Flat Plan Feedback

The following images are the flat plans for my R&B music magazine. It is important to create a basis of what I intend to produce as my finishing product. I have created a flat plan for my front cover, my contents page and my double page spread which are based on my own ideas however inspired by professional music magazines I looked at whilst doing my research.

• I decided to name my magazine 'Play' because it is a word related to music and I thought it would work if I made the mast head a giant "play" sign with the word 'Play' written in it. 
• The colour scheme was inspired by 'Q' magazine because it also uses a small mast head in the corner of the page however because it's simple, it's effective and memorable which is why I attempted to almost replicate it when I made mine. 
• When doing the audience research, I found that most people found the 'Q' mast head quite boring which is why I added a little extra to mine (the 'play' symbol) instead of just having a letter in a box. 
• Also when doing the audience research I found that on the cover of 'Q' magazine with Adele on it, when she was looking directly at the camera, they found it almost compelling and wanted to open it and read on. The sell lines I chose relate to things you would hope to find in a music magazine. I could probably change them slightly to make them more persuasive and exciting because at the moment, they are rather dull.

• For my contents page, I thought I would try to make it simple by just having an image in the centre and my sell lines surrounding the image. This idea was inspired by the contents page in 'Vibe' and 'Q' magazine. 
• I thought having a smaller version of the mast head in the corner would be good because it would show some consistency between the front page and the contents page. 
• Also I am going to use the same colour scheme on the cover and contents page and also possibly the double page spread. That way I could show consistency throughout and it would be easy for the readers to always know what magazine they're reading no matter what page they open it from. 
• I chose to have sub-titles to separate the sections on the contents page to make it easier for the reader to navigate through the magazine. 
• I have also added a subscription section in the corner because all the professional magazine's have it. 
• I might add some images underneath their relevant sell lines so that it does not look like there is too much writing on the contents page.

• For my double page spread I have decided to write an exclusive interview with a new artist called 'M.R.' 
• In the top of the page it will say 'Exclusive..." to let the reader know that this page will include an exclusive article, in this case, an interview.
• Also in the top of the page, there is a small icon of the mast head to keep with the consistency throughout the magazine.
• The first page will include the interview article and it will be split into 3 columns because 2 columns would be too wide and 4 columns could be too narrow.
• The page next to it will contain pictures of the artist 'M.R.' There will be one main photo that takes up most of the space on the page and then surrounding this main image will be smaller images of M.R. or relating to things mentioned in the article on the adjacent page. 
• I have chosen to use quotations because most magazines do this. The quotes will include interesting bits of information that will make the reader want to read on. The quotes on the side with the article will be taken from the article however the quotes on the picture side will be side quotes the artist may have mentioned during the interview.

In order to get audience feedback, we got into groups and evaluated each others flat plans. We know what the level 4 grade descriptors are so we used them to help with the evaluations.
My peers commented on my work and told me that for my front cover, I need to add a skyline to occupy the white space that was above my image. Also I have to use a model that fits the genre of my magazine because the model on my flat plan doesn't look like an R&B artist so I might have to find a way either to make her suit the genre, e.g. changing the costume or pose, or I might have to find a different model. Also I have to change the size of my barcode because at the moment it is almost the same size as my mast head which needs to be the biggest thing on the page and the second biggest thing should be the main sell line. However when it came to the size of the text, it was obvious which sell line was the main sell line because it was bigger than my other sell lines. For my contents page, the colour scheme and was consistent with the cover and the double page spread so it showed that they are all linked together. Also the small mast head in the corner of the page was good. The writing surrounding the image in the middle is also a good part of my contents page as well as having a subscription advert in the corner of the page. On my double page spread, I have a skyline that lets the readers know that this is a page for exclusive interviews with artists however it looks a bit odd because it just says exclusive and has a blank space next to it so I have to either add more detail or scrap the whole idea. The use of various images and columns is good.
From evaluating my peers assessments I have decided to add some adverts on my contents page for example, one of for HMV or a music related shop. Also one of my peers had an editors column on their contents page of  their magazine which is a common thing in professional magazine so I might add one to my magazine as well. Another one of my peers had a band index on their page, however the band index would probably be for more of an indie or alternative genre and not so much a R&B genre.