Final Front Cover & Conents Page

This is my final front cover. I struggled to find a good position for the text so that it wouldn't take the look away from the main image. I then decided to put the text towards the bottom of the page so that the light would still be in the image. Also i wanted the effect that the text was presents around the tree. My main story is about a photographer so that's why the text is in a bigger font than the rest. I think that it looks quite sophisticated and elegant. The masthead fits in and looks good with the rest of the page. I choose to keep the colours basic and i associate black as being a modern colour.

This is my final contents page. I decided to associate the pictures with the text which are the page number you would find the story about that image by colour. I think it brighteners up the page. I didn't want to over do it with the pictures so decided just to use four. I choose to drop the word contents as it is fairly obvious that it is a contents page. Also used the word experience from the masthead, i think it works really well.

Contents Page Drafts

I want my contents page to have the same type of style as my front cover. So i started my ideas with plain black and white and i thought i could include something Christmas associated  considering it is around the Christmas time.

This was my first attempt of my contents page. I thought that i wanted to include the title of the magazine and tried it at the top corner, because the 'manx tails' magazine that i researched had that written in the top right corner. However i don't really think that it looks stylish. I choose a white background, because the cover is so dark. I don't want to give the impression of a dark dull magazine. Also i put the date on the top left and choose to put Christmas tree's either side of it. I like the idea of using something like this, but just not sure if this looks the best. I then thought it would be a good idea to section of the page to place the text. However it didn't seem to be even on both sides so i stopped half way through completing this to go on to changing it.

I like the layout of this one a lot better. I decided to get ride of the title of the magazine. I added two 3 legs of man as well. I moved the Christmas trees to either side of the 'Contents'. I'm undecided about them though because i think they look out of place. I then started to position the text and the images. I want to keep all the text towards the left hand side and the images to the right hand side.

I added more text and the rest of the images to get a better idea of how it looks. I'm not sure about having the Christmas tree's there, it makes it less sophisticated then how i want it. Also not sure about the 3 legs of man.

Front Cover Drafts

Here are a few of the drafts i did to get to the final front cover and to the chosen masthead.

This is my first rough draft of the image and the masthead. I needed to play around to see which one looked best. I like the main image, there is a lot of space around the tree itself which is useful for putting text. However i don't think i will put that much on the front because most of the magazines i looked at didn't have very much writing. They just had the main cover story. I tried to create good word art by using the 3 legs of man image in the background of the letters, however it was not successful.

I like this one, i think the text is good, however i think the black font is hidden and doesn't stand out as much as i would have liked. I'm not sure whether to have the text written right across the middle of the image because it is big and bold; which is what i want. However it just doesn't seem right. This also doesn't have the actual masthead on.

Another draft with the other image. I need to decide which one to use. I really like both. However this image seems to have a bit too much going on. There is a lot of colour and the text isn't noticeable. Maybe if i chose a different font. But i really wanted to stick with the Christmas theme and use red. I also have the final masthead on.

This is very similar to the other draft, not much has improved or changed. Apart from the colour of the font and i deleted the 'around the island'. I thought i could use green, which is still a Christmas colour. I also used glow around the word art which sort of gives the affect of lights around the text which i really like. I think i will stick with using the glow around which ever colour or style i use.

I have now decided to change my cover story a little. I was struggling to to make the other one look good and interesting. Because just having Christmas lights isn't going to make people want to pick up the magazine. So I've chosen to have an 'Interview' with a very famous local photographer. The main image is taken by him which fits in perfectly. His interview will be about him capturing people getting in the Christmas period which will involve some Christmas lights. I want this magazine to be sophisticated and modern so i really like the font. I also included a little symbol type to show that the image was taken by this 'Photographer'. Also i will just have one main cover story. The Manx tails local magazine that i looked at only had one and think it looks really good. Also I've decided this will be a free magazine.

Again i am trying to decided on what image is better. I think that i have found that the other one fits better. The text gets lost behind this image. I do love this though and will include it in my double page. This is good because there isn't much space around the main focus which is the snowman, however text doesn't look right places on it. So the other image will be my main one.