THE MAKING OF

Contents Page

Contents Analysis

The page is clearly split

into three columns.

The sections that are

included give an

indication to the nature

of the magazine in

this issue.

The page has pictures of

live performances

It has a band index

which shows the bands

that are going to be

listed in the issue.

The colour scheme is

consistent throughout.

I analysed the contents pages of NME and

I can use this information to influence my

own contents page

I started out with the basic NME layout and decided to keep a similar

structure in order to maintain a professional look.

Step One – Research

NME Layout My Ideal Layout

I copied the masthead from my front cover and gave it a black ground.

I stretched the black box across the top of the page and made it clear that it is the contents page

I also put the date in the same format

Step Two - Title

To create the band index I started with a black box on the left hand side.

Then I put the layer of text over the top, in white.

Next, I put the strips of colour underneath the letters.

Then inverted the colours and the strips so that the words were red and the strips were white.

Step Three – Band Index

I added two boxes of short articles to give an example of what can be

expected in the rest of the magazine

I used some quotes to make them stand out.

Step Four – Festival News

I took the photo of shelved glory in the studio, The photos of Gentlemen’s club and Ben Sayah (The Poppies) I had taken myself previously, the first at a friends house whilst recording and the other at a local gig that I organised.

It was important to me to capture the live aspects of music as well as studio shots.

Step Five - Pictures

For the right hand side I decided to stick with the subheadings

Although I changed them to suit my magazine.

I put the editors note in red to make it stand out from the rest

Step Six - Subheadings

I looked at many past issues and tried to capture the general tone and voice of the text

Using elements of humour and short sentences

I also added page numbers in red

Step Seven - Content

To finish I added my editors note

I included a handwriting font for the editors name

I also added a photo of one of my classmates to act as my editor

Step Eight – Editors Note

Throughout the making of my magazine I had been debating whether to go against my instinct of keeping my colour scheme Red, White and Black.

So at every stage I would substitute the colours and see which looked better. As I was struggling to decide, I opted to put it on Facebook and take the opinions of my audience

Step Nine – Decisions

In order to get some feedback on my work I

posted a picture of my work on Facebook. First

I uploaded my unfinished version of my

contents page, the colour scheme of which was

blue, white and black. It was clear that the

reception for my page was great, which I was

very happy with, although, the

one, repeated, criticism was that the blue parts

of the page would look better in red.

I decided to take this criticism on board. After

all if these are the types of people who would

be interested in my magazine then their opinion

is very valid.

So I finished off the page and converted the

blue to red and reposted it. The same people

commented on my picture and decided that It

looked much better in red. And I agreed, I felt

that it was more true to my original

research, which I should have stuck by in the

first place.

Complications

The live picture of mike was more difficult to get, as his band is under management, in order to get live shots of them performing.

I had to ask for permission from his management. Here is a picture of the email I sent with the reply.

Fortunately, I was able to get a live shot of Mike performing and I feel that it works very well and make the page look even more professional.

‘Yes you are welcome to use

some of the shots from our

gigs...I recommend the Haigh

Hall shots and maybe some

from Club Nirvana/Lux’