Development DiaryDouble Page

Spread

The very first thing that I did on the double page spread, was add the main image to the page so that I could plan everything around it. I liked this image and knew that I wanted to use it from the moment I took it. It looks very panoramic and the artist is centred which signifies to the reader who they are reading about.

I again used the crop tool like I did on the front cover to make sure that the image fitted perfectly on the pages and so that it spanned the whole width without taking up too much space. I used the spot healing brush to clean up any areas that needing some touching up.

I used the airbrushing tool so that her skin was smooth and photo ready. I thought that it would be a good idea to do this to make the image look cleaner and more put together.

I started off the process of building the double page spread by adding the header to the article. I wanted to keep it simple which is why I just went with the name of the person featured in the article. I also decided to move the image up further the pages so that there is more space done the bottom areas of the page. This would allow me to add more of a body copy. The title itself was placed over the top of the image for dramatic effect. I think that it looks really good here and I don’t think it would’ve had been as effective anywhere else. I also added a bevel to the title to make it stand out more.

I added three boxes to the bottom right hand side of the main image so that I could add some more pictures. My plan is to make them look like polaroid photos. I want to do it this way because it will look more personal to the reader and more like they are with the person in question. To stay with this theme of it being personal, I placed them at angles to make it look more casual and less put together. I thought that this would also appeal to my target audience more because they tend not to be entirely neat and are usually quite scattered.

I started adding the new photos and made sure that they were the correct size so that they would fit inside the white boxes that I had previously created. They fit perfectly and they are all personal to the person in question which means the reader will be much more inclined to read the article. This is because the reader likes to feel like they are at one with what they are reading rather than feeling isolated and alienated. The photos that I chose emphasise this nicely and I like the colours that are in them as I think that they are much more approachable from a reader’s perspective. I went on to create captions for each of the images to highlight to the reader what is going on in each photograph. This will furthermore make them feel at one with the artist. It’s important to include small pieces of information such as this because if there isn’t then the reader may be less likely to read the story and to keep flicking through the magazine. The idea of the bright pictures mixed with the captions that follow them is to entice the reader into wanting to know more about the person. This is what the sub pictures are designed to do.

I added a simple grey box underneath the main image so that I can put my body copy and standfirst in it but at the same time showing the reader that this is the main image. I used a grey colour because it is simple, blends nicely into the white and it does not draw attention away from the images.

Before I started writing the body copy, I wrote the standfirst at the top left of the grey box to ensure that it is the first thing that the reader will come across. I put some areas in bold so that they would stand out more to the reader when they are flicking through. The byline in the standfirst is in a different colour so that the reader knows exactly who is writing the article and so that they feel again, like it is more personal. The audience likes to know many things about the article itself rather than just the main writing involved.

I started writing the body copy in a simple serif font that I have used previously on the contents page. I made sure to make the beginning letter larger than the rest of the writing so that it was significant to the reader where the article starts. This stops the reader from getting confused over where they need to start. I made sure to space the three columns at equal distances with the same amount of space in the gutter between each column. This is important because it is clearly more put together and presentable.

When it came to the second page of the body copy, I had to make the columns shorter so that it would not interfere with the images. At first I thought that that this wasn’t going to look right, but after writing it all I think that it works perfectly and does not take away from the images themselves. At the very end of the story I added an end blob to signify the end of the article and I also wrote the name of the writer to re-iterate to the reader who wrote the article.

Finally, I added a pull quote from the body copy. This is necessary in drawing in the reader. If they can get a sense of what is actually in the main article then they are going to feel much more obliged to read the entire body copy to find out how the article leads into the particular quote. I think that keeping this in an obvious place is vital if you want the reader to actually notice it. I made the background of the pull quote the same colour as the headline so that it would all lend together. However, I lowered the opacity of the box and blurred the edges of it using the gradient tool so that it would not steal the attention away from the main image. However, I made sure that it was still highly recognisable when flicking through the pages so that it would not be something the reader just doesn’t see.

I think that the overall design of the double page spread works really well, keeps in with the colour scheme and makes the reader feel drawn in and as though they know the artist. This is exactly what I was going for and everything on the page works well together and nothing steals the main focus.