Here is my contents page development
Reflection: Similarly to my reflection for my front cover development, task 1 was helpful during the photoshoot as I was able to use this blogpost to cross-check between my photos and my sketches/ideas. I had learnt from my front cover development mistakes and made sure to save my screenshots by placing them in a placeholder canva whiteboard (sometimes leaving a comment) so if were to continue developing on a different day, I would not be forgetting what previous changes I had made and be able to place them into this blog. Out of the entire development, I enjoyed making up the articles headings and description the most as I felt like I had to be intentional with each one thus I poured a lot of care into writing them.
Task 1
I am doing the same procedure in my cover page developent for contents page development so I will be repeating the instructions.
I take my sketches of my contents page and shoot some picture examples of said sketches. Then, I ttake the two of those sketch ideas to be digitalised (I used Canva). Afterwards, I pick between the two, and continue developing and experimenting with the 4 elements of design (border, hierarchy of type, typeface and colour) in mind.
Step 1 : Sketches
- Blue-Purple text are comments explaining the picture/layout for further clarification
- Pink text are my input on some issues with the picture/layout
Step 2 : Take sample pictures
Step 3 : Digitalise 2
Step 4 : Choose one and experiment
Genre Research
Using pinterest and an online magazine publisher to look up examples of content pages from other magazines, I looked for common elements that majority of these examples shared.
Notable common elements:
- 'Contents' title always sits at the top of the page, often typeface is the same as masthead and text is in a black/white colour
- Articles go from 6-10 includes the headline (written in a bold font) and a brief description/summary of the article (written with light font)
- More common to place magazine issue on contents rather than front cover
- Page number always at the bottom
Subheadings Research;
I looked back into my magazine development and took my possible coverlines as ideas for my article content. I will be cross-checking each one with my statement of intent to pick and choose article headlines that would be appropiate for my magazine's intention and target audience. I highlighted many article headlines that I quite enjoyed but I need to narrow down my choices to fit my genre conventions, so I will be combining and evaluating my choices to help me bring down my articles down to a maximum of 10.
Demographic and Psychographic
- adventurous palette, middle income, cost conscious
1) Local small business support and review
- Heartfelt stories of still-standing restaurants
- Hidden gems
- Dining diaries
- Celebrating homegrown chefs
- Sidewalk eats
- Taste of the town
- Street food stars
- Worth-while warungs
2) Homemade authentic recipes/Everyday cooking
- Your delectable dishes
- Mama's Recipes: Heartfelt homemade meals
- Relish in the spice -> A spotlight on spice
- Budget bites
- Dining on a dime
- Loving leftovers
- Leftover magic
3) Culinary icons of Indonesia
Famous dishes of Indonesia; Nasi goreng, Sate, Rendang, Gado-gado, Pisang goreng
Famous chefs from Indonesia; Rinrin Marinka, Juna Rorimpandey
- Inside the kitchen: Insider tips and tricks
- Indulge without apology: martabak, the ultimate form of guilty pleasure.
- Rinrin Marinka's recommendations
- Juna Rorimpandey's jottings on perfecting recipes
Here I will be combining and further evaluating my choices by asking feedback from friends. I will also be writing the short descriptions within each headline:
- A spotlight on spice
- Explained in my magazine article development
- "Bringing you recipes to start your flavourful journey with spice"
Hidden gems of still standing restaurants- Fitting to my intended content of supporting local restaurants. The word "gem" implies to my audience that the restaurant is high quality, precious, and valuable. However, I have 2 other headings already that share a similar intention and want to avoid repetitive content so I decided to cross this article out as this was my least favourite out of the 3.
- Worth-while warungs (Rinrin Marinka's recommendations)
- The word "warung" which are small (often cheap) restaurants located on the streets of Indonesia, "worth-while" and the star appeal of Rinrin Marinka all helps create a message that can directly target my audience as they imply that these affordable, inexpensive eateries are trusted and fulfilling to even a master of cuisine. This is appealing to my audience of frugal spenders who still crave for a delicious meal.
- "Explore an experts endorsement on local kitchens around town in our exclusive interview with her"
- Mama's Recipes; Heartfelt homemade meals
- Explained in magazine development
- "Sharing our favourite comfort foods from our favourite person"
- Loving leftovers; scraps to treats
- Psychographic of target audience being middle income households and cost-conscious makes it more likely that my target audience will dislike having wasted food. This headline also encourages my audience to embrace creativity in the kitchen which targets the personality psychographic of adventurous palette.
- No waste left behind! Get creative in the kitchen and cook effortless eats
- Street food stars; recognising homegrown chefs
- This headline fulfills my intention of supporting local restaurants and chefs who, by the authors belief, need more celebration for their skill, creativity and dedication to the art of cooking (which also targets my audiences who are appreciative towards the origins behind dishes)
- Showcasing talent and the hard-work of underappreciated culinary artisans in our go-to rendang stores
- Our community collaboration of kitchen creations
- Agreed upon discussion with friends that this headline felt plain and unnecessarily lengthy so I changed it to 'Your kitchen creations' which feels more personal and direct
- Description references community and uses the word "our" in order to build a connection with the reader and seem immersive and intimate. This can help gain audiences loyalty to magazine and become more engaging for the reader.
- Our communities collection of culinary ideas, tips, tricks and techniques written, tested and proved by you
- Sweet surrender to guilty pleasures
- Often food magazines have desserts showcased at the end so to conform to this convention, I added this headline. The younger age group of my target audience may enjoy this section as sweets will appeal to them more. However, the phrase "join us in indulging" as the description could encourage my audience to not fear spending to gain a source of enjoyment as they would not be alone will appeal more to older audiences as they're often more diet-aware. Therefore this will create a deeper relationship with my audience.
- Join us in indulging in Indonesian desserts without apology like theres no tomorrow
Development
End Result
For my final contents page, I included just the magazine's website along with the current issue, a choice informed by common practices I discovered during my research. Additionally, I eliminated the underline from the title 'Contents.' Upon revisiting the task, I found that the underline contributed to an unnecessary sense of clutter on the page so I thought it was best to remove it.