Double Page Spread Analysis'

This is a double page spread from NME magazine. . NME is a magazine aimed at predominantly male 16-30 white audience interested in the 'indie' genre.

The first page  is comprised of one large picture of 'The Chapman Family' (the band included in this article) with the overlapping text of their name [The Chapman Family]  in large bold letters. the picture on this page consists of the whole band in an average house. It is a very quirky, interesting image as one of the bands members is completely out of the picture which intrigues the audience into reading if they don't recognise the bands name to wonder what the picture means. The bands name is in a very large, bold and simple font, suggesting an aura of professionalism, classy outlook and some mystery towards them.

the second page of the double page spread is all of the text for the article. to attract the reader to reading this article, many strong words and phrases are used in the large font that consists of the description of the band. phrases such as 'They hate lazy indie' and 'get shot at by local kids'  are exciting and intriguing words as powerful  as 'shot' and 'hate' which make it sound like an action filled article so it grabs the reader's attention.  Another example of attracting the reader is a pull quote which says: 'ive been shot at for the way i look before. it's no big thing for me' which is an exciting and masculine statement which makes the people in article sound appealing to the readers so they are encouraged to reader on.

[i did not use any of these ideas as i believe they only work for a solely based interview double page spread and mine was reviews so this layout did not suit the style.

on the left third of Kerrang's double page spread it is comprised of mainly text. this covers only one third of the page and the rest is pictures which is similar to the design i have with my article because teenagers and young adults have a lower attention span on walls of text and pictures would not grab their attention for long so the picture to text ratio is 70/30.

the centre and right third is comprised of one main picture and five sub pictures. these are brightly lit background which bright colours attract their younger audience to read the article if they find the pictures appealing.

The layout of this magazine links in very well with its genre. Again on this magazine there is a lot of pictures which shows that the readers of the magazine may be more interested with looking at pictures then reading long articles and lots of complex text. Their is little colour used on the actual background and on the text. The only colour is on the pictures and this makes them stand out. This may mean that they are the main part of the double page spread and may mean that the editor wants these to be the most important part of the page. The language which is used is quite informal and not very complex, this could link in with the target audience which would be teenagers and people who are into rock music.

i would not use this layout as it focuses too much on the little amount of text included which is suited for my audience but it is done to an extreme which makes the article a quick boring read.

contents page analysis

This is NME magazine's contents page. NME is a magazine aimed at predominantly male 16-30 white audience interested in the 'indie' genre.

I used this contents page as a basis for my magazine as it is well laid out and easy to navigate.

The headnote includes the logo of the magazine and the date which are the first things noticed by the route of the eye. the logo is included in large letters along with a bold 'contents' so you know what page you are on(the contents page).

In the left third of the page, there is a NME exclusive feature known as a 'Band Index'. This band index is in smaller sized font which means it is the last area that the route of the eye will establish, yet a very important feature  of this magazine. It lists all of the bands mentioned in this issue and tells you what page they are on. this is so that its very specific 'indie' audience can read about the bands they want as NME covers quite a few genres and they may not appeal to the individual reader. I found this an effective tool as it allows the reader to focus on what they want to read and they can find out what bands are in the magazine quickly before buying it. [I used this feature in my magazine as i used NME as a base to establish round and it is a very useful tool when dealing with very specific audiences like my target audience (16-25 year old predominantly white males interested in UK hardcore and metal bands only).]

In the centre of the page, NME puts their main article. The main article has one large image, a large bold text title and some smaller text describing the article. This is effective as there is only one image on the page and one large article, route of the eye guides to the image and then the article after the logo meaning the main article is read straight away which is effective to drawing in readers as it is usually the most appealing article to readers. Beneath this is a black box containing subscription details and a screenshot of the front cover of the magazine. This is effective as it is noticed after the main article is noticed which could convince them to subscribe to NME.  The simplicity of one main article is appealing to a male audience as it allows them to read through and navigate the magazine easier as in the magazine world it is shown that women's magazines are much more complicated in their layouts while music magazines(lower/middle class white males 16-25) like NME have much simpler layouts suggesting an easy navigable layout. [I also copied the idea of centre articles(i chose to have two main articles as they were both important and it looked very barren with just one picture) because as i am aiming at a white mostly male 16-25 working class audience, i decided copying a similar audiences magazines simple and easy to navigate layout.

