article idea change

At first, my idea for the article was going to cover Bradley Ramsden's practice routine for the offseason. These were going to be some of the pictures for the article:

After thinking about it, i thought covering something more interesting like Ramsden's summer season would appeal more to readers. A topic like a practice schedule and routine is not something that would be in a full article.

Article layouts and writing style in magazines

Articles in magazines are often assorted into columns or chunks to fit the aesthetic of a magazine. Here are some examples:
 

As you can see the magazines pictured above have their articles arranged into columns and this makes the page look neat and easy to follow. The photos in magazines also are normally above the article and take up a good portion of the page to catch the readers attention. Here are some examples of pictures on article pages:




In articles, the interview can either be incorporated into the article or they can be bulleted responses. i plan on incorporating and quoting Ramsden's answers into my article.

Cover page final photo

Cover shot editing

Original

In the photos app on iphone, i barely brought the exposure down, not much, and i increased the contrast just a little to bring the color out more. There was not much editing done on this photo.

Edited

Interview questions for baseball coach

Coach Metcalf is the current baseball coach at Sarasota High School. He also coaches for a club organization called the Scorpions, ran out of Orlando,Fl. He has been coaching for over 40 years in this program now and i wanted to interview him for his thoughts on student-athlete, Bradley Ramsden. The question responses will be covered in the article.

Questions:
1. How do you feel about this upcoming season?

2. Do you think Bradley Ramsden's injury will affect his season?

3. What are your thoughts on Bradley as a player?

4. Where do you plan on putting Bradley this year in the field?

interview questions for Bradley Ramsden

My double page spread will be an article about the player shown on the cover page, Bradley Ramsden. The title of the article is Back To His Roots. After a long summer of travel baseball, Bradley returns back to his home field at Sarasota High School to talk about his summer.

Interview Questions.
1. What team did you play for over summer?
2. How many tournaments/games did you play in?
3. What were your stats?
4. Are any colleges showing interest in you? if so which colleges?
5. What did you find was your strongest part of the game over summer?
6. How did you guys perform as a team overall?
7. What do you want to work on most before high school season starts?
8. Are you excited for the upcoming high school season?
9. How did football affect your progression of baseball in the offseason?
10. What position did you play over summer and how did you like it?
11. What position do you want to play during the high school season?

cover page planning

All of the text on the cover will match the colors used in the cover photo. This way, the magazine will look more appealing to the reader. The jersey the model will be wearing contains white, blue, and orange. The background contains blue, in the sky, orange, on the scoreboard, and green in the trees. The font will be navy blue with orange on the edges. The font will be very sharp and thick to convey strength. I will have the masthead behind the photo so that some of the letters are covered. The masthead will still be able to be read, but with the photo in front, the cover will pop more and look appealing on the shelf.

Costume & props

Since the magazine is a baseball magazine, and almost covers contain a photo of a player in action, the props and costumes will be baseball uniforms and equipment. The model will wear a baseball jersey, baseball hat, and baseball sunglasses. The model will not wear pants because the frame will not include the legs of the model. With a picture in the outfield, the model will be wearing a glove to catch the ball. With the picture of the model catching a home run at the wall, we will use a chair for the model to stand on to make it look like he is jumping and the shot will be more clear since the model is not moving. With a photo of the model hitting, we will use a bat and helmet to mimic an in game situation.

Choosing a Masthead Layout

I like this style becuase the words are bold and easy to read from far away. The layered text, blue on top of orange, makes the words look like they pop out a little. The slogan is just beneath the masthead in a thinner font so the two can be differentiated.

branding techniques

There are many factors to creating a magazine that will appeal to someone looking for a magazine on a shelf. A consistent design is very important so a reader has an idea of what the cover page will look like. A reader will always be drawn to that magazine on the shelf if they were interested the first time. Pretty much all magazines will use the same masthead style on all of their issues.

As you can see above, ESPN uses almost the same masthead on each of their magazine issues so that a reader can identify the cover on a shelf and return back to it if they like the magazine.


It is also important to have a color code on your cover. The masthead and other text on the covers normally correspond with the image. For example, the Texas longhorns basketball player in the first magazine above has an orange uniform on, therefore, the masthead is the same color and the other headline are also orange. In the third magazine above, Flloyd Mayweather is wearing red boxing shorts, therefore, the masthead is also in red.