Changes in my double page spread

I have started to think about the content I will include in my double page spread, here I have started to create an interview in which I might include:

I am here with the band 'Misguided' and I think both me and the fans would like to know a little bit about this upcoming rock sensation. Misguided are a recently formed band, originating from lots of places within the UK. They have a new single called 'torture lane' out soon along with their self entitled album being released in shops in June.

How did the band come up with the name 'Miguided'?

Lauren: Well when we all met and decided to become a band we thought instead of starting straight into songs and the music side we wanted to get to know each other. This is when we started to really understand each others backgrounds and that we all at some point had some problems with peer pressure and going the wrong way with our lives. It was then we realised that we had been 'misguided' through life. And just like that we had a band title!

Jack: Oh great thanks for making me sound like a pussy! I sooo wasn't peer pressured, It was more like  I pressured my friends!

Lauren: Oh please! You told us that your friend pushed you until you cried to have a drag of his spliff and bunk off school!

I can see that lots of different things are discussed between the band, are there many problems that arise as a band?

Josh: Well every band squabbles? I mean you wouldn't be a proper rock n' roll band if you didn't argue... A LOT! The main problems we have are like food and stuff. When we're on the road you start to miss certain things; I haven't had a Twinky in weeks since we left America.

Jack: Mmmm 'I' could really do with a pulled pork and stuffing sandwich, Grandma' style!

Josh: See.. opposite. Can you never agree with anything, haha!

So you never really argue about the music?

Lauren: Oh, of course. But atmosphere changes when we are in the recording studio, because we all want to do right with regards to the music, where as the food is just because we don't see eye to eye..

No I mean with the music we have different ideas. Some of us want a more Metalica vibe, some of us want a Paramore approach and some have no taste at all..

Josh: Hey Tenatious D are brilliant!

Lauren: They're a complete joke Josh and you know it.

How did you become a band?

Jack: God, How long have you got? So We were all in Brooklyn at the time, I guess feeling a little homesick and we found this really nice 'British' Pub. It was so stereotypical of London it was funny! Anyway, the most holy song came on, which isn't really recognized by Americans that much..

lauren: WOAAAAAH LIVING ON A PRAYER

Jack: Lauren man, I was creating some suspense! But yeah Living on a prayer came on and it was karaoke, We all rushed to the mic's and then realised that was going to be the start of something LEGENDARY!

So this is a question for each of you, what band inspired you the most to be in a band?

Josh: Mines Led Zeppelin, Legendary! Classic all the way.

Lauren:  Mine would have to be something like The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, there such an amazing band, I just feel that in the way they cooperate and use their music as an advantage. It amazes me!

Jack: I'm probably a bit more modern, Papa Roach is mine. I think their view on music is beautiful and the music they create is just, it makes me speechless!

Wow you all have very different taste of music for this genre, what made you become an Alternative metal band?

Lauren: well because i'm the lead singer, and I'm not the best at screamo (Which most bands are now) we thought we should not embarrass ourselves, the instrumental music we create is quite hard so we thought we could put ourselves into that category. 

starting to create my double page spread

How to create my double page spread: 

I started of by creating my guidelines on my page, first by having an overall gap 80 cm from each edge. I then had to find the original size of the width of the page and halve it, this is to create my divide between the page to be able to show I have created a double page, It is also so I know not to have my image near this line as if it was in a real magazine it would be uneasy to see as it would be folding in the middle. To ensure I have a space inbetween the pages I put 10cm on each side of the centre to make a large gap between the two pages. To finish with my guidelines, the right hand side I thought I could include the contents and the writing, therefore I had to create my own columns, by this I split the one page into two so that I had an idea of creating equal sized columns for my contents. 

I then went on to adding in a photo, keeping in the lines of my guidelines. The image does not have a direct mode of address but looks professional, to what you could find on a poster. 

I then continued to develop my double page spread by adding in the same photo on the other side, this is to give the contents side more dimensions as the one side would look very bare if it only had writing on a blank white background. However I have edited the way the photo looks through Fireworks by changing the transparency within the image so that it is not as bold and focused on but still will give the text side more colour.

Here I have started to create a double page spread for my rock magazine, attempting to follow the key conventions and house style of this genre, to appeal to my audience and show the true representations.

Here I have shown what my double page would look like with text included without the background image, it looks very bare and does not follow the key conventions of my work of follow my house style of a rock magazine. However many rock magazines do not have precise guidelines in which they look as if they follow as rock magazines are supposed to look chaotic but for the purpose of showing how to create this double page I will still use the lines. I have included text such as the masthead in which needs to be changed in the proportions and the other text is the interview in which I still think is appropriate for the rock magazine. 

I decided that I did not like the masthead design on this as it is too straight and 'boring' therefore I have deleted the masthead and will develop one to include. I have also included the rest of my interview and have included a pullquote to reel in the audience more. I decided it would look good within the text as it breaks up the reading and helps the reader to pause the article if it is too much heavy reading. 

I have not edited this part of my double page a part from including the subtitle on the far left corner and including numbers for my pages. This is so the audience find it easy to navigate through the magazine. The numbers link to the contents page so that they can go to the desired page number and read what they would like instead of having to flick through the pages. 

Finally I have changed the masthead of my double page spread to complete the look. I did this by using microsoft word and inserting a shape (Black box) and then copying and pasting onto my double page spread. After that I free transformed my shapes to put them in the places I wanted. I changed the transparency of the middle shape so that there were more dimensions to my work and it made my double page look more professional.

However...

