Since our last blog post, a great deal has changed on the Listings Magazine that now make it look like a product that fits the codes and conventions. We hit a point during the production phase where we realised that we were straying to far away from the codes and conventions. The colours we were using were starting to become quite dark, or didn't fit the overall tone of the cover, and fonts became very jagged and edgy, something we simply didn't want to create as it detracted from our target audience. So, we went back to our roots so to speak and altered fonts, and changed the colours back to what they were at the end of stage 3, effectively starting from scratch in a way.Due to use starting from scratch we turned to the help of current Listings Magazine for inspiration. Notably, stage 3 will show that there is a distinct lack of 'busyness' on the page in the sense that their isn't a lot going on and it just doesn't have the feel of a LM, which are typically dynamic and busy. They often house a lot of content, which is something we were planning to do to an extent. We say to an extent because of the fact that in order to challenge codes and conventions we have limited the amount of imagery on the LM front cover, and instead emphasised other factors such as colours, puffs and pugs to offer other distractions, and attractions for that matter. Take for example the use of puffs and pugs, which are now spread constructively around the page to offer a higher level of interest and attraction for the reader. Notably, they also give out a lot more information about the magazine as well such as the price, the issue number, and a selection of other stories contained within the magazine itself.
At this stage we have not yet uploaded any photos onto it as we've attempted to simply create an outline and we feel the addition of photos may well distract us from the other essentials that are required to be on a Listings Magazine, judging from the currently established codes and conventions.
