Double page spread- what do you think?

I have now completed my final double page spread, and have now taken it to them to see if it met the expectations of a double page spread with the retro genre, yet still conforming to conventional magazine. 

person that said no- becasue there was no male artists included- gave the appeal of a female magazine

Results: fits in with the other images, gives you an idea of the artist, which is confurmed in the article itself.

My final double page spread

This is my final double page spread.I found this particually hard to do. Unlike the two other pages, there arent any specific layouts or aspects to include. The image is the strongest aspect as it reflects other images used in music magazines.I am pleased with the content of the article, as I researched into the language commonly used my the magazines.

Double page image

This is the image i have chosen to use for the double page.
The pose with her back to the left will look best on the left page. It includes eye contact, which addresses the reader to her and the article.The image is a recreation of the 1940's poster 'We can do it', publicising womens ability. The 'look' is retro whilst the black and white makes it look edgy and bold. The grey background of the image will be continued on the right page, to make it look continuous rather than two seperate pieces in the magazine.

I will do this on InDesign. After this i will create the headline text, followed by the body text, and a few minor adjustments.

Double page- what would you like to see?

Before i design my double page spread i wanted input from my 10 target audience members to get an idea of what they wish to be included, visual and main body text- so i conform to their expectations. 

Results: An article, that is Q and A, not to long answers, about something in particluar like album or tour.Music realted interview

Results: Black and White, like the other images, not a close up and maybe takes up the whole page.

Results: Any important information like dates ect

Production

This follows the different stages of production of my double page spread:

I decided against the Large drop cap that took up the whole of the right side, as it stood out more than the quote by the artist. Therefore I have made the quote stretch across the double page. I Will still use a drop cap however for the begining of the article. 

 The brief introduction into the article is normally a large font than the body text- hence the larger font and location of the text. The artists name, AshleighJ is in red to stand out to the target audience to being about her. I only used her shortened name as this is a commonly used idea for many famous artists, as the music magazine asume that if you brought the magazine you know who it is, without the need of a full name title.

 This next stage has a completed article, however i still need to make a few minor adjustments to make sure it looks as conventional as possible. 

What to include in my double page spread

When designing my double page spread I will inlude:

• Strong main image- single female artist with eye contact, mid close up showing a tough woman persona.
• A quote by the artist used as a headline for the article- prefribly about her new album, music, lyrics ect
• Font for the headline will be Serif, curly old fashioned writing but still appealing to target audience
• Drop Cap- as background, letter being the begining of her name.
• A small introduction (different fornt from the body text)- statement about what is in the article.
• Body text in colums like all articles- if doing questions and answers, make the questions a different colour or font
• Article- has to be informal and relateable to the audience. Short answers and interesting questions.

Looking at double page spreads

I specifically looked at the Rolling Stone magazine and Q. As they seem to be the closet thing i have to the magazine I am aiming to create. 

From this I will use the idea of a mid close up shot with eye contact. Lily Allen(featured) is portrayed the way her fans recognise her,edgey with a gothic trend. The use of font relates to the modern art technique of cut out lettering. This goes well with the genre of music. So when i produce the quote fromt he artist, I will design it in a retro way, with a slightly modern slant.

Again this is a strong image of a female artist, The image takes up most of the space, and not much body text is used. This keeps it short and snapy and easy to read by the target audience who want to know the information quick without trouble. There is a relation between the image and title USA, as she is sitting on a flag. this creates a theme for the page, and can tell just by this, what the article is about.

The layout of this double page spread from Q is very simple, a strong black and white image, with the use of one colour- red for the Drop cap letting of L (standing for Lady Gaga.) This magazine takes another aproch by including alot of text. So I will bare this in mind when writing the article.

By looking at the double page spreads ( at various editions) I have noticed the constant use of a strong image, usually a close up or mid close up in order to see facial expression and pose. Also it demonstrates how you are let into, just for a moment the life of that artist, and the close up shows the relationship between them and you the reader. Eye contact is a strong element used, but used to create different moods. The image is normally placed on the left side of the double page, and sometimes, if a powerful image, takes over the whole page. 


