Double Page Spread Development

Here is my development progress with regard to the double page spread

Reflection:

I think this was the worst part of the project as I found it very tough to figure out what kind of design I want my double page spread to be. I did the final submission first and then did the sketch, that's how confused I was. I definitely do not want to make another double page spread like this again. I've seen my friend's pages and theirs are top notch. Coupled with my stupidity and procrastination, I'll never be able to get any feedback on this as I did this part at 3am the on the day it is due. Next time I need to focus and not postpone such important things like this. What I found easy and that I liked was being able to finish this reflection as now I have to move onto the Critical Self Reflection and get that done before school. 

I was able to get some last minute feedback from my teacher on the day of submission so we could work on some final little details before it is ready to submit.

Research

Here is some research I conducted to develop my contents page.

I notice that a lot of double page spreads in my genre contain a whole bunch or words, with there being more space taken up by words than by any visual graphic. This is very displeasing to the eye in my opinion as it takes up a whole lot of space for just words which not many people will pay attention to since they're not really good at grabbing the reader's attention.

However, I noticed that one of my research results found that there is evidence of a pull quote, suggesting that it may well be within the genre conventions and is something I will definitely playing around with.

Drop caps are another thing I see quite regularly on these magazines in this genre. As a result, I will definitely be keeping within that genre convention and ensuring that it is upheld. Another thing that seems to have caught my eye is that each double page spread alternates between no columns to just two or even three. I will be definitely experimenting and toying around with that feature. Subheadings seem to also be rare in my genre so I will be sure to steer clear from using subheadings as not only do they clutter up space, they're just not in my genre as a convention.

What I do like about this research is that it has opened my eyes more to what I should be focusing on and how to stay within the guidelines of my genre conventions. What I dislike is the lack of colour used by the designer of these magazines. Obviously there are some that are very good. However, most lack in any sort of eye catching colour. 

Another feature I almost missed is that the author and photographers are almost always jest a piece of text, with some I notice having pictures of the people. I will try to utilise that feature as part of my article and hope that it all works out perfectly. 

Sketches

Here are some hand drawn sketches for my contents page.

All these layouts seem pretty rubbish in my opinion. It's either too many words or too many picture. I can't seem to get the balance right. Either way, I like the idea of the title in a box coming from the left side of the page. I also like the use of different size pictures. It really conforms to my genre conventions. I will experiment with all the layouts and see what kind of results that brings me.

Visual Development

Here are some visual development attempts for my contents page.

Here are a few pictures I may plan on using for my double page spread. I know I am definitely going to use _MG_9281 as it is relevant to the Christmas part of my article. I may go ahead and experiment with some others. Pictures I think I will definitely not use are the ones with Ps. Stephan holding the bible as I don't think it's relevant to the article.

Final Attempts

Here are some attempts made for my final submission.

My teacher then gave me some feedback and so we changed the layout to have the pull quotes as part of the article and to also include a large white space above the second column which he advised me was necessary given the layout as well as how it works. Not only that, but my teacher also advised me to enlarge the greeting as it would stand out more and signify the beginning of the text. 

Final Submission

Here is my final submission for the contents page of my magazine.