Table of Contents Blog Post #2

In this blog post, I'll talk about other aspects of my Table of Contents page, such as how I planned it, how I made decisions and revisions, the process, how I used a sense of branding, and digital creative tools I used.

The picture above is a rough sketch of the Table of Contents page I did a few months ago. First code/convention incorporated into the TOC (Table of Contents) page is that none of the pictures I used are the same as the cover story. This did not happen in any of the Rolling Stone magazines issues I researched, so I had no need to do it. This adds variety to the magazine, and also tells you what is awaiting in the following pages.

Another code/convention I implemented is the color scheme. In the planning paper, I wrote down that I wanted the TOC page to be basically colorful and vibrant. Ultimately, I feel like I did just that. Not only in the 4 pictures on the top half of the page, but also on the design of the page overall. The blue and red colours used throughout the page serve as division lines for stories, division of the top and bottom of the page, and I also used it in the bottom right between the page # and the name of the magazine, "Latinx+". Despite this overall colour scheme not following the codes/conventions of the TOC pages in the Rolling Stone magazines I researched, I made the decision to do this because it added a sense of branding to my magazine and I feel it represents my audience: both generations of Latin music listeners (those who listen to more modern Latin music, like reggaeton, are represented using the very bright red colour, while those who listen to more non-contemporary Latin music, like salsa, are represented with the navy blue colour.) 

A decision/revision I made was the amount of stories. Normally, on my sketch, I had planned for 4 stories. However, as I was designing the page on InDesign, I realized it would be best to have 8 stories, 4 on each vertical half of the page.

Initially, I had planned to only have one picture on the Table of Contents page, meaning I would have been following the codes/conventions of the Rolling Stone magazine. However, I found out that the drawings I made don't count as photographs, so I had to improvise and fit in 4 original pictures in the page. This actually turned out to be a good thing, because despite not following the codes/conventions of Rolling Stone magazine, it created a sense of branding for my magazine.

For the 4 pictures on the page, I used a variety of different digital creative tools to add style to this page, as well as vibrancy and color. 

The pictures above show the process of editing one of the pictures on the page. In the first two pictures, you can see how I changed the depth of field effect from the lowest amount possible to the highest amount possible. I focused on myself to show the readers that this is who the article is on. The third and fourth picture show me applying a studio light filter to the picture to add some vibrancy to it.

In the pictures above, it shows the editing process of another one of the pictures I took for the TOC page. The first pictures shows the unedited original picture without editing. The second picture is after I applied a "Vivid Warm" filter, which gave the picture that warm effect it has on the TOC page. The third and fourth picture shows how increased the lighting from it's normal level to a much higher level. The fifth and sixth picture shows me increasing the colour intensity to bring out the colours in the picture.

The pictures above show another TOC picture. The first shows the unedited picture. The second shows me applying a depth of field effect to focus on the CD and blurring out the background. The third and fourth is me applying a studio light filter, and the fifth and sixth is me applying a "Vivid" picture to bring out the colors more and reducing the light by a small percent, making the picture less dull.

In the last picture (above), I improved the lighting and added a depth of field effect/blur to the photo. The first and second one shows me adding the depth of field effect, and the third one shows me adding a "studio light" effect. I used this "studio light" filter for 2 other pictures, adding consistency to the page and magazine overall.

During the creative process of my TOC page, I did make some imperative revisions. For instance, for instance, when I initially finished designing the page, I noticed my page #s in the TOC didn't reach 60 pages. In Rolling Stone, the magazine goes up to 60 pages, and when I first finished, the story which is NOW on page 58 was normally on page 45. I went back and changed it to 58 to show the range and to show that I followed this code/convention.

Another revision I made was that after I initially finished the TOC page, the page did not have my own sense of branding. For example, the blue/red lines and shapes in the top and bottom of the page, and also the blue/red lines in the actual TOC itself, dividing it into sections.

The pictures below show my revisions:

As can be seen in the pictures above, the page #45 is still there, and also there is no blue/red colour in the lines throughout the TOC, whether it's the top/bottom of the page or the actual TOC itself. 

In the pictures below, I show how I used digital creative tools to create some aspects of the page.

This is me showing how I made those signature blue/red elongated diamond shapes on the top and bottom of the page:

Now, I will show how I changed the opacity of the text that says "LX+394" so that the text is not just over the pictures as is, but instead can be seen through. Here are the pictures of me doing that:

Above is the text with 100% opacity.

And above is the updated text with a lowered opacity percentage. This makes the page look much nicer on the final product: