Evaluation of the Finished Magazine

For the final design of my front cover I changed some of the layout as I had to design it around the photo. Initially I planned to put the two main sells on the left side of the page, however, this left me with little room to write anything else. It also meant some of the writing from the main sell would be over the girls face, so I decided to place them at the bottom of the page where they can still be seen but aren't overlapping anything else.
The photo for the front cover changed several times. At first I was going to use the person who featured on the double page spread but it left some of the page white and plain, when i made the photo bigger it looked the person in the photo was stretched. I then decided to take a picture of a group of people to take up more space, one of the pictures I took were of them sitting down but this left a lot of background so I used one of them standing up. I think this worked well as there is no plain white on the page. The three girls are wearing black with some red, to match the colour of the writing (this is something most magazines do). However, for the genre of music I have chosen, it is very unusual to have girls on the front cover, normally it is older men because the main reader of magazines such as Q and Mojo are men.
The masthead is written in an edgy, spiky font that is eye catching and stands out. I think the use of a vinyl record works well as the letter 'O' as it makes it clear that Shockwave is a music magazine.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7hCr4ttDC-rOGUwNzQ2N2YtOTYwZi00ODdkLWIyODMtNDVlNzVjNmY4OGFh&hl=en

For the final design of my contents pages I kept it the same as the flat plans I drew as I think this layout works well. The date and issue number are at the top. The word contents is in large capital letters. I decided to leave it white so it didn't distract the reader from the rest of the page. The photo takes up approximately a quarter of the page. It is an action shot of Emma Star playing her guitar outside. I think it is an interesting photo to look at as the wind is blowing her hair, making it look like a natural photo. As it is outside and she is on a balcony the view behind her is also nice to look at, instead of being a plain colour. At the bottom of the photo there is a caption explaining what is going on. It is written in yellow so it can be read easily, but also to be in keeping with the colour scheme used on the front cover.
'Main Features' and 'Monthly Reviews' are written in red and '80's Special' is written in yellow - again in keeping with the colour scheme. I put the 80's special in a different colour to show the separate parts of the magazine.
The page number of each article is written in red and is the same size as the title of the article. Below each article there is a short sentence that gives a little bit of information on what the article will be about. This is something all magazines do so the reader can decide if it is something they will be interested in reading. Underneath each one there is a straight line to show the separate articles.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7hCr4ttDC-rMTA2MDQ4OGEtY2NhYi00ZGMyLWJhNzYtZDMwNTI1NWE5NGEw&hl=en

The original flat plans for my double page spread didn't work so I changed it to be an interview with Emma Star (the girl on the contents page). Her name is written at the top of both pages to grab the readers eye. Her name is written in a font made of stars called razzle dazzle to cohere with her name 'Star'. This is something other magazines do, for example, in a Mojo double page spread that I looked at the title is 'American Gothic' and it is written in a gothic font.
The right hand page is taken up by a photo of Emma sitting on the floor with her guitar looking at a sheet of music. I think this photo is effective because the interview takes place in her house and is about her music, one question asked is about how she writes a song, the photo therefore shows people how she creates, learns and practices her songs. At the bottom of the left page there is a small photo of her playing the guitar, she's smiling and giving eye contact because in the larger photo she is looking at music. At the top of the larger photo there is some writing about when her album and new single are available to buy and download, it is written over the wall behind Emma, so the top part of the photo isn't just a plain wall. At the bottom of the photo there is a small caption explaining the photo.
Above the interview, there is an introductory paragraph, informing people about Emma, how old she is, the house she lives in and the success she's had. This is in a larger font than the interview to draw the reader in. This idea came from looking at other interviews in Mojo and Q Magazine, who both do similar style paragraphs before an interview.
The page is white on black, instead of black on white to make the title -written in white stars with a yellow outline- stand out.
The questions being asked are in a larger font than the answers so it's clear they are seperate from each other and so it doesn't get confusing for the reader. The name of the interviewer and the person being interviewed are written in full for the first question, after that they are abbreviated as the reader will know who 'S' and 'E' are. It also saves time and space if the names are abbreviated.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7hCr4ttDC-rMDBhNzE4NDAtNzkzMy00N2VjLWJjNGUtMTMyYzFjMGJmODBl&hl=en