Flat Plans For My Magazine

This is my draft for my front cover, the first thing I decided was that I wanted my mast head printed in capital letters and that wanted it to be in a bright colour, this is because i wanted it to be a main feature of the page and have as much emphasis on it as possible. Bold writing connotes strength and importance which is what exactly the tone I want to create. I then decided that i wanted my barcode, issue number, price and month in the bottom corner because although they are important I did not want them to draw in the readers attention instantly. This is a typical convention of magazines which I learned when doing my research. The next thing I did was add a box for where I was going to place my sub headings/articles, I used the stereotypical convention of left side third for this. After this is placed my main cover story, by putting it central across the middle of the page and overlapping the main image I am hoping to draw a lot of the readers focus to it and therefore incite them to purchase the magazine. I then added a tagline underneath the cover-line because it creates opportunity to further capture the primary target audiences attention and encourage them to purchase the magazine. Finally, after looking at my research and analysis of other magazines covers I decided to place a footer which provides space for extra information at the bottom of the page and a plug which creates interaction with the audience and allows them to feel more involved with the magazine and its contents. 

For my contents page I to decided to carry the house style of my front cover through by using the same caps lock and bold font to write 'contents' and I then made the next decision to place the slogan directly underneath this masthead because they link together well and emphasis' the message and tone of the magazine.  I also decided that I wanted to include anchorage onto this page and include images of famous dance artists in order to highlight the fact that it is a dance music magazine. Then I decided to include 'message from the editor' in a feature box because this is a common convention of magazines and because it gave me a chance to explain my choices etc to the reader, which again created further interaction. The page uses many different subheadings to show the article names and uses fillers underneath to fill empty space and provide the audience with extra information. 

My double page spread took a lot of consideration but in the end I decided to dedicate a full page to an image of the famous artist with a pull quote next to it to make the readers want to read the article. I then wanted to carry on the house style from the 2 other pages so I included an arrow at the top of the page which is the same as i want to use on the contents page. I want my article to take over the full page and my image to be very dominant on the the opposing page. I wanted to use a pull quote with the reversed out text on it to draw attention to it and capture the audience if they are simply flicking through the page. I am using many different typical conventions on this spread including a standfirst, main body text, drop quotes, images and picture credits because they are exepect by the audience and ensure that the page looks proffesional. I also plan on using a drop shadow on either the masthead or the image to add emphasis.