Completed Music Magazine Double Page Spread

Beneath is both the latest and last addition to my music magazine: Vinyl. After designing and producing a front cover; contents page; and now the final piece, my double page spread, my music magazine is complete.

Masthead:

• Font - For the entire magazine I have used three fonts, but I have used two of them the most. For the masthead I used Times Roman Numeral; I wanted to keep it simple as the quote was more important than the font. Whilst this was a contributing factor to the decision of the font, I also thought that it was necessary to use a different font to the one that I used for the "Vinyl Exclusive" line. By using what would be the trademark font for the brand, Trajan Pro, for the latter I didn't would to repeat it, and cause the reader to not be able to differentiate the relevance of only using the "trademark" font once.
• Language/Topic - When I was choosing what the topic of the masthead should be I wanted it to be dramatic; surprising; and lead the reader to question "why?". Due to the masthead being a quote, the reader would be able to learn of the reasoning behind it in the interview. Also, the start of the quote sounds somewhat negative which would cause controversy, whilst the ending of the quote juxtaposes this negative idea.
• Size - The size of the masthead compared to the rest of the article is clearly much larger to ensure that it draws attention. Despite the skyline being even bigger I don't think it draws away from the masthead. In order to follow it's dramatic theme the masthead needed to be big enough to pop out on the page.

Skyline:

• Font - As I mentioned previously the magazine's trademark font was Trajan Pro and so it seemed fitting to feature it in the skyline. On the other hand, as the word "Vinyl" was written in the same font on the cover page it had to be written in the same otherwise it would lose all meaning to it's recognisability amongst other journals.
• Colour Scheme - Similar to magazines such as Vibe, Clash, and NME the title on the cover would change with each issue: this brings a sense of novelty without losing it's history. As a result of this I think the theme, for this particular issue and each one, should be consistent throughout the piece. With that in mind I kept the colour palette the same throughout, from the yellow, black, white and greys on the cover to the same selection being used on the double page spread. Not only does this ensure that it maintains a professional appearance but also keeps some fluidity and therefore familiarity. Another point to that is the use of yellow for the "V", on the front cover I used this to add a pop of colour. This could in turn be an additional trademark with the separate colour on the "V".

Main Images:

• Left Image - Prior to this blog post I uploaded my magazine photography, featuring the original shots and edited versions. I chose to use this particular one because the reader is learning about the artist and so it will make them feel as though they know them personally. Due to the direct eye contact and body facing towards the reader it should also enable them to feel like they are getting to know them, like you would do in a conversation.
• Right Image - As the artist speaks of her rise to fame relating to London I thought it would be relevant to feature a photograph that was taken in the city. I took the photograph in London Victoria as I thought it would be representative of how she "would travel up to London at the weekends". In addition to that, I decided to make the photo blurry because it would more visually interesting. I thought this was necessary as the left photo hadn't been blurred, so that the audience could recognise her etc., which makes the piece flow better without looking incompetent.

Article:

• Topics - Evidently some changes have been made to the sub-topics (the questions and answers) because I thought that these would both work better together and be more relevant to what fans would want to hear. However, I kept the introduction as this is essential and typical of magazines.
• Layout - Bearing in mind that some minor changes have been made the rest is more or less what I had intended. By using yellow for the questions; grey for the answers as well as a subtle shadow and bevel: they seem to stand out rather well. I also decided to use yellow for the songs which tends to be done in mediums such as these. In my opinion using these techniques ensure that one can differentiate between the sections. Furthermore, I placed them in a column-like arrangement to help it flow.

Overall

To conclude I am proud of the end product, even though I made some small changes it appears to be very similar to what I had hoped for. Despite it being a separate part of the course, I believe that my abilities in using Photoshop have improved compared to my sixth form magazine. Looking back I think that the academic version could have looked better with some practice; but having practiced on Photoshop since I think it looks much better. Whilst that may seem like the only factor I believe that my time spent outside of school related tasks on photography has benefited my work considerably too.