Verran Cover Construction

The construction process for my front cover was one of the easier parts of making my 3 media products. I liked experimenting with the different positioning of text and images, when I finally found the perfect composition of text I made sure the colours were right to connote a "bad boy". I chose to have everything either in the centre or to the side because I feel like in order to keep my magazine sophisticated yet stylish I couldn't have a magazine that wasn't neat and tidy.

Verran Contents Construction

I didn't really have to do a lot of work in order to make this contents page, however I had to use the grid tool in order to get the text in the right positioning and all in place. I planned this image so that the layout of my contents page would be image on the right and text on the left, I didn't really plan where my images and masthead were going to go but I easily found a place to put them. I'm happy with my final contents page but I don't think that it is the best I could have made it with the time that I had.

Verran DPS Construction

The main part of this task was the text, therefore I used the grid tool in order to align my text and make sure that it filled one half of my page. The layout that my primary target audience chose in my survey was one image that filled one page and then the other page had to be filled with text. However in order to keep my magazine looking appealing to the younger end of my audience I took quotes out of the text to catch the eye.

Verran Cover Flatplan

As you can see from this flat plan I will be using 1 main image that fills my page and then having teaser stories along side it, the colour pallet will be shown through the text as my masthead will be outlined with blue and the pug with be completely blue so that it catches the readers eye.

Verran Contents Flatplan

Although my drawing is really bad you can see that the main image will be on the far right side as its a side on image so it will work as one half text one half image. I chose to include smaller images at the bottom as my target audience don't want it too be heavily text based so they also have a visual concept of the featured stories.

Verran DPS Flatplan

Again with this flat plan you can see that I followed common conventions in relation to the layout and style of double page spread however I also subverted the typical bright colours and switched them for a more sophisticated blue, black and white. Throughout my flat plans you will be able to see a consistent colour pallet which I feel makes my magazine stand out more as the reader will be intrigued to see what is different about my magazine compared to other pop magazines. I chose to go for one single image that takes up one side of the page and then have the rest of the space filled with text, I did this because during my primary research I asked my audience what they would like to see and this is what they chose.

Research & Summarise

Front cover

An image based cover is the most commonly used style, but it's important to get it right. A typical successful cover consists of one or a few main images with the main one having a model that gives direct eye contact with the camera, preferably smiling. In many cases it is the cover image that sells the magazine so it has to be right.

Another important thing is the interaction between the words and the picture. some magazines of for a few cover lines, some fill almost each empty space with the cover lines. It all depends on the character of the publication.  
A cover line needs one line set in big type and it has to be the best cover line. It can be call for action, solution to problems, a powerful statement or some word play. 

When choosing a proper body text font, you should choose one that suits your publication. The most popular font for a magazine is a serif font, they use this because it makes it easier for line to line eye transition. However from doing further research into this most magazines use a vary of different fonts within their articles so I will vary my text to follow the common conventions.

Contents page

Each paragraph of text can have a horizontal indent in the first line of the paragraph. The paragraph just below the subheading doesn't have to have to be indented, the indent should be from 3-5mm depending on the width of the text column.

The heading should be situated somewhere easily visible as people read the contents page to find out what the main feature story includes. It also has to be one of the biggest things on the page, then followed by the main image. The other images need to be smaller to show that they are the less important ones that don't belong with the feature article.

With the other smaller images should have mini coverless that include the sub heading of that story, they should also have the page numbers that they appear on so that its easier to navigate to. The text should be in a 5-9pt size font as it's a common convention for magazines, the text should also be written in sentence case.

Double Page Spread

The heading should be the biggest thing on one of the pages and should only typically feature on one side of the page. Subheadings should introduce the different parts of the article and also have pull quotes from the interview, this is to show some of the main interesting things that they reveal.

The other side of the page should be filled with one main image of the featured artist. This image should represent the theme and style of the magazine but also show the colour palette used throughout the story.

The by-line should also be quite small as it isn't an important part to the article, however it still should be quite visible as the writer would want recognition for his/her work.