Double Page Spread Feedback

P1: Female, aged 16, Year 12
This person suggested that my introductory paragraph was sized too small.

To resolve this issue, I made the font size bigger. This meant that I then had to edit my byline once more, I removed the date and made the yellow bars shorter to allow more space for the bigger text to fit in.

I asked my sample of 16 students to give me feedback once more and the results were very positive, I believe my double page spread is the strongest part of my media product as I received positive feedback from everyone in my sample. 

Double page spread developments p2

I have written the article piece and am now seperating it into three collumns as this is a typical lay out for magazines. To make this process more accurate I am using the grid on Photoshop to ensure that all three collumns are equal.

To place Peter infront of the box I used the magnetic lasso to crop his shoulder and make it a new layer then placing it over the rectangle. The purpose of the rectangle is to make my page more accessible, as it would be bard to read over the graffiti background. However, I did lower the opacity of the layer as I wanted the background to still be seen.

There was a lot of empty space on the upper right corner and this hindered the balance of my page so I decided to add a large quote from the main body of writing as this is something else I noticed during my primary research of magazines.

To keep the page consistent and also make it easier for my audience to read, I again used white rectangles below the text.

Again, to move Peter infront of the boxes, I used the magnetic lasso tool to create a layer. I then zoomed in to use the quick selection brush tool to really erase extra pixels to create a smoother and more professional image.

This is what it looked like when I was complete.

I was deciding which font and colour to use for my byline, in the end I decided to use the same gold colour as the main page. (See below image for changes).

This is the page I have so far, I still need to move my article into three columns to make the page look less clustered and more professional as in it's current state it looks like the fourth column is squashed. *I will post the updated/final d.p.s as soon as possible*

Double Page Spread - First Developments

I am currently working on my double page spread. To start my page I first selected a picture that could link back to the contents page. I am now trying to decide on a colour scheme and font style for the title, my belief is that having a red black and white page will be typical of the convention and not  new so I will try to use one additional colour - I am deciding between gold, purple or blue as these are colours that came up a lot during my research of the hip hop genre. I am deciding which font to use as this is also an important factor of the page because it sets the tone for the article.

Contents page feedback

I once again presented the sample of 16 students at my school my media product and asked them for their comments, below is a selection of  some quotes on what 6/16 students responded.

P1: Male, aged 18, Year 13
"I think the photographs are good I really like the poses. The models all have an attitude that makes them look hard- just like they are supposed to if they are rappers."
"The articles look very interesting to me, I like that there is a wide range of topics even though they are all about music or musicians. It shows the writers creativity"
"I think it looks quite edgy and tough. It does look like a hip hop magazine to me because there are rappers down the side and her hoop earrings."

P2: Male, aged 17, Year 12
"This page looks really cool."
"My favourite thing on the page is the background, I like the triangle and the colours."

P3: Female, aged 16, Year 11
"The photos are really nice, I like that you have used different angles to get different pictures. It's like looking at a gallery."
"I think the genre is hip hop because of what the models are wearing, how they are posing and also because of what the text on the page says."

P4: Female, aged 17, Year 12
"I like the article titles they seem like they would be interesting."

P5: Male, aged 16, Year 12
"I like the lay out of the page."
"I really like the little splashes of red it makes the page more vibrant and less purple."

P6: Female, aged 18, Year 13
"I like it."
"The text is nicely put together."

Overall, I have found that my contents page does appeal to my target audience. They especially liked the colours, photographs and range of articles.

Final contents page 1

This is my final contents page.  To create the background: I made two layers of plain white fill and added textures and filters to them to create a new theme that would suit my magazines style and look unique. I left the bottom layer white and used many filters and gradients over the one on top (darker purple, has blue blotches) and then cut a triangle out of the darker layer by using the magnetic lasso tool on Photoshop to reveal the white surface below. This process was completely experimental, as I was just trying to make my page different.  The colours on the page go together well as I only incorporated colours that could be taken from the photos on the page by using the eye dropper tool. 

