Drafting and planning

This is my final version of my front page and contents page:

I am very happy with my front page and contents page. It is clear that I have used a consistent colour scheme throughout. I have used a wide range of images and four different fonts to make it seem wild but clear.
Front page:
I have used a masthead of the font Amity Jack and included my magazine's URL inside the masthead. This is what other magazine's do. I have placed my artist over the masthead which makes her seem more prominent. By including six cover lines, I've proven that this is a jam-packed monthly magazine. I have ensured that the cover lines are stories that are in the contents page. They are of new artists I have created and of existing dance music artists. The white, burgundy, blue and lime green really compliment each other and this looks successful. The use of blue is a neon looking colour and this promotes the fact that my genre of music is dance music as you'd typically wear neon to a disco/night club. I have obviously included the generic conventions of a bar code and date line. I am very happy with the anchorage text on my magazine because it's bold and stands out from the rest of the stories on the front page. The artist's use of direct mode of address will entice the audience. The fonts I used were Consolas, Courier New, Amity Jack and Aharoni.

Contents page:
The title of "Contents" and "February 15", including the quote over the picture are in Aharoni font. It makes them big and bold and this will make it clear to the audience what page they are on. I used a black background on my contents page as this is what mixmag does; also I have positioned the contents features in columns because this is what mixmag does too. I have included the facebook and twitter logos showing that my magazine can be found online too and they are in lime green which makes a connection with the main image and colours of the front page. I have carried the colour burgundy through and highlighted all of the titles of the stories in this colour, it makes it seem consistent, bright and interesting. I have used three images on this page which feature two other artists that I have made up; there stories can be found on the contents page. I have included over 120 pages worth of articles, gossip etc. This is close to mixmag's total of 130 and proves that I have enough in my contents to make a successful monthly music magazine. By including the page numbers over the images, it establishes that my magazine is easily accessible, but this also connects to other music magazine's as they do it too.

Drafting and planning

I have began to make some improvements on my double page spread.
This is the first version:

This is my final draft version:

It's safe to say that my double page spread has improved since my first attempt. I have changed the colour scheme and added in black and blue. I think the colours really compliment each other and show a consistency which links to the contents page. I have kept the same main image but made it much bigger and made it straight. I think this is better as it makes the artist seem a lot more dominant and prominent on the page. For the questions in the article, I have made the font burgundy just like before but used a highlighter over it to make it lime green. This connects to the main images and colour scheme on the front page and contents page. The answers in the article are in white font which it used nicely because black and white are binary opposites and this is attractive because there's a great contrast. I have used a quote over the artist picture and this quote is actually found inside the article. The quote will draw the reader in. At the bottom of the article I have added a little summary of all of the places where you can find out more about the artist. This gives my magazine a sense of professionalism because it shows that my magazine promotes their Twitter page and website. At the top of the article, the heading is in burgundy font and this is successful because it creates a link to the burgundy masthead my magazine has. I made sure I added page numbers because they are compulsory and a generic convention. I got rid of the secondary image as I decided it was not needed and draws the article away from SIAN. I am pleased with this version of my double page spread.

Drafting and planning

I have been given feedback on my front page:

To improve on my front page to make it much better for when it's the real thing, I've been given advice to:

• Make sure that all of the cover lines are the same colour (burgundy) and this will create symbiosis between them and the masthead
• Make sure that the same cover line is clear that it's altogether - get rid of the spaces in between to make them stand out and connect
• Get rid of the negative space in the bottom left to make it seem fuller
• Get rid of the cover line about the iTunes voucher, you would not find this on a front page or in a magazine... choose a different pug e.g. Free Tiesto poster inside
• Centralise the anchorage text and make it all white to look professional and stand out

If I do all of the above my magazine will be successful.  I will have clearly followed the generic conventions of a music magazine and it should hopefully look like a real edition of mixmag.

I am going for a replica of this issue...

Although my colour scheme is different, I'd like to produce something just like this. It looks extremely professional and interesting.