The document discusses the iterative process of designing a magazine masthead and contents page. Some key points: - The designer tried different layouts, fonts, and color schemes for the masthead before settling on one with black and white letters against a light background. - For the contents page, the designer experimented with column layouts, backgrounds, fonts, and images before aligning elements consistently and choosing a color scheme matching the magazine's style. - Feedback from others was solicited to help refine the designs until an easy-to-follow layout was achieved that maintained the overall magazine's visual identity.

2. This is the first masthead I trialled, I
decided to see if the masthead stood out
better without the black background as
originally planned. I look it looks much
more professional without the black
background, however I feel this masthead
blends too much into the background.

3. I think the two colours of white and
black work really well together. If I
moved the masthead into the page by a
few mm I feel it would look better.
I think the outer glow works really well
to make the masthead stand out more but
also makes it look more professional and
not like it has been designed using a
simple programme such as paint.

4. I don‟t like this masthead for a number of
reasons. I think the black „C‟ blends into
the background too much, I also feel that
it makes the masthead look more
separated and as if it has been designed as
the „C‟ and then the „hart!‟. I don‟t feel
this works well with the style of the front
cover of my magazine either. I do
however, feel the black outline of the
white writing stands out really well from
the background.

5. I think this masthead looks too simple and
under designed. I think it looks like it
hasn‟t been thought about and has been
made very simple and quickly.

6. I decided to try rearranging the letters
of „Chart!‟ for my masthead. I think
this works really well and makes the
whole masthead really stand out.
I feel the design of this works really
well and the colours black and white
work well with my background.

7. I really like this masthead, I think it
works really well against the background
and stands out really well. To improve
this further I think I could include more
white to outline the black letters though.

8. I really like this masthead and I feel it is
really eye-catching which is needed for my
magazine. The black and white contrast each
other well and the ratio of white to black is
good. I think to improve this masthead
further I could thicken the black border very
slightly.

10. This shows my first design for the
front cover of my music magazine
called „Chart!‟
I used the same font for the cover
line as I did the masthead on this
design. I decided that this looked too
much the same and I needed to break
up the front cover by including a
different font.

11. This shows another design for
my „Chart!‟ music magazine front
cover.
I chose to use a different font on
this front cover, although sticking
to the same colour scheme.
I added a drop shadow to the font
to make it stand out more from
the front cover too.
On this I have also added a black
box along the bottom with white
text to add a little more visual
interest to the front cover.
I chose to keep the white around
the barcode because I feel it
stands out more and looks a lot
better.

12. On this front cover design I
decided to flip the photo
horizontally so that the model was
on the left hand third so that when
the magazines are on shop shelves
the model is visible. I also decided
that on the previous design the top
right hand corner looked a little
blank and bare so on this design I
decided to move the „plus‟ section
to the top right hand corner to fill
the space a little.

13. On this design I decided to add
another cover line “The best of
2011, a playlist of our favourite
songs”
I aligned this using the grid and
formatted a right hand alignment
to the words.
As I was unsure of where to place
this cover line I asked for different
opinions from different people
asking which one they preferred
and which was their favourite. I
then decided I didn‟t like this
arrangement of these cover lines.

14. This is another front cover
design. On this one I decided to
align the cover line „The best of
2011, a playlist of our favourite
songs‟ to the right hand side of
the page and decided this looks a
lot more structured, a lot neater
and much more professional.

15. This is my final front cover
design for my music magazine
„Chart!‟ On this I have moved
the masthead very slightly to
create an invisible border all the
way around the edge of the
magazine. This makes the
magazine front cover look much
more professional. I have also
moved all the cover lines on the
left hand side down slightly to
make the models face more
visible.

16. The screenshot to the left shows the
barcode which is on the right hand corner
of the front cover of my „Chart!‟ music
magazine. I created this barcode on an
online barcode generator and then used the
Photoshop text tool to add the issue
number and price. I aligned these to the
right hand side of the barcode for a more
professional feel.

18. The image to the left shows a first
draft design for my music
magazine‟s contents page- Chart!
I decided to resize the masthead and
make it smaller, but keeping it in
the top left hand corner of my
contents page. This works well to
maintain the house style and also
works to emphasise which
magazine this is the contents page
for.
I placed a border around the image
to make it look a little bit more
interesting and used the colour of
my models top as the colour
selector, but reduced the opacity
slightly to make it less in your face
and vibrant.
I decided to make it easier for me,
not only would I use the grid, but I
also placed the red lines as an aid for
where to place the text. I will
remove these red lines before I
finalise my contents page.

