Creating Contents Page

When choosing which font to use for the text which would be on my page I experimented with a lot of different ones before choosing my final. Here is a sample of  small number of the font which I attempted.

Final Contents Page

I feel as if the contents page that I have created is the product that I have made the most progression with since the firdt draft. There are many aspects that I have chnaged about this product to improve it and make it in  line with real media products that I have researched such as Q and smash hits magazine. Many of the things that I have chaged about the page I have done in order to create more balance on the page and ensure that it does not look unequal as it did in my first draft. I swapped the postions of the contents listings and the two images which were previiously running down the centre of the page.I have also increased the size of these to images in thier new positios to mke them the same size as the chart bar. Another large change that I have made to the page is chnaging the header at the top of the page to a standard rectangular filled box instead of the two diagonal boxes. When initially researchig title heading desings I though this would be too boring therefore used a creative design however this did not look effective on my page in relation  to the other aspect that are on  the page which is why I have reverted to using a more simple design. To balance this I have inserted a colour filled box at the bottom of the page. I acheived the exact same colours in these two boxes by using the eyedropper tool on indesign.
I am pleased with the significant progress that I have made from  my first draft of my contents page and the final product. I like the clear colour scheme that I have used on this page and the way that there is cosistency coming through into this from my front cover. I have ensured that I have kept this colour scheme on the page through using the eyedropper tool on many occasions to achieve the exact same shades of a colour. I have also changed the photo numbered 31 to pick up more of the blues in the background lighting rather than the reds which can  be seen in my previous draft. This keeps consistancy through the colours that I have used on all the images on  this page. I a also very happy with the way that the chart bar has turned out in this final versions. I think that changing it from the top 10 to top 5 has made it look  lot less random on the page as it fits in as a similar size to other images that are close to it. I have also picked up a the swatch of blue which I have used for a gradient swatch as that is a colour which fits in with my page where as the black/grey previosuly looked too harsh.  I also like the way that my page is structured , all the cover stories together in one coloumn and the other stories in  another. As well as it it all lines up well with each other adn ther are no overhangs or orphans in my text making it look professional.

Contents First Draft

This is the first draft that I have created for my contents page and there are many things that I am not happy about and feel need to be changed to ensure my final product could be in line with real media products. Although initially when doing title font research I had the creative idea to challenge the inspiration that I got from my research and use diagonal boxes for the title and issue headings however when I have used this design with all of the other features and contents listings. This has made me realise that I should not challenge my research of real media products and in my final design for this aspect of the design/ I will return to using one of the other designs that I created which will be a simpler plain red filled box. I also do not think the overall layout of the page is balanced and working correctly. There is too much weight in the centre of the page which does not follow the rule of thirds. I will swap the positions of the features listing on the right hand side with the two images that are currently running down the centre of the page. I will do this and slightly increase the size of the two images with the intentions that it will add more balance to the structure of the page. I pleased with the way that the photos that I have used on this page have turned out and I like the variety that I have used as this was something that I found interesting in my research. Although I have included a variety of images they are still all relevant to the stories I have included in my chart music magazine, and I have made sure the readers know what story they are attached to by putting the page number of the story in the corner of the image; another technique that I found in my research. Although I like the chart bar that I have added onto the contents page I think that it is not visually correct, I think it could be improved by making it smaller, I will measure the size it should be in relation to the two images that will be above it in the next design. I also like the gradient fill as it represents songs doing well as they reach the top of the chart however I think that the black/white/grey swatch is too dark and harsh fro or the other colours that I have used on the page. I will attempt to pick up a lighter blue/grey shade from the image that is next to it, this will also create colour consistency on my page.

This is not the first draft of the contents page which I have created as previous to this  follow the design I had created by hand and realized this was not working at all.

Music Magazine Contents Font Research

I began the process of deciding on a tile font by being very random in my selection on the font list. For this I used adobe indesign.

However it wasclear that some of the fonts did not fit inwith the hosue style of my magazine and were not firm enough.

Out of all of them I picked 3 fonts which I though went with the style of my magazine and continued to delevlop them on a new page. I changed the characteristics of the font such as the length of the word, space between the letters, weight , and height of the letters all in order to create the best and most apporpriate font to be used for my contents page title.

