Contents Page

Front Page Draft
(put scan of front page in here)

I decided to do a draft of what I want my front page to look like to show my ideas and plans. As you can see on this sketch i have used the rule of thirds to make what will be my image of my artist the main focus on the page. I have put the heading 'LOGO' in the top right hand corner so that it wont overlap the image that I will use. In the top right hand corner I have included the date, the price and the issue number of the magazine as these are commonly found on magazines that are in the market today. I have used small font so that it is discriet and doesnt take away the focus of the image. Also i have included a barcode in the bottom right hand corner as this is a necessity for a magazine. I have spread the layout of the text across the page at different levels on both the right and left hand side of the page. I think this will work well as it won't make the page look too crowded.

Before creating my draft of a contents page i decided to analyse an existing contents page from the music magazine NME.
These are the key features that i found;


- The NME logo was at the top of the page, this makes it familiar to the reader as it is a well known logo.
- The magazine is down-market tabloid style rather than up-market gloss. This appeals to the type of audience they are aiming to attract.
- The purpose of the contents page is to guide and inform the reader about the rest of the magazine.
- The features are catagorised with columns, this breaks everything down and makes it easy to read.
- The features list gives you an insight of what is inside, this draws the reader in to buy the magazine.
- The main feature of the magazine is highlighted on the page and made clear to the reader where it is.
- The editors note makes the magazine seem personal to the reader, they are addressing you.
- The signature and picture also adds to this, the photo gives eye contact. Also the italic font makes it a different viewpoint and is eye catching.
- Offers 'save 33%' help the readers save money but also help the magazine to get regular buyers.


These are the things that i am going to take into account when drafting and making my real contents page, I think these are the things that you must include.




This is my scanned draft of my contents page:

I also decided to do a rough draft of what I want my two page spread to look like. This is the scan of my sketch;
(insert scan here)
I would like to have a big title at the top of the page to make it stand out to the reader, also i have put the image in the middle to make it the main focus with the text around it. I think this will work well as it will break the text up.

preliminary task

To show that i understand the basic ideas of a magazine cover and that i can use the programme that i will create my magazine with, i have done a preliminary task which is an example of a front cover of a magazine. 

I have created a front cover for a student magazine.

Criticisms of my front cover

- The first thing that i notice when looking at the cover is the clothes that the models are wearing. I think the problem is that the colours are juxtaposed with the light colour on the right and the dark on the left. I found that this was a problem for the colour of the font that i was using as I couldn't seem to find a colour that stood out on both of the background colours. 

-I think that the font is quite boring and it is a classical style. On my final design i will use a more modern font that will suit my target audience more and attract them to buy it.

-The overall colour of the front cover is quite dull. I think the colour pallet is cold and to make it look more interesting i I will use a warmer pallet and more bright and vibrant colours. 

- I think that the mast head would work better if it was included in the image, either behind it or over the top. This would be without the block colour behind it. 

- The capital letters make the magazine look formal, for this audience I think i would change it to make it seem more of a casual read.