Designing The Contents Page

This is the sketch for the contents page that I will use as a base/draft.

I then started to create the writing that would be placed around the contents page, hoping for it to look as realistic as possible.

Contents

Authors Notes:

Hey guys, Shelley (THE BOSS) here. I would first like to say thank you viewers for buying the first issue of Reckless! Our team here of weird yet wonderful rascals have put in a lot of effort, blood, tears, sacrificed dandelions, sofas, children's tricycles... and possibly a bit of bacon into this magazines creation and I do 

hope you can all enjoy what we have to offer.

Pages

02 - Latest Tour Guides!

03-04 - Download 2012

05 - Bring Me The Horizon

06 - Asking Alexandria Interview

08 -The Sizes

09 - Competitions!

10-11 - Warning

12-13 - Falling in Reverse

16 - The Pretty Reckless

18 - Reckless LOL Moments

19 - Reckless 2012 Summer List!

21 - Acoustic Indifference

22-23 - Gig Guide

24-25 - Feedback & Fan Mail!

28 - Subscription & Issues!

29-32 - Free posters!!!

Subscription

For £5 a month, you can subscribe to Reckless magazine and have it delivered to your door the day the next issue is released!

Here is the process in screen shots...

I first started off with placing the photo's in the structure that I created in the very rough draft sketch. I made sure everything fits on the page already rather than having to distort, transform and majorly edit the images after words and shapes had been placed on to the page. It is a lot easier to work onto photos than it is to work photo's on the other pieces of a page.

I then began adding picture filters, playing with levels and creating a bold, clear appearance for all the photos. This was then followed by me adding more, following my plan, to sort sections and borders for writing to be organised into. I even decided to add in some vector splats and shapes to create an interesting, modern look to the page. This would also follow the usual style of magazines around the same music genre; it's a typically seen factor to their designs.

I also made sure to stick to the warm colour palette of mainly black, white and yellow. This is to emphasize the main article of the magazine and it's theme of warning... relating to a warning sign.

I then began adding text to the piece, making sure to make important/featured articles separate themselves from the main text by placing the page numbers on their corresponding pictures. This is a common technique used in the magazine industry, its so people can automatically find what they are looking for to satisfy their interest. I also created a little 'cute' mascot looking picture that tops the writers notes, it being a little devil/or cat. It's just to create a sense of comfort and fun to the appearance of the magazine by showing something silly.

Then finally, I started finishing up by adding more filter effects and borders around things to make everything stand out boldly and comfortably. I also added the subscription box area, with a red background. It most magazines, you'll notice the subscription box is almost always red or black, never white or any other colour. This may show urgency to its existence and instantly draw the viewer’s attention to the information it is trying to give. The very last effect was a generated yellow and orange cloud effect that was placed as the very top layer. It had Gaussian Blur applied to it to make it softer and was then set to a linear dodge layer setting which, when applied to the page, created a much softer, more professional look to the page.

Final Contents Page

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