The document describes the process of designing a magazine contents page in Photoshop. Key steps included: 1) Choosing a background color by sampling from the front cover and applying it at low opacity. 2) Using lines and text boxes to layout the page structure and listings. Fonts and sizing were used to distinguish headings from subheadings. 3) Adding images from a photo shoot and editing them to match the design's color scheme and style. 4) Finalizing details like page numbers, addresses and slogans to complete the contents page design.

1. Development Diary
Contents Page

2. The standard magazine is A4 size, which is 210mm x 297 mm. To start my contents page I
opened a new blank document in Photoshop to these dimensions. To ease the process and
allow me to match-up the layout to my front cover, I opened the ruler option under the View
tab.
Using the Eyedropper tool, I selected one of the colours from the gradient background of the
front cover. I decided that a plain white background would look too plain and a solid gradient
like my mock-up made the product look too unprofessional. I then used the bucket tool to
apply the colour on a new layer above the background layer and decreased the opacity until I
found a colour that I liked.

3. To build the layout and ‘shape’ of my contents page, I then used the line tool in black
to draw two line, one at the top, and one at the bottom of the page, to create the
page’s gutter space. Then, I used the text tool to draw in the boxes for my title,
listings and descriptors. Like before, as I had not done my
photo shoot, I guessed approximately where the photos were
going to be before I placed the text. For the title, I used the
same font as the title on the front cover, Rainfall, as readers
would be able to instantly make a connection with the two
pages, and I also had the top line cutting straight through the
‘o’ in the title like I had done with the front cover. I then used
the font, Bank Gothic, for the listings and descriptors to match
with the coverlines on the front cover. I used the same method
as before to draw lines in between certain sections of text to
help distinguish between different features.
To allow readers to distinguish between the sub-headings, listings and the
descriptors, I changed the text to make reading the page easier. The
sub-heading, ‘feature articles’ was made the biggest of all the text in that
section of the page, and the feature listing was made bigger than all the rest, to
allow readers to link this with the front cover and the main image on the page.
All of the listings were made bold whilst the descriptors were made smaller and
without the bold style. All of the page numbers were changed to an orange
colour so that they stood out from the text. I chose orange as it complimented
my chosen colour scheme well and gave the design the summery theme I
wanted for the genre.

4. I used similar techniques to apply text to the editor’s not and the staffbox on the right
side of the page. I chose to layout the page like this as I felt it made it look more
organised and professional, plus it looked different from any contents pages I had
looked at as part of my research. This is important to me as my genre of magazine
fits into a bit of a niche market, and so I want my overall magazine to be unique
and different, whilst still looking professional. I used the main title font again,
Rainfall, for the ‘Welcome to Sound’ sub-heading to make this section of the page
stand out from the rest.
I put a lot of thought and effort into my editor’s note, looking at Q
magazine for inspiration, as it is key to helping to sell the magazine to the
readers and to build a connection between the audience and the
magazine company. I made sure that it was entertaining and interesting,
and summarised what the magazine was about, detailing a few of the
main elements of the content. I used a simple italic font to create a
‘signature’ for the editor’s note as I thought using a photo instead would
have made the page look too overcrowded.
For the staff box, I included two small head-shots to illustrate
the names of the contributors. As the images were originally quite bright
and full of colour, I turned them both to black and white as I thought
these colours were more reflective of my chosen colour scheme.

5. Once I had entered the final pieces of information to the top and bottom of the page,
such as the page number, web address and the slogan, ‘Turn It Up,’ I was then able
to add in the photos as I had then taken my photos. The main image had to be the
biggest image on the page and link to both what was on the front cover and the
main listing on the contents page. As the main image on the front cover was from
my photo shoot, I decided to use another photo from the same shoot but a
different pose to establish the link. As it was still a relatively small photo in
comparison to the photo on the front cover, I didn’t overly edit the image for things
such as hair colour, blemishes etc. like I did before. Creating a new layer on the
page, I opened the chosen image on to the layer.
I edited the layer in the usual way, changing the curves and the levels to
brighten the image and make it stand out better.

6. For my magazine, I wanted to convey a slight hippie and summer festival vibe,
especially through the images and the colour scheme. In order to do so, I also
applied an orange photo filter to the image to make the image look warmer and
slightly vintage. This is what the final image looked like:
I wanted to place the image in the top left corner of I applied the exact same
the page, just above the listings, so I flipped the technique to the three
image so that my model was facing the centre of the other images I used on the
page rather than the edge. I then used the text tool page so that the house
like before to write the coordinating page number style was consistent.
into the top right corner of the image. Unlike my mock-up, I
placed the three images
above each other rather
than rotating them and
overlapping them slightly
as I thought that this
would make the page look
to young and childish in
comparison to my target
audience.