I had an idea in my head what changes I could make to my contents page, which I then drew in a draft. The main changes I was focusing on was the text position, the background, the positioning of the pictures, and the positioning of the mast head.
Firstly with my masthead, as I found from my feedback that many people thought that a straight heading could have been better rather than a diagonal one. I agreed with this change, therefore I made 'contents' straight. I then thought that from magazine I had looked at not many of them actually said 'contents' at the top of them. I thought to make my contents look more sophiscated I could use the heading 'this month' instead. I did this in black to make it stand out. In my year 13 coursework to give a piece of text on my front cover an mysterious I feel about it I added a glow around the outside of this. Although I didnt want to make my contents page mysterious I decided to try this glow, around the outside of this text, and I thought that it made the text stand out. Which would therefore attract the reader.
As I thought that the colour scheme I had used for my orginal contents page was appropriate and effective I decided to keep the colour similar. As I used, orange, black, red, and just added the colours white and green. The reason I added the colour green was to represent the name of my magazine which was 'Red Cactus'. I kept the name from my year 12 magazine as I thought it represented the genre of my magazine well.
I then added my text to my new contents, which I copied quite closely from my orginal contents page. The only thing that I think I improved on was the used of different colours, fonts and sizes within the block of text. For example in my orginal front cover the font was all black, however I used white, black, red and green to make certain parts of the text stand out and to make it attractive for the audience. I also edited the position of my text as instead of having the whole block down the left hand side, I spilt it in two and then had one half of it at the bottom of the page. This made the page seem more balanced.
I then added my text to my new contents, which I copied quite closely from my orginal contents page. The only thing that I think I improved on was the used of different colours, fonts and sizes within the block of text. For example in my orginal front cover the font was all black, however I used white, black, red and green to make certain parts of the text stand out and to make it attractive for the audience. I also edited the position of my text as instead of having the whole block down the left hand side, I spilt it in two and then had one half of it at the bottom of the page. This made the page seem more balanced.
From looking at the colours I was using on my contents page, I decided that instead of using a photo background like I had orginally a coloured background would look better. It would also allow for all the text to be properly read. I chose to use a light colour which I thought would make all the text and writing stand out. I chose to use a cream/ yellow colour as I thought it brightened the page.
After reading over my research, which said that there was a mixed amount of pictures on the contents pages that I analysed, I decided to use six pictures on my new contents page. I thought this is a good number to use, as it wouldnt make my contents page to seem too busy, which is a convention of country music contents page. This amount of pictures also allowed me to be able to vary the size of each picture. I used some of the orginal pictures I had taken for my first contents page and I then took some new pictures. I ensured that the pictures I chose to use had a variety of camera shots. I did this to make each picture individually interesting. I wanted there to be one main picture on the page, so I placed this in the top middle of the page. I then added the pictures evenly around the page. I made the two pictures at the top of the page the same size and in the same position to make my page look balanced.
To make the pictures seem more interesting I edited one of them to make it black and white. I did this my using the effects tool on Photoshop. I could then change the hue and saturation meaning I could choose how dark I wanted the picture to be. I chose to not make it too dark because the rest of the page was relatively light meaning I didnt want the picture to contrast too much.
After reading over my research, which said that there was a mixed amount of pictures on the contents pages that I analysed, I decided to use six pictures on my new contents page. I thought this is a good number to use, as it wouldnt make my contents page to seem too busy, which is a convention of country music contents page. This amount of pictures also allowed me to be able to vary the size of each picture. I used some of the orginal pictures I had taken for my first contents page and I then took some new pictures. I ensured that the pictures I chose to use had a variety of camera shots. I did this to make each picture individually interesting. I wanted there to be one main picture on the page, so I placed this in the top middle of the page. I then added the pictures evenly around the page. I made the two pictures at the top of the page the same size and in the same position to make my page look balanced.
To make the pictures seem more interesting I edited one of them to make it black and white. I did this my using the effects tool on Photoshop. I could then change the hue and saturation meaning I could choose how dark I wanted the picture to be. I chose to not make it too dark because the rest of the page was relatively light meaning I didnt want the picture to contrast too much.
I then followed conventions of a music magazine contents page, and put a page number on the picture. This would be useful for the audience as if they saw a picture or a story they were interested in they would know where too look for it in the magazine. To make the page look neat I decided I would put all of these number in black, which was then a problem for some pictures as the bottom right of the picture was dark, meaning that the number couldnt be seen. To get around this problem I decided to put a rectangle underneath the page number on top of the picture. I made this rectangle the same colour of the picture so that it blended in.
Once the pictures were in place I had a large gap on the page on the bottom right. Instead of filling this space with another picture, I decided that a box would go best there with a competition in. I chose to make the text box black so that it stood out, by doing this it also meant I could have a bright coloured writing. I chose to have orange writing. I used different sizes font throughout the box, to emphaise which was the most important information. The font I used for the heading of the box was 'Bodoni MT' which is a bold high impact font to attract the audience.
I then used my draft to look at what other fonts I was planning to put on the page. All that was left to add was quotes and text related to each picture. On two of the pictures I decided to put text about the story on the bottom of the actual picture, this was meeting conventions of general mazagines. I chose to do it in a small font, so that the main attention was to the pictures. And I chose to do it in red as it I thought that colour stood out well against both of the pictures.
I then used my draft to look at what other fonts I was planning to put on the page. All that was left to add was quotes and text related to each picture. On two of the pictures I decided to put text about the story on the bottom of the actual picture, this was meeting conventions of general mazagines. I chose to do it in a small font, so that the main attention was to the pictures. And I chose to do it in red as it I thought that colour stood out well against both of the pictures.
Underneath my masthead there was a large gap, which I thought made the page seem unbalanced. I had not planned this in my draft but I decided to add the month of the magazine release date. I did this in a fairly large text, and in orange font so that it stood out.
I then added text underneath the large picture on the page, which was a quote from the starring singer. This quote would make the audience want to know more, and therefore want to read the story.
In the bottom left hand corner, I had left room for the letters 'RC' and the page number of the magazine. Which is a conventions of magazines. I did the RC in red and green, and then did this 'Page 36' in black to make it stand out aganist the RC.
In the top right hand corner of my magazine I wrote 'Red Cactus' which is a convention of most music magazines. I also did this in red and green meaning it was like a trademark for my magazine name, meaning it would be recognised by my audience.
In the top right hand corner of my magazine I wrote 'Red Cactus' which is a convention of most music magazines. I also did this in red and green meaning it was like a trademark for my magazine name, meaning it would be recognised by my audience.
Final new contents page
Overall I think that my contents page is significantly better than my orginal one, mainly because the enhanced understanding of media I have learnt and the significant improvement of my use of Photoshop. The main aspect that I think improved was the positioning of the images and text, and the use of different colours, sizes, fonts, bold, and italic to make the page more appealing and interesting to read.
Overall I think that my contents page is significantly better than my orginal one, mainly because the enhanced understanding of media I have learnt and the significant improvement of my use of Photoshop. The main aspect that I think improved was the positioning of the images and text, and the use of different colours, sizes, fonts, bold, and italic to make the page more appealing and interesting to read.
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