Draft designs
I i I I Ibelieve this layout is optimal for the front cover of my magazine as it allows the true genre of the magazine to come to light. The positioning of the masthead is important because in this style of magazine, a reputation can be made from the name. For example, Rolling stone’s masthead has become a recognisable image across the music industry. This has allowed the magazines reputation to become even greater as a result.
The text to image ratio could be increased as I believe more cover lines are needed to create a busier and authentic looking page. Theses cover lines should vary in font size so as to ensure that the audience are able to determine which stories are deemed as more important.
The use of a menu strip at the bottom of the page brings the page together as a finished piece. It is a typical convention of magazines in this genre and therefor I believe it would make a good asset for the page.
The use of one main image instead of several highlights the importance of this one person and increases the likelihood of the reader buying the magazine for the unique selling point. Furthermore, this image should be of high quality so as to give an important good first impression to the reader.
I believe this layout for my contents page is optimal as it sticks to the conventions of a chart style music magazine whilst still exploring and potentially challenging new conventions. For example, most features displayed from the cover into the contents page have an image to add further intrigue into the article; however, this layout design only has images for two of the main features. This allows more room for other potential feature headlines to be added as well as perhaps the addition of a social media area.
Whilst I do find the positioning of the page title aesthetically pleasing, I do believe the type face should be larger and bolder as well as the masthead on the cover. This will add to the house theme and make the entire magazine fit together more smoothly and give a more professional finish to my designs.
I also believe some structure should be added to the layout such as boxing or lines so that it looks more professional and thought out. This will add more elements to fit the colour scheme and therefore make it more clear as a house theme.
There is also the potential for a slight adjustment to the layout of this page as I believe the list of features takes up too much space and looks slightly out of place at the bottom of the page. I believe that I should change the sizing and move it higher up the page so as to make the whole page more presentable and add to the professional quality of the page.
I believe this layout is most appropriate for my double page spread as it typically very conventional and representative of the genre of music I wish to portray to my audience. I believe that the image should take up a large proportion of the page in a poster style fashion. The colours should be bold and eye-catching but still keep an authentic representation of the artist. The artist should pose but have a musical instrument with them.
The headline should be in the same style font and colour scheme as the rest of the magazine. This adds to the aesthetics of the magazine and makes it look more professional. Furthermore, the colour scheme I use should complement the image and not clash with it. This means that a neutral colour or shade such as black should be used and the other colours should match this.
A page number would also need to be added to this design so that the reader is able to identify it from finding the number from the contents page. moreover, there should be a variation of fonts on this page so as to make the article easier for the reader to read. A serif font would be most appropriate as this type of font is used in most magazine articles.