Questionnaire results for my final front cover, contents page and double page spread

Here are the written responses to my questions that I asked my target audience about my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Front cover

What do you think of the layout of my magazine?

Natasha (15) - I really like the layout of the front cover it is clear which makes it easy to understand

Ben (29) - I like it as it looks professional

Chloe (18) - It is good and clear

Amy (16) - It looks really good and looks like a real magazine

Jaz (22) - I like it, I would want to buy this magazine

Is it easy to understand the sell lines?

Natasha (15) - yes the font is clear and also the writing makes it easy to understand

Ben (29) - I can see and read all of them so yes

Chloe (18) - I can understand them easily

Amy (16) - now I know what a sell line is, they are really clear

Jaz (22) - I can read them

What do you think about the image?

Natasha (15) - I really like the image as the colouring is different to normal magazines, it make me want to see what the article is about.

Ben (29) - I think the image is good

Chloe (18)- The image is clear and the edit is good

Amy (16) - I like that you can see what she is wearing as on some magazines you can't really see this

Jaz (22) - The image is really good 

What engages you as a reader?

Natasha (15) - The competition and the colours

Ben (29) - what is going to be in the magazine

Chloe (18) - The image and the price

Amy (16) - the competition

Jaz (22) -  The exclusive interview

Is there enough on the page?

Natasha (15) - I think there is 

Ben (29) - Yes

Chloe (18) - Yes

Amy (16) - I think so

Jaz (22) - Yes

What improvements could be made?

Natasha (15) - The size of the font

Ben (29) - Nothing

Chloe (18) - The M on the scam

Amy (16) - Nothing

Jaz (22) - Nothing

Contents page

What do you think of the layout of my contents page?

Natasha (15) - I love how you have got a lot of images on their 

Ben (29) - It is clear and the text is in line

Chloe (18) - I like it

Amy (16) - Its really good

Jaz (22) - I think the layout is good

Is it easy to understand the writing?

Natasha (15) - some is smaller then others but I can read it

Ben (29) - I can read the writing

Chloe (18) - The font makes it easier to understand

Amy (16) - It is easy 

Jaz (22) - I can read it with ease

What do you think about the image?

Natasha (15) - The image is good

Ben (29) - I like the image

Chloe (18) - it is clear

Amy (16) - I like that it is a head shot

Jaz (22) - It is engaging

What engages you as a reader?

Natasha (15) - The subscription

Ben (29) - The images

Chloe (18) - The different articles

Amy (16) - The image

Jaz (22) - the subscription 

Is there enough on the page?

Natasha (15) - I think there is

Ben (29) - if there was anything else then it would look crowded

Chloe (18) - yes

Amy (16) - defiantly 

Jaz (22) - You can't fit anything else on the page

What improvements could be made?

Natasha (15) - make the text all the same size

Ben (29) - nothing

Chloe (18) - the numbers

Amy (16) - Nothing

Jaz (22) - Nothing I like it how it is

Double page spread

What do you think of the layout of my double page spread?

Natasha (15) - I like it as it looks professional

Ben (29) - Its good

Chloe (18) - It is clear

Amy (16) - I think the layout is good

Jaz (22) - I like it

Is it easy to understand the article?

Natasha (15) - Yes 

Ben (29) - I like the article

Chloe (18) - Yes

Amy (16) - Yes

Jaz (22) - Yes

What do you think about the image?

Natasha (15) - It is good how she is looking at the article 

Ben (29) - I like the image

Chloe (18) - It is good but the edit is over the top of her

Amy (16) - I like it

Jaz (22) - Its good

What engages you as a reader?

Natasha (15) - The writing in the middle

Ben (29) - The image

Chloe (18) - The colours

Amy (16) - The heading

Jaz (22) - The writing

Is there enough on the page?

Natasha (15) - yes

Ben (29) - Yes

Chloe (18) - Yes

Amy (16) - I think there is

Jaz (22) - Yes

What improvements could be made?

