My Final Contents

This my final contents, with a few small changes, but I'm fairly pleased with the result.

I didn't edit my images as much as I edited that on the cover, but I have used Photoshop to increase the contrast and brightness of both. For the contents, I felt I could use more of an effect than on the cover, so I went for that really bright white light effect, which I'm hoping will connote a celebrity element and connect to thoughts of "limelight" and paparazzi, as I feel these are concepts heavily associated with music artists, especially that of mainstream pop. I also feel the effect makes the images look quite luminous, which my readers may decode as a comfortable warmth and familiarity. Similar to what I did on the cover, I added a drop shadow and outer glow, however I think it's works better on P!nk's image than Will Young's.

Really my layout is exactly as it was in the draft, apart from the amount of features in a column, but that's just generally because I made them smaller to have more and to make sure they were fairly spaced apart, as my draft was very cluttered.

I think I stuck to what I said for the font also, using Kravitz Extra Thermal for the title, and the original Kravitz for everything else as it wasn't too thin on this final version in the sizes I used.

Again this is my final contents, but the first draft of my contents is this, which isn't too different too my final really. The feedback from Ms Furness included positives of excellent use of images and a fantastic layout, and the suggested changes were;

• Making sure my text on the two pages doesn't cross the centre line


• Adding some green in from the cover


• Changing the way P!nk looks a little out of proportion

To commit to these, I altered my layout slightly and made it tighter and neater to make a centre line, which I'd noticed I'd probably need to do after I finished making this. Although I agreed that P!nk was slightly out of proportion, I couldn't figure out why, because it was an enlarged image, but I'd clicked on the keep the proportions tool as I transformed it on Photoshop. I noticed though, that it only seemed out of proportion on school screens, not on my own at home, but I think the culprit may be the outer glow I added, as it makes it look like the image spreads over a bigger area. However it didn't have this effect on my Will Young image...strange? I think I've now sorted this now, after some twitches on Photoshop, and hopefully it looks better.

Also as I was gaining improvements for my double page spread, I noticed my page numbers weren't a mirror image on here also so I came back to change it quite simply by swapping the BOLT.COM and 9 around to make it more realistic.

When incorporating green into the contents, I tried it in a couple of places and it really looked out of place on the title. Although the places it's used are very minor, it acts as a mini accent colour, and although I'm still not sure of it, I've decided to leave it like that on recommendation. Therefore the final result is that at the top of this post.

My Contents Photoshoot

I took this photoshoot the same time as my cover photoshoot, so the same conditions apply to this as those I talked about in "My Cover Photoshoot" post.

For my P!nk photos;

I used the simplistic look but interesting pose I'd planned in my developed draft, to keep it monochrome, so I used the basic black vest like in some of my potential cover shots.

Headphones - I quite like the set of pictures I took for these, and I especially like the expression of this photo, as it's exactly what I pictured for the optimistic look. Also the shadow is effective behind it, so when I cut it out I could include the shadow and maybe it would look more authentic. Hopefully, this create some intrigue as to what she's doing as I planned, whether she's listening to music or making it. Also I'm hoping this looks pretty genuine, but if I decide not I do have some other similar shots although I'm not as keen on the stances.

Punching - I don't think this is aggressive enough to have that full shock impact, as my model was fairly feeble when I asked her punch towards the camera. Her excuse was that she wasn't an aggressive person, uhuh. It would be interesting had her facial expression been more "grrr" and the non-punching hand a bit more rigid.

For my Will Young photos;

I kept the monochrome look going, jus a white shirt and tie with jeans, which I think classes it up a bit because of the contrast between P!nks clothing and Will Young's.

Jacket over shoulders - This is indeed very catalogue, and I don't think it's live enough to feature in th conents. I think the photo itself seems is quite a good pose, except from the fact that my model's facial expression looks like he wants to kill someone. I think this might have been an OK back up otherwise, but I think my model interpreted the sultry look wrong, unfortunately in all the shots of this pose.

Flying (combined with jacket) - I think this is the right kind of optimistic, with the looking up and the flying, also the jacket gives it a more sophisticated edge. It does have that dancey feel like I thought it would which is very positive and happy, and it looks just generally hopeful with the arm almost reaching for something - something that could attract many connotations, so can apply to the unusual images convention.

I think I'll definitely go for the headphone shot for P!nk, possibly not that exact shot if I decide to reconsider, and for Will Young I'll most likely use the flying style one, but flipped to fit in with my layout.

Contents Developed Draft

This is my developed draft using Layout 2 from my drafts, which I decided on after I made them. I think it will be fairly easy to stick to this layout if I get my images right, as I can manipulate my features around them. I've just used the main features for the purpose of my draft, without most of the smaller descriptions, but some samples just to show the font off, as I will mention. Also the arrnagment of the colours may change, in that my images won't be stick peopel so will have a colour to them so the text on top may not stay the same.

