Double Page Spread Second/Final Draft

Here is my final draft of my double page spread after making corrections and adjustments given to me by professionals.

First Draft review with professional

I spent some time with the Managing Director, Tony Baxter from Voodoo Designs in Bristol. Their website can be found here (http://www.voodoodesign.com/). Tony has lots of experience in graphic design and so I was able to get professional advice on how to improve my own double page spread.
Below is my first draft of my double page spread:

I asked Tony what he thought on the positioning of the text and the colours used. Below are the things that he noticed and a few improvements that he suggested I could do to make my double page spread more effective.

1. Use a lighter shade of grey on the black wheels that hold the images at the bottom right. Also make the wheels a bit smaller but maintain the size of the tread in the wheel.

2. In the title change it to the "&" symbol and increase the size of the font.

3. Swap the logo and title round so that when in a magazine the title would appear first

4. Make sure that the text is aligned properly so will not fall into the middle of the page.

Some advice Tony also gave me was to think about the order that a viewer looks at the page. At the moment the pictures at the bottom right are the first thing your eyes are attracted to. I need to change it so that the order is title, logo, images, text.

Double Page Spread creation

My double page spread was created using Photoshop. I used this software for two reasons. Firstly it is software that I have used before in my foundation production. In my foundation production I used Photoshop for the same reason that I needed it here. I created a double page spread.

Secondly, Photoshop has a wide range of tools, much more than the alternative that is Pages. Photoshop is an industry standard software package that is used in media production.

When creating my double page spread I was able to use a template that could show me my bleed lines. This aided me in my creation to ensure that everything could be seen. The lines also showed where the split would be in the middle. This was especially helpful to me as I had a large picture for my double page spread.

Photoshop worked as an all in one package for me. This is because i used it to edit the main image that is featured. I was able to blur out all of the people and mise en scene that i did not want and add a filter that made the colours i wanted to be foregrounded. I was them able to add this edited image directly to the overlay that I had created which featured all of the text and smaller images on the double page spread.

Double Page First Draft

Here is the first draft of my double page spread

Photoshoot/Images

For the images that i wanted to use on my double page spread I needed to find exotic cars. This is because exotic, rare cars are much more eye catching and they are designed to be attractive. Therefore it would be perfect to use one as the main image for my double page spread. 

This causes a few problems, the main one being how will I be able to find an exotic car and how will I have the time to take images of one.

To overcome this barrier I managed to find all of the images that I had taken at the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the past 5 years that I went. From this I narrowed all the images down to the ones that had the following qualities:

- They were good enough image quality (no blurring)

- There were not many people in the foreground or background

- The car is still seen as expensive and rare

- The camera angle shows enough of the car

- There are connotations of race and casual driving

- The car is something that will be attractive to most people, even if they are not interested in cars

Below are all of the images that I will try and use in my final draft and perform a connotation test on.

Real Media Research: TV Listings Analysis

Above is a double page spread from the magazine TV & Satellite. This is for a TV show rather than a TV channel, however it gives me a good insight on how the page is layed out and displayed.

Structure

The first thing you notice is the structure of the page. All of the text fills a small rectangular box across the bottom of the 2 pages. There is also another large box along the right hand side. The title is positioned in the centre of the page. However you will notice that all of the text that goes across the middle has been split up so there is a naturally occurring gap for the page to be cut. This cover also features lots of smaller images scattered around the page to keep the page interesting and not looking like a block of text. 

Colour

This page uses colour cleverly as it has a colour that is used to highlight the important information. The yellow is used in the title to highlight the word 'dwarf'. This is because the double page is all about the show Red Dwarf returning. The box on the right is then highlighted in the same colour. This instantly creates a link between the title. This helps to highlight the information. Furthermore, by making it a different colour to the bottom text block, it does not look like too much writing of the same thing.

Images

The images used are all related to the show and the title of the double page spread. The main images is like a summary of the double page spread as it has fact files on each character and clearly shows all of the protagonists. The arm of one of the characters is also wrapped around one of the text boxes. This integrates the image into the page a lot better and helps to blend everything together.



Above is a double page spread from the magazine TV & Satellite.

Structure

This double page spread is structured very similarly to the one of Red Dwarf above. This could be because it is a part of the same magazine and maintains consistency, however it could also be because it has successful features. This page uses two separate text boxes of different colours. This is done to spread the information out across both pages and getting in as much information as possible and still making sure it looks like less. This page still features smaller images around the page. Again this double page is using small rounded images. These smaller images keep the readers who do not like lots of text interested.

Images

The main image on this double page spread shows all of the main characters and they again are looking towards the camera. The image is annotated with descriptions of the characters. This is used to give more information about what is being promoted, without adding blocks of text. The smaller images are of moments from the TV show and are giving previews of what might be seen in the show.

Colours

The double page spread uses the same highlighting colour technique. This is where they make one colour a lot less than all of the others and so when it is seen it stands out from all of the rest. The images contain lots of darker colours making anything that is lighter stand out more. The text is white so it stands out on the image. This means that they did not need to add a text box background and this helps integrate the image with the text.

Above is a double page spread from the magazine TV Guide. This is a different magazine to the others so I can see if the patterns used in TV & Satellite are similar to the ones used in TV Guide.

Structure

The first noticeable similarity is the use of text and images. The text is still limited down to a long rectangle shape and  only takes up around a quarter of the page. The rest of the page is images. The page also contains lots of smaller images like the rest, most likely for the same reasons. The title is positioned in the centre of the page but slightly to one side to prevent the crease line from cutting any text off.

Images

All of the images are directly related to the title. This seems to be a recurring feature. This is because they give a quick overview of what the article is about without the reader having to read through all the text. Also by adding multiple pictures it takes more time for the reader to process the page and therefore they will not skip past the page they will stay and look at it for a bit. 

Colours

The colours on this are not really used aswell as the other pages. They have used mainly 2 colours, this is the white background and title and then the yellow/sand colour from all the images. This does not make anything stand out. However the advantage of doing this is that it is simple to read and understand.

How will I address my target audience?

Which magazine would this be shown in and why?

My double page spread will be in a TV listings magazine as it states in the specification. However there are a variety of different listings magazines and they all have different audiences. To make sure that my product reaches the right audience that will be most interested i must make sure that it is featured in the correct magazine.

Which magazine it is shown on does also depend on the provider that my channel will be shown. Many TV providers such as Sky and Freeview have their own Tv listing guides available. Therefore if my channel was to be broadcast only to Sky viewers then my channel would not be suitable for a Freeview listings magazine.

It is not only providers that offer Tv listing guides. National newspapers offer them too, these are often the most seen guide. Therefore this would be a good option for me as I will be on show to a very large audience. This way i can be more sure that i will be addressing my target audience and getting the most out of my double page spread. My double page spread can be used not only to inform but persuade people to want to go on my channel.