Making my Double Page Spread

Codes and Conventions of a Double Page Spread.
Before making my own spread, I want to research the typical elements you usually find in a double-page spread. To do this, I found a short presentation on Prezi which describes the usual codes and conventions. It really helped when deciding what to include; whether I wanted to include lots of writing or certain colours. Here is the presentation:

Codes and Conventions of a double page spread on Prezi

Now I've reasearched double pages spreads, I'm now starting the process of my own spread.

Whilst researching double page spreads in magazines and newspapers, I came across this advert for a new TV show. I instantly took a liking to this, purely because it was eyecatching. When I saw it I looked firstly at 3 things; the actor, Steve Carell who is used as a star vehicle, the title of the show - it stands out against the background colour and finally the yellow background. I like the techniques used and I know they work quite well, therefore I chose this advert to base my own around.

The first thing I decided upon was what photograph I will use a my own "star vehicle"...

I chose this one I took of my friend Emily. I've used her many times throughout my website, mainly using her as a 'celebrity' which is why I chose her. In the world of my website she's a famous singer, therefore she's a perfect star vehicle. I took away the background, making it transparent using the Wand tool. I then ajusted the contrast/brightnight and ajusted the colour using the Curves ajustment so the skin tone and blue's were more prominent. I added a blur over the top and erased parts so the skin was softer, I darkend the eyelashes slightly with the Burn tool then ajusted the eyes so they were a slightly brighter teal colour (as the lighting when taken wasn't very good.)



the process of changing emily's eye colour.



Now I am ready to start my A5 advert.

Firstly I started off with a blank A5 canvas on Photoshop CS5. As my colour scheme is blue and pink, I chose blue as the background colour as it matched the denim top Emily is wearing in the photo. As I already edited the photo, I put her on the canvas straight away...

I chose to include her on the right, like the Dan in Real Life ad because when you're flicking through a magazine or newspaper, you look at the right hand page. If emily's face is on the right, it's the first think you'll see and it'll make you stop and look.

When including the title 'Synergy', I was firstly going to include the 'S' large, with the inky pattern in the background, then 'ynergy' in plain white using the font 'Centruy Gothic' (the font I've used all through my website). In the end I decided it wasn't eye catching enough and it didn't particularly fit the conventions of my website logo.

Therefore I decided to scrap the 'ynergy' and match it to the S...

I included the 'S' using the Skinny font I used in my logo, and used Centrury Gothic for the ynergy as they're both fonts associated with my website. As my origional logo was far too busy against the blue, I used the inky pattern for the background of the fonts and feel this works well, as the merging ink is a big part of my website. I included 'launch' underneath is as it suggest 'new' and 'interessting', it'll draw people in as they want to know what Synergy is, what is being launched and why this 'celebrity' is involved.

Here is my final double page spread...

I included some simple information explaining about the launch of Synergy and what is is. I included the sky, freeview and virgin channel numbers and placed the launch date large, highlighted and in pink to make it stand out. I placed the words 'get involved' as I decided to use is as a slogan like many companys and channels do. Lastly, I included the bar at the bottom, with the page number, website and slogan to make it more like a real magazine spread.

All in all I like this spread, it includes elements from my logo, a face I've featured lots and the two colours of my website pink and blue.