FINAL DESIGNS

These are the final designs of my music magazine.

 

Front Cover

Contents Page 

Double Page Spread



Video Feedback & Changes

These are the videos I have taken for some of my final audience feedback. There are 3 as each one focuses on a different element. I have made sure that my audience aren't being overly nice as I told them it was important they were completely honest. I also show the changes that I have made after hearing this feedback. Below the videos are the changes that I have made in response to this audience feedback.

Front Cover

From this feedback the main change that I made was the competition box, previously it was a rounded box but as my audience found it perhaps a bit visually intrusive I decided to change it to a circle as I felt it stuck out less due to the lack of corners. I also felt the need to make the 'NOUGHTIE BOYS' font a bit bolder just to make sure that it didn't become lost with the white zip. On the whole there weren't whole scale improvements that I thought I could make based on this feedback.

Contents Page

I probably changed the most things on this page out of the three. The most obvious thing was the main photo, it was quite blurry as I was told. I didn't think that it was anything to do with the quality of the picture as I remember checking the quality when I inputted it. After that I realised that if I inserted the picture again it would be fine. This meant that I didn't have to take the photo again. I also set about changing the quite basic error that I had made in the fact one article was repeated and one of the descriptions was also repeated. This meant that I had to create a new article, to do this I referred to my original plans and chose to add an article called 'INDIE MUSIC AWARDS.' I felt this was a good article to add as it shows that Indie music is getting recognition.  

Double Page Spread

The main change that I made on my double page spread was to do with the text, I reduced the text size as it looked a little big. I took it from 16 to 11, this meant that a lot less of the page was taken up by the text. To combat this I had to add to the article. As my article had previously only briefly mentioned the band's early years I added a lot more to fill the space. I feel this would benefit the article as this is the first time we are being introduced to the band. The audience will probably want to know more than some basic info on the history of the band. That was the only change that I decided to make as I didn't feel that there was anything wrong with the other 3 smaller photos. It shouldn't be too long now before I post my final designs.

Double Page Spread with article written

This is my double page spread with the article written. I have chosen to write my article about the back story and the current success this new band are having. The band's new single is album is tipped to be the most successful selling debut albums of all time. Music Scene has taken the time to interview them to make people aware of who they are and where they have come from. I have also filled in the 60 second guide detailing lots of quick facts about the band. I have filled in the date formed, the members, the hits and their inspirations as artists.

After experimenting I decided to agree with my audience and add page numbers, they are on both pages because I though it strange to see the number on just one page. I also went with the audience and added the name of the magazine into the page. I decided to add it into the top left of the page because it doesn't command too much attention and stand out up there but it can be seen. I had to add the white background again because the tree branches were very dark and so is the title. I feel this adds to the brand identity and it was a convention that I was determined to follow when producing my own piece.

I had to move the 60 second guide box over slightly. It was difficult after I added in the page number because the page number took up the space the box used to be in. I tried simply moving the box up but this didn't look right so I decided that I had to move it to the right to make the box the best. The only other slight adjustment I made was to the pull quote. I just thought that centring the quote would look better. As I had it before the quote looked as it was part of the article and I wanted it to stand out and attract the audiences attention straight away.

I am now reasonably happy with this design and will only make minor adjustments to it before I submit my final designs.

Double page spread feedback

Whilst creating my double page spread I think that I have been too focused on the large elements such as the text and the photo. While there is no doubt that these are the most important elements the whole page has to look right and I wanted to take audience feedback that would help me to decide on some of the smaller elements on the page that come together to make the product as a whole.

Below is the feedback I got and the ideas that my audience gave me to help to improve my work.

• I was told that it was strange that my double page spread didn't have page numbers, it is a simple and common convention for pages inside the magazine to have age numbers. I received contrasting feedback on whether i should have one number or two so I will try both and see which one of them works the best.
• I was also reminded of a convention that some music magazines choose to use. Some put their logo on double page spreads. 
• The majority of my audience said that I could perhaps use the logo that is on the contents page at the top of the double page spread. This would be good for the house style and the consistency
• Some people told me that there were a few spelling mistakes in the article but I'm not worried about this as I haven't yet finished the article thus meaning I haven't spell checked it yet.
• I received some positive feedback on the general layout of the page and the content so I have decided to leave things as they are.

To go along side with this feedback I will be printing out all of my pages so I can see what the pages would look like in an actual magazine. From this I may find out that I need to change some text sizes or brighten/dim some of the colours.

Updated front cover

I have now made a few changes to the front cover of my magazine. The main change that I made was to the title. In the end I decided to make the text of the main title bolder. I agreed with my audience when they told me it was necessary to make the title bolder, upon reflection I thought the tile was getting lost. To eradicate this problem I inserted my text back into PowerPoint and made it bigger. Now I think that the text stands out and really attracts the attention of the audience a lot more.

 

I decided to make no more adjustments as there weren't any more major adjustments that my audience told me that I should make.

Feedback on Front Cover

I had effectively run out of ideas of where I could go with my front cover so I asked my audience to see if they could come up with anything new that I hadn't heard before, to give me a starting point for finalising the design of my front cover.

• The feedback that I got mainly centred on the main title 'The NOUGHITE Boys The new smash hit of 2014.' Most people said that with the white zip and white toggles from Ashley's hoodie the title became a bit lost in places when the two overlapped. Some people said that I could make the black outline that I had already used to try to make the text stand out more thicker. Whereas some people thought that I should make the stile bolder. Logistically I think that making the title bolder would work better because it I make the black outline thicker the text won't look completely white and the title won't have the same impact.     
• In terms of things I was advised to change there was very little else, the only real things were slight adjustments to the positioning of the text to ensure that it wasn't affected by the light. I have made previous attempts to combat this problem and I think there is only one area where this needs to happen, so I am confident this can  be resolved.
• There was no more real constructive feedback that I could use to change and evolve the cover so  I get the impression that I am nearing the end of the production of the front cover.

Updated Contents page

This is my updated contents page, as you can see I have added in the photo that my audience helped me to choose. I had already gone through this process with all of the photos that I'd taken and this one looked the best. The reason it achieves this is mainly down to the lighting, it has to be light because of the main photo. Other photos I tried just looked dark and were over shadowed by the main image.

Although one of the most important changes I had to make was with the logo. As you may remember I had the old TMS logo in the red box at the top and in the reviews section. As I no longer have this as the logo or the name I had to remove it and put my new logo on. This proved troublesome as I don't actually have a logo now I have I masthead. This meant that I had to draw a white box behind my logo so people could read it when it was on the contents page. I believe this affect has been successful as my logo perhaps stands out even more than before because white and black complement each other more than black and red.  

As you can see there was another change that I made, as I no longer have the photo of the person holding the record the shape of the picture has changed. I found that having the photo stretched out to the bottom distorted the look and it just didn't work. This meant that I had to make the space for the photo square, this freed up space for me to add more reviews. I decided to do this because otherwise there would be a large amount of space that would make my page look unprofessional and a bit strange.

The final change that I made was to the box below the second picture which details what is in the article. Before it didn't have the black border and the text wasn't bold. I had to change this for the sake of consistency and the house style because the other box was built in this way. Besides I think it is a good look as it means the white edges don't get lost and it really makes the text stands out to attract the attention of the audience.