The content is usually an interview of some description.So I will also look into the use of language, content and layout to create a believable interview.

Planning for double page spread

This is the next stage of my magazine production. Unlike the front cover and contents there aren't any vital elements that have to be found on these pages, but it is crucial that I create two pages that look conventional on every aspect. 
before creating my double page spread I will look at some music magazine double page spreads to get an idea of layout and content. 
Looking back at the flat plans that I created I have noticed that I planned to include tour date strip, puffs, large quotes and title. However now that i have changed the genre,I have to be careful that I don't conform to all the other music magazines, as the retro 'theme' will be hard message to send with too many visual images and information. 

Contents page- what do you think?

After finalizing my ideas for the contents page i took it to my target audience, they said: 

Results:

Results:Its different, interesting image, like the use of black and white, the way you have displayed the information.

Results:The use of larger font for the artists is conventional, yet it looks retro in the font, doesnt look to filled up with visual elements

Final contents page

The final contents page: 

I am very pleased with the final outcome of the contents page. The simplicity of the layout of pages doesnt deter the attention from the strong black and white image. The choice of having a black box with white writing gives the appeal of a retro black and white movie board. I decided to make the 'key words' larger as i have found that this is a commonly used technique for music magazines. I purposely located the box on the lighter side of the the face to stand out. By looking at the music magazine contents pages i have noticed there are two layouts used. a single page which contains alot of infomtaion, or a double page spread (used in Q) which has a big focus on the image and smaller amount of reading material.

Production and chosen image

Showing different stages of production: 






Chosen image to use for my contents page:

I decided against this contents page, as i think the three boxes to the right are too much and take away the quality of simplicity. I will delete these and make a few minor adjustments; making the box line thicker, moving the contents font to the right slightly, and any other small things that will make the the double page more conventional.

Contents page- what would you like to see?

Before creating my contents page, I went to my target audience and asked them what they wanted to see from the contents page: 

Results: the list of pages included,writen in a short way and good images.

Results: Interviews, Top rated songs/artists ect and up coming tours or festivals.

Results: Not too busy, as you want to know the pages you want to read quickly without hassle.

Results:

What to include in my contents page

Looking into the features of a contents page: 

Key elements:

• contents- normally located on the top left
• cover stories and other stories in the magazine, usually numbered in front of the page title
• a story image, either of a band or solo artist
• some include puffs that advertise pullouts,tourdates ect

What I will include:

By looking at other contents pages, and taking my genre into account i have opted for a simple layout on a double page spread.
I recieved this nidea from Q magazine, as they used a strong image as tyhe back ground and layerd the text onto the spaces around the artist.
Sticking to the retro theme, i will shoot a close up black and white image, and use a less conventional,(yet still appealing to my target audience)font for the body text and headline text.
I will use blacks,whites and greys to appear simple yet bold.

Looking at contents page

When creating my contents page i will try and continue the 'retro' look but introducing more colours and features on the page. 

I have looked into the codes and conventions of contents pages in other magazines. even though they are of different genre it will give me insight into the content, layout and over all appearence of the page. 


Many music magazine contents pages are actually quite simple in layout, but use strong images to capture the reader. bold fonts and colours are also used to make the contents page stand out and look 'jam packed' of articles, tour dates and feature editions. 

Front cover- what do you think?

I returned to my target audience to ask them what they thought of the final front cover. 

Results: what do you like about it? looks conventional, relates to the genre, the black and white with the red stands out, old fashioned with a twist 

Final front cover

This is the final front cover. The choice of colours stand out on the black and white image. This reflects a retro look of a magazine whilst still looking new with the bold fonts. I decided to use various fonts but still have an old fashioned appeal to it. The cover lines of artists to the side gave the appearence of a piece of music with the black bars in between giving it a specific style. With the use of knowledge i have gained from photoshop, i was able to make the models lips red. this gave the front cover a conventional appeal as it related to the other colour themes on the page. This instantly draws the attention to the red. 

Production

Some of the stages of the magazine cover in production: