Flat plan evaluation

Front page

I think the front page went very well. After looking at Metal Hammers layout I used and similar format which worked incredibly well because I was able to include lots of images and text without making the pages seem too cramped or bare. The colour scheme also worked very well since the colours (blue and black) blended well but also made the front cover stand out a lot (inspired by Kerrangs use of colour). 

The font used was very bold and the style seemed to fit the tastes of my target audience since it was similar to both Kerrangs and Metal Hammers font styles. The use of buttons seemed to work very well since buttons were used in both Kerrang and Metal Hammer and worked very well. The colour scheme made stick out from the other colours and the help to make the front cover seem less bare. I also thought that using lightning as a special worked extremely well since it really did stick out and I after seeing what Metal Hammer did with the fire effects it would cater towards my specific target audience. 

The only bad thing about this front over is the masthead. Now the actual name of the magazine is very good since the title Metal Madness it reflect the type of music featured in the magazines, is rather catch thanks to the use of alliteration and that the name would stick out to my target audience… however there was a problem. 

I tried to use Metal Hammers technique of making the word metal part of the H in hammer, this didn’t work to well since it was hard to identify the word metal mainly due how I was place in the M but I think this problem could be fixed by making the word metal come down vertically in a smaller size at then the word A-D-N-E-S-S continuing on from the M to link to words together.  The only change I need to make is how I’m going to fit the metal and madness words together in order to create the masthead. 

Contents page

I think the contents went better than expected but still had problems. The good bits were that the layout was done rather well since I used Metal Hammer's example of half the page contents and the other half a small article so the images were placed to fill up any empty space left in each half and in this case it worked very well since the images (while taking up most of the space of the page) didn’t cramp the contents of the page and were structure pretty well. 

Also the button in the centre of the page helped to boost the colour scheme and show that the page was divided in half. The bad bits were that the colour scheme didn’t go very what. Specifically I mean the colour used in the masthead and numbering because the colour used in the button and background on both half’s of the page worked very well. 

I decided to use red for the masthead colour since it help to make the page stand out and work well with the white background… however I didn’t contrast well with the front cover since the colours used there were blue and black plus I had already used yellow and orange in the button which worked since the other buttons used these colours but the red was really pushing it. 

The only change I need to make is that instead of using red for the masthead colour try to use black or blue or a combination like dark/navy blue.  

Double page spread

I think the double page spread went well but was difficult to create since I was unable to actually use photographs and I was unsure what the photos were going to look like. What I liked about the double-page spread was the layout was done pretty well since I based the design on Metal Hammers double page spread since I thought that one was done exceptionally well, the text was featured mainly on the left half of the page and took up only a small portion of the right half. 

This meant that I didn’t have to included so many images since the left side of the page consisted mostly of text, plus I included quotations on different parts of both pages so that specific words in the article would stick out and it made less bare, also the heading was placed a an strange angle so that it mixed things up a bit. 

 I also took another one of Metal Hammers example and included a compilation of images in the bottom right hand side of the page so that it showed more of the artist and just made the magazine look better (also it made the magazine look less bare). 

However the magazine did have some issues, firstly because I was unable to do and outline of the main image used for the double page spread the background looks really bare, this is such a bad thing since when I decide what image I’m going to use all I have to is place it there but without the image the background does look pretty bad. 

Also I created and heading for the page to show that readers were one a specific section the only problem was that the colours I chose didn’t contrast well with the previous colours used and made the heading look really out of place. The changes I need to make are to make sure I have an image ready for when I create the double page spread and to change the colour scheme used in the page heading.    

Magazine Flat plans

These images are the flats plans for the front cover, contents page, and double page spread of my magazine. The Flat plans are simple drafts that give you the main idea about how my magazine is going to be laid out and where the text and images will go as well as the colour scheme used. I have also annotated around the magazine about any changes that need to made and what certain parts of the magazine are meant to be (in case it is unclear to some).

Analysing contents page

Colour

The main colours used on this page are red, white and black. The colour scheme reflects the theme of the magazine since red and black are commonly associated with rock/heavy metal music. The page numbers and sub headings are in red which stands out against the white background, black is also used for headings and sub headings which also stand out from the white background. They also a feature a button which is yellow with black text and what this does is that it draws your attention towards it more than the contents. The magazine also has article which takes up half of the contents page that has white text and a black background. What this does is that it separates itself from the contents page but also stands out on its own.

Layout

The content is listed on the left hand side of the page and takes up about 70% of that half of the page. The other text is in separate text boxes at the bottom of the page. The images (poster) take up the other 30% of the page and are used to show what extra content the magazine has. The article on the other half of the page has text coming down the left hand side and gradually moves to the right which allows a lot more room for the images which take up a majority of the page but not too much. The additional text is featured on the images (photos) to describe what’s going on which makes the magazine a lot impersonal. The button also helps to link both half’s together in order to make it look like one big page.  

Image

On the left hand side of the page the only images featured are posters about artist or gig reviews. They are relatively small since they don’t want to draw your attention away from contents featured but the colours used (red, black, yellow etc) help the images to stand out. On the right hand side of the page the images featured are photographs of the band being featured. The images are much bigger and take up a majority of the page which gets rid of any empty spaces and just makes the magazine look better.

Text

The text colours consist of red, white and black. These colours are used to make the text stand out from the background and draw the reader’s attention to it. The font used in the headings and numbers is both stylised and simple (and consist of red against white background) which makes it easy to understand and stand out so that it can grab the readers attention. The sub heading text is the same font as the text used in the heading but is simply made smaller (and consist of black against a white background) which can make it harder to read but not by much. Finally the text used in the article on the right hand side of the page looks like default text (e.g. Arial, times new roman etc) found in programs like word (and consist of white on a black background), because of this the text fails to stand out much and seem to get lost with all the images surrounding it.