2. Background 1 This image presents a background that I have created on Photoshop using the
gradient tool to create the black and white effect. I have thought about using this
type of background for my double page spread for many reasons. Through my
research into double page spread’s I have found that the conventional background
used for the double page spread normally contains around one to two colours to link
with the colour scheme, so I have decided to use at least two colours for my double
page spread. Before I had come to this conclusion I had also thought about involving
the colour scheme which was used for the front cover for my double page spread, but
then with a little advice from my teacher I jus decided to keep the background quite
mellow and discrete so that the techniques used in the actual double page spread
would not be overwhelmed by the background. However, when playing around with
this particular background it began to make my double page spread look almost like
a poster because, the images and fonts I will be using didn’t really go well with this
particular background and almost made it look like they had just been pasted onto
the page so I have decided to change this to a background that’s much more easier to
work with.
Background 2 This image shows a plain white background which I have thought about using for
my double page spread. I have decided to change my mind about using the
gradient background for my double page spread for the reasons stated above. On
the other hand, I prefer to use the white background which is shown. The reasons
for this is that the colour white will work well with any font and any font colour
because the white colour does not clash with any primary or secondary colours.
Also I feel that just using the white background will emphasise other areas of the
magazine to the target audience. Also, another reason why I will use the colour
white for my background is that it will not confuse my target audience away from
the main images and articles that will be presented on my double page spread.
However, I feel that just using a plain white background for both pages on the
double page spread will not appeal to the reader at all so I have decided that I will
include the plain white colour for just one half of the double page spread and then
I shall use another colour for the other half and see if this works or not.
3. Background 3 This screen grab is of the third and final background that I
have decided to use for my Reggae magazine double page
spread. As you can see I have taken into account the two
backgrounds I had wanted to use before shown in the
previous slides therefore, I have actually decided to
incorporate both of the backgrounds I had thought about
using for my final decision. However, instead of using the
black and white gradient background for my second page on
my double page spread I decided to change this to a plain
black background. The reasons for this is because I feel that
compared with the gradient style background, the plain
black background will emphasise the coloured text that I
will be using for the Interview that I have planned to
include. Furthermore, I feel that the clash between the
white background on the first page and the black
background on the second page will work very well with my
magazine even though these colours are not linked with my
colour scheme. This is because, both of these colours
together will not distract the reader from the other aspects
of the double page spread. I feel that if I were to use quite a
colourful background involving the colours red, gold
(yellow) and green will cause my main image and actual
article to become overwhelmed by the background which
will effect the target audience in the wrong way.
4. 1st Page
This screen grab presents one of my headlines which I will be using
for my 1st page on my double page spread. This screen shot presents
my first attempt at creating my headline and making it as appealing as
it can be. For this particular headline I have decided to use the font
Headline 1 ‘Impact’ to see whether it will suit my double page spread and article.
However, for this particular font I had to reduce the font size to 12pt so
that the software InDesign would allow the whole sentence to fit
without using a hyphen. I feel that reducing the font size to 12pt will
be a major problem for my double page spread because, it is meant to
be a headline which is supposed to appeal the most on the double
page spread because this is used to draw the reader in to the actual
article, and to do this I need a bigger font size because I have decided
not to use any colour for this headline. So therefore, I have decided
that I will change the ‘Impact’ font that I have used for the headline to
something different that will appeal to the reader.
This screen shot shows the same headline from the previous screen
grab however, this time I have actually changed the font so that the
Headline 2 headline is much more appealing to its target audience. Instead of
using the ‘Impact’ font for my headline I have decided to go with
another font called ‘Stencil’ which is shown in the screen grab to
the left. I feel that this font works much better than ‘Impact’ for my
headline for many reasons. First of all the ‘Stencil’ font only uses
capitals for its characters which allows the text to stand out even
more even if the font size was to be reduced. However, because the
font is much smaller compared with the ‘Impact’ font it allows me
to increase the font size of my headline to 48pt which is much
larger than the actual article that follows underneath the headline.
