Skills Development Experimentation & Planning

Flat Plan-  I have created a flat plan for my magazine to show which order I think the pages will be best to go in. I think a simple example of how I would want my magazine to be presented and this would be a guide to how I want it to be while I am producing the magazine. I am yet to figure out how I am placing the images but I am hoping to create a second flat plan on how I am planning on structuring the text and images on the page.



Colour Scheme- While looking for a colour scheme for my magazine. I looked on a website called colourlovers.com to take a look at magazines and their print colour trends to see what type of colour scheme I could get inspiration from. My instant thought from when I started this project is that I wanted it to have a dark main theme throughout the whole of the magazine. I felt like having bright colour may overload the type of image I want the magazine to set and so I started taking a look through magazines with dark print colour trends. Out of the covers I had seen, it came down to three colour scheme which I think would suit the magazine. I like the way all these colour contrasts against each other in their own individual groups. I like Pop Africana the most because I like the earth colours and I think this would really work well with the image I have in my head about this project.





I like the colour tones of the monocle magazine because I like the dark and the light tones contrast and compliment each out. These colours are almost pleasing to the eye. If I do use this, I need to make sure that I don't overuse the yellow on the magazine otherwise it would be too hard to read. I printed out the groups of the colours and showed it around to people in the college and outside of college. The conclusion is that people liked the Pop Africana colour scheme and the Monocle colour scheme because they both had an essence of brightness, unlike the proximity colours which had more earthy undertones and did not show as much brightness unlike the other two groups of colour. I would say that out of the two remaining themes I would choose the Pop Africana theme but add hints of yellow because I think that it would give that uniqueness into the magazine. Also, analysing these themes had made me think about how bright colours can be used and not be over powerful on the page.

Title design of magazine- When I was deciding about the title of the magazine, I was thinking about how I would like my audience to remember about the magazine. It came down to the two words, Verified and Living Daily. Then I decided if I wanted serif or sans-serif. Experimenting on all the fonts I have decided to go for 'Verified' in san-serif typography. I think that if I use the serif typography it would make the magazine look different to what I imagine it and I feel like would give off an impression that it is a formal magazine.                                   

Using a serif type for the text or the headlines wouldn't be out of thought when designing the magazine. I think that I am trying to differ from the codes and conventions of a magazine and I during my research for entertainment magazines they use a lot of sans-serif types and font with I think looks better than serif because san-serif type is more unique in the sense of serif is more pleasing to the eye and it is more easy to read.

As serif is more easy to read and I am having all people of different abilities reading this magazine. I need to think about how accessible this magazine can be for the target audience. Especially, for people who are hard of reading and offering other alternatives for reading or listening to the magazine.

What I am planning on doing is using some of these images in the magazine with red black and white colour scheme, I have experimented on what I am going to add and by what I have analysed and checked I think that these images would go best. I am going for an edgy and relaxing theme. It is based on entertainment I thought about adding things from different genres from music to vlogging and more, I decided to changed my 16 page magazine to an 8 page due to how much I planned and how much time I had I couldn't make a 16 page magazine in time so I have made some adjustments and I am able to complete this magazine, social media pages, and an advert. I decided to use these images with a filter because it shows how her selfies aren't professionally taken and that she is down to earth.

When creating the front cover of the magazine. I decided to experiment a bit further on whether I should keep the title as it was or place it in different positions. I figured that the title didn't look good so I changed the font of the magazine, from the changes I made I think I made a better choice. Especially, when moving the main image over the masthead. I think that it makes the magazine more unique and edgy because it makes the main image more noticeable. Also, I think that the colours contrast very well with the masthead and that is why I decided to change the masthead font to match the colour and the style of the front cover. I think that using the colour red, white and black colour font would make the magazine very dark but it would would make it unique in the sense that the dark colours contrast each other and make parts of the image brighter. In the end I think the image in the top right was the better choice to make because I looked more professional and more like a mainstream magazine you'll find.



I started making an advert based on The Harry Potter Studios because their attraction is based on entertainment so I thought why not advertise something which is meant to entertain people. I recently went to Harry Potter Studios and took pictures with me and my friends so they look like genuine images with real reactions. I experimented with the grey and red colours as they both match the magazines but I think that the red one suits the magazine better than the grey one so I decided to upload that onto the magazine.



This is one of the adverts I decided to make because it was to do with music and entertainment so I figured to make a gig advert for a band people would be recognised. This shows the dates that the arctic monkey is touring all over the UK. This is an actual picture that I have taken when going to one of their gigs in London. I thought about the images and I decided to use this because it is a wide shot of everyone enjoying themselves in the crowd while the band performs. I wanted to show the emotions and enjoyment through the advert to the target audience as they would have picked up the magazine because they are interested in entertainment or the music genre individually.




 When creating the contents page, I looked back into my research and I was debating whether I should keep the same colours or change it up. I know I wanted to keep the same colour scheme throughout the whole magazine and I wanted it to be similar colours. What I did is change the way it is laid out on the page so instead of their being everything all in order, I wanted more spread out and at an angle so it didn't seem so strict and serious as I wanted this magazine to be a very modern and simple magazine. The way I wanted the page is to have the title popping out and standing out of the page so it is memorable instead. I think because the title is white and the background is red this really makes the magazine title stand out and makes it edgier because it is out of place of the sentence

When I added the images I wanted them to be out of place as well because I thought about if my contents page had a structure to it then it wouldn't seem as interesting as if they were on different places on the page. It creates more of a desire to read and it is not conforming to the codes and conventions of a magazine which makes the layout unique and definitely stand out in front of other magazine contents pages. The images have also been placed conveniently in their sections because I need space for the text but also wanted their section to have their part in the magazine. I used images from the articles for sneak peeks about the articles they are featured in to get more of a hint before the reader reads that section.

When adding the text, I thought about having all black text on the descriptions of the article. When I was typing it out, I did not think about how I can make it look more eye-catching until after. So I added a border around the page (in final production page) and highlight important words people may attract to, like names of bands or competitions to win free items.









I started making a double page spread and I made sure I used the exact colour scheme with red white and black. To show I think this was a good idea because the colour go well together and it is easy to read as well. I will be definitely going with this because it works well with everything I had going in the first place. This double page spread is about an upcoming vlogger and what is coming up on her vlog next. The layout is needing to be spread out and easy to read that is why the font is bigger than usual


I decided to change the background colour of the double page spread because it was starting to look too similar to the other pages and I wanted variation within the magazine pages so I switched the colours so it has the same theme but the colours are used in a different way. The images have a black frame to make it more informal and make the connection closer to the audience as her image aren't meant to be 'professionally taken'. I wanted the images to seem friendly and honest towards the readers.

After adding the images I thought about adding a border around the page to make the page have more colour rather than just having an empty white page. Using the same red colour border shows the variation and the matches the theme of the magazine, also stands out from the white background.




Adding the text making sure that the text and making sure the questions are a different colour from the answers help make the design stand out. Especially, the verified words make it design more interesting. Also, the font is bigger because I want it to be more accessible to people with reading difficulties. I know it is not the norm to have a big font but I did consider my audience and how everyone has different abilities.

When designing this contents page I wanted to keep the same format on the other pages. Especially, with the black frame against the images and the Verified title. I thought about how I wanted to present this article and having highlighted words do make the paragraph stand out. I also wanted to use the same font to represent the theme.

When making the competition, I thought about making both articles a competition to attract more readers. I think having the board against the images makes the images look professional because of how it is laid out on the page.