LAYOUTS FOR CONTENT PAGE

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF A CONTENTS PAGE

• Name of magazine
• Title (CONTENTS)
• Page numbers
• One main image
• smaller images (Varied & Interesting) 
• pull quotes
• Competitions 
• follows and compliments the same house style of front cover
• Constancy (the way headlines and features are written - artist first line, information second, same size/font use.)  
•  Layout usually consists of column use (about 3 or 4)
• subscription/editor information 
• categorized, similar articles together

This is a professional content page from NME magazine;

The color scheme is consistent with the front cover. It splits its contents into categories like; features, news, live etc. This enables the reader to find what they are looking for quickly. The canvas is white which works well with the other colors as well as it allows to keep attention to the main text so the reader to not get distracted. The main image relates to the feature article of the magazine and has the largest headline. Also there is a reference to subscriptions and competitions which follows the codes of a content page.

FINAL COVER

I have chosen this to be my final cover as I think it is the most realistic to be a hip hop/ R&B magazine, the color scheme i have chosen is red white and black, i think it pushes a 'danger' type of vibe and the image portrays dominance, i think the image and color scheme compliment each other. I chose a square masthead in order to fill more space with the image and features. The headline I have made the biggest because i feel it needs the most attention. I have put the features on the left hand side in order to force a visual syntax, as the readers eye falls from right to left, following the masthead, image, pug, headline then features. I used guidelines to structure my features, in order to keep a certain neatness to the cover. 

POTENTIAL COVERS

PLAYING AROUND WITH FRONT COVER MOCKs

I have tried to initiate a house style on my covers, that i can use throughout my pieces, using a range of different fonts, images and colors in order to see what goes well and what doesn't. In some i have tried to used a more dominant looking image in order to in force a deeper stereotype of the genre of music. i have used color schemes such as deep ocean (Blues, Purples, White, Black) Traditional (Reds,Black, White) Sympa (Browns, Black, White) to see what goes well together, I played with the placement of texts and mastheads to create an cover that generates impact through structure.

Including key conventions of a magazine cover;

• Masthead
• Pugs
• Features
• Image
• Banner
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

FRONT COVER PROGRESS

This was my first magazine mock up, I tried to contrast the black and white with the red to initiate a house style. 

After producing this first draft without a plan of action I realized i couldn't just shove everything on a page.

Good things;

• central (main image) 
• size of headline
• follows a layout

Bad things;

• text is askew 
• only one font in use
• image is hidden by masthead
• faded text highlight not align
• messy

                                                                  

To fix the majority of he problems above i had to control structure. using guidelines and also kerning in fireworks helps keep text align.

With the features on the left I used the guidelines and kerning tool in order to have all the text taking up the same amount of space.

I found using different types of fonts on the cover would look more appealing than just the same use of one all over.

Having 'exclusive' in a different color grabs and attracts attention.

Simply adding an issue date/number and a bar code, increases the professionalism of the cover.

• + is too angled
• bar code is wonky
• 'Janelle' font could be changed
• Possibly reconsider of color scheme

I will keep altering what I do to get it to the best possible standard i will do this by;

• using guide lines to keep structure
• play around with different color schemes and my photos, see what goes.