Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Constructing my Double Page Spread - Part 2

I was overwhelmed at how a minority of my time had been consumed creating this double page spread as opposed to the one present for my main ancilary task for the A2 brief I completed over the course of this year, I feel this is due to the notion that my construction and editing skills have improved dramatically since I first started the media subject and with a deep insight into what the best conventions, editing, and strategies to employ to make it an efficient process. In these stages my main concern was to include the remainder of the text body for my centre article and to adjust the position of particular areas (such as the celebrity question box that was to be included) so that the feature flowed smoothly without any overlap or disjointness in the positioning of each component of text.


During my peer feedback, it was brought to attention and identified that my headline for the feature itself lacked emphasis due to its sizing which overall effected its appearance on the page. My lecturer had commented that unless it was enlarged further then it would lack specifically in gauging the audience's immediate line of interest, it needed to have an instant impact, to grip and excite them so they can visualise anticipating something amazing from the content of my article. To derive this incentive, I highlighted the headline with the cursor tool and selected the sizing option from the text toolbar on the upper left hand corner of the Photoshop software. Once the drop down menu was offered to me I manually typed in 170pt, to which the letters sizes were increased instantly to. In contrast to how they had been personified before I noticed an new, different impact to the words on the spread, from a distance I referred to how my line of sight was critically gauged with the headline, due to the bold, bright use of the colour blue and the position it occupied on the page at the centre, it was hard not to be directed towards it. Furthermore now it had been enhanced to a larger capacity, all of these positives I described before hand were emphasised as it now held dominance over all other conventions on the document.




The key issue my lecturer had identified to me personally during the feedback of the proposed improvements to my existing spread concerned the employment of the 'King of the Hill 2' text style as the main title for the article. She regarded it came across to her as 'childish' in personification and that it was more suited to appear in a children's publication or a music magazine for younger audiences (11-16)  due to its vibrant, bubbly and jokey exterior which is associated more with the upbeat 'skater' culture of todays youth. With my rationale detailing how I intend to attract readers from the age of 18-25, this would not comply efficiently with the mature theme running through the pages, where I had planned on using sleek, bold, almost elegant font to reflect this developed sense of cognitive functioning of the older audience's. Instead she considered altering it so it had a sophisticated yet classy look about it which would be deemed as more appropriate for an adult written publication. I took her advice in my stride and began looking through the website 'Dafont' again to see if I could gain any inspiration over a new style I could potentially incorporate as a replacement for my previous choice. Whilst causally browsing I came across an older Serif Sans font that was in the same style as the typical 'Q' magazine text mode of operation - the letters themselves came across as bold yet simplistic in the fashion they came across as, almost to the liking of a basic 'Times New Roman'. I had my concerns that it would personify as 'boring' and lacking in any dramatic emphasis that would generally attract a reader to a product, to overcome this fear I swapped the primary 'King of The Hill 2' with the Serif Sans to see how they compared. With me now having stated my lecturers idea, I was impressed with how the text now came across to me visually as in contrast to previously with this new style incorporated. It had just as much of an emphatic quality as the 'King Of the Hill 2' in relation to how bold and noticeable it was on the page, it was hard to easily overlook nd I held no concerns for its impact towards the audience. However the most main difference was the sophistication and elegance of the wording itself, as they clearly demonstrated to me a more adult intended reading audience in regards to the 'King of the Kill 2' which bold and brassy composure came across as more of a children to teenager readers then older. I'm pleased I took on board the advice given to me over this foundation as it has allowed me to improve the appearance of my double page spread, to me it now looks to engage my desired target audience (18-25) rather then the total opposite of what I had designated.


