The making of My Contents Page...

Below are a selection of print screens which show how I have created, changed and adapted my contents page to create a contents page for my magazine which I am happy with. In some ways I have moved away from the original design of my mock-up but at the same time I have valid reasons for these changes. (Please click on the steps to see the images that go with this step).

Step 1 - As you can see from the first step I have chosen to place two half circles at the back of the magazine, the reason for this is so that the text and images are not just placed on a white page but the page has some designs of its own. The two shapes are two different colours to make one stand out against the other as they are overlapping each other to create a good design. I have placed the same type of text as the front cover on the contents page as well to show a consistent theme occurring and to show a font which the audience of the magazine can link to. For example if they see that type of font anywhere else then they would link it back to the magazine.
I have also have created an 'underline' for the word so that it doesn't look alone at any point. I have chosen to create an almost 'burn' look on the underline to make it different and not the same as normal lines as they would seem less amazing and wouldn't create the same reaction as this type of underline would create. Again i can use this as a link to the magazine like the font so that the audience become more familiar with the magazine and it's house style.

Step 2 - Here I am showing where the images and text boxes would be placed on the magazine contents page with the design behind it. As you can see for the most part you can't really see the top half circle as you can the second because the text box to the left is covering the top. However as the images might be larger than this I may have to move some of them around to try and fit all of the content in the text box as I don't want to make it to small.

Step 3 - As you can see I have placed the three images I have chosen on the magazine an as they are all different sizes I will have to cover more of the second larger circle. However I still feel that this works because it might have looked empty if you could see lots of the design rather then the audience feeling that the page is full but not to full. All three images have a black border which came with the images, I feel that this makes them look artificial and separates them slightly from the rest of the magazine as I wanted the images to not just be placed on the page but to work with the magazine contents page like they were the first thing on the page and everything else was worked around it.

Step 4 - Here I have moved the images so that they are slightly slanted and not in a line next to the side of the page like they were before. The reason for this is so that I don't have to have a large constantly and it doesn't look like I have just placed the images on the cover how they came and that's it. But I have taken away the borders and altered their shape, size and angle. I take taken away the black borders on the lower two images but kept in on the first to show it standing out against the two designs which it is placed on, however I have made the border much smaller so that it isn't so big and doesn't take up as much space as it did before. I have also created a caption text box next to the last image as it was on my original mock-up and feel that it would create a god link between the images and the content which will be placed on the left hand side of the page.

Step 5 - In this step all i have changed is putting text into the caption text box, however after moving it around a few times and changing the text I feel that i doesn't look right and the right hand side of the page should be for images only and the text should keep to the left hand side of the page.

Step 6 - In this step I have tried to place the amount of text I need in the left hand text box but however there was not enough room. To fix this I took away the second smaller text box at the bottom of the larger text box and just created a larger text box for the text to be placed in. I have made the images also smaller so that they don't overwhelm the page and so that the audiences eyes are not always drawn back to the images but they can easily look at the contents text and not have to look really hard to read it in a very small font but rather in a good sized font where all people can read it.
Additionally I have also added two titles in the text box to the left so that I can split up the amount of content i have to fit in this text box. As you can see I have now two sections, 'In this issue' and 'every issue'. This is so the audience can find their old favourites which they love to read in every issue (every issue) or read an article which caught their eyes on the cover of the magazine (in this issue). This is also so that I don't have to make a large amount of text look interesting as looking at a large amount of text puts some people off reading it. I have also added the underline s the same as the one on the title of the page so that it keeps with the theme of the magazine. To make the page more official I have also added a page number in the top right hand corner in a small black text box so that the audience don't have to just assume that this is the first page, but they know which page number this is and then they can link it to the content in the text box.

Step 7 - As you can see I have at last added the content into the texts boxes on the left hand side of the page and so have fit all of the text into that one box. While I did spend some time re-sizing the text to try and make it all fit in the end it did and I now can see how it would look with the text in the boxes.

Step 8 - This is the last and final step for creating my magazine contents page. As you can see I have changed the colour of four of the pages to show that they are different than the rest of the articles in the magazine. The difference between them is that the articles highlighted in pink appear on the front cover. The reason that I have not stated this or instead wrote 'this article is on the cover page' is because first I thought that it was not necessary for that text to also be in the box. Second I wouldn't have enough room for my text to stay in the box and lastly because it shows that because people whom are reading this magazine again and again would know this and so it shows the familiarity between the magazine and its readers.