Natasha (15) - Nothing

Ben (29) - Nothing that I can instantly see

Chloe (18) - The edit

Amy (16) - The place that it folds

Jaz (22) - Nothing

Final double page spread

Final contents page

Final front cover

Final draft of double page spread

Here is my final draft of my double page spread not much has change from my second draft as I quite liked it. I used the things that I liked and dislike and therefore changed these to make it the best it could be. 
I used exactly the same website to create this which is pixlr as it is the best to create this with and also it will be easier for me to carry on with the website that I know than rather use a different on which I will have to work on how to use it. 
I again used the white background from google images first and then added my image, although this time I decided to make the image a bit bigger so you can focus on her expressions more. This was easy to do as I just made the cropped version bigger so it would take up a bit more room on the page. However by doing this is made me loose some of the writing as I had to crop some out because there was less room on the page, this was only a couple of sentences however and it wasn't very important so it was fine that I cropped some out. 
I didn't look at any double page spreads for inspiration as I wanted to just make my own and not follow any of the specific styles that the magazines have. Yes I did use a pull quote and a mast head and an image on the double page spread which does follow the conventions of others, however I have not picked out a specific double page spread and followed what they have done and used some of their ideas. 
One of the things that I did change was the writing size in the final column as it overlapped the image which I did not want to happen. What I did to resolve this was to make the writing go in a smaller shaped column with less writing on each line, this made it look longer however it was the same amount of writing as before. This was one of the reasons that I did take some of the writing out as I thought it wouldn't fit. When I talk to my target audience I can see weather they would prefer me to add the text that I took out of my second draft.
I have read through my article and there are a lot of changes that I will have to make as there are some spelling mistakes and also missing letters, I will therefore go through it very slowly and check the words before rewriting.
Although this is another draft because I haven't changed much there is not a lot of things that I can write about. If you would like to see how I created it and the size etc you can look at my last post. This has in more detail about everything as it is the same as this one but just tweaking a couple of bits.  

Second draft of double page spread

Here is my second draft of my double page spread. It is much better than my last draft as I have taken on board what I liked and disliked about the other draft and what I should change and tried to adapt it to make this draft. Although it still needs some work I am pleased and will only tweak little bits rather than change a lot for my next draft.
Firstly I used the same white background which I got from google images as before as the size of the image was exactly what I wanted and it didn't need resizing, also it had no edit to it and no boarder around the image which makes it good for me as it was a plain canvas for me to begin. With my main image I said that I wanted to crop it to make it smaller however as I used pixlr I couldn't crop it on their as I had already placed the white background on it. Therefore I had to crop the image on my laptop to make it fit then I had to again add the image to size. It does work however when it would be folded some of the text will be folded so won't be seen to make this work I could make the image a bit bigger and then make the writing smaller to make it fold evenly. This is the difficult thing with using pixlr as it doesn't allow you to size the page to make sure that things are in half. I made the text bigger as there was a lot more space and tried to make it all the same size, the problem with this is that when you use different colours for the font you have to start a new text which goes back to the average size on pixlr which is bigger than what I have used. I have put the article in four columns rather than just three so it makes it look more professional and none of the text overlaps. There is more problem that is the end column there is one word which is 'back' that overlaps the image which I will have to change. 
For the edit of this double page I decided that I didn't want it to be to overdone like the last one, I kept it simple and only added a soft boarder which does add some definition to the article. 
I made the pull quote the same size as the columns this allows me to make the writing in the columns stay straight and not overlap the other text. I decided to put it before the interview section instead of just the middle of the page which is irrelevant. In my last draft I made the speech marks larger than the text so it makes it stand out whereas this time I kept it all the same this made it easier to position and if I did it the other way I would have to make the speech marks the same size which would of been another task. I did add some more detail as I thought that the pull quote would of been a bit plain so I added some lines above and below to separate it from the article. I did this by using the letter l in lower case and turning it on its side like what I did on the front cover. This just makes it look like it has been made with lots of effort and adds more detail to the piece. 
I decided to use the same colour as what I did on the front cover so then my magazine has some consistency, the blue colour also goes with the image as it is the same location as the front cover image. I then used black as it was simple to use and is clear to read, the last colour I decided to use was a dark green which goes with the nature of the image and pulls the image with the text nicely. 
In addition I took out one of the questions and answers as it was irrelevant and I would rather have bigger text so it is clearer than to have smaller text and be more cluttered with an extra question which didn't really need to be there.
I did add more detail to the double page spread as I placed a small snippet of text next to the masthead which shows an insight into the article, I did this because I had some extra space there and it needed something. I looked at some double page spread's and saw that this was done a lot like this double page spread.

First draft of double page spread

Here is my first draft of my double page spread there are a lot of things that I know I will have to change but I have just put together the article and image to see weather it would work, as you can tell by my final piece of work I will defiantly have to change the image and article as it does look messy. This is my first draft of my final piece of work that I have to do as I have already completed my front cover and contents page therefore I can add things from their to make it work with my other overall house style. To make that work I had to try and use the same things as before for example font, colours etc. I do think I will have to tweak these things to make it go with my other pages of the magazine. 
Firstly my main image that I wanted was the one that I first used for my contents page as I didn't use this image I thought that it would be ideal to use it here instead. I already made the backgrounds for my double page spread before I created the article so below is the one with the other image.

