RIFF - Music Magazine Double Page Spread

For my article, I wanted to create a question and answer feature. I also, like many music magazines, decided to focus on the lead singer of the band, Rachael Morgan. I called the band, 'Demonic Shadows,' which I think fits the metal genre perfectly. I also wanted the article to focus more on the personal side of the artist, however also including information about their debut album; another reason why I chose the Q&A style format.

For my double page spread, I decided to stick to the original draft I had planned, as it was based on an article I had seen in the American music magazine, Revolver. The font that I used for the article name is called Earwig Factory, and it was inspired by a music magazine article that featured Lily Allen. However, I think that it works with the Alice in Wonderland theme well. The reason why I chose the title, "Rachael in Wonderland," is pretty obvious; to fit with the theme. The bottom of the first page was based on Kerrang!, as they follow a similar layout. Therefore, I added a smaller image of my masthead, the page number, in the same style boxes and fonts as the contents page, and a web address, where the reader can go on to subscribe to RIFF, which is a frequent feature in magazines, now that they are becoming a multi media platform.

  I actually ended up using the image I was initially going to use on the contents page, however I felt that it was perfect for the double page spread, purely for the composition of the shot, and the underlying idea that the reader is going through the gate into 'Rachael's wonderland'. I then added a quote from the article, in the same font and colour as the main coverline on the front cover, to brand the magazine. Whilst researching music magazine articles, I found that this was a reoccuring feature, and in my opinion, it definitely makes the magazine look more professional.

This is the final version of my double page spread. As you can see, I have changed the first page a lot. I felt that a plain white background was a bit boring, so I inserted a black background, which enabled me to continue with the black, white and yellow colour scheme. I also think that it fits the metal genre better, and makes the 'Wonderland' theme seem much more dark and sinister. I changed the questions to a yellow colour, as this makes them stand out as obvious questions, and I created a giant 'A' at the beginning of the article, as this technique was something that I saw in almost all of the articles that I researched.

  I didn't change much on the second page. However I did insert another page number and masthead, because it makes it look like a more realistic music magazine, although I did not often see page numbers and mastheads on full page images. I did feel I had to go against this convention, to produce the best quality double page spread that I could.

  Out of all three of my pages, I think that the article is my least favourite, as although I put the same amount of time into it, I don't think it looks as good as my other pages, and, apart from the image, it is quite boring to look at, which is the opposite of what I wanted.