Interview for double page spread

 Beth, all of us here at Beat are happy to see you back. How are you finding the return to fame? Aww thank you, it's lovely to be back and I have found that fame never really left me so I'm just re-adjusting really.
So in your new book 'Beth's back & all grown up' what can we expect to read?
Well it is basically my story through my eyes. I have written the whole book myself. I found it important to write to show how fame can effect young stars.
So do you believe fame effected you when entering the charts at a tiny age of 13?
I believe it had a massive impact on my life, I do believe it effected me however I'm not sure whether in a bad way. I do believe that I miss a childhood, however I gained so much from my chart success.
Once the book is out are we right to assume that a come back single will follow?
Well I have spent over a year working on my book so there hasn't been much time for music. However I am working with a team of talented producers to make a single which I believe will be out for the summer. I don't want to rush my music I just want to get it right this time.
So what can we expect from the all grown up Beth?
Well I think people need to remember that I'm still only 18 so I will still make mistakes when living my life. However I believe that one thing I have gained from been such a young person in the music business is learning how to keep my private life private.

Current contents

Over the past few lessons I have created my contents page. Although I chose a very safe layout for my music magazine, I believe that my magazine contents needed more of an edge due to the genre of a magazine. So therefore I decided to generate my magazine contents in a different format.

Current Contents Page

I believe by having a unconventional large image down one side of the contents allows my magazine to have a unique edge. I also believe it allows the information presented to be read easily and is very clear. Also with the images placement it gives the impression that the artist is presenting the information. The image also has direct eye contact with the reader so therefore makes the information seem personally presented to them.

lesson update

Throughout this lesson I have been editing my images to be used in my contents page. I have also completed all text on my contents page and will post next lesson.

Lesson Update

Over the course of this lesson I have started to generate the final copy of my contents page, I will finish this next lesson and post it to my blog.

Front cover with image.

Below on this post is my front cover development of my front cover with my images now added.

First draft with image.

This is my first draft with my image placed on the front cover. I believe there is major faults with this front cover. My main issue with this font cover is the colour of the background, I believe that the grey draws colour away from the masthead and corresponding features and therefore makes them less bold losing their effect. I also believe another fault is the font of the splash and the story of the font is not very strong. The splash can not be seen well and once again looses it's effect and therefore this is something which I will need to change in my next draft.

Feedback - When I asked for feedback on this first draft the major issue which was brought up from my target audience was that they did not like the grey background and thought that it was to strong for the colours used for other key features. They also said that the font of the splash did not work well and they found it hard to read.

This is the second draft of my front cover, as it is clear I have changed what I thought to be my major problem and changed the background colour to black. However I left other features the same to see if the worked well with a background colour change. I believe the masthead works perfectly now and stands out the way it should. However I believe that the splash still does not stand out and the font of this text needs to be changed. I also still believe that the splash is not strong enough to draw readers in. However another fault I picked up with this draft is the fact that the barcode is not straight, this is only a small issue however this could make my magazine look very unprofessional. And a final fault which I found was the tag I had chosen to use, I believe this does not work for a music magazine and would be better suited to a fashion or gossip magazine.

Feedback - On this draft the main problem that came up from my feedback was that I still had not changed the font of the splash. Although I was seeing is this font was going to work with a black background I am now going to change the font as my target audience still found it hard to read. On this draft they also said that the tag was to bold over the picture and that they would like to see something on the right hand side of the magazine such as a pug.

This is my third draft of my front cover.On this cover I have changed the font and the text within my splash. I believe the effect of my new splash is much more stronger and works more effectively. I also believe it is easier to read which draws the reader in more. I have also made the barcode in the corner straight so that my magazine can maintain it's professional look. I have also removed the tag from this page as I believe myself this wasn't working and the feedback I gained also showed that my target audience did not like the tag. I have also placed a pug on the right hand side to see what my target audience thought.

Feedback- My target audience said that they thought this copy carried a more clear and professional look now that I had removed the tag. They also said that they thought the tag worked well but it would not been seen when buying the magazine so they thought that it needed to be removed or placed some where else.

This is the fourth draft of my magazine, on this draft I have kept everything the same as my third apart from removing the pug so my target audience could see the cover without it. This will allow them to see if the prefer the front cover with or without the pug.

Feedback - My target audience agreed that the magazine front cover looked better without the pug on the right hand side as it now did not look like the main image was looking at this pug. However they said that the right hand side now looked empty again, so therefore said they would like to see the pug placed somewhere else.

This is my final copy of my front cover. It is very similar to the fourth draft, however after reviewing my feedback I have added the pug once again. By reviewing my feedback I discovered that the pug needed to placed somewhere else, so from this I decided to move my masthead slightly to the left and place my pug in the right hand corner. I believe this has worked very well and given my magazine a more professional look.

