Statement of Intent (Double Page Spread)

Tesfah Watkins-Scott

WHAT layout will you be using for your Double Page Spread (This relates to the use of COLUMNS and GRIDS in planning

your Double Page Spread) and WHY?The image shown on this slide is of my first double page spread layout design. I have done this to allow me to picture what I want the final outcome of my double page spread to look like. As you can see on the right hand side of the double page spread I have thought about placing my main image their which will be very big almost taking up the whole side of the page apart from having the folio at the bottom of the page. This large image will link in with the article which would be presented on the left hand side of the double page spread. As you can see on the left hand side of the image a big bold headline will be shown at the top of the page, this will allow the reader’s eye to catch what the articles will be about which will hopefully draw the reader in. Underneath this will be a subhead which will draw the reader in even more because it will give the audience a little bit more insight about the article that will follow. Both of these techniques will be very decretive as they have to be as appealing as possible to the target audience. Below this will be the article which will be linking in with the main image on the other side of the double page spread. This text will start off with a drop cap which will allow the audience to look straight towards the article and keep them reading on. I will decorate the drop cap accordingly to the colour scheme used for the rest of the magazine so that it will target my target audience. In the middle of this article I will include a pull out quote which will be slightly bigger than the articles font size which will allow the reader to get a little hint about the main article to draw them in. Furthermore, under the pull quote a smaller image will be placed followed by a caption which will tell the reader about the image. This will then be followed by a smaller article about the relevant image which may involve a little interview type of article to attract the reader and make the article more unique.

For the Main article in this specific layout I have not used any columns to structure the text of the article. This will not allow the article to look very appealing and structured to the audience therefore, I have thought about changing this particular layout to something that looks more organised and well presented . Also another disadvantage of this particular layout is that the masthead from the front cover of the magazine is no where on this layout design which would mean that this double page spread would have no link or meaning with the actual front cover of the reggae music magazine, this will also need developing in the future.

The image on this slide is my second attempt at a design for my double page spread for my reggae music magazine. As you can see straight away compared with my first design, this one looks much more organised and structured through the use of columns, boxes and borders. First of all on the right hand side of the double page spread instead of jus having a large image on this side of the page I will include a well designed headline that links in with the main image below the subhead which will describe the article that follows the image to attract the reader to read on. The article that will be underneath the large image will begin with a drop cap which will be created according to the colour scheme of this page. The article would be structured into three columns which will allow this section to look well presented and very tidy towards the audience. Also, for this specific design I have thought about using the colour red for the font in the first column then yellow for the second and then green for the last. This will link in very well with the target audience for my genre of music and also will link in with my contents page and front cover for my magazine. For the left hand side of the double page spread layout design, there will also be another headline to emphasise a separate article to the one on the right hand side of the page. This headline will also be designed to suit the colour scheme and to appeal to the target audience. Underneath this will be a subhead which I haven’t made any changes to from the first layout design that I created. However, next to the subhead for this design will be a by line stating my name as I have created the article and so forth which will allow the double page spread not to look anonymous to the audience. Underneath this will be the beginning of the article which will start with a drop cap just like my first design. Furthermore, the text for the article will be placed around the image specified for that article using an image margin so that the article will go around the shape of which ever image I decide to use for this section. This will allow the text to be attractive to the reader without clashing with the image that links with the text, instead it allows the image and text to look well structured and neat. At the bottom of this page will be some sort of interview which will provide a question from me and an answer from the reggae artist involved with the article. This will allow the magazine to look quite friendly and sociable and will allow the reader to enjoy the actual topics of the article and not be bored. The interview would also be assembled into three columns like the article on the opposite page to keep my double page spread organised and un-cluttered.

WHAT image/images will you be using for your Double Page Spread and WHY will it/they appeal to your potential target audience?

This will be the main image that I will be using for my double page spread. The reason I have chose this image specifically for my main image is because on the front cover of my Reggae music magazine the model used in this image is the same as the model on the front of my front cover which shows the audience that one of the main articles in the magazine will be about him. Furthermore, the interview that will relate with this image includes topics about the Reggae legend Bob Marley so I thought that it would be a good idea to incorporate Bob Marley into the actual image somehow. Moreover, when my target audience observe this image I feel that they would find the image very appealing not only because Bob Marley is included but because when they read on they will notice that a couple of the questions that will be in the interview refer to my model (Everal ‘Ragga’ Watkins) being almost like Bob Marley’s Prodigy and student so they are connected through Reggae music, so I thought that the image to interpret this should also show the two characters becoming connected with almost the same pose in the close up side angled shot.

WHAT image/images will you be using for your Double Page Spread and WHY will it/they appeal to your potential target audience?

This image will be the second image that I will be using for my double page spread but this image will be the sub image of the magazine double page spread. The reasons for using this particular image is because I feel that as soon as the image is observed by my target audience they will instantly calculate that the magazine article will be about a Reggae singer due to the image. This image links in well with the genre of music that my magazine is representing which is reggae by many different things in the mise-en-scene of the image. For example the colour scheme of the wardrobe that my model is wearing instantly links in well with the colour scheme of my actual magazine and also links in with the three main colours in the Caribbean and African culture which is red, gold and green. Also another technique that I have used to make my sub image appealing to my target audience was to use a prop for the image to allow the Reggae representation to stand out even more so I used a microphone for the image. I feel that using the microphone allowed my image to seem much more real. I told my model to act like she's actually singing so to make this look the be best that it could be I actually played a song and made her sing along so that once I had taken the photograph her singing looks completely real which will give a sense of verisimilitude towards my target audience.