19. The design to the left shows my
second design of my contents page for
Chart! magazine. On this one I
removed the page numbers to see how
the design would look without them,
before realising they were a necessity
for people to find out where they could
find this information and these pages. I
added a colour box to the bottom right
hand corner with text reading “The
Wanted. FREE poster inside”. I
decided to add a colour box to
emphasise and highlight this free gift
to my target audience and magazine
buyers. I used the colour selector tool
on Photoshop to pick out the colour
from my models top to fill the colour
box with. I filled it the same colour to
maintain house style on my contents
page.

20. The design to the left shows my third
design for my music magazine‟s
contents page. On this one I have
added the page numbers back in,
making sure they are aligned with the
rest of the text.

21. The screenshot to the left shows how I
have been able to use the grid in
Photoshop to align the text and photo.
This grid has been really useful in
designing the contents page as it has
enabled me too keep all the writing
aligned and so give an overall more
professional feel to the contents page.
On this design I also decided to remove
the colour box around “The Wanted.
FREE poster inside” however since
removing it I realise this free gift does not
stand out as much as I want it too. I also
feel the colour box broke up the page and
made it slightly more visually appealing.

22. This design led to me changing the
background colour. I decided to
change the background colour
because not only did I think the
white background was somewhat
plain and boring, but I felt it was
harsh on the readers eyes.
I also feel the background colour
emphasises the masthead and makes
it much more obvious rather than it
just blending into the background.
The colour box also seems less
obvious and seems to fit in better
with the coloured background,
making it look slightly less out of
place.

23. On this design I decided to
remove the red guide lines I had
given myself to see how the
contents page worked without
them and how obvious it was
that my text was all aligned.

24. After looking at how I could
maintain house style throughout my
music magazine called Chart! I
decided that I could improve the
contents page dramatically by using
the same font as I used on my front
cover, as in previous designs I had
used the same font I was using for
my masthead. After realising this, I
changed the font to the same one
used on the front cover for the cover
lines.
What font for what?
a song for Jennifer – dafont.com for
my masthead and text in the colour
box
Decibel- dafont.com for my cover lines
and contents page subtitles
High Tower Text- Photoshop for
explanations of pages
Futura Md BT- for the titles of the
pages

25. I decided to lay this out in columns
but without boxes behind these
columns. I used a colour box in the
right hand corner to promote the free
Wanted poster which is inside my
magazine. I located the masthead in
the top left hand corner conforming
with magazine conventions. I used a
photo very similar to the image on
the front cover and kept the colour
scheme all very blue. I have used the
same font- Decibel- as I used on the
front cover to maintain a house style.
I aligned the subtitles with each other
and then each article description is
also aligned with the others. I chose
not to use the words „contents page‟
but „inside this week‟ as I felt this
fitted in more with my target
audiences language style and is also
more interesting and different.

26. I decided after my previous design
that the contents page was difficult
to follow and so it needed to be
better organised. I changed the
contents page around dramatically,
arranging all the text in columns and
putting colour boxes behind the
columns to make them easily
distinguishable. I also added an
outer glow to the boxes to make
them stand out more. I chose to link
the outer glow and number boxes
colours together, resulting in
maintaining a house style. I have
also decided that the twitter logo
needs the background removed to
make it look better.

27. After producing the previous contents
page design I decided that the colours
didn‟t fit in with the house style and
looked somewhat tacky. Therefore I
decided to use the same blue that I had
used on the background of my double
page spread which also maintained the
house style. I also replaced the images
which I took off Google of the wellies
and Adele. This made the contents
page far more original. I also added
the band name „Clueless‟ onto the
photo as I felt it looked as if the photo
had just been stuck on there and didn‟t
have explanation or meaning.

28. The image to the left shows my final
contents page design. On this contents
page I decided to change the image so that
it fitted in more with the overall theme of
my magazine. I feel this image works
well because it is square and so I could
add an outer glow to the photo. I also
decided to move the page number boxes
so that they were more attached to the
relevant image and fitted in more with
the layout of the contents page. I also
added an issue number to the top right
hand corner. I decided the band name
„clueless‟ would look better if it was
turned sideways so it ran along the edge
of the photo.