DPS Flat-plansPlaylist Magazine - Planning

Mock-ups created using found images and placeholder text.

Design 1 – Version 1This design takes inspiration from the Total Film DPS seen on my ‘Design Inspiration’ mood-board. If I use this design, my article will start with a pull-quote from later on in the article, with the article title being the name of the artist. The headline would be placed below the pull-quote, implying that the quote comes from the artist upon which the article is based.I decided to include a large amount of white space, creating a very fresh design, linking to the idea of a “fresh” rising artist.All of the fonts used are serif fonts, creating a vaguely old-fashioned style, contrasting against the modern colour scheme, creating an eye-catching design.

Design 1 – Version 2After my initial flat-plan for this design, I asked my peers for some casual feedback. From this, I found that the central placement of the speech marks was causing confusion, so I moved them to the start & finish of the quote. Another criticism was that the use of serif fonts looked too old-fashioned, so I added a byline, page numbers, and a smaller title at the top of the page, all in sans-serif fonts, creating a timeless effect and making the design look more interesting overall.The final criticism I received was that, whilst the white space design looked good, the page looked too empty. To resolve this, I added multiple thin black lines to separate the various sections of the page, creating a more interesting design.

Design 1 – Version 3After version 2, I asked for further feedback from my peers. Their only criticism at this point was that the main body text of the article looked dull, so I added a drop-cap to make the article look more interesting to the reader.

Design 2 – Version 1For my second design, I went for a more modern approach by using sans-serif fonts for the entirety of the article, creating a very modern design. As with design 1, I used white space to create a very fresh image. For design 1, I split the DPS vertically with the article on one page and the photo on the other, however, for this design I split the DPS horizontally, allowing for more body-text and more images.I personally don’t think this design would work particularly well with my magazine’s style as it doesn’t feel personal to the artist and feels like it could work in any type of music magazine, rather than just Playlist.