Table of Contents Mockup

Table of Contents Mockup

In this post I will be describing the layout of two mockups for my magazine's table of contents. These mockups will be based on Sketches 1 and 2 from my previous post, Table of Contents Research and Drafts.

Mockup #1

In this mockup I based it off of Sketch #1 and tried my best to stick to the original sketch, but some changes had to be made to keep the layout uniform and readable. For the color scheme, which I feel is the most striking aspect of it, I went for cyan, red, and white on a black background. I chose these colors because they were all used in the masthead of the cover and it is in line with conventions for the same colors to be used in the masthead and the table of contents, as I have previously stated in Table of Contents Research and Drafts. Also, as I have said in the same post, I planned for cyan to be the central color of the layout with red being used more as an accent color. If you'll remember, in that post I also said that the black would be the color of the regular text, I changed this because when I made cyan the central color, on the white it did not display the cybernetic/futuristic feel that I wanted it to, so I made the background black and the text white, and the feel of the layout changed entirely for the better. This isn't very common in gaming magazine T.O.C.s but I felt that it was the best decision that could be made and improved the mockup significantly. 

For the images in the middle of the page I wanted to place them there to make them the central focus. I attempted the way I organized the images in my original sketch, but the effect was difficult to accomplish. In the sketch the images on the bottom were diagonal and formed a sort of pentagon between the two of them, this sort of thing was easy to draw out on paper but extremely hard in Canva, I had to use the erase tool to create the angles of each image which is why they appear uneven in the mockup, but I plan to find a way to create a cleaner edge for the final product. 

For the titles of the sections, page numbers, and important articles I colored cyan I chose these items because these were the things that were most often a different color than the normal text as I have said before in Table of Contents Research and Drafts. For the font choices, for normal text I used Canva's Agrandir Tight which is a sans-serif font which I felt highlighted the modernity of a gaming magazine but also had a little bit of playfulness, in the section titles and page numbers I went for Agrandir Tight Medium which was similar to Agrandir Tight but was thicker, so I felt that it created a connection between the normal and important text but was also noticeably different. For the title and important articles, I used the Squada One font which I had previously used for the main coverline of the cover, I felt it conveyed an intelligent and futuristic feeling which worked well with gaming. 

For the placement of the text, I mostly followed my sketch, but when I was creating the second column of articles, the articles I made did not fit correctly on the page, so I raised the column up closer to the top of the page, I was hesitant to do this at first, but I found that it still had the asymmetry I wanted in the layout so that goal was still accomplished. I added a puff according to the sketch I had created and gave it the same article title as the article on page 46 and made the page number large and visible so that it was eye-catching. I placed three puffs with the page numbers of their respective articles on the images each of these puffs and the larger one at the top are in red and the page number puffs have white text, so its colors do not conflict with the images but the puff at the top has black text because it adds more variety to the text in the layout.

This concludes my design choices for the first mockup based on my first sketch for the table of contents.

Mockup #2

In this mockup I based it off of Sketch #2 and almost completely matched the sketch when making it in Canva. The most important part of this layout is the main image, for this I removed the background of the image and then added a picture of the same background without the toy and then overlaid the toy over the background much larger so that it is popping out of its background. I think this creates a very dynamic effect and is very in line with conventions of gaming magazines. For the other two images, I put them in the corners at the bottom of the page near their respective articles. 

For the colors, I used red as the main color in this color scheme, I colored the box for the title "CONTENTS," red, and the important text which is, the section titles, page numbers, and important articles, I did this to bring more attention to the important information. I used black for the normal text to be easily read on the white background. I put a cyan bar in-between the column of articles and the main image because I felt it added a bit of the accent color and worked well with the rest of the layout. I put a cyan puff with the page number of the main article on the main image to add some connection so there wasn't just one cyan colored thing in the layout. 

I used the Roboto Condensed font and emboldened it so that it would be thicker for the title and important articles which makes them seem more prominent in my opinion. I used Roboto font for the normal text which was sans-serif, so it conveyed an intelligent and contemporary feeling which worked with gaming magazines. I made the section titles, and page numbers the Roboto Mono Regular font, I did this because it creates a more uniform look to the text and that it had a very digital aspect to it which worked well with video game magazines. 

This concludes the decisions for Mockup #2 based on the second sketch for the table of contents.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I felt that the two designs I made for the table of contents each follow the conventions of video game magazines as I had described in Table of Contents Research and Drafts. I am most likely going to go with the first mockup for my final product. I feel that there are some hurdles I need to cross to reach the vision I have for it, but I know that in the end it is the best choice to go with that expresses what I want it to in the best way possible. The second draft has some good aspects about it, but I feel that the innovativeness of the black background and white text works so well that I am sure it will turn out much better. In the end, I have high hopes for my final product.