Below is my improved contents page that I have adapted in accordance with my targets from my first draft of the page. By making yet more improvements to my second draft, hopefully I can develop this contents page into something that considers all aspects of Mine En Scene and attracts my target audience.
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What’s new?
From my first contents page draft there were a number of targets that I made so that my second draft could be even better. I firstly decided to change the general typefaces so that it would be more conventional for my genre. I changed it to ‘Times New Roman’, which also now matches my front cover – making the magazine really start to come together. However, for my second target which was to ‘spread out the cover lines so that it is clearer for the reader’, I chose to not act on this one because I felt that if I did increase the line spacing (which I did try), there would be a very limited space left on the page to add in insets and quotations etc. I think that is is clear enough for the reader to scan over the page and get a good idea of the contents of the magazine. Likewise to my second target, after many attempts, I also decided to not act on my third either. I wanted to cut out my model on Photoshop so that I could show more skill and play around with the text and image a bit more. Despite this, it proved incredibly difficult to do this due to the white dress matching the white background. I attempted to use the burn tool on Photoshop to make the dress darker than the background to make it easier for me, however it did not work.
The next thing that I wanted to improve on was the facial features. I decided that I wanted to make the features on her face – such as her eyes and lips – brighter so that it would draw more attention to the main part of her. I did successfully use the dodge tool on Photoshop on her eyes and mouth, however because her face is located so far away from the camera, it is difficult to tell what I actually did. To make this more conventional as a contents page I also made the target to consider including insets. Instead of adding in more images from my shoot and linking them to certain page numbers, I chose to design my own album cover, using an image from my photoshoot and the album name ‘Silver Linings’. I thought this would fit very well on my contents page as my cover star is an emerging artist, and this debut album will help draw the audience in. I tried to keep the cover conventional to other Indie music album covers and think I did it well.
A couple of other changes that I made excluding my written targets was firstly moving the quote to the bottom of the page in order to fill the blank space. I also highlighted it as I think it makes it stand out more – it is a key quote from the cover star herself so I felt it needed more recognition that what I gave it previously on my first draft. I also deleted one of the feature article titles as I felt I needed more space and established I didn’t really need as many as I had before. I think fewer headlines looks much more conventional than a crowded page.
The final change that I made was significant but I think it allows the contents page to make the magazine itself much more interactive for the reader. I decided to add in an editors note that I wrote myself. I really think it fills an empty space and allows my contents page to instantly become more conventional and look more professional.
What’s next?
- Change page numbers for articles eg. match up cover star number with quote number
- Make the signature a darker colour – black so that it stands out/matches the text
- Bigger main/star image?
- Attempt to change the brightness to accentuate facial features again
- Move around text so that ‘cover story’ ‘features’ and ‘interviews’ are all in one column?
- Take the quote off her fingers so that we can see the blue nail varnish
- Buy now…where…remember call to action…how and where do they get it? spotify logo add in?
- You have two different page numbers for Millie…4 and 64…which one is the one the relates to the DPS?
- Cover Stories, Features feel like different sizes to each other
- Get a blue line in or two?
- Put prodigy masthead as a tiny logo top right or where it is mentioned in the coverlines – it is a brand.
- Bit of drop shadow on the inset CD?