Second Draft - Major Magazine

After receiving feedback from my teacher about my first draft that I created for my magazine, I have decided to create a whole new second draft and make some drastic changes, especially to my contents page and double page spread. The main concern about my first draft was the major layout issues that I had not considered when designing it. For example, it was said that my contents page did not reflect that of a realistic music magazine and the way the list followed the slanted angle descending along the page was irrelevant. As well as this, major changes were needed to be done to my double page spread as I had not taken into consideration where the spread would be cut in half by the fold of the magazine (the font would be cut off in awkward places and the models face needed to adjusted so that the line cut her face directly in half). My contents page did not need drastically changing, however the models place on the page needed to be more central and the fonts to be resized, e.g. the masthead needed to be bigger and the headings/strap-lines to be smaller. 

I had a second photo-shoot with my model, however kept the same style of costume as this was praised by my teachers and by peers, and got some new shots for the second draft. My main aim was to capture a more central image of my model for the front cover and to also gain more 'energetic', 'attitude' shots, which I feel I managed to capture quite well. The masthead was resized to a larger font, so it now goes across the width of the page, and the headings/strap-lines were resized to a smaller font. Along with the other small changes made, I believe this version of my cover is a more realistic, clean-cut, and modern layout than previously. 

I completely changed the layout of my contents page. This layout is a more realistic representation of what a music magazine contents page would appear like, however I kept the fresh, modern appearance of a hip-hop/urban magazine genre. I still need to find a way of incorporating another model into the contents page to show a variety of artists, and so I will discuss this with my teacher in the next couple of lessons and will find a solution to this. 

My double page spread was also drastically changed from the first draft. I went for a more classic layout in this draft, contrasting to the 'different' approach I attempted in my first draft. My idea was to use the classic, original layout and execute it perfectly to suit my genre of magazine, rather than try to do something 'unique' and it not pay off in the long-run. However, I still used a technique that I saw used in my double page spread analysis in the beginning of the course in the Lady Gaga article. The bold 'L' in the background of the article puts a twist on the design and hopefully differentiates it a little from others. I feel that this layout is a lot more flattering and is more aesthetically pleasing than my previous design.