Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Double Page Spread 4



In relations to the development of the first half of my double page spread, I had kept the background image the same but had changed the layout of the text. I decided to erase the text and start fresh, I had written a new paragraph describing the article, explaining what its about and had included quotes from famous artists and other magazines. By doing this it makes it seem as if the artists have some sort of relation to fame and recognition from celebrities. The text has been separated so that the description is on one half and the quotes are on the other, this makes the page look much more appealing than having all the text on one side. 



The second half of the double page spread was completely changed. I had kept the background image and decreased the size of it and placed it into one corner of the two pages, I also included another image of the same size and placed it onto the opposite side of the page. Then I fitted the entire article onto the page, to make it look ore professional and sophisticated I structured the pages into columns, three on one side and three on the other. The font type was kept the same but decreased in size so that all the text can fit onto the page. By using a plain white background means that the article is much more easy to read as the text comes up clearer.

Double Page Spread 3




After presenting my first designs to my target audience I came across several barriers which prove that the design was not effective and did not look very appealing to my target audience. They had told me that the page was not organised and looked unprofessional and that I had to rearrange the text to make it look more appealing. I also found out that the text colour was not effective and was not complimented by the background image which made it hard to read. Acting on the feedback provided I decided to change the layout and design of the pages.

Monday, 22 December 2014

Double Page Spread 2





The double page spread spans over 4 pages as the article is quite long. The remaining text from the article has been copied onto the page along with another image in relation to the article. The text is kept the same, same font and same font colour.

Double Page Spread 1

Before designing my double page spread I had written out a article to be present across the double page spreads. I had asked the individuals which my cover story was based on, several questions and wrote their answers down. 

I have now included an image onto the page which reflects the name of the article, 'Flashy Lifestyle'. I have also placed some of the article onto the page and colour coded the text, black text being questions and red being answers. The text has been separated into columns to make it look more like existing magazine articles as a majority of magazine articles are structured using columns. Page numbers have also been added.

Sunday, 21 December 2014

Double Page Spread Interview

The Asmal’s have taken the UK music game by storm! The cousins, who reside in Ilford, London, have come out of nowhere and grown the support of a huge number of people all over the UK.

We know that you three are cousins but what’s your past, what made you decide to enter the music industry?
We haven’t always lived in Ilford, at the age of 18 our families moved down from Leicester to escape various forms of corruption, we won’t go into too much detail. Since moving from Leicester we have come across stabbings and burglaries within our neighbourhood, these events have resulted in our families and close circle of friends to become much closer and do whatever it takes to protect one another. We moved down from Leicester to escape our past lives, surrounded by drugs and money … A lot of it! We began making little verses when we were younger, over the years we have become more and more passionate about making music, we effectively use music as an escape from all the bad things which often tempt us.
Who influences you to make the decisions you make?
Like most people the three of us look up to our parents as they have provided with us with everything we could ever want, we grew up in a wealthy environment as both parents had well paid jobs, we do whatever we can to please our parents, to give back what they have given us throughout our lifetime. Also, our small circle of friends play a huge part in our decisions, each and every one of us in the small group would die for each other. We have been friends for years and if one person eats, everyone eats, that’s why you will see my whole clique in the best designer clothes, from Louis Vuitton to Giuseppe Zanotti. To us, money is the motive, make as much as we can for as long as we can, which is why we have tried our hardest to make it in the music scene because we know, if you make it, you’re looking at a lot of money. A famous artist who has made it big which we see as a role model is Meek Mill of MMG (Maybach Music Group), only because he has worked his arse off to get where he is today. He never had it easy, moving coke to make a living and provide for his family. I’m not saying that we are in a similar situation in any circumstance but we have grew up in a rough area of Leicester and Ilford despite being gifted by our parents.

Would you ever sell out, as in leave your group of friends to become surrounded by more successful individuals?
Is that even a smart question to ask? Answer is no, we would never sell out for fame, we all grew up together, like a family, if we want to succeed, we will do it together, no selling out, and no back-stabbing. We are happy being surrounded by each other, in my opinion, we make enough money as it is, and it is enough to feed our families and then some. We have enough to spend thousands and thousands on clothing just because we can. If one of us was approached by a record label, we would say, if you want to sign one of us, you have to sign the other two, it’s always been a team effort and it will stay that way.

Who would you consider as ‘competition’ or a threat?
Competition? Who can we class as competition? We have no specific artists but every rising UK artist will come under the category of our competition, around Ilford we have several individuals who are like us, motivated by money and success, but what makes every person different is the way we do things, some will work hard and try to improve themselves others are naturally good, it just the case of finding which you are.

I see that you are wearing a lot of designer clothing. What role does fashion play in your lives?

Fashion to us, it means a lot, from day one we have been covered in  designer clothing, Gucci, Versace you name it, we had it, given to us when we were young by our parents, we want to keep that same lifestyle, which is why we work so hard in order to make money to pay for those things. Not only clothing, we also work hard to buy the finer things in life, we each have brand new cars, the three of us recently bought a house in Chigwell, we paid equal amounts and hope to move in, in the near future, when our income is stable we will move in, then slowly work towards moving our family out into homes of their choice.

Saturday, 20 December 2014

Contents Page 3



I have developed the page further by adding more images and moving the text around once again. I have structured the page so that the images are in the central area of the page so that the attention of the reader will be drawn to the images. The images I have chosen to use represent the main cover story of the magazine, I have also included location photography of graffiti.

Friday, 19 December 2014

Contents Page 2



I have roughly separated the articles but will rearrange the page again. I have also included some pictures and played around with the layout of them, struggling to find the best suited design for the page

Contents Page 1


















Today I started finished the magazine's flat plan and began the construction of the contents pages. The flat plan has been designed in a way so that it is easier for me to separate each article depending on its type, competition/advert etc.  I wrote up the list of articles ready to be separated into various columns.

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Front Cover Development



I have acquired an image for the front cover, the image is of 1 member of the trio which my double page spread will be based on. When developing the front cover I altered the layout of the page, this including moving the text around in order to be visible on the page without blocking the image being used. I had also changed the font colour so it fits in with the colour scheme of the magazine (black, white and red). The price of the magazine and issue number was also included.




Front Page & Flat Plan


This image represents the first basic design for the magazine front cover, it consists of a masthead, several article names, a bar-code and a gift notification (which will be provided with the magazine).

Up to this point I have designed the masthead to be placed on the front  cover, decided what will be present on the contents page, to make it easier I have started to create a flat plan for the magazine and allocated colours depending on the type of page, e.g. blue pages are adverts, red pages are competitions etc.
I am still looking for a picture to be placed on the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Masthead




I had experimented with a range of styles to use for my masthead, I felt it was necessary to incorporate some sort of idea linking with music within the masthead. Within each design idea for the masthead I had used the G Clef/Treble Clef or Crotchet symbol to replace the 'I' within the name of the magazine. I had experimented with a range of fonts and colours, although each design consisted a musical symbol the designs were different. Despite receiving some positive feedback about the designs the same negative response which had come up was that the font does not fit in with the genre of the magazine. taking that into consideration, I had looked at existing music magazines of my genre and analysed their mastheads and noticed that they all have a small, bold font which s easy to read and stands out on the page. therefore I opted for a much simpler font which is much easier to read on the page in comparison to the ones which I used in the drafts. I will leave the font colour alone for the moment and will decide the colour for the text once I have chosen an image to use for my front cover.