I narrowed it down further to be between two fonts out of all of the ones that I had created in the development process. I finally experimented with putting them onto a design that could potentially be used as a header on my contents page.

I have chosen to use the sans serif font in my work as also I think the serif font I have develoepd is bold and fits the purpose, I have prefered a sans serif font on final contents pages throuhgout my research.

I will also use the header which is a slanted upwards shape which I was inspired by a billbaord content page which had a heading that was slighly angled. I prefer it with a border around the outside as it makes it stand out a lot more making it look finished.

I will make the red slightly darker as at the moment I think the colour I have used looks cheap and dosent fit with other reds I have used on the magazine.

Contents Hand Drawn

Above you can see the hand drawn designs that I created for my contents page. The image at the top is the initial ideas that I had on different ways that I could lay out my page containing all of the same features in different positions. These included a header at the top of the page, a chart bar, two small images and a large image. The designs which I created in the beginning were very simple. I went on to develop these , as can be seen in the bottom image, I had an idea which come as a result of deciding through my research that I would include a header at the top of the page. I experimented with different shapes I could make this header to make it more interesting and quirky than a simple rectangular shape.

The design that I feel is the best and I will attempt to duplicate will be the bottom right hand corner design as I feel it is my strongest.

Girl Band Second Shoot

I took a second set of photos of my 'girlband' that I would use on my contents page. This time I ensured that all of my models had their hair down and were wearing similar clothes( black - maroon - black - maroon) to make them look more like a group.  I also changed the order which they were standing in so that the model with a darker skin tone was nearerthe camera and light.

I stuck with the same location as it creates the edgy, upcoming feel that I wanted this group to portray under the article of 'Examples support act'.

Original Photo

Photo After Manipulation

Live Music Photos For Contents Page

 I decided that I wanted to use a photo of a live music event on my content page. At  a recent concert that I went to I focused on taking some photos that would be suitable to be used on my contents page.

Out of the photos that I took at the event I feel like these are the two which look the most professional and would be suited to be used on the contents page which I am creating. 

Even though I was already font of the lighting that can be seen in the photos and the colour that can be seen, I experimented with manipulated the colours that can be seen in them.

After experimenting with the photos I have decided to stick with the original that I took of Jay McGuiness from The Wanted. I think all of the other ones that I manipulated look too over edited due to the bright colours and lights. 

After the first draft of my contents page I realised that I should try and make this photo pick up more of the blue shades as opposed to the reds to make it fit with the blue on the other images on the page . I experimented with the saturation and edited the photo further.

I have chosen to use the top of these two photos as I feel the bottom is too bright and does not fit with  the other images which I have used on the page.

Extreme Close Up Photos

After deciding that another one of the photos that I wanted to include on the contents page was an extreme close up of part of a models face I took these photos with the cannon SLR with inspiration from my research.

I was happy with the photos that I took in this shoot and decided that re-shooting was not necessary  Out of the 28 photos that I took in this shoot I have chosen the below to manipulate and use on the contents page of my magazine. I have chosen this one as my covering her eye it makes the model seem  mysterious which is an element that makes her seem powerful which is the image that this edition of my magazine is portraying.

I have manipulated the image and increased the vibrancy  so give the models skin a brighter colour, made her eye brighter, colourized her lips to a dark colour, removed spots, blemishes and wrinkles on the fingers, filled her eyebrows and cloned her eyelashes to make them look fuller. All of the changes which I have made have given me a final product which looks professional and will fit with the other images I will include on the page and the theme of the magazine.

Girl band Photo Research & First Photoshoot

After deciding that I wanted to include a photograph of a girl band on my contents page I chose 4 girls who I thought all had different features that fitted well together into a group.  I took a number of photos in a setting which was gave the exact look that I wanted it to. However I had believed that by telling my models to have their own choice on their individual outfit it would make them look more individual together however I think it look messy. I think that the two dominant outfit colours that stick out in the photos are the black and maroon therefore when re-shooting these photos I will instruct my models to wear these colours. 

I have chosen these two photos as the best two that have come from my first shoot. In the horizontal photo i have chosen to crop half of my models faces to research how that looks in comparison to seeing their whole face. I have also chosen one where the models seem more spread out. I have used photoshop as part of my research to experiment with different adjustments to the photo changing the levels and colour balance. From this research I have been able to conclude that the adjustments that I feel fit the picture best is the photo on the right of the third row due to the fact it compliment the colour scheme of clothing that I will have my models wearing as well as lighting the models faces well making them look less flat I also like the photos that I have given a slightly blue/grey colour balance as they make the photo look illuminated however I am unsure whether it would work with the colours on my final photo.

