Final Piece on 'Talk Of The Town'

Here is my final piece on 'Talk Of The Town', the magazine.

Cover-page I wanted to go for something unique on my Cover-page, most magazines in general have one item covering majority of the front page but this is not the case with 'Talk Of The Town'. Initially i went for a blue background of an overview of part of the city, but after some reviews from a questionnaire i set out, participants believed the colour was biased towards Birmingham City FC; as their main colour is blue.I then changed it a a gradient PurpleGrey tone with the artistic effect'Glow Edges'. I placed various pictures i took around town of popular landscapes to show that we are about and based in Birmingham.

 I presented the photos in a creative way by having one hung up and the scatted the overs across the page, this added creativity the page.Instead of having a cover-lines across the page i added a footer bar with information on whats included in this issue. Moving the coverlines to the footer gave more space for the pictures and coverlines.

Contents Page My contents page is the opposite to my cover-page in how the pictures are more professionally set out, there is no 'Glow edges'effect in the background and not as much purple. Despite this i am most pleased with my contents page; it has creativity like the Cover-page.

 On the text informing what a feature is about i added red followed by burgundy in a pattern, the main featured articles are followed in similar pattern featuring Burgundy and Purple. The background is a transparent picture of centenary square, it wasn't made clear because it would the attention off the contents and after all it is the contents page.

Double-Page Spread The Double-Page is still successful but not as much as the other two in terms of design/structure. The article is about how an immigrant has settled in to Birmingham, this story is well said but i felt the design could have been better.

I am writing about life in Birmingham yet didn't think to include images of the city, i believe on this page it was more important to add Images of Birmingham than any other page i have done for my magazine. All three pages i have done have completely different formats which can be exciting to for readers because they won't know what to expect.

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Contents page influences (Research into similar products)

After reviewing my contents page page i believed it lacked any real quality, i wanted to make my magazine look as if it was made by a professional and the contents page lacked this by far.

I therefore went to look further into other magazine contents-pages for influences on how i can lay it out better, whilst creative and professional.

Here are the best two out of the magazines i have looked into:

This layout is stylish and simple, it doesn't have a lot of graphical content but
is still effective. It has good mixture of picture and text, some magazines that set
out a mixture text images can  make you confused in the way they jumble it up; not
this magazines contents page though.

This magazine gives most of the features credit by
adding a picture at the top. I like way they remind
you the magazine is XXL and what month the issue is for.
If the page got detached from the magazine, someone viewing
it could mistake it for a rival Hip-Hop magazine e.g. Vibe magazine.

Questionnaire Review (Target audience)

Here is a review on my questionnaire, i did this questionnaire in order to have some knowledge on where my magazine cover-page is currently at and how far it is from the finished item. I asked 8 people the following questions:                                  

Question 1 was about the cover-pages best feature, generally the most popular feature was the blueprint background although others liked the collage effect, masthead and different uses of font.    

Question 2 asks ' is blue an appropriate colour for our mass target audience?' and judging by the blueprint background being the best feature the answer surely had to be yes. A minority thought it could be too masculine and one particular participant believed it was biased towards Birmingham City FC (excluding Aston Villa FC, their fierce rivals).    

Question 3 asked if the text was clear, it is easy for me to see it as clear as i know what i wrote but what did others think?  Most participants believed all the text was readable whilst just under half believed the text showing the web info was difficult to read.

Question 4 and my 2nd font question wanted to know if the font relates to the magazine cover in e.g. too simple or too basic; 5 thought it was relative, meanwhile 3 disagreed.

Question 5 was a vital one asking what needs improving, most people believed it needed to simplified down especially because of how my cover images are displayed. Meanwhile one believes a 'selling line' e.g. 'Best Bargain in Brum' will draw more interest, others thought a different colour scheme would do and another believed the footer is untidy.  

Question 6 was "Would you have preferred the traditional cover picture  or the creative photo collage currently displayed?" 100% believed that my photo was better, which is good because it shows that my magazine could stillbe successful  without being traditional.  

For my final, Question 7 i asked for rating out of 10, lowest mark was 5 and the highest 8.5 but on average and after adding all the other marks; my average Mark is 7/10.  Now i know the ups and downs of my magazine cover-page i can carry on improving it in right way.

Cover-page questionnaire preview (Drafting and Planning)

i will do my second questionnaire, yhis time it'll be on the magazine contents page

Questionnaire on cover-page preview (Target Audience)

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Contents-page review (Drafting & Planning)