Contents Page Production Log

By Tesfah Watkins-Scott

1st Background

2nd Background

This image shows one of the few backgrounds that I have thought about using for my Reggae magazine contents page. The reasons why I have actually thought about using this particular background are because I feel that I don’t want the background of my contents page to be as colourful and bright as the front cover of my music magazine. I feel that if my contents page will be effective with the magazine front cover it shouldn’t be dull and bland but should be quite plain when compared with the background that is used on the front cover of the magazine which I have picked up on through reading different music magazines. However, once I created this background on Photoshop I realised that this particular background if used would allow my contents page to have no meaning to the front page other than the images and fonts used. I feel that this background would be too conventional for my contents page as I am doing the genre of music ‘Reggae’ which is quite unique compared with other students, therefore I wish to have by background quite different compared to normal contents pages.This image shows another background that I have thought about using for my contents page. As you can see this is the same background that I have used for the background of my music magazine front cover. I have thought about using this as my background for my contents page because, I feel that I want all the sections of the magazine to link in through the colour scheme so why not use the exact same background as the front cover to show the link between the two sections.

1st Contents Page Design

This screen grab presents my first attempt at actually creating my reggae music magazine contents page. For my first attempt I was quite proud of the layout of this contents page due to the unique features such as the background and the cannabis leaves behind some of the images. However, with a little advice from one of my media teachers he suggested that I shouldn’t use this particular background for the contents page because conventionally the contents page is normally quite plain but well designed. Furthermore, while designing this first draft I realised that the way the tilted images have been placed it will be hard for me to write the text in columns to make the contents page look structured. Instead the text that would be written would make the contents page look all cluttered and rushed. Also, I have changed my mind about putting the small masthead at the top of the contents page and instead have thought about placing this near the bottom left hand corner of the contents page because I still want to have that link with the front cover for when I change my background design. Also, moving the masthead from its original place will allow more space for me to write the actual title ‘Contents’ across the top of the contents page in a bold font to catch the readers attention to inform them that this page is the actual contents page.

Final Background This image is of my final choice for the background

of my music magazine contents page. I like the appeal of this particular background because as I stated before, I do not want the contents page to be too bright like the front cover but I want it to still be appealing. I had thought about using a plain white or black background but with a little help from my media teacher I realised that I could still have a plain background for my contents page but it could be a different colour other than white or black.

1. To help find a unique colour to use for the background of my contents page and allow it to link with the front cover of my Reggae music magazine front cover I had to use the Eyedropper tool to help me select a suitable colour to use for my background. With this tool it allowed me to go on my music magazine front cover and actually copy the colours that were used for my front cover and literally use the same colour for another section of my project. This then allowed me to get the yellowish colour from my front cover to use for my contents page as shown above which I feel is very appealing to my target audience because it involves one of the three colours involved with the colour scheme of my particular music genre.

2. This screen grab presents a new document in Photoshop that has been painted in this unique orange colour. I am using this particular colour to demonstrate how I got my effect on my background to make it seem like the background of my front cover is apart of the contents page background. As you can see after using the Eye dropping tool to select the colour that I wanted from my front cover I then had to get this colour onto my actual contents page. To do this it was very simple, all I had to do was select the paint bucket tool as shown and then click the white background that I wanted to change colour and then within a second the colour has been changed. 3. For the next step in creating this particular effect I

had to select the clone stamp tool so that I could basically mimic a specific area from the background of my music magazine front cover. To do so I had to hold down the Alt key whilst left clicking the mouse to drag over the specific area of my background so that the tool copies the specific area.

After this I then decided to lower the opacity of the cloned background as I only wanted it included in my contents page background if it was to be faded. To do this I just left clicked the tool that said opacity and lowered the opacity from 100% to 7% so that the pattern from my front cover background can only be seen faintly.

4. Once the last stage was completed I then had to switch to the contents page sheet on Photoshop and use the clone stamp tool on the background that I had created before. To do this I had to go over the background and left click wherever on the page I wanted the clone stamp tool to take effect on the contents page background. As you can see it allows the background to look very unique but still not look too bright and overwhelming. It allows my contents page background to be related with the front cover of my music magazine front cover which is a major technique to use to make sure the whole magazine is linked together.

Red coloured background for subheadings.

This screenshot presents a section from my 2nd attempt at creating my contents page for my music magazine. The screen grab shows a red background behind one of the subheadings which says ‘Interviews’. The reason why I have done this is because, from looking at the background that I wanted to use before even though I was on the verge of changing backgrounds, I still wanted to be able to use all three colours for the colour scheme of the contents page. And as you can see from the previous slide that the background of my contents page will contain yellow which then fades into a light green, so all that was needed was the colour red which is why I have used it for the subheadings. Also, I feel that this particular dark red colour also makes the subheadings stand out even though the font colour and the background are both dark colours. This is because when the dark colours have been contrasted against the bright background of the whole contents page it makes the dark section stand out just as much as the bright colours.

