Second Drafts

Although, I have previously split my first drafts of my front cover, contents page and double page spread, into different posts, I thought it would be best to have all of the pages in my magazine that I am working on, all together to see and talk about the improvements I have made to each. 

Front Cover:

Here is my second draft for my front cover, where I have added a few minor details and improvements, which will hopefully make my acoustic magazine look more realistic. The first thing I did before starting editing the first draft was to go back to the basics and see what were the most common and typical features you would find in a music magazine. One of the most important things that I had completely forgotten about to put in, was to add a skyline at the top of the page, with the a tag line for the magazine. I don't know many magazines that don't have a tag line included or even a skyline on their front cover, so therefore, I ensured that I came up with a tag line that was relevant to the mast head of the magazine and the acoustic theme I was going for. This is how "STAYED TUNED WITH TUNED IN" was born! Usually the skyline is a different colour than the rest of the colours on the page to help it stand out and draw the attention of the reader to it. Therefore, I tried and tested the skyline with a variety of colours, such as red, white and black to try and fit in with my 3 colour scheme, however, I didn't feel like it fitted in well or even stood our from the page that much. Then I remembered I had used the old paper on my first draft of my contents page and thought that I would use that for my sky line as not only will it hep the tag line stand out but it will keep continuity throughout the magazine, so the audience can tell that all these pages are from the same magazine. This could also be seen as a typical house style you would find in this magazine to help the readers know what to look for of they wanted to buy this magazine. Secondly, I realised that I hadn't added a teaser to my main sell line which was about the new star on the block Mia Melloway. Also, as Mia is a new star, this would be her first ever interview she has had and therefore, I added the anchorage/buzz word of "Exclusive". I thought it would be best to have it in a box so the word stood out to show it's importance. Lastly, I changed a few colours of the fonts that I had used. For example, I change Taylor Swift from black to blue to help the sell line stand out and I changed the date of the magazine from black to white, again to help it stand out to the audience.


Contents Page:

As I mentioned in my previous post about my first drafts of my contents page, I was undecided one which one to chose. Therefore, I edited both as you can see to help my decide which one to use for my magazine and edit until I am completely happy that it looks like a conventional contents page from an acoustic magazine. The main improvement I have included on this contents page is by adding an editorial, as these are commonly on music magazine. Although, it is not on the one I have looked at specifically (acoustic magazine) I believe this is extremely important to include as this is a brand new magazine so the audience need to know what is included and what they can expect from this publication. Another difference between each of these drafts from the first, is that I have changed the layout around. For instance, the first picture on the left hand side had the text on the left hand side, however, as I couldn't fit the editorial and the features on, I had to move the design all around. With image 2 (on the right) I had to shrink the font size down, as again I couldn't fit everything on without making this improvement. I also decided against having a picture of the editor (which is a typical convention) because of the fact that I am my own model, I think it would look strange having the model and the editorials the same person as that wouldn't usually been seen in existing magazines. Overall, I have decided that I will continue using image  2 (on the right) for my third drafts, as I believe that the text is more visual be on that one compared to image 1 and you can't really see the guitar as well as you could in the first draft.

Double Page Spread:

With my double page spread I would say that I have made several verifications to it, to make it look better and mire like a conventional article. Going back to basics, like I mentioned earlier on in the post, I thought it would be best to look back at my previous work such as my textual analysis (even though they weren't on acoustic magazines) and my deconstruction of "acoustic" the music magazine. One of the first main changes that I made, was the adding of the stand first, a little description of the new artists. As I discovered, without this information no one would know who she is (apart from her name). Therefore, by including the stand first at the top, I had to then move the pull out quote of "it is always better to have tried and failed than have failed to try!" to another place. I believed that the where Mia was sitting on the bench looked rather bare so I thought it was the best place to put the quote. Furthermore, I decided that the font colours, where the wrong choice and didn't really keep continuity with the rest of the magazine. Therefore, I changed it from blue and red to black and red, as this would link to the colour scheme I have used so far in my front cover and contents page. Also, I believe these colours are more easy in the eye and you can read the comet easier. However, I'm not sure you can read all of the black font at the bottom, so I may need to change the transparency or something in my thirds drafts, so the audience can read the text better.