During this time frame I managed to complete the finished draft of my article, so I now had the option to copy and paste it into the Indesign programme to correctly position it on my spread. I realised instantly that in order for me to occupy the full two pages, the text would need to be contorted and reduced in size as otherwise it would simply flow off the document which would render the feature useless if some of the vital information had been bypased. I dealt with this error by manipulating the sizing of the font so it was altered to a smaller but more suitable 9pt, using this method allowed me to include all of the article over the course of the spread with no overlap. I perfected the structure by separating the paragraphs containing each question and response from the following quieries as I wanted a neat and fluid presentation of the words, without this the spread would be less concise as all of the interview would be squashed together, making individual questions hard to distinguish and alluding a messy feel which could potentially deter the reader from engaging with the feature. The main questions were reinforced with a jet black bold overtone I accessed from the text styles as this further acted as a mode to illustrate that the questions and answers are not to be confused with one another as they are directly from two unique perceptions of people, however were still connected as they were placed underneath/above each other so that continuity can be identified.  On a final note I began to add in the celebrity viewpoints where they would be questioning the male artist about a topi of their choice, this was kept to the same 'Time New Romans' font for conventionilism in the publication. Once added I realised I would have to play around with the location of the celebrity images and their accompanying speech as it was too close to the feature article which I assumed may establish conflict over which is the most critical piece to read.


My only alteration allocated here concerned the alignment of the text bodies on either side of the page, for them to co--operate effectively and to not appear disjointed in that respect (if one finished earlier then the other so as the main body of words on a single page was longer then the other etc), this required for me to tweak the feature itself by removing unecessary language, words and limiting the length of responses so in the end result the text was in equal perspective of one another. The use of the ruler tool from the view finder aided me in achieving this particular line up, by drawing illuminous green line across the bottom of the page so as to give me a visual vantage point as to where to correctly allocate the text so they were parallel with one another.


After printing out a preliminary copy of what my double page appeared like in a authentic A4 fashion, I realised there was many spelling, grammatical and editing imperfections present on the document that I had previously overlooked before. This is not as much of a human error but more a technological as the programme 'Indesgin' does not automatically notify you of literature mistakes when they are placed onto the spread in use. These criteria of issues could be fatal if left undetected as a written media products professionalism can be undermined as it is a common notion to think of how exactly these inconsistencies could slip through the net. The audience then may regard the production as naive with the thought the editors are truly not concerned with how their products are displayed across to their audiences, in that respect the readers may treat this rather superficially regarding that they shouldn't make any effort with buying the magazine if no consideration has been made to entice or excite them. With this a detrimental problem I certainitly didn't want to arise I spent then proceeding half an hour correcting these errors before they could have an overwhelmingly negative impact on the emotive response to my feature itself.


Now that I am coming to the conclusion of the development of my double page spread, it was necessary for me to now correct the final issues arising on the document in hopes to improve the overall portrayal of my article. I stated a few steps back that I was involved in an inconsistency revolving around the positioning of the celebrity photographs and their accompanying questions for my artist. before they were in too close of a proximity to the main body of text detailing information from my male musician, this was catastrophic as they were on the verge of overlapping each other which I could not have as the audience critically had to differentiate that they were two unique pieces of the feature, that yes were in continuity to one another but didn't match up to exactly the dame topic (i.e they weren't about my writer interviewing the artists, instead a famous composer was). I used the ruler tool once more to include a vertical line down the right hand page where the celebrity pieces were displayed, this would allow me to note how far away they had to be from the crease line of the page so they did not conflict with it but also to present me with their original location, so I could move them down in their original positions, as if I altered the placement entirely it could cause a discontinuous prose on the placement of the text as they may not be vertically consistent with another another, hopefully the ruler tool would help prevent this. I began by highlighting both of the text layers in the 'layers' tool bar which is situated in a drop down box on the top right hand side of the page, then using the arrow keys proceeded to move them downwards so there was a small but reasonable gap between them and the text of the feature piece. I was enthusiastic with how it now displayed as I myself could identify the words were not part of the same article but were related in discussion as with how tiny the spacementt was. However I was now left with the issue that there was a large gap at the bottom of the document, this would have caused me distress if I had no planned ahead, to which I had already concluded I would be employing the use of a sell line that would promote the artists career further. Underneath the last celebrity question and answer styled interview, I inserted a two line piece of text that gave details of the artists latest festival appearances and the release of his new album, this would aid in promoting him as an upcoming sensation to the audience, with this information in their domain I hope it would persuade them to purchase 'his music' and continue the success of my magazine, as if he knows he is getting sales from being interviewed by me then its more then likely I could request him on multiple occassions for an interview.


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