I did think about using bright colours for this section but I feel that it will make the whole contents page look to bright and too colourful whereas I would like my contents page to look quite calm and mellow yet still unique in its own way.

How I created the red Background for the subheadings

1. The first tool that I used to create the red background was the rectangle tool. The reason why I had to use this was because I had to select and highlight an area which I wanted to change into the dark red colour. So I clicked the rectangle tool and went onto the page and left clicked the mouse to dragged the rectangle as much as I wanted and then let go of the mouse when I was happy with what I had selected as shown in the screen grab.

2. This screen grab presents the next step I have taken to create the red background. After using the rectangle tool to highlight the section I wanted coloured I had to go to the icon that shows the two panels with colours on them and click the icon. As you can see when the tool was clicked a box appeared with many colours that I could choose from to fill in the section that was highlighted and obviously I selected a red colour and pressed ok.

3. This screen grab presents the actual highlighted area to be filled in. I did this stage by after choosing my fill colour which was red I had to select the paint bucket tool to fill in the section. After selecting this tool I then left clicked the area that I wanted filled in and then within the space of a second the area was coloured with the red that I had chosen from the panel.4. After that stage the final

step that I had to take was to get rid of the rectangular shape around the highlighted section. To do this all I had to do was click back on the rectangle tool and then right click the highlighted rectangle and select the word which says ‘Deselect’ and this got rid of the rectangular shape as shown in the screen grab.

This image presents the masthead that has been presented on the front cover of my reggae music magazine. As you can see I have decreased the size of the masthead which is presented on my contents page. The reason for doing so is because I want my contents page to be linked in with the front cover of the music magazine not just by the colour scheme of the font and backgrounds used. This will appeal to my audience because it will make them notice that my magazine has been well organised and thought through and not rushed at all.

Smaller Masthead

How I done this?

1. The first step I had to take to be successful with duplicating my music magazine front cover masthead was that I had select all 3 layers that were used to create the masthead. To do this I had to click on Layer 23 and then hold the Ctrl key and click the remaining two layers so that all three layer s were selected.

2. The second step I had to take for this to work was once the three layers were highlighted I had to right click while the mouse is hovering over the layers and a menu like the one shown in the screen grab will show up. When this happened I had to go to the function in the menu ‘Link Layer’ so that all the three layers will be connected together which will allow the whole masthead to be moved around without moving each section one by one.

3. The third step that I had to do was once the 3 layers were linked together I then had to right click while the mouse is over the three layers again and this time I had to go to the function in the menu called ‘Duplicate Layers’. Once I clicked on this function 3 more layers will appear on the list of layers at the side, and on each layer name at the end was called ‘copy 2’.

Images

The first image that I have used for my contents page is from last years Notting Hill Carnival 2011 which I had attended. I had taken many pictures of the many floats that had gone past and I feel that this particular photo expresses the fun and conventional dancing that is presented in the Caribbean culture.

The second image that I have used for my music magazine contents page is an image of my model who is my sister playing the keyboard. I feel that this image emphasises the theme of the magazine not necessarily the genre of the music. Also, this particular image will be introduced well with one of the articles that I will be writing about this particular artist so it goes very well.

The last image that I have used is of the back of a mix-tape cover that I have created a few months ago. I will be using this image to go with one of the artists described in the articles and establish that this is the back cover of their brand new mix tape which will be out soon.

This screen grab presents the main text from my final contents page design. As you can see I have used a few techniques that I have picked up on from my research into contents pages. For instance for the layout of my contents page I stuck to a conventional layout so that the magazine won’t be too confusing for my audience as my front cover is quite bright and flashy. Furthermore, for each section of the information that is stated in the contents page text, I have used dividers to divide the text into different sections that they belong in such as: Interviews, News and Artists. I think this will help my target audience navigate through the magazine quite easily without any trouble. Also, for each part of the text shown I have highlighted in red the most important parts of the text which is then followed by a little sentence describing what the topic is about. I have used the colour red for this because not only doe it go with the background colour fro my dividers but it sticks to the colour scheme which I have wanted my whole magazine as a one to do. The font that I have used for the text section of my contents page is the font ‘Impact’. I feel that this font will stand out to the reader as it is very bold and thick even when the font has been decreased it still will not be faded out by the larger font sizes.

Final Outcome This screen shot is an image of my final

outcome for my actual final contents page design. As you can see the layout of the contents page is very well structured. I have used two columns and guidelines on the Programme InDesign to help structure my text and also my images. I have also stuck with the conventional colour scheme that I have used throughout my whole production process which was red, gold and green. This will be very effective to my target audience because, they will notice that the whole magazine product has been structured and organised to appeal to their very own ideal magazine. The two specific fonts that I have used for the contents page I feel allow the text stand out even though the colour of the font is quite conventional which is why I have involved the colour red for some sections of the text. I feel that even though the layout and structure of the contents page is quite conventional, I feel that still in away my contents page outcome is still quite unique than others due to the colour scheme, fonts and images that have been used to express Reggae music and culture.