Second Draft - Contents

After making changes to my front page, I started working on my contents page.

For this draft I have tried to make the text smaller and allow more room for other articles. Some areas however still feel empty. I also need to expand the length of the text so that it fills the boxes better.

Second Draft - Front cover

I have started working on my second draft for my magazine and the first page I worked on was the front page.

For this draft I have added a lot more text to the edges of the page so that more space is filled up. I have also changed the position of the main article headline so that it is bigger and more easily noticeable as the headline. I have also increased the margins on the side of the page so that I have more space to work with and so that the page looks bigger and better.
I feel that I still need to work on the text and one change I may consider is bringing the masthead behind the picture so that the corner does not cut off the persons head anymore

End of first draft update

I have finished my first drafts so I will now be working on my second drafts. For my second drafts I will be working on making improvements to my first drafts and trying to make them look better.

First Draft - Double page spread

I have started my double page spread by doing a basic layout showing the planned positions of each part of the page.

From the basic layout you can see how the page on the right will be taken up by a picture with a quote pulled from the article over the top of it. I have decided to do this because after looking at examples of double pages on the internet, I found that this was a very common feature. I also decided to do this because I liked the look of it.
On the left hand page, I have used a small picture in the middle that will most likely be a picture comparing the artist 'then and now'. The text boxes are all connected using the text box linking tool that PagePlus X6 provides so that the text flows from box to another easily. The text boxes have been split down the centre of the left hand page using thin black lines like on the contents page. This has been done so that the text is separated and structured better, rather than having a large wall of text going all across the page.

Update:

I have finished my first draft of the double page by adding the text and the main picture.

I like the way this page looks however, I feel that I should make the text in size 12 font rather than size 13 so that more text can go on the page. I also feel that the picture could be zoomed in closer to the person or possibly retaken so that the window frames and the plant pot aren't in the way anymore. I also need to get the final picture in the centre of the left page. this picture will be a picture of my dad from the past to show the change.

First Draft - Contents page

Whilst I am working on my photos outside of school I decided to move on to drafting my contents page.

As you can see, I have tried to keep my contents as similar as possible to my front cover so that the house style of the magazine is maintained. Rather than boxing out everything, I have used thin black lines to separate each section of the contents page. I have however boxed out the page title, the titles on the left hand side of the page, and the fake advertisement. This is so that those headings stand out, since they are not written in as big text as the articles on the rest of the page. I have used different font colours on the page numbers to make the page look more unique and different.

My concern that I have for this draft are that there might not be enough articles on the page and that two articles might be too big on the page. My other concerns is that the fake advertisement may need some improvements so that it looks more realistic.

Update:

I have now added a picture for the main article to my first draft of my contents page.

I like the way the photo looks on the page however, i might need to retake the photo because of what is in the background. This is because there are plant pots and a window from my back garden and also because the other picture on my page has a brick wall as the background. The latter of the two problems could be solved by using a different picture for the second article. I will try to resolve these issues and make any other changes in my next draft.

First Draft - Front page

After designing the masthead, I went ahead and designed more of the front page including taglines and a slogan. Below is the picture:

I have changed the colour scheme slightly for this draft compared to my planned colour schemes and have instead used blacks, whites and greys. At first I liked the look of this color scheme, however I have come to realize that the lack of other brighter colours might not look as nice or as effective. This is something I will most likely address in my next draft.

I have used alternating blacks and greys on my left hand taglines to distinguish from the tagline and the brief previews of the articles.

I have also boxed out the list of artists that are in my magazine. I did this so that the artists names stand out better against the background and are much better at catching the eye of the reader, and making the magazine more enticing.

I do not have a cover image currently but I will add one as i progress.

Update:

I have now taken pictures to use for my magazine and have added one of the pictures to the front cover of my first draft.

After adding this picture I could see straight away that i needed to change the colour of the text of the articles on the left hand side because the black text was blending into the picture. I have also noticed that there are spaces around the persons head that may need to be filled with more articles so that the page doesn't look too empty. I did consider increasing the size of the photo and zooming in closer to the face, however this would show less of the guitar. I will work on these problems and make any other changes in my next draft.