Contents PageThis is the original sketch for my contents page. I have taken my inspiration from an NME contents.I have chosen to use five photos, which I think is a very important part of the contents page, as it breaks up the text and it makes the page more interesting if the photos link to the page numbers.

I have placed the text at the bottom of the page, and in the left hand corner I have put a flash box to include some extra information.

I decided to call the heading ‘this week’ instead of ‘contents’ because it is less formal – which is better for a music magazine. Also I originally wanted my magazine to be monthly, however after thinking about it more, I decided to change it to weekly.

I have used the phrase ‘UK No.1 Best Seller’ as a persuasive technique. It looks good to the buyer and puts out the positives of the magazine.

Developing of contents pageI made the centre photo a little bigger than the others, so the page has a focus. Underneath the photos I have written captions, and included page numbers in the corner of the photo. The captions have a quote in them, as I found this successful in music magazines that I researched.

To vary the photos a little I intended to take a photo from a You me at six gig that I was going to, however after going to the gig, I decided that the composition and setting was too much out of my control and the photos I took were not like the ideas I had had.

A regular section in the magazine is recognisable to regular readers and gives a bit of structure to the features in the magazine.

In this design I have not changed much, except I have looked into title ideas.

I decided to change the title as the other one was black and did not fit with the peach background on the page. I used Photoshop and comic life to make this title. I used the fonts and styles on comic life and changed the colours and added textures using Photoshop.

Here I have revamped the look of my magazine. I was stressing a lot about the last contents page design as I felt it looked too comical and childish for a rock music magazine. So I decided to restyle it. I changed the title to black and gave it texture using Photoshop, and changed the background to white. I then grouped the photos together and layered them, as I think this gives a more experienced and professional look, and moved the text. I think what was also wrong with my last design was that the text and photos were separated too much and this made the page look quite childish and rushed.Here I have also changed the shape of the flash box, as the star looked very immature and using a square box also fits in with the other shapes on the page. I have put coloured borders on the edges of the photos, which separate them from each other as they are layered. I have kept the idea of having a main image, and have separated it from the other photos and put it in the corner of the page. It is slightly bigger and I have made the background transparent so it blends with the page. Having a separate image makes it seem more important as if its one of the main stories.

I felt that the four photos grouped together like a block, did not fit in with my ideas for a rock styled magazine as they made the page look too busy and formally structured, splitting up the images and text. The photos were too close together, so I swapped one of the photos with the flash box, this spreads the photos out more, varies the layout of the page and does not clump them together, which does not look effective. Nor does it fit in with my corporate theme – keeping text and photos spread out and keeping space in between.

I changed the colour of the flash box as peach does not really fit in with the rock theme, which is more purples, blacks, reds and greys. Hence I have changed the colour to grey, this also compliments the other colours on the page more than the peach did.In this design I have put back the page numbers in the corner of the photos, this looks effective as I have made them black and white which links to the title on the page, - the masthead is white lettering on black squares, this can be considered a corporate theme for my magazine.

See next blog post for finished contents page.