Creating my double page spread

DraftI placed the title of the article across both pages to emphasise the fact that the same article continues over both

Artist’s name in a bold, noticeable typeface so it is clear who’s tour it is. The name of the tour name and photos in collage form underneath too

Tour dates written on notepads with handwritten style font. Adds a handmade, sketch book style to the article.

Artist’s name in a bold, noticeable typeface so it is clear who’s tour it is. The name of the tour name and photos in collage form underneath too

Texts in two columns- following conventions of a magazine

DraftTo begin with, I did a sketch to bring to life my initial ideas. I wanted my double page spread to follow the house style set by the cover page and followed through by the contents page.

I decided to do “Tours of the month” as my questionnaire results showed a high interest in new, up and coming tours. I decided I would focus on two tours and the artists Jessie J and Katy Perry- these artists were popular in questionnaire results. The images were taken by myself on the tours which I am writing about which fit together perfectly. I wanted one tour per page and each page would consist of a brief summary of the artist and their tour, a note pad and pen with tour dates, a collage of tour photographs and the artists name and tour name close by.

Originally, I chose my text to be white and pink to tie in with the house style of the cover and contents. I made the title and the artists names white and used a bold simple text to make them stand out and I chose red tour dates for Jessie J to match her hair and blue tour dates for Katy Perry to match her peacock costume.

I didn’t like the layout as I thought it was far too empty as the text only took up so much room. I also found the pink clashed with Jessie J’s hair colour and the page began to look washed out and I instantly knew I had to change some things. Although I wanted it to follow the house style, I realised that I needed it to differ in colour and font style as magazine’s don’t follow a colour theme throughout their articles and the pink was beginning to become repetitive and boring. I also wanted to include the union jack in the page somewhere to emphasise that the tours were UK tours and it was difficult to do so with the pink as I felt the red didn’t go well with it. I also began to think that the bold simple text looked boring.

Revised version 2

In order to fill out the page more I added two quotes taken from Katy and Jessie about their tour- Katy talking about “raising the bar” in her performances and Jessie making a humorous comment about all the things she wants in her dressing room- the sarcasm she uses is funny and I think my target audience will appreciate her humour. I also changed the background gradient to a darker blue fading to white to stop the repetition of pink and white and also to eliminate clashing colours. I changed the text to a darker blue colour as it was visible yet it matched the background colours. I changed the plain text into the artists name logos so that the artists are easily recognised by my target audience as they are strongly associated with the font of their logos (names). I also added paint splatters behind each tour to create a messy, arty look which I thought was interesting and matched the other parts of the magazine which had a hand finished look to them (such as the arrows on the contents page).

In order to incorporate the union jack into my page, I created a clipping mask (as I did for the leopard print in the Nicki Minaj cover line on my front cover) and had the title as a union jack.

Overall, I much preferred the look of my article but I thought it was a bit too dark looking with the background and the title both being a deep blue colour.

Revised version 3

I thought that creating a three colour gradient for my background would eliminate some of the darkness which I felt was making my article look a bit dull. I also thought that having blue for Jessie J and deep pink for Katy Perry expressed the themes of the tour and their individuality. It made the split between the tours obvious and I think it makes the article easier to take in at a glance but I still wasn’t happy with the darkness in the top left corner.

Revised version 4Lightened gradient background

Final revised versionAdded a brief introduction to explain the article more – easy reading appeals to my target audience

Page numbers added

More photographs added to fill space and create an interesting and busy composition

Rearranged quotes

Text rearranged and sized down to create a more professional look and to follow conventions of columns more