Contents Construction

13/11/08 - Today was the beginning of my contents page. From my draft designs I had decided to go for the design with the 'contents' title going verticle down the left hand side of the page.

I began by colouring the background and adding the title as it was the only thing that i knew would be included as no matter which position it is placed in the page will still contain the title 'Contents' therefore it made sense to me that it was the first thing i added, I also made the background the same colour as the title page which I consider using on all of the pages. I then reopened by finished cover and looked at the coverlines I had used and as there were only three off them instead of more as there were on my cover draft I decided to include them all.

The next thing I did to my magazine cover was to include the three coverlines but as the article was only to be a two page spread I needed it to look more conventional therefore I decided to create more stories that people my age, teenagers, would want to see included in a music magazine. I came up with a few good ideas and included them, I just managed to include the coverlines before the lesson ended.

14/11/08 - Today i began by adding an image of myself as in various magazines i had realised that sometimes the editors include a message from themselves to the read which is something i had decided to do. However, with the coverlines down the page and the title down the left hand side this left very little room for me to write.

As this was the case i began to wonder what i could change to give me more room, i decided to move the title to the top of the page, i also changed the font from Bernard MT Condensed to Comic Sans MS, this way i could use the left-hand-side for me to write down. I made sure the title was to the the right at the top of the page and used the space to the left to put my image. Around the image I added a pink lined box so that the image wasn't simply floating in midair as i knew this wasn't allowed. I also moved the coverlines along slightly so I would have enough room. Unfortunately I didn't get the writing done today as the lesson ended before I could.

17/11/08 - I didn't have a lesson today as I was part of an entreperneur task that was going on.

18/11/08 - I began by finishing the writing I started on the friday as missing a lesson meant i was further behind, afterwards I noticed a few things wrong with the changes i had made. The title of the page seemed a little dull so i decided it would be a good idea to surround it with a coloured box and used a fushia colour to do just that which made it stand out much more. I also added underneath, in the same colour, 'January 2009, issue 1/Volume 1' which is what magazines have on them so customers know the dates of certain issues.

I thought the idea I had about adding writing for the readers would be a good idea but once it was done it began to look different. It took me a while to figure it out but I began to understand, it was because of the coverlines as on magazines each coverline usually has a small sentence underneath giving an overview of the story which was something that I hadn't done and, in my opinion, it began to make the page look a bit cramped.

I therefore removed the image of myself and the writing and inserted a picture of 'Dee' the star that was the focus of my magazine, I placed this image in the bottom left corner and placed the coverlines around it. With the writing underneath each one took up more room meaning that i didn't have as much writing as I thought I'd have which reduced the cramped look even more.

19/11/08 - Today I adjusted a few parts of it and finished the coverline changes on the contents page. I didn't have much to do this lesson and as this was the case I merely added and removed different aspects of the page until I thought it was the way it should be. I haven't e-mailed it to my teacher yet as I have another lesson tomorrow and I am waiting incase i come across any further adjustments that need to be made.

20/11/08 - Today i spent the lesson continuing to update this blog and finishing the adjustments to my contents page draft before e-mailing it to my teacher. This is the final lesson of the week and I am gald I managed to finish my contents page and e-mail it to my teacher before th end of the day as if I hadn't then i would have to wait until next week as I don't have macromedia fireworks at home.

24/11/08 - yesterday I emailed my final draft version of my contents page and recieved feedback this morning. I spent today doing these improvements. I recieved a grade C- for my draft but I hope to boost this up to a grade B. It had been noticed that the font for the title on my contents page and title page were not the same therefore this was on something that needed to change as I needed to maintain the magazines 'house style'.

Secondly I was told that the Comic Sans font I had used for the writing on the contents page made the magazine appear to be aimed at a very young audience therefore I changed this and used the same font I had used for the coverlines on the cover page which was Arial and was something I should have to to begin with as this would also maintain the magazines house style.

I was also told that the colour scheme should be kept the same in my magazine as on my cover page I had used green, blue, pink and purple whereas on my contents page I used orange, blue red, yellow and pink which meant I had added another colour but that i had also changed some of the colours. i was able to do this as it meant that the magazine house style had changed therefore I improved my contents page but somehow I forgot to change these colours and used the same ones in my 'final' copy.

After sending the 'final copy to my teacher via e-mail i asked if she could suggest any further improvements as I was still aiming towards my B target grade. She suggested that I change the background colour from blue to white, she thought that by doing this it would make my magazine more professional which was another comment on my feedback as it didn't 'have a professional feel' to it. I recieved that e-mail later tonight but was unable to do the improvements today.

25/11/08 - Today was the day I made the suggested improvements to my contents page and I believe it worked out. Instead of emailing it to my teacher again i asked if it looked better that way and she said it was a huge improvement which was good. Yesterday, although i emailed my teacher about my contents page feedback i also asked what my overall grade was for my front cover and recieved the reply which said a C, although I was partly pleased with this mark I wanted to achieve a B as i know this coursework is 50% of our AS mark. She also sent a cover example (left) with the email which gave me an idea of what I needed to do to improve my cover (right).

My teacher also said she could sit down with me and discuss what the best thing would be to improve it but I didn't do this, instead, today, during my free lesson I took the feedback I had been given for my contents page and applied it to my cover as the background was also blue and though tht by also colouring the background white it would look more conventional to a real magazine.

Today I also changed the colours of the writing on my contents and cover pages using the most popular colours chosen by my questionnaire resposndents which were, blue, green, pink, red and yellow. By doing this I had settled on a house style and made it consistant throughout my magazine so far.

My teacher also showed me the example magazine with duffy on the front, Spin (above left), and told me that it would be a good idea to make my coverlines different sizes and to use two different colours as, using the spin magazine as an example, it would make my magazine more conventional.

Final cover was completed on the 26/11/08

26/11/08 - Today I continued with the changes suggested on my contents page as I used an example focusing around oasis which gave me a good idea as to how to make my contents seem more like it came from a real magazine. I moved things round a bit and changed the number and location of the image on the page to make enough room for the information the way I had decided to position it.

Instead of having the page numbers and stories in one long list I used the example as an icon and positioned my stories a similar way, by splitting them intop differetn sections although instea dof having three I only had two, features and regulars in order to make the page my own and the layout different instead of copying it completely.

Today i also completed the final version of my cover using my free time to make the changes suggested to me in the lesson but I didn't managae to send copies of either of these to my teacher as time ran out but this will be done immediately tomorrow as in tomorrows lesson we are beginning to right our article and as this is the case I would rather have completed and sent of my cover and contents page so that I am able to focus on the task at hand.

27/11/08 - Today i sent my copies of my cover page and contents page to my teacher and will begin my douple page spread article. I will await any possible feedback from my teacher and if there is time make these improvements in order to get the best possible result I can get.