My Evaluation

Here is a link to my Youtube Channel where all my evaluation videos are:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTqttMZ7WClzSEdtJCJMxSg 

My Final Double Page Spread

Final Contents Page

My Final Cover

Creating My Masthead

Creating my Masthead

This was my original design for my masthead. The reason I didn't use it is because it didn't fit with the colour pallet and the overall design of my magazine. Also the typography style makes the second half of this masthead unclear and will stop people from recognising it.

When creating my masthead I never wanted anything too confusing or complex as this piece was going to be simple but effective so it would appeal to my target audience. So I found this website called 'Urban Fonts' where I could find a font style which suited me best. After finding this slick chunky back one I continued by writing in the name of my magazine 'Lo-Fi'. I came up with his name because it relates to my genre which is indie/alternative but its also catchy and easy to remember which my create a repeat purchase via the consumer as they will recognise the name. The main reason I chose this one over the previous one is because it fits better with the design and colour pal
let which I have used on my cover. The colour white is better than black as the colour white can be used to connote coolness which works well and relates to the Indie/ Alternative genre.

Constructing my Front Cover

 This is when I started to create my Main front cover for my magazine. I created this in photoshop and it took me a long time and a lot of dedication was needed. I started with a plain white background and started building this up via the main story. This maybe wasn't the smartest of idea as I should've started with the main image and built the main story around it. But after coming up with a good storyline I added it with the star character in a bright yellow colour and the story underneath in white. I used these certain colours because my photo is very dark and gloomy which goes with my main story.

I then imported my main photo. I went to a local railway line to get this photo, because I wanted it to give a sense of danger and make the audience realises what my main story was about. I wanted it to take up the background and I wanted the main musician to take up around 60% of the cover so he would really stand out against anything else that would happen on this cover.

The main photo is arguly the most important part of my cover as it is the first thing the customer will se and pay attention too. I needed my main protagionst to stand out and really appeal to my target audience. To do this I asked many people about what would attract them. I then edited this image very slighty just so I could adjjust the brightness and make it slighty darker as the story isnt a 'happy' or 'fun' one so I wanted my colours to represnt the story.



The next stage I went onto was creating and inputting the masthead. This was one of the most important things I was going to do in this whole process and the masthead had to be catchy and attractive to my target audience. I was doing an indie/alternative magazine I needed a name which would relate to that but also sound catch. I came up with the name LO-Fi. I put this in a black font in the top left of the cover roughly taking up 10-15%. Looking back I reckon it would of stood out lot more if it was bigger and even possibly in a bolder font. Althought I thought this im glad it chose a black font but with the letter being empty so you can see the blue through them. This actually made my masthead stand out even more as the black stood out from the background.

The next two screenshots include the next steps I  carried out to creating my front cover. I started to add more text to my cover to attract more customers due to the artists listed on the cover. I added some more yellow texts below the main story. On this screen shot you can see that I started creating the secondary stories which will go down the right hand story of the cover. This text is in black as it will stand out from the light blue background behind it and also the colour matches the colour of the masthead which is positioned next to it.

After inputting the black text I started making stories to follow down the right hand side of the cover. This stories included popular artists and bands inside my genre. This will attract a lot more people who might not of been attracted by the main story. The colour of this stories match my colour pallet and the main story of Yellow and White. This looked really good as these sub stories matched my main one via the colour scheme. This gave my cover a real profesional look and I was happy with this.

After taking a step back and looking at the content on the cover the left hand side of the cover looked empty and this wasn't good. I Then tried placing some smaller images of the main protagonist but this just seemed to make the cover more messy and the photos looked out of place. I decided to add even more stories there in the same way as I did earlier and this worked really well for me.

Moving on I decided to add one more story above the other on the left hand side. I wanted to crate a small circle and add a story involving a festival. This would really stand out and draw a lot of attention to my magazine cover. I started with a yellow circle and a black boarder as it followed my colour pallet. I also wanted this different than the normal way of putting stories onto my cover as there would of been too many of the same things. This is the sweetspot of the cover where people will first look so I wanted this to look good and really attract my customers.


As I built it up I added in some basic text which was in black as that also fitted my colour pallet. I then added in the reading and leeds logo which is a very popular festival in the UK and it stood out really well. The way I added in 'Reading and Leeds' festivel was a good idea purley down to the huge popularity it has. People will see this logo and straight away want to see more so this was a big selling point for my cover.

As I almost finished my cover I could still visually see that my cover was missing a few simple things such as a barcode which I placed on the bottom right and then I added in these darken ages to give in more of a darken feel as then it matched my main story. I was very happy with the final outcome of my cover. I felt like espically the little things on this cover will give the biggest overall effect. I feel like this is a really strong cover and would attract alot of potential customer who are intrested in this genre.

Constructing my Content

 When Starting to make my contents page I started by drawing up a design by hand so I knew exactly how I wanted to make mine. To start with I had this black line going straight through the middle of the page separating the top from the bottom. On this black box I included the masthead and some other text which was in White and Yellow, al three colours used so far are also used on my cover and follow the colour pallet very well.

I then added in my main photo for my contents page. This was a photo of the main protagonist who was also used on the cover and double page spread. This photo is a portrait of the main protagonist with an urban background.

I then moved on by butting in another black box but this time on the top left on the contents page. On top of that black box I put in the word 'contents' along with other useful information you may find on a contents page. This colour was all in yellow. The font I used also matched the background of the photo.

 I then started to add in my content. I did this by writing it all up in a word document and then copy and pasting it over. I put my text is columns  with the page summer beside all of the stories.

 After adding all my text in I left a few gaps so I can input some photos. All the content here is from the stories I used on my cover. I used black text as this went into my colour pallet and also was clearly visible from the white background.

 I also thought I should add in a subscription box so I followed the common codes and conventions of how I made this contents page so far. I made a big black box covering all the left over space in the bottom right hand corner. I then built it up with yellow text on top as not only did this follow my colour pallet but it really stood out from the black.

I then put a copy of my cover inside the subscription box and added in more text in a yellow font. I also added in the page number for the main photo. I was also very happy with my contents page as It came out exactly how I planned it too.

Constructing my Double Page Spread

When starting my double page spread I used the same main protagonist that I have used across all three of my main products. On this product I started by selecting the photo first and making it take up 50% of the double page.

 Next I went onto inputting my title, which is also the title for my main story on my cover. I also added in a catchy line underneath to attract my audience into reading the store. The title was i a strong bold black font to make out stand out from the photo and the background.

I went onto adding in my masthead in the top left hand side of the spread. I originally had no white background on it but it did not stand out from the photo. So I put this white box behind it to give it the recognition it deserves. I also added in a smaller photo of the main protagonist but this time he was lying on a train track to give the reader a sense of fear.

In this screenshot you can see that I have inputted some text beneath my masthead and also added in a small black line running down through the white gap on the right. This black line is used to create columns for when I add in my text.

 In this screenshot I added in a quote with a blue background. This quote will be right in the middle of my text and will be easily visible to the reader. This quote also gives it a bit more of a professional look.

 I started adding in all my text now. I had an interview with the main protagonist and typed in up in a word document. I then transferred this over onto my double page spread and did some organising to get it fit around my quote.

After adding all my text in I finally finished my double page spread. I was happy with the final product but also seen room for improvement next time.