Feedback - My target audience said they loved the new placing of the pug and agreed that it gave a more professional look. They also thought the magazine was very clear which attracted them as it symbolised that the magazine would be easy to read. They also agreed that the magazine looked better from changing the original font of my splash. Also although they agreed that the tag was a good idea they commented that the magazine carried a better look without this tag.



Contents page layout

Before making my contents page I wanted to create a layout in order to get a basic view of what the contents page would look like. It would also allow me to see any possible faults with my contents page.

This is the layout of my contents page. I believe it is clear and allows information to be seen clear. I would like to include a message from the editor on this page, so my next step is to re arrange the layout slightly to fit the message in.

This is my adjusted layout which will now include a message from the editor. I have moved my layout down slightly so the editors message can fit on the top under contents.

Second draft

This is a copy of my second draft. I have made some changes such as font and have included a price. I have also changed the shape of the tag slightly.

I believe this draft is an improvement of the last, however I believe the tag colour does not work and to maintain a professional look across the magazine I need to change this to the purple used through out.My next draft of the front cover will include an image, which I believe will give me a clearer view of how the magazine will look.

First Draft

This is the first draft of my front cover. At the moment it has no picture on, but it has my masthead and possible story lines.

I believe the masthead on this copy works very well, however I believe the tag which I have used to present information does not look very effective and needs to be more shaped as the shape is to blocked. I have also not included a price on this draft so will therefore have to include this in my next draft. I also believe I need a stronger headline for my splash.  

Masthead

I have started to generate my mastheads. Below are two of my first ideas.

This was the first idea for a masthead. However I believe this really does not work for my magazine. I believe that it is not bold enough and looks unprofessional. I also believe that it looks more suited to a pop magazine than indie. So therefore I will not be using this as a masthead for my magazine.

For my second idea I decided to swap the colour arrangements around to see if it made the masthead bolder, however I believe this was unsuccessful. Once again I believe this masthead does not suit my style of magazine. I believe the main reason for this masthead not working is due to the font choice, so I am therefore going to create a masthead using the font punched to see if the is a greater success. If there is no success then I will have to re look at fonts in order to create the effect I need.

This is my third masthead I believe this font works much better. I also believe that this font suits my style and will work very effectively. So therefore I will be using this for my masthead. However I will make the text size much larger on my magazine.

I am now going to complete a first draft of my magazine for my next post.  

Fonts re-load

Above are the different fonts I have considered using to create my masthead. The most popular from my focus group survey is punched, orial and bubblebody. However I believe that bubblebody will be the most effective font for my masthead in terms of linking to the genre of the magazine. So therefore I will create my masthead using the font bubbebody.

Page Layout

Before creating the first draft of my magazine I needed to consider the layout I would use. Over the past lesson I have created a few sample layouts which I will now analyse in order to pick the correct layout. From these layouts I will be bale to see where key features of a magzine will be placed.

Layout one

The layout above was my first layout draft. After looking over this layout I have found key things which work and key features which are missing. For example this layout does not show where my barcode, issue number and date would be placed. These are three major elements which need to be added to a layout before I could complete my first draft. However there are also some key things in which I like and think would work brilliantly on my layout. The features which I like are the tag which would hold information about what the magazine contains. I believe this feature would allow my magazine to have originality.  I also like the idea of having a pug, this could have an offer or promotion on which could attract customers.

Layout two

This is my second layout, I believe this layout is not as clear as my first choice of layout. I believe this layout is not as clear as many key features are over lapping. Although the over lapping effect could show that I was confident in my magazine selling so therefore I did not need key features clear. However I believe the over lapping on this layout will be too confusing for mt magazine to seem sell able to my target audience. As with my other layout though I am still missing one key feature and this is where my price will go on my magazine. However I believe that this layout does not work as successfully as my first layout, so therefore I will not be using this layout.

Layout 3 

This is my third layout. This layout consists of all the key features in which a mag zine has to have, this includes masthead, price, barcode, splash, issue number, barcode and main image. However once again I believe that key features still over lap further and that this layout does not work as effective as layout one, which I believe works the best. However I do believe that this layout works more effectively than layout 2. I believe this as the masthead is larger and more visible to the target audience. So therefore I am going to now develop layout one and add key feature in which it is missing to have my final layout.

Final Layout

This is my final layout, I believe this will be effective as it has the clear view of my favourite layout (layout one) and also has the main features it was missing added on. After completing the layout I will now follow it in order to create mock ups of my front cover before creating my final piece.

First picture ideas

These images are my first shots before editing which I could use through out my magazine, for my front cover, contents page and double page spread.