Furthermore, I also feel that this font is much more stylish
compared with ‘Impact’ because it involves quite straight
characters and also rounded characters so that you get the best of
both in the headline which I find is very appealing.
5. Subhead
For the subhead that I have included in the first page of my double page
spread I have decided to keep it basic, plain and simple. The reasons for this
is because many other sections of my double page spread will contain a lot
of bright colours and big fonts to appeal to the reader so I wouldn’t want to
overpower my target audience with loads of bright colours and eye catching
font sizes. I have decided to stick with the ‘Impact’ font so that my subhead
and headlines will not clash together if I was to use the same font.
Furthermore, I decided to use a subhead for my article because, I feel that
when linked with the headline the audience will be drawn in because the
article is quite deep and realistic which will therefore intrigue the audience
into reading the whole article. For the subhead I enlarged the font a little so
that it would stand out from the main article however, I didn’t make it as big
as the headline because the headline is what I want my target audience to
see first because, that is what will draw the audience in to actually stay
occupied instead of being bored if I had used all the same font sizes.
6. This screen grab presents a drop cap that I have decided to use for my first article on
Drop Cap the first page of my double page spread. I have noticed through my research into
double page spreads that using a drop cap at the beginning will appeal to the reader
as soon as their eyes go over the article which will draw them in into actually
reading the article that follows. For my drop cap I have decided to change the letter
colour to red so that it will stand out to my target audience against the plain white
background on that page. I have decided to go with the colour red as it goes with
my colour scheme which has not been fully expressed on my double page spread as
I don’t want it to be too colourful and overwhelming. However, before finding out
how to create a drop cap for my article I used a larger font size for that specific letter
as I am not used to using the software InDesign. But after researching the many
features that are on InDesign I found out how to create the drop cap that I needed.
Step 1
1. For the first step of creating my drop cap I selected the text tool and then
highlighted the first letter of the article which was the letter ‘R’ and then
used the swatches tool in InDesign to change the colour of this letter to
the colour red as shown.
Step 2
2. The next step into creating a drop cap for my double page spread was to left
click the first letter of my article using the text tool, and then after this I had to
click the paragraphing tool which is shown in the screen grab. This tool is used
to adjust certain aspects of each paragraph including inputting drop caps into
the article.
7. Step 3
3. For the third and final step into creating my drop cap after selecting the
paragraphing tool, a different toolbar will appear which is shown in the
screenshot above. As you can see where the highlighted number is, the icon
next to this shows a small image of a drop cap. Therefore, to create the drop
cap I had to increase this number gradually so I increased the number to 4
which doubled the letter ‘R’ four times compared to the article that follows
immediately after. As you can see including this drop cap makes the article
look much more unique and adventurous instead of using jus plain text.
This screen shot shows a pull quote that I have assembled to put on my first page
of my double page spread. As you can see I have decided to go with the font
‘Impact’ for my pull quote for a few reasons. I feel that if I had stuck with the
Pull Quote ‘Stencil’ font that I have used for my headline it would cause either the pull quote
or headline to become un-noticed due to the use of the same font which is why I
went with ‘Impact’. Even though this will be the same font as the actual article on
both pages I feel that the pull quote will stand out just as much through the use of
increasing the font size 3 times as much as the font size for the article. This will
allow the reader to notice the quote and instantly notice that it is an important
part of the double page spread because its so large and highlighted in bright
colours which also link in with the target audience. Furthermore, the position of
where the pull quote will be placed I feel will also be effective because, it will be
just underneath the sub head and headline which are the main features of the
magazine so as soon as the audience sees the headline they will also have a glance
of the pull quote.
