Contents Page Sample Images

Double Page Spread Sample Images

Cover Page Sample Images

Evaluating Video Responses

• The respondents said that the cover page does not look like a professional cover page. However, with some “improvements” and “adjustments”, it may look more presentable. When asked about improvements, they mentioned resizing the cover image and improve the overall picture quality of the cover page. Since I did not use a profession application to create the cover page, I will use a different application to improve the quality. Further, I will attempt to resize the model image and possibly alter some parts of this piece for the future.

• When asked about what stood out the most, respondents focused on the “picture of the cover athlete.” Another area of focus was the style of the cover, specifically the “fonts and colors”. While these are good aspects to have stand out, few mentioned the stories being presented about the other sports at American. Despite not being the focus of the cover page, I would like for the heading to pop out to readers. A glaring omission was the mast head. There was no mention of it being attractive to readers. Perhaps a different font or some effects on the current masthead will change this.

Video of Cover Page Market Research Questions

Below, I have attached my market research of my sample cover page.

https://youtu.be/LGGYIVy1gGk

Market Research on Sample Pieces

Having designed a sample cover page, contents page, and double-page spread, I will now conduct a survey to collect the opinions of my peers on my sample pieces. In order to gauge their responses, I will ask open ended questions. These include:

• What stands out to you from this piece?
• What do you feel can be improved for this piece?
• Does this piece look like something a professional magazine company may publish?

Double-page spread self-evaluation

Evaluation

The double-page spread is my best sample creation thus far. After having designed a sample cover and contents page, I’ve familiarized myself with editing tools enough to add more creativity to the double-page spread. Upon review, a glaring mistake I noticed was the font. I use the same font for the sub-heading and the text. I need to change this in my official spread design, in order to distinguish between them. The heading “Nasir Coffee” is in a different color scheme and font. The text is formatted in a question and answer (Q&A) format. I used different colors to indicate where questions and answers start. The white background on the right-hand side might be changed to another color or design style to better grab a reader’s attention. Having created a sample of the three coursework components, I will work to build on these designs and improve them for my final magazine.

Preliminary Task (Double-Page Spread)

Below, I have attached a sample double page spread for my sports magazine.

Single-Athlete Specific Spreads Examples

Below, I have attached some of the inspirations for my sports magazine's double-page spread. I plan to combine elements from these spreads to create my spread. For instance, I would remove the row of images in the "Tower of Howard" spread and experiment with the text color and font. The "Vital Statistics" spread with Tom Brady is a good foundation for a stats breakdown spread, should I choose to do that for my spread. The "Jacksonville Jaguars" spread has a good layout, but is team oriented. I would have to format it for one athlete.

Contents Page Self Evaluation

Evaluation

When creating this contents page, I was satisfied with the outcome. It was my first attempt at design it, so I will definitely pick up on more details and aspects of an actual contents page for my final product. I made sure to use different fonts for the headlines, magazine title, and subtitle under the picture. I even unbolded the caption so that the main headline (Defending Home Floor) would stand out a little bit more. In the future, I will attempt to use different methods, such as size and color, to make this differentiation. I used an all-white background as I was basing my design on a retro Sports Illustrated contents page. Considering that the magazine I’m making will be “released” in 2020, I may have to add much more color to the contents page. Finally, I should use all of my space when designing a contents page. I will make sure not to leave a gaping space in the contents page of my magazine.

Preliminary Task (Contents Page)

Below, I've designed a sample contents page for a sports magazine.

Contents Page Inspiration

For the contents page of my magazine, I want to use only one page with one main image to support the headings and subheadings of that page. Below, I have attached examples of what I envision for my own magazine. As you can see, some rely on a group picture or a single model picture. One of the examples uses a small, vertical strip for its picture. I will use only one athlete, but enalrge the picture to fill out most of the page.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Evaluation

The preliminary task has allowed me to gain an understanding for how I will approach the development of all three pieces of the magazine task. For the creation of my sample cover page, I used an application (PicsArt) that I’m comfortable with to have a basis on which to edit my content. However, I will be using more sophisticated applications, such as Photoshop and InDesign, to create my final content and be exposed to more design options to strengthen my content.

Layout

The layout of the cover page was based on the sample single-athlete covers I uploaded to my blog. The mast head is not obstructed in any way and centered above the main image. The cover athlete (or cover model) is centered just under the mast head, allowing him to be the focus of the cover. Sub-headings can be found on the sides of the model, with different colors to separate them from other aspects in the cover page.

Text Styles

Through my research of magazine conventions, I found out the importance of using different fonts in a magazine. The use of fonts is imperative to guide readers’ attention to a specific story or headline in your magazine. On my cover page, the title font is noticeably different from the fonts that are used for the articles about the school’s teams and the story about the cover athlete. Further, the text to the right of the cover athlete is bolded, adding to the distinctive quality of the fonts on the cover page.

Photography 

I wanted to limit the possible distractions of a cluttered background on the cover image. For this reason, I cropped out the background of the original photo of the cover model and merged it with a blank image. This created the base of the cover page. While this is a learning process, perhaps in future examples I will take images of a model with a naturally, non-distracting background to use on the cover page of my magazine.

Preliminary task (Cover)

Here, I have created a sample cover for my magazine: