Mock-ups

Now that I've decided on my target audience and have collected data from my questionnaire, I have begun planning the layout for my main task construction pieces.

These are example layouts of how I would design my front page and contents page. The colours in the white boxes indicate the colours I would possibly use for those sections: mainly, I would like to use green, white and purple for my colour scheme, as I want my magazine to be individual and stand out on a shelf.



(Right = Front Page, Left = Contents)

The light purple on the front page mock-up indicates how much space I would like the main image to take up on the page - conventionally images on the front of a magazine take up almost the whole area.
Unconventionally, I would like to place a puff of information in the bottom-right corner of the front page, where a barcode would usually go. The lead article and anchorage text will go in the center of the page, over the top of the main image so that we associate this image with the article, and also so that it will be noticed by readers.

On my contents page I would use mainly images, and the section of text would be rather small as I feel that images would be more appealing to the audience. I have not yet decided whether I would like to include an editorial on the contents page, but if I did I would place it in the top-left corner, as this is were they usually go. All of the images on my contents page would be relevant to sections of the magazine, and each would have a page number in the corner.


Below is shown the mock-up of my double-page spread.

Again, the colours indicate what I would use for the text on this page. I would use a large image on the left-hand side, which would be of the band/artist I will use for my main article.
At the top of the page, I will have the magazine name (so that readers are reminded what they're reading) and an article summary/description below this, so that the audience know what to expect from the piece. The text will be at the bottom of the page, which is conventional for most music magazine articles. I believe that the top of the page should consist draw attention to the artist's name and quote from the text, so that the audience know who it is about/what they will talk about - the direct quote will be relevant to the article title.