The font I've chosen to use as my main feature font is another modern one off dafont.com called Kravitz, which I've downloaded in Kravitz Thermal/Extra Thermal too as I haven't decided which one I'm going to use yet as the original is fairly thin, but at the minute I'm using Extra Thermal for the heading and the original for everything else. It's very rounded and sans serif, it's also quite circular, unlike my cover font which was very linear. It's going to be my staple feature font, like on the Clash and Q contents, as it's still plain but has that quirky style to it. I think it will appeal to my readers, because of it's roundness and the way it all seems to fit together, helping with the matching vibe I've got going on, as I went less for the thrown-together loook. For my smaller descriptions font, I've used Gills Sans MT Condensed as it's a contrast to the larger more spread out font, so looks effective and again promotes variation and mix, also it's very readable so I'll be able to carry it on in my DPS.

For the colours, I'm using the the convention of 3 colours, black, white and the same bright pink as the cover to keep a theme/house style running through, but this may change each issue. I think I'll also keep my images monochrome, to keep in with the simplisitic modern style and my readers may notice this, then hopefully take the to the reading that I know what I'm doing with this magazine because everything matches well.

I've also chosen to add small quirky details to my contents, just to draw it together more and make it tighter with no random gaps. As well as the quote I decided to add, I've added a download code feature, just an extra feature, where if that code is typed into iTunes it comes up with an automatic playlist to download featuring all the songs from that issue. I've also added a little cover credits box in the corner, which I think just adds to the professionality.

Contents Image Planning

As I'm now having a double page spread contents, this leaves me with more freedom for my images, as I can have them bigger and more extravagant to suit the size of the contents.

Learning from the conventions I found in my research, the images have to be of the most popular celebrities, there has to be a range in the amount and the stances have to be unusual. I'll be having two images, as planned on my layout, but I think when doing my photoshoot I might take an extra different shot in case this layout backfires and I resort to a safer option with 3 images. For the most popular celebrities, I'll use my cover star Pink, and from the other features I've decided on I think I'll pick Will Young. This creates balance, which is especially important in my no specific gender magazine, however judging from my cover I would say it's definitely leaning more towards the female audience, as I personally cannot imagine any straight man carrying that, but maybe it's just because females are generally more into mainstream "pop" music, something I considered when choosing my target audience. But back to the point...

For my stances, I think it's very important that they're unusual or have shock value, so I'll look into stances I can use. I think because I've chosen to have full page images that have quite a powerful impact anyway, so the stances don't have to be to intricate, even a simple extravagant gesture would work and will probably fit better into my simple, fresh vibe. Also I think I'll use a medium shot for both, because again this is one of the most popular with my target reader, and there will be more limitations of my pose, so I don't get too carried away. Also it won't overload the page with intrigue, so will help towards that intended cool simplistic reading.

For P!nk;

Headphones - I think this would be like carrying on that credible music feel from my cover (the amp) and would make a point of intrigue. I think those big style headphones are a great arbitrary sign, as there's so many positive connotations it they could have and they're isn't really any anchorage to them especially as I'm not having a caption, so they could mean a variety of obvious things, is she listening, singing?. They're obviously more effective than ear phones and have that old school vibe, also it's what my audience will recognise as being headphones the artist uses in the studio, giving them that added credibility. They also may help with curiosity, as there's often that wondering what people are listening to when you see people listening to music as it can say a lot about them, like my interview will say a lot about P!nk. I'd like to have her looking optimistic as well, to connect positivity and music, hoping my readers will decode it this way, and looking up as well for that enlightened "everything's good" look.

Punching - This has that shock impact, similarly to the Duffy Spin contents, and especially as I am using full page shots it would be incredibly effective. However, it may evoke very negative connotations, although I don't know that being smashed in the face with a guitar is any more positive, yet that works. I think this is very in-keeping with that attitude look, but is maybe a bit cheesy for it? The parody of the guitar smashing was fairly original, this reminds me of those "cheeky" 90s pull out posters and that is definitely something I don't want to attract. But with my combination of the look I used for my cover, it might just work.

I like both of these quite a bit, but I'm leaning more towards the headphones as they are much more sophisticated prop, rather than the punching action. I'll take shots of both to see what works.

For Will Young;

Jacket over shoulder - This is definitely very sophisticated, basically a recgonised code for it, although ever so catalogue. I think it would be simple, and just unoffensive, but therefore may not live up to the unusal stances used for a contents. It would give an upper class look to it, a contrast to my P!nk image, so this could be effective as it would be on the opposite page, therefore promoting variety and widespread suitability.

Flying - This is inspired by Will Young's current album/single cover style. I think if I got it right, that floaty deep style, it would work pretty well as an unusual image. Also with his arms stretching right across my page, it could act as separators, rather than the text just being stuck in the middle. It would also match the optimism of my P!nk one if the headphones work out, as I'd have him looking up a beyond. This could go wrong and be so cheesy you can actually smell it, in which the jacket over the shoulder would be a safe alternative.

Both of these are OK, but something I may consider at my photoshoot is combing them together, one arm flying, one arm holding jacket. I think that could have that happy, dancey old movie style effect, which is very optimistic and classic, an interesting contrast to what will be my modern colours and font.

With both my images looking up, it will create a difference to the cover, and not look as desparate I think, so it should work well. I'll try out all these when I do my photoshoot, as there really isn't many and if I'm feeling creative on the day, I can come up with some more stances.

For my extra photoshoot just in case things go wrong, I'll use the Sugababes in some typical girl band sophisticated poses, as they're just a back-up to be honest.