This was ok to use however I wanted Noel my model to come across quite innocent and with this image I thought that it could look very sly and over confident. Also the edit was very harsh and I wasn't so keen on the black background behind the white square. It would have been easier to see the writing of the article but I do prefer the one that I used for my draft. The image on my draft fits in well with my genre as it is very organic and also looks rather intriguing, I didn't want it to follow the male gaze theory as I thought that this genre didn't need that and it is mostly about the music rather than the way that someone is positioned in a photo. I did ask my target audience which image they thought would work well with the double page spread and they did say this one as it doesn't look sexually provocative also they said that it worked well with my genre. I did look at recent magazine double page spreads and none of them had anything like this so therefore I am not following the typical conventions of the music magazines, I did like the location of the images as it would work well with the article that I would produce and also it hasn't been done before. When I looked at music magazine not just indie ones it was mainly country music that used the outdoors location, because I didn't want this as my genre I will have to ask people weather they thought that it would look like this but hopefully the way that she is dressed could suggest otherwise. I decided to locate the image on the right hand side of the page as she would be looking at the text and this could make the image interesting as though I have taken it for that in particular reason. I did chose to use the conventional feature of the article on one side of the page and an image on the other so it is clear for the reader and also follows other magazines. I did look at having just the image very large and having the writing around it however it did look messy and the text was not clear at all which is the last thing I wanted for my magazine. I did edit the image firstly I got a plan white background from google images and then added the image that I wanted on the right hand side. Then afterwards using pixlr again I decided to edit the overall picture to make it look vintage which is what I went for on the front cover. I did decide to keep it to coloured rather than a full colour change as otherwise the magazine will look to samey which is not what I want. I put an ink overlay on the image and also a faded boarder, I like the faded border as it gives it an edge however I am not fond of the overlay as it looks like someone has been touching the page with dirty fingerprints. BeforeI added the article it did look ok which is good as now I can see weather it works or not which it doesn't. Also it is rather dark at the top left hand side of the image which makes it harder to find a good colour to go with the main image that would be seen, this makes the title of the article a little less noticeable. 

I will have to change this so I can see the masthead, as it is the most important thing on the page I think it needs to be seen clearly. 

My article is not very good and I am not pleased with it at all. The article its self  I am really pleased with but the overall look of it I am not as it does not look appealing. It is not in line and and some of the parts are not of the same size. To make this look a lot better I will change the pull quote and put it on the picture. ALso I could see if i could crop the image that I use to just of her so I could add more text in the article and therefore will look more engaging to the reader. The pull quote I decided to have as " i'm the most boring 19 year old you'll ever meet" as it makes the reader want to know why and where about in the article it says that, to make the reader go on through the article I will change the position of this question and leave it to one of the last ones as it will make them read to that point. The masthead I thought I would have it as a pun however it could look cheesy. As the singer is called Noel Coelho I thought I could have it Coelho rather than hello which I thought was cleaver I will ask my target audience whether they thing this is right for my magazine but NME make things like this as it makes the reader feel as though they are not just loading you with information and it is less informal which is what I want for my magazine. When I was writing my article I wanted the questions to be separate from the answers so therefore I made each of them a different colour, when it comes to making another draft I could use different colours to make it more exciting however I do like the green, it goes with the nature of the image and adds to the overall look of the article. I decided to use two fonts on this double page spread as then it will be less confusing to read and also looks rather appealing. They were the same fonts as the front cover so the house style is kept throughout the magazine and they go well with the size of the image as well. I do like this about this draft so therefore I will keep it the same in my next draft just perhaps change the size of the text. 

With the structure of the article I will have three columns or maybe more depending on wether I change the image size to fit more text in, the only things about that is that It would be hard to guess where about you fold the double page spread in the magazine as you don't want to cut of any of the writing so you have to think about the gutter and the bleed. This is will be hard for me to estimate using pixlr so what I will have to do is print out a draft and see wether I can fold it without losing any of the writing of the article. When I was writing my article I decided to change the sell line on the front cover as I have not put anything in about Noels musical addition instead I will talk about her collaboration as that is what will engage the reader more to find out who she is collaborating with. 

I will defiantly change the spacing on the double page spread but I will keep the font and image but just crop it instead this will allow me to write more of the article. Also I will have to see whether the sell line makes a different anywhere else so that the spacing and columns are tidy and therefore looks more professional.