On the right third of the page, the rest of the popular articles are listed under: News, Reviews, Live. This is effective as you can navigate and get details on popular reviews or live shows and read some summaries of the latest news in indie music. Once again this is an example of making the contents page simple and easy to read. This is the second place where the route of the eye takes the reader , so after reading the main article it leads to all the popular articles so they can quickly, in a few minutes have all the details on everything in the magazine by just reading summaries. In this issue there is an exclusive heading which is about Reading and Leeds, and 'Previews' of it. This is a popular festival with the readers of 'NME' magazine and the 'indie' genre and this would catch the readers eyes. also, there is a less important 'PLUS' section which lists things not directly covering certain event or bands (features include questions to NME, letters about the magazine and a compilation of pictures from readers with famous 'indie' bands or their members. [I used the first idea of listing the categories of News,  Reviews and Live as it is an easy way to navigate to the most important articles for my readers as they might want to read only live show reviews etc. how ever i did not use the PLUS category as i didn't have anything non related to bands, i should of included something like this but at the time i did not think of it as appropriate]

This is Kerrang magazines contents page. Kerrang is a music magazine aimed at 14-30 predominantly white males into the genre of 'rock' and 'metal'.

the layout of this magazine is a bit more complicated than NME as the route of the eye is a lot less simple.

The title for the contents page of Kerrang isn't very noticeable because it is in a small, yellow font in the top corner. although this is against convention and there is no logo, the way the magazine is presented shows it is of Kerrang origin. I would not base my magazine contents page title/logo off Kerrangs as it is too small for effect or to be noticed.

The left half of this contents page includes the main article and a foreword by the editor. the foreword is just describing events from the previous issue such as download festival (UK metal festival) and the main article's large picture, and two articles below it(sub-articles)  although this grabs the attention of readers it is unprofessionally laid out and the reader would not know where to look after the contents page. i would not lay my contents out like this as it is  distracting to the reader and they would not be able to navigate this complex layout unless they were long time readers of the magazine.

However, the right half of this contents page is much better laid out. There is a quote from a famous musician that is potentially worthless and not needed for any reason ( i believe it is there for comedic value yet is not valid or easily noticed). The next section to be noticed is the 'THIS WEEK' section which details all the articles not pictured in a short sentence. this is effective as it is quick and easy to read the summaries of the articles. However, the layout of all the articles listed with pictures is ineffective as it seems to have no proper order.

Overall, even with the effective but bland colour layout and consistent fonts, i would not choose a layout like Kerrang!'s due to an unprofessional and ineffective, hard to navigate contents page which would confuse its younger audience as the route of the eye is complete dysfunctional.

looking back at your premlininary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

this was my preliminary task's front cover. i tried to be arty by using illustrator to create a logo.
i used inconsistent fonts and a very large 1/4 face shot. this convention destroying magazine did not go too well and was of a low quality as it didn't really show any appeal or anything and was generally bad and looked extremely unprofessional or arty. The title font was completely unreadable and the all capitals with punctuation marks made this look more like a cheap fanzine than an actual college magazine.

in my new task i learnt about inset spacing so everything looked neater and did not overlap, i learnt about using consistent fonts for professionalism, and placing texts in the center of boxes. After my research i learnt  how to properly arrange things for route of the eye to work properly so it is easier and less straining to navigate and read. I decided to go against the convention of a 3/4 body shot again but with a full body shot this time, but as this photo shoot was more planned and used for a certain effect eventually it turned out to a higher quality than my preliminary task, as i had learned new skills in magazine design and i learnt about new  tools in Adobe InDesign such as Inset Spacing.

In my preliminary task, the college magazine contents page, i didn't know about proper arrangement, route of the eye, colour schemes, consistency and photo choices. Also my logo was inconsistent. Overall, i did not know what i was doing, i tried to free form a magazine without actually having a base idea, it was all rushed and i hadn't researched into professional magazines of that style so i pretty much slapped everything together and it was a piss poor performance. The unequal sizing of the pictures, the route of the eye was not proper so you didn't know which order to read the contents in. Also, my colour scheme wasn't correct and looked horrific.

in my music magazine task, i kept with consistent fonts(every single font used is Helvetica Bold) this gives a more professional outlook. i also learnt to keep a colour scheme going on on the page (black and white boxes, not all different covers).  my photo choices were better as they were actually taken in planning for this magazine and are of musical pursuits which are related to my magazine. my logo is consistent with my front page one which means it looks professional compared to my preliminary task. This time, I learnt well and decided to base my magazine on the NME contents page so i could relate to a professional magazine and have a base idea to work against which made it look much higher quality.

example of the basis to my music magazines contents page. the idea of the Main Articles in the center, the 'band index' in the left third, and the lesser important news, reviews and live shows on the right third, also the subscribing note at the bottom of the center articles. using a professional magazine as my template allowed me to make a better looking magazine.

overall, looking back at my preliminary task i have learnt about how to  make a magazine more professional using inset spacing, layouts, consistent fonts and CMYK photos.

in what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

my music magazine challenges a convention. firstly, the front cover picture is not a 3/4 body shot. i challenged this convention as i believed that a full body shot suited my magazine a lot more than the usual and i used it for a more appealing effect.
it developed a convention of having the main article headline in the centre at the top. i moved it into the middle as it helps to see the actual front page photo.
i adhered to one convention by keeping my logo at the middle in the top of the page as it provided the most effective and professional look.