8. These two screen shots present the two captions
that I have decided to use for the two images
which will be incorporated into my double page
spread. As you can see I have decided to make the
captions stand out when contrasted with the
actual article because, when the audience looks at
the article and then the images I want them to
notice the captions underneath to actually
explain to them what the images are about in case
they are confused. To allow the caption to stand
out from the article I had to make a couple
changes. This involved changing the colour of the
text to a light green colour which links in with the
colour scheme, and also I decided to change the
sentence to italics to give a nice smooth effect.
To get the italics for the caption I basically had to go to the
top left hand side of the InDesign software and then
underneath the types of font was a drop box with different
styles for the caption such as: Bold, Regular, Bold italics etc.
9. Sub Image 1
This screen grab is of one of the images that will be included in the
first page of my double page spread. As you can see it is the same
image that has been used in the contents page of my music
magazine. The image is of an old album cover I had created a few
years ago and I feel that it would link in well with the stories that
will be included in the double page spread. I will link this image in
with one of my made up reggae artist known as Taja ‘Gaza’. I will
link the two together by talking about how the image is the back
cover of her brand new mix tape which will be out very soon.
Sub Image 2 This image is of my made up artist Taja ‘Gaza’. I created this
image by getting my model to dress up in clothing that
contained the suitable colours needed to link in with my colour
scheme and then to also use a prop which was a microphone to
give the effect that she is actually singing. However, at first
when the photos were taken it didn’t actually seem like my
model was singing because it looked too staged therefore, I told
her to actually sing a song while I take the image so that it
would look as real as possible. That is how the image seems like
she is actually singing for real. This will give the sense of
verisimilitude to the audience because, the character actually
seems like a real music artist. I’m going to show you how I
cropped the image and gave it the shadow effect in the next
slide.
10. Step 1
1. First of all I had to get the image that I had
taken using a digital camera and then upload this
image to Photoshop. I kept the size of the image
in Photoshop quite large for the moment as I will
be cropping the image and so forth.
2. The next step after doing so was that I had
Step 2 to find a way to get rid of the background in
the image. So for this I used the magic eraser
tool to get rid of the majority of the
background to make life easier. As you can see
there are still some parts of the background
that still remain so I will have to find another
technique to get rid of this because, I am no
too familiar with the magic eraser tool which
ended up erasing some of the actual features
of my model when I clicked next to my model
which was not what I wanted.
11. Step 3 3. For the next step in creating my sub image I had to get
rid of all the left over sections of the background that were
still there. So to do this I used the eraser tool instead of
the magic eraser tool. The eraser tool allowed me to rub
out the background manually so that I can rub out all the
background that was left accurately without rubbing out
any of my model which is crucial. After this has been done
the page will now look like the screen shot shown for this
step.
Step 4 4. For the last step in creating my sub image I had to create a copy
of the image that I had just cropped out from the photograph I
had taken. So to do this I had to go onto the layer of the image and
right click the layer and then left click duplicate layer. This will
allow me to create a copy of the image. After this has been done I
had to try and get a shadow effect by changing the colour of the
copied layer to like a light grey. So to do this I had to select the
copied layer and then go to the colour panels and select light grey.
Once this is completed I had to use the Paint bucket tool and just
repeatedly click on the duplicated layer until the whole image had
turned into the light grey colour. When completed I just adjusted
the light grey image behind the actual image of my model singing
to give it the shadow effect.
12. 2nd Page
Headline
This screen shot shows the headline that I will use for the second page of my double page spread. As you can
see I have decided to involve a slight bit of colour to the headline to prevent it from becoming quite dull. I
have decided to use the same ‘Stencil’ font from the first headline on the other page for this one also. This is
because, even though the two pages will talk about different topics of the magazine I still want both pages to
be linked in a way because both pages will be seen when one of them is being read by the audience.
