Draft Pieces

Audience Feedback

I needed to get some feedback for my music magazine  so I created a questionnaire on a website called Survey Monkey. This questionnaire focuses on my front cover, contents page and double page spread.   I got a few friends who fit within the target audience to take the survey and I also  shared this link online via social media.  I have posted some screenshots below.

This screenshot shows the section of the survey for  my double page spread. It contains 4 questions in order to gauge how my target audience would react to the magazine.  The first question is presented in  a response box format and it asks whether the person thinks that the layout looks suitable for a pop magazine.   The other 3 questions ask for a short written response and this was useful for me to get some individual and personalized  feedback.  These questions ask what the audience like, dislike and any improvements that they could suggest. I used this same style of questioning for the contents page and for the front cover.  Below I have posted a screenshot of my contents page survey page.

The chart above shows the response to the double page spread layout question.  Generally most people surveyed agreed that the style of the magazine suited the pop genre that I was trying to emulate.   I received a lot of positive feedback for my work and below I have posted a few comments that I received.  A lot of people surveyed liked the layout with a few commentating that they liked how the colour of the text matched the 3D glasses.

 

 

 

 

I also asked people to suggest any improvements that they could think of and one common theme for all three pieces of work was that the white background looked a bit plain.  White was one of the original colors that I picked when designing the color scheme as it contrasts the green and the black text.  While a stylized background would make the double page spread look more interesting, it could however make it more difficult to read the actual text.  I also wanted to have the same background on the contents, cover and article in order to keep the colours consistent. Another issue reported was that some of the JPEG images were too small so it was difficult for people to read the actual article text. I later rectified this issue by uploading larger images to the survey.

 

 

Contents Page Development and Final Design

 

In this post I have posted a series of image showing how my contents page progressed through its different incarnation.

 

Development 1

 

This screenshot shows how my magazine started out. I tried to import most of the images in order to experiment with the space and layout.  I also used the same logo form my front cover in order to keep it consistent.

 

Development 2

 

In this version I started to add text in order to see if the layout was going to work. I left a lot of space at the bottom to place the second cut out image, but as I was developing the idea I started to realized that I needed to make changes in order to fill out the space.

 

 Development 3

 

This screenshot shows the most radical development. I moved the preview page picture to the bottom and added the second cut out model image. In order to make it look more symmetrical I reflected the first image. In order to conceal the reflected logos I added image page numbers onto the image in order to obscure the reflected text. I also added the shockwave logo to the bottom of the page.

 

 

Finished version

 

For the final version I added lines to the contents page table and features in order to make the page appear more structured. I was concerned that the page number boxes looked to big so I reduced the size of them. I also changed the font in order to make it fit these new boxes.

Contents Page Planning

I spent a lot of time planning the contents page because it is a critical part of the magazine as links everything together. All of the artists and articles that I mentioned on the cover needed to be included in the table of contents. I drafted the table in Microsoft word in order to ensure that I did not miss anything off. I posted a picture of this below. Furthermore, I went back to my double page spread and noted down the page number that I used. I did this in order to keep continuity as I wanted my magazine to look as professional as possible.

I created a rough draft flat plan of my contents page on Microsoft PowerPoint. When creating the flat plan I was inspired by the layout of this Q magazine contents page. I wanted to try and emulate their layout as I liked how they have used rectangles to separate the contents table as I believe it looks really effective. When I make my contents page I will apply a green color scheme to keep it consistent with the rest of the magazine.

                   Q Magazine                                                                Rough flat

Contents Page Image Editing

 

 Below I have posted the two cut out images that feature on my contents page. For each photo you can see the original version and then the edited incarnation. Both of these pictures were edited in the same way on Adobe Photoshop. I used the polygonal lasso tool to cut around the image and remove it from its background. I then used the smart radius tool to remove the remaining residue and then I ran a colour contamination tool to tidy them up a little.  

 

 

 

Contents Page Contact Sheet

I went out and performed two additional photo-shoots for the contents page. One shoot took place in the studio with the blue screen while the other one was a shot on location. I wanted to take photos in different environments in order to make it look more interesting.   Both of the models are wearing hoodies in order to appeal to the teenage target audience. I also decided to reuse a spare photo form my front cover shoot as I wanted a bit of variety as well. Below I have posted a contact sheet of all the pictures that I took on the two shoots.  In addition I have picked out the two specific images that I want to use.