in my music magazine contents i challenged a convention. i used more than one main article in the middle as i wanted to focus on more than one and it gives a professional look.
i developed a convention of including all the articles on the contents by adding all of the pages as a 'band index' for easy access to look at the bands the audience want to.
i used a convention by putting my logo at the top and have a CONTENTS label for it as this helps keep the magazine professional.

in my music magazine double page spread i challenged a convention. i put the double page title in the centre of the left page instead of at the top as i wanted to influence the route of the eye so they read the article straight away.
i developed a convention of keeping the article in the middle of the page by spreading it between the two pages. this gave it a more professional look.
i adhered to a convention of starting the article on the left of the page because it looks professional and standardized and route of the eye works better for me.

choices of photos + justifications

i chose the photo for my front cover as i needed one of a full band lineup in an actual shoot and this gave the desired dark effect i was going for. also it fit my magazine style(teenagers) and they represent the audience well.

i chose to use this photo as a front cover piece as it is the only mid action close-up i had and could be used for many purposes as it fit into my articles well. i had to remove/fill the black space but it worked well.

i used this photo for my contents page as it is a medium length 3/4 body action shot which grabs the readers attention and could be used for effect as the man represents someone well known in the audience community. i left it raw as it was only a preview of the photos to come.

this photo is a re-edited and cropped version of the photo above. i used this as a gray as it isn't meant to grab the audiences attention straight away but the size makes it noticeable.

i used this photo as crowd photos are filler photos but can also attract the audience who went to that gig, as they may want to spot themselves(research into this i did at home which i have no file for showed that peoples eyes were drawn towards photos like this to search for themselves). it was mainly justified as a filler photo.

this photo was chosen for my magazine as it shows a mid action shot of the guitarist. i kept it small as it was a filler photo but it does attract people to it as the guitarist is wearing a bright shirt.

i chose this photo to be used as it was a mid action shot of a bassist, and bassists aren't usually pictured in many magazines(not a convention just a pattern) so i thought i would break this pattern and add this picture. it draws the audience to it as it was an interesting shot itself.

i used this photo also as a filler but the fact it is mid shot is also interesting as people will look at whats happening in the mid action photos. it is slightly dark but in my final product the levels had been altered to make it clearer.

this photo was simply included because it is part of the narrative of the review(stage invasion) and people will want to see pictures of the detailed events.

this next photo was added as it captured more than 3 band members and people will look at the photo if they recognise the members, it also helped to fill space in the magazine.

this photo was included due to the fact i have an interview style area with opinions from the audience and this included a band member and one of the audience, so it fitted perfectly with the plan for my magazine,

double page spread part 2

after realizing that my title was not in a suitable location and route of the eye would not flow as well as i had hoped, i had to move it so i re-sized my pictures to fit the new location of the title and moved the title to a place where the route of the eye would lead to the article(above the article, below the main picture). Also, i used shift and the re-sizing tool on my titles so that they were in proportion but larger and more noticable to the eye,

Once i realized that my magazine did not look up to a true professional standard, and the route of the eye was incorrectly placed. I then replaced the re-sized picture and added my titles in, meanwhile placing my main two columns of the text back to where they were as i deemed them fitting to stay where they were as i got a member of the class to look at my article and they managed to follow the text, they did not obstruct route of the eye, which meant that the article still worked as normal.

This became the final product. i noticed a large area of black space which i minimized with my best efforts by adding my logo in at the end of the article in large letters, which also makes it recogniseable to my readers so they know where the article is from. I considered the idea of enlarging my texts or removing pictures but i did not find any suitable ways to do these without ruining my overall desired look and looked unprofessional to my own eyes. In retrospect, i do believe that i could of improved it by rearranging the article and text from the start but i did not know this until i did more research into double page spreads.

Double Page spread Process

firstly, i placed all my text onto my page in the desired layout and used the drop text tool to make my text flow naturally. Also, now my boxes are aligned, i started to realize that i had large white gaps as my photos did not fit into the correct areas appropriately, so i decided to come up with a solution:

 I solved this problem by adding black boxes whilst in zoom of 200% or more, so i could close up all the white gaps that were irregularly sized. This meant that every space that was blank was covered eventually. I encountered one more problem whilst covering these spaces in which were pure black.

after i noticed this space in my text box i noticed had a large black space i couldnt remove, so i decided to add my logo into the box afterward to fill the room and say it was a 'HOMESICK EXCLUSIVE'. This was to add my logo to the page which seemed appropriate, and also it helped somewhat fill up the page's black space.


The next problem i encountered were that my boxes had become uneven and the text would not align correctly which made my double page spread look unprofessional. To combat this i re-aligned and resized the boxes with text in until they fit perfectly.

After i corrected these problems and added my pictures back in to fit. i have removed all problems that i encountered during it using zoom, boxes, space filling and resizing. I believed that i had finished but i encountered some more problems which i have addressed in Part 2 of this post.