I used Beattrip's tag line on the top of the page as it looked empty and I felt like repeating the tag line would add some consistence to the magazine. I chose to have the name of the magazine and contents down the left side as that's how it was on the cover page. I edited all the pictures before adding them to the page on Photoshop, just to either make the colours brighter and bolder or seem darker. For example, the main image is of Peter, I chose to have it bolder as he is wearing red and this contrasts with his blakc and white background.  

Chloe's picture on the top right of the page is slightly darker, as when looked at properly, this suits the mood of her photo more. I believe all the colours on the page work well together but are also not traditionally used together. For example, violet, purple, red, blue and white are not colours that are typically coordinated together - but I believe they do work well on this page. Again, just as on my cover page, I put a purple-to-white gradient layer over the final piece, this was to keep the matte look consistent to ensure that the pages would work well together. I reduced the opacity of this additional layer to 35% so that the page could still be seen, but I moved the images and title above this layer so that they would remain bold. 

To create the image of Diana on Photoshop, I used the magnetic lasso tool to crop her out of the original photo and then duplicated her layer onto an image of Peter as I wanted to have a graffiti background instead of the original plain white background. I then zoomed in and used the quick selection brush tool to delete excess pixels that made it obvious Diana was not really infront of the graphic wall. Following this step I then used the blur tool to blend the outline of Diana's layer with the background. I also altered the colours of the background using the hue and saturation adjusters and resized the background to make it look more realistic. 

The different sizes of text was influenced from my contents page research as I believe it is a simple way to reflect importance within the titles, I made the celebrity names bigger in size to connote their importance on the page (to appeal to my young, aspirer type audience). Page numbers are coloured red throughout my magazine, including my double page spread. 

I believe this page will appeal to my audience for a series of reasons. Firstly, my models are from both genders this makes it easier for me to show that my magazine is for both males and females, secondly they are all young which reflects that my product is aimed at young people. Furthermore, the use of trendy and branded clothes within their costumes will appeal to my aspirer and mainstream type target audience.

Although I made other pages, I believe this was my strongest as it has a good lay out and interesting themes (such as the big triangle - a shape heavily associated with hip hop thanks to many popular artists such as Jay Z wearing clothes and jewellery with the shape on it). In addition, the remaining area on the page has a cheetah print-like design on it thanks to the seperate layers of filter on it. 

All contents pages and captions

This was my initial contents page, there will be a post talking about how I made it on my blog as it is the one I have decided to use. When I first made this page I liked it but later I realised it was not so good so I decided to try and experiment with different pages. However, I had an issue with doing so as my USB crashed, leaving me with no original documents and only screenshots of the three images I had already used for the contents page above.

This is the first remake I created, it took me around four hours over the course of two school days, this included planning time. I decided not to use this page as it did not fit the conventions of hip hop magazines at all and looked more like a movie listing flyer. The colours on this contents page make it appear too childish for my target audience and creates a page that ultimately does not suit the atmosphere of my other pages.
A strength of this page however is the layout in my opinion, although it lacks a clear structure when it comes to text, the boxes around each category make the page appear more clear. I put the writing that links to a picture in white so that it would stand out against the bold colours.  

This was my final attempt to redo my contents page. I believe that if I had time to complete and improve this page then it would've potentially been my final contents page. However, I did not have enough time to finish it the way I would have liked to as I had to move on to my double page spread and evaluation. This page was influence by an existing contents page in which there was text overlayed on a photo of  Doctor Dre. I believe this is a strong photograph of Chloe as I captured a moment where my model successfully communicated her attitude. I again only incorporated colours from the photo into the background and text. If I could improve this cover I would start by re-editing the title text as it does not suit the page. The word "CONTENTS" should have been done in a different font as it looks squashed. Furthermore, the grey colouring also does not fit into the page even though I took the shade of grey from the photo itself. 

*I was not able to post the progress during the stages of these contents pages as they took up a lot of my time, especially the original page. This was because I had to align all of the text, change colours, edit photos etc.*