Contents Page Photo Research

I have concluded from my research that I want to add a small variety of photographs onto my contents page of things which will be appearing in the magazine. One of the photos that I will create to include will be a shot of a girl band in an enclosed area with a brick wall as the background. I think this environment and lining the models up in a staggered way makes the band seem important therefore keeping with my theme I started on my front page which showed power within the music industry.

These are images that have inspired me for the photograph that I want to take for the main image on my contents page. The top image is the way in which I want  to stagger my models in a similar way. The second image of boy band Lawson shows the environmental that I want to shoot the photo. However I think that I would want my models to be closer together in my shoot. The third images represents the way that I want to use girls in my photo however I will use 4 girls not 3. I will also want my model to be posed more serious as in the top 2 images with the boys.

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Another photo that I want to include on the contents page of my magazine will be a close up picture of a girls face. I think this is extremely interesting to add as by not showing the whole of a persons face it makes the reader want to turn to that page to find out more and see the whole thing. Also by showing facial features up close in an image it is a visual weight on the page that will instantly draw the attention of the reader. Initially I was inspired to include an image like this from this photo of Lana Del Ray taken from Q magazine.

From this I researched into other photos of models that are similar in the fact that they are extreme close ups and not showing 100% of the face.

Further Contents Page Research

Music Magazine Initial Contents Page Research

The large title in serif font on this content page looks like the headline of a newspaper, giving off the feel that this is a more formal document. This is not the sort of attitude that I want my magazine to portray as I don't think it would be appealing to the audience. I will avoid this by not putting a large title in a serif font on my contents page. I like that there is a good use of images on this page however I think that there may be too many which takes the focus away from the purpose of the page which is to assist readers in navigating around the magazine. I like the numbers which have been used for the pages, that they are bold and are in a clear font that is easy to read. This magazine has mainly focused there contents page on the stories that they have included on the front cover. I think I will use images for some of the stories but also for other stories that the reader does not yet no about. I also think that it is important that all pages of the magazine is mentioned in the contents page, unlike what this magazine has done. The 'plus' feature is a good way of drawing the readers attention to certain stories.

I really like the use of images that can be seen on this contents page and the way that there are the page number for where the associated story can be found on the image. I also think that 3 is a good number of images to have on the page as well as the way they have varied the size of each of them. However I dont like the the way that the page is laid out overall and think that there should be images and text on both sides of the page eve if the balance is uneven.  Another feature about this page that I think works well is the way that different types of articles are split up. This is something that I will try to use in my design. Finally I think it is eye-catching for the reader when the page number of the page is bigger than the story and the title is bolder.

An important feature of this contents page is the chart which is running own the left hand side of the page. This is something which makes the magazine have a unique feature and show what type of magazine it is which is a chart music magazine similar to my own. I think this is something which I could interpret into my design onto the contents page as it fits perfectly with what the magazine I am creating is about. However I would not have it so large that it took up as much room as it has on this page, as I think this looks slightly overpowering. I think that the use of images on this page is no content  and don't like that 3 block images have been used t the top of the page and then the cut out of the girl in the middle of the page looks out of place and random. However I really like the use of the block images and the number of the page associated with them on it. I like the attempt of splitting the page up into different sections however I think this would look better if they were split up more clearly into defined sections. Making the page numbers bold and putting the headings of the articles in a different colour is an effective technique for grabbing the audiences attention

I think that the fact that this page does not have a title makes it look incomplete and unprofessional. I must ensure that I include a title on my contents page to avoid this problem. The thing that catches the viewers eye first on this page is the large block picture.I also like the way that this picture has a headline on it as well as a large number of the page that the story is on.and However this could be also because the are no other images on the page. I think that if there were more images on the page in this block style it would be a much more effective contents page. I think that is good that this magazine has include all of the stories that it has onto the contents page unlike others who haven't although I would not put so much writing underneath each heading as it make the page look a little overcrowded and could put the reader off. I like the way that this page has been structured into sections making it look organized.