Furthermore, for the section in the headline that says ‘Reggae’ I have emphasised because it is basically the
main theme and genre of the whole magazine. I have done this by increasing the font size of this section so
that it will appear much larger than the rest of the headline which will allow the target audience to look
instantly and then draw them in using the three colours I have used for the specific word. I used the colours
red, gold and green for this section also not only to appeal to my target audience but also because, I want my
double page spread to link in with the colour scheme that I have used throughout my whole media product
such as the front cover and also the contents page. This will show that I have taken time and care into
creating my double page spread and have thought a lot about how to appeal to my target audience.
13. Main Image
For my main image I was quite stuck on deciding whether to create another image of my
other model playing another instrument or perhaps try something completely unique. I
knew that because I had used my model as my main image for the front cover of my music
magazine, I would also have to make him the main image of my double page spread. After a
lot of thinking I decided that I was going to go for a unique image which is shown in the
screen shot. I decided to use this image because my headline and interview would go
completely well with the image because it suggests that my model and the Reggae legend
Bob Marley were close and grew up together in Jamaica creating Reggae music. So therefore
I thought why not create an image that involves the both of them and somehow merges the
two characters together to support the interview that would follow.
14. Step 1
1. For the first step of creating my main image
I had to take an image of my model. For this
specific photo I took a close up side angled
image of my model so that it would resemble a
side angled Bob Marley image which I had
taken from the internet. I opened the two
images up on different sheets in Photoshop
and had to find a way of removing the
background from both of the images leaving
just the characters.
15. Step 2
2. For the next step into creating my main image I had to try and get rid of the
backgrounds from both images. For the image of Bob Marley I used the magic eraser tool
to get rid of the background because most of the background was dark blue the magic
eraser tool worked much easier to get rid of the background as it only involved one
colour. However for the image of my model the magic eraser tool did not work as well
because there were too many colours involved in the image which caused features of my
model to be erased when the magic eraser tool was in use. So instead of using the magic
eraser tool I just used the eraser tool to that I could erase the background manually
which would allow me to erase it the way I want it to be erased without making mistakes
however, this did take much longer than using the magic eraser tool.
16. Step 3
3. For the final step in creating my main image I first of all had to drag the Bob Marley
image into the same Photoshop sheet as the image of my model. After this I then
dragged both images together leaving no gap between them as I want both images to
look merged together. Next I selected the blur tool and began dragging the mouse
over the centre of the two images with the strength of 69% to make sure that the blur
effect would be quite strong but not too strong. After this was done I then dragged the
layer of my model below the layer of Bob Marley so that the images did not look like
one of them was just overlapping the other image because that would make my main
image look completely unreal with no care taken.
17. Final Outcome
The final outcome of my double page spread I feel came out quite well. As you can see many techniques have been used to get my
double page spread up to a high standard. I have also stuck with the same red, gold and green colour scheme that I have been using
since creating my Reggae front cover. Also, I am pretty impressed with the layout of my double page spread especially with the first
page. This is because, at first I was very indecisive with what layout I was going to go for, for my double page spread but I feel that
the one I have chosen works very well with the sub images used and makes the double page spread look very organised and neat.
Also, for the first page of my double page spread I decided to use two columns that would continue once the first column would be
filled up so that it will allow my story to continue without having to finish my sentence in the first column which could leave a huge
amount of space which would look very unprofessional. As for the second page of my double page spread, I changed the colour of
the writing for my interview because, due to the black background I wasn’t able to keep the writing black for this page so I had to
make a change. Instead, I coloured all the questions that the reporter would ask to a dark green colour, then I changed the answers
from the reggae artist into a bright yellow colour and for the part of the interview that says ‘Q’ and ‘A’ I changed to the colour red.
The reasons for doing this is because it makes my double page spread look unique and not jus stick to the conventional black type. It
also allows my double page spread to link in with the Reggae genre of music and the culture of where this type of music comes from
because, these colours are represented in Reggae music and also through Religion in the Caribbean and African areas. Lastly, at the
bottom of both pages of my double page spread I have included a folio to present the page numbers to link with the contents
page, and also I have included a smaller masthead from my front cover to also show that the double page spread is linked with the
front cover and contents page.