

I have chosen to use 5 images on my contents page and chosen the main one to match the cover star and subject of my double page spread article so it looks consistent and professional. I have also ensured that the page numbers are highlighted and plan to write my contents list on the left hand side so no titles are over the images. I am considering rearranging these images to give my contents page a more unusual and interesting layout which will appeal to the eye of a youthful audience.

Front Cover Development #4

This is my first draft of my final product design which my teacher will mark for me to make my final changes to. Following feedback from my class mates I have enlarged my sell lines to ensure there is not too much blank space on the page, and another further improvement I have made is to bring the 'competition time' banner forward rather than having it hidden behind the masthead, to draw more attention to it and I have also specified more what the competition itself is, with the intent of encouraging people to buy the magazine as this will be a USP of my magazine. My target audience of young people in the audience demographic groups C2, D and E will be particularly interested in something which is free, especially as it is for concerts which fans of music magazines will have an interest in. 

I am very pleased overall with this design, as I think it is simplistic and professional looking by sticking largely to a basic colour palette of blues and whites, but the addition of some red to integrate the makeup of the model with the text makes it more eye catching and aesthetically pleasing. All of the necessary conventions are there including an unobtrusive issue number and bar code, and the banner at the bottom is a major enticer for one off buyers by listing included artists which will appeal to their fans.

Front Cover Peer Assessment Feedback

Once I had reached my final front cover design, it was shown to my classmates for them to give me feedback of any further changes and positive comments they had on my work. This was useful as they are all included in my target audience of 16-19 year olds and were able to identify areas which I had not noticed in my own work and make slight changes to finalise it. I have included some examples of the 16 feedback sheets I received and picked up on the most common points made.

    

Positive - The two things most picked up on, where that all of the necessary conventions were there and positioned well on the page, and also that the synergy between the models red lips and the red of the two text boxes on my page as it integrates the image and text well together. Overall everyone said it looked very professional because of the layout and also as the image was high quality and very striking to look at, someone also commented on how well it was edited in terms of colours and the hair overlapping the masthead. Everyone correctly identified my target audience of 16-19 year olds of both genders and said it was suitable for the hybrid genre which is good as it means my front cover correctly portrays this and appeals to this group, especially as everyone who was asked falls within it. Finally my main sell line was something which was highlighted as being unique and effective as the drop shadow gives a 3D effect which is clear and bold, contrasting well with the dark clothing and drawing a lot of attention to this part of the page. The shadow signifies that it belongs to the cover star.


Improvements - For my banner advertising the competition inside, something that was mentioned was that it should be more specific as to what the competition is, so following this I have changed my design to say in slightly more detail what it is which will hopefully entice more readers. Another improvement is to add more text which is something I will consider and play around with on my final design however I think instead I might just reposition or enlarge the existing text as I don't want to over clutter it when I like how effective the simplicity of it looks. The only other minor improvement that could be made was that someone said my masthead could be experimented with a bit more in terms of font style and size so following this I will try out possible another colour or size for the masthead and see how it looks.

Front Cover Development #3

So far I am pleased with my front cover design, as I like the layout of my sell lines, masthead and banner at the bottom. There is a clear monochrome colour scheme however I feel this makes my front cover look more relevant to males as it is quite dark, and doesn't integrate very effectively with my main image. Using the eyedropper tool on Photoshop I selected the lip colour of my model and played around with changing certain aspects of my design to this colour, to make it more appealing to the eye and attention grabbing. This is shown in the print screens below. I have also added a drop shadow to my main sell line to set it apart from the main image even more and added interview to the 'exclusive' box to give some extra information and grab attention. 

First I decided to change all of the dark navy blue aspects of my front cover, into this red shade as it compliments the paler blue nicely and matches the lipstick of my model. The dominant colour of my front cover here is the red which I think does look nice however it is not very bold and dominating, nor professional looking as the sell lines don't contrast enough to stand out well. As I was not completely happy with how this experiment turned out, I added back in the dark blue and minimised how much red and pale blue was used to see how this would look. 

I really like how this slight change in arrangement has turned out - I have made my sell lines the dark blue colour to reincorporate this as the main colour, and this has made them much more eye catching and clear on the page. I have now only got pale blue used here for my main sell line which I really like as it is clearly set apart from the rest of the text and contrasts well with the dark hair and clothing of my main image. I have kept a red banner at the bottom to draw attention to this major appeal of my front cover, and the date so it isn't too faded in comparison to my main headline which I feel looks much better as the dark blue I had originally chosen as this is a bold colour which stands out well. This final arrangement of 3 main colours on my page looks very effective and professional I feel, as well as being more gender neutral due to the red and more interesting and appealing to look at.

I have added a small banner to fill the white space in the top right hand corner of my page, which includes a USP of my magazine which is a competition inside which will encourage readers to buy the magazine to find out more when they see this magazine on a shop shelf.