I think this double page looks professional and creative, however the housestyle of my double page and conventions do not relate as closely to my rock genre magazine, therefore I will have to make a different double page in which does follow my key conventions and housestyle. This double page would not appeal to my audience or help to show the representation of my audience through the look of this page. 

improved contents design

After looking at my audience feedback and the key conventions of a contents page I have created a contents page in which I will use for my final piece, However I am going to have more audience feedback before I finalise this to check that my audience like the house style and if there's anything they would like me to improve on. I like how lots of the features overlap with each other as it connotes chaos which I wanted to show within my magazine, as this is how people of this genre can feel.

improved contents design

Audience research-Double page spread

I have used my facebook profile to ask some people who are my targeted audience on what they would like me to include/the style they would like of my double page spread. I have created a Kizoa photo presentation of my findings.

audience research - Kizoa Online Movie Maker

Conclusions/Ideas:

I feel that this will help a lot when setting out what I really want when it comes to my double page spread. I think that my ideas on the layout worked but not for the idea that Luke Hayward had where I would actually have a lot of different text boxes throughout the two page spread. I think I will have the boxes written out like an interview to make it look more personal but still have the idea of using significant parts of the bands life as this is more in depth and visual for the audience than just having a Q&A session. I've decided that I should start to think about different features in which the audience would find appealing to learn about which also fits into the key conventions of a rock band and a rock magazine. I think I will also decide which member I shall do it on, this will be the person with the best photos that are clear and were not used on any other page and who looks the most interesting as they will have a lot of things they can talk about, for example even talking about their piercings or colour of their hair will be more interesting if it is dyed than if it is natural.

Audience feedback

After creating my draft content pages, I went to some of my key demographic and asked them which features they liked the most and then which contents page in general they liked the most. I have put each feature of each page people liked the most in a red box. Overall I found out that people liked the bottom left contents page the most as nothing looked out of place, they liked the photos and how none of them looked out of place. However I was told that in this draft the masthead is not the clearest to read and there should be some soft of distinctive way to show that each of those photos are taken separately. For example I could put a boarder around the edge so that it is clearer that each of the photos are different.

Draft writing for my double page.

I have started to think about the content I will include in my double page spread, here I have started to create an interview in which I might include:

How did the band come up with the name 'Miguided'?

Lauren: Well when we all met and decided to become a band we thought instead of starting straight into songs and the music side we wanted to get to know each other. This is when we started to really understand the backgrounds of each other and that we all at some point had some problems with peer pressure and going the wrong way with our lives. It was then we realised that we had been misguided through life. And just like that we had a band title.

Jack: Oh great thanks for making me sound like a pussy! I sooo wasn't peer pressured, It was more like  I pressured my friends!

Lauren: Oh please! You told us that your friend pushed you until you cried to have a drag of his spliff and bunk off school!

I can see that things can get quite discussed in the band, are there many problems that arise as a band?

Josh: Well every band squabbles? I mean you wouldn't be a proper rock n' roll band if you didn't argue.. A LOT! The main problems we have are like food and stuff, when were on the road you start to miss certain things, I haven't had a Twinky in weeks since we left America.

Jack: Mmmm I could really do with a pulled pork and stuffing sandwich, Grandma' style!

Josh: See.. opposite. Can you never agree with anything, haha!

So you never really argue about the music?

Lauren: Oh of course but it has a different atmosphere because we all want to do right with regards to the music, where as the food is just because we don't see eye to eye..

No I mean with the music we have different ideas, Some of us want a more Metalica vibe, some of us want a Paramore approach and some have no taste at all..

Josh: Hey Tenatious D are brilliant!

Lauren: They're a complete joke Josh and you know it.

How did you become a band?

Jack: God, How long have you got? So We were all in Brooklyn at the time, I guess feeling a little homesick and we found this really nice 'British' Pub. It was so stereotypical of London it was funny! Anyway, the most holy song came on, which isn't really recoginised by Americans that much..

lauren: WOAAAAAH LIVING ON A PRAYER

Jack: Lauren man, I was creating some suspense! But yeah Living on a prayer came on and it was karaoke, We all rushed to the mic's and then realised that was going to be the start of something LEGENDARY!

So this is a question for each of you, what band inspired you the most to be in a band?

Josh: Mines Led Zeppelin, Legendary! Classic all the way.

Lauren:  Mine would have to be something like The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, there such an amazing band, I just feel that in the way they cooperate and use their music as an advantage. It amazes me!

Jack: I'm probably a bit more modern, Papa Roach is mine. I think their view on music is beautiful and the music they create is just, it makes me speechless!

Wow you all have very different taste of music for this genre, what made you become an Alternative metal band?

Lauren: well because i'm the lead singer, and I'm not the best at screamo (Which most bands are now) we thought we should not embarrass ourselves, the instrumental music we create is quite hard so we thought we could put ourselves into that category. 

new idea for contents-draft

More changes to contents page

Contents page changes

First draft contents page

Final Draft

Before/Previous draft

After creating my front cover, the audience I asked said that they preferred this front cover the most. However they picked up on some points they thought could be improved. For example they did not think that the cover lines stood out enough to see and that they got lost within the main image. Also that the masthead was not appropriate and gave different connotations that I wanted it to have on the audience. It also needed to engage more onto the page, the audience felt as if it had just been placed there and there was not as much interaction with the rest of the front cover as they might of liked. Finally that there was not enough writing on the front cover. 

To improve this I have included a drop shadow on some of the coverlines so that the audience can see the coverlines clearer, I have also made the date, and website font is bold so that they too are easy to read. Finally I have looked back on www.cooltext.com and found a more appropriate font in the 'Horror' and 'Grunge' categories. However the font I have chosen would have gone over the models of the front cover if I did not edit the masthead so that it looked as if the masthead was in the background. This also makes the models stand out further and makes my front cover look more 3D which would stand out to the audience.

Improved cover