WHAT story/stories will you be including in your Double Page Spread and WHY will it/they be related to the image/images?

For my double page spread I will be including one main article and also involve an interview with one of the main artists established throughout the whole product. The interview that I will be creating will consist of 4 in depth questions about the artist ‘Everal Ragga Watkins’s life and career so far. The reason why I have specifically chosen to do an interview in a section of the double page spread is to give a sense of verisimilitude towards the target audience. Some of the questions that I will use for the interview include areas about the Reggae Legend Bob Marley. I have chosen to do so because, the main image that I will be using in the double page spread will be an image of my model (my father) and an image of Bob Marley both at a side angle to almost seem like a 2 shot. I will then try and merge both images together using the blur tool to almost make the image look like they are together as one. I feel that this particular interview will engage my target audience especially because I have included Bob Marley in the questions which will appeal to the audience because he is almost like the ‘God of Reggae’.

The article that I will be including on the first page of my double page spread will be about the Reggae artist ‘Taja Gaza’. The article will basically be about what the artist has coming up in the future to do with her Reggae music career and also about how she got into the Reggae Business. For this particular article I will begin the text by talking about the musicians accomplishments so far in her career which will then link in with a brief description of the Reggae artists life growing up before she reached her peak as a Reggae artist. This will allow my target audience to actually be drawn in into the story because by the way the article will be structured it will seem as if the story is full proof without a hint of a lie. For this particular article I will link it in with a sub image which will be found in either the centre of the text or just next to the drop cap that I will be using for the beginning of the article. The image will relate to the text to the fullest because the mise-en-scene of the image will show props, facial expressions and a costume that will all relate to the musical theme but, I want the image to relate to specifically Reggae music so I will make my model where a costume which involves the 3 main colours in the Caribbean culture which is red, gold (yellow) and green. This will instantly attract my target audience and will instantly urge them to read the actual article after observing this particular image.

WHAT colour scheme (shades, tints and colours) will you be using and WHY?

For my double page spread I have thought about sticking to the same colour scheme as the front cover and the contents page because it will then allow all three sections to link in well. Also, another advantage of this is that the specific red, yellow and green colours will link in well with my target audience which will be from a African and Caribbean nature and these three colours have been used for the countries and islands flags and also religion. However, I have had my doubts about using the same three colours again because I also feel that repetitively using the same colours will end up boring the audience because it wont give them the same feel and the wow factor that they had when they would first see the colours used for the front cover of the magazine. For the text of the articles I will be creating I have thought about using the red, gold and green combination as I have said for my drafts but, if this does not looking appealing and I don’t feel that it will attract my target audience I may just use one of the three colours for the text so that all the colours do not get overused. The use of just using one colour for the text for instance ‘green’ will allow me to use another colour like red or yellow on a different section of the double page spread like the headline which will allow every section on the page to link in without looking too bright and colourful. For the background of both pages of the double page spread I have thought about using the same background as the front cover as I used this same background for the contents page. But through the research of different double page spread’s I have found that they look much more appealing when they use a different background from anything else because it allows the two pages to stand out really well to the audience and draws them in. At first I thought that by doing this, it will make the double page spread look quite random and secluded from the rest of the magazine however, if a folio is used at the bottom of both pages with a page number I could place the masthead from the front cover at the bottom of the page where the folio is and minimize the size of the masthead. This will automatically establish to the reader that this double page spread comes from my specific music magazine.

WHAT type of fonts and font sizes (style of lettering used) will you be using for your Double Page Spread and WHY?

I have thought about using the font ‘Stencil Std’ for my double page spread for many reasons. This particular font is very bold and eye-catching due to its thick structure. Due to this I have thought about using this particular font for the Headlines that will be placed on my double page spread. The reason why I may use this font for the headline(s) is because I want the headline(s) to be the first aspect of the double page spread that my target audience will look at, and I feel that with this font combined with quite a large font size such as 48 will definitely stand out to the audience which will allow them to read on. Furthermore, when searching for a font that I think would work best for my double page spread, I couldn’t decide whether I wanted the shape to be quite rounded, or stick to a straight lined and square shaped font. Moreover, when I first saw this font I realised that the shape of the font used both types of shaped fonts because, some characters that are shown in the image are quite rounded such as the letter ‘C’ and also some letters are quite straight for example the letter ‘E’. I feel that this will allow the audience to be attracted to this particular font because it contains both types of structure which should appeal to everyone in my specific target audience.

WHAT type of fonts and font sizes (style of lettering used) will you be using for your Double Page Spread and WHY?

This image on the slide is of the font named ‘Impact’. I have thought about using this font for many reasons for my double page spread. Although this font is quite basic, I feel that if I use it in the right sections of my double page spread that it could be quite effective. I will use this font for the actual articles in my double page spread because, the font size for the article will be quite small to fit all of the text in the correct places therefore with other fonts the audience would not be able to read the text properly, however with this particular font because it is quite bold and thick even when reduced to a font size of about 12 the audience will still be able to actually read the articles.