 

 Contact Sheet

Contents Photo 1

 I like this mid shot  because it is taken from a low angle and this makes the tree tower above the person. I decided that I didn't want to edit this photo on Adobe Photoshop because I wanted the colours to remain bleak and  realistic. I will use the whole picture as the main feature photo on my contents page.

Contents photo 2

I tilted the camera when taking this medium close up shot and I think it works really well. The model is looking directly at the lens and this give the impression that they are reaching out to the reader. For this picture I plan to remove the background in Photoshop.

 

 

 

Front Cover Development and Finished Design

Below I have posted a series of images showing how the design of my front cover evolved during its creation and development. 

Draft 1

The first draft below shows an early development version of the magazine cover. It only contains the key elements such as the title and picture, because I wanted to see how the basic design translated from my flat plan. I also experimented by having the main cover line in front of the image.

Draft Cover 2

For the second draft I tried to experiment with the design magazines title. I wanted to see what it would look like on a black masthead and I gave it a white outline in order to create a contrast. Ultimately I felt that this did not suit the style of the magazine so I reverted to the original style. I did however increase the width of the titles text in order to make it stand out more.

While developing the front cover I discovered an oversight. When I reflected the image during the editing process, the Phillips sponsorship on the PSV Eindhoven shirt was reflected as well making it illegible. Due to all of the wires obstructing it I did not initially notice this flaw. I decided it would be best to use the image that had not been reflected rather than trying to remove pieces ,such as the large Phillips logo, because that would have distorted it too much. In the end I rearranged all the text around the original image so I moved the main cover lines onto the right hand side.

Finished Cover Design

 

For the finished version I added a few sell lines to fill up the blank space that surrounded the main image. I also incorporated the red and blue color scheme into the 3D feature text as it matches the boxing gloves and shirt in the main image. This helped to improve the magazines color consistency as I used the same colors and font on the page featuring the 3D glasses.

Front Cover Flat Plan

I created this flat plan front cover on Powerpoint. I will use this as a rough guide when designing my proper professional cover on Indesign. For the magazines title I decided to use the magneto text font from my moodboard. I think this font fits in with the style of my magazine because it gives the title Shockwave an electric like edge to it and this matches the technology theme that the magazine is trying to promote.

 

I was inspired by this Vibe front cover that features the artist Eminem. One of the key elements of this cover that I like is the layout. The sell lines surround and shadow the main image, but they do not interfere with it.  This an element that I wanted to include in my design as in my photo there are a lot of wires in the middle so placing text on top of them would be confusing.

Front Cover Image Editing

I removed the blue screen background using Adobe Photoshop. In order to do this I used the polygonal lasso tool to cut an outline around the person and then I used a smart radius tool to fix the edges and decontaminate the colors.  However, I also had to manually remove the blue background in some parts of the picture with the eraser tool as the smart radius did not work on closed spaces such as the gap between the models body and arm.  After I removed the background I added a quick color correction filter in order to highlight certain features.

In the photo the model is leaning to the left slightly and this would make it awkward to have text on that side as there would not much space on the front cover.  I wanted to have text on the left as that is a typical magazine convention due to people reading text from left to right. For this reason I decided to reflect the image. So that it would be easier to work with on Indesign. 

Original Image

Photo shopped version 1

Reflected Version



Front Cover Photoshoot

I organised another photo-shoot for the front cover of my music magazine. The location and the equipment used is the same as the previous photo-shoot that I did for my double page spread.  I also experimented with the lighting so many of the images on the contact sheet below have different amounts of contrasting light.

After evaluating all of the images that I took I decided to use it for my magazines front cover.  There are no props in the earlier photos and they are not very exciting. More props were added in order to make the image more interesting. I think this image works because although it looks overloaded it also has a sense of craziness about it which makes it catch the eye of a potential reader.   The blue shirt and the red boxing gloves also match the color scheme of the 3D glasses feature. Although the front cover image is unrelated to the article it is consistent with the overall design of the magazine.