Starting Table of Contents

It's been a few days, but we're back!

It feels like forever since I got back on the blog but it feels great to be back. I was planning on starting the table of contents tomorrow but I had a random urge of creativity so I pulled out my computer and started working. I went onto my Canva project and dove right into it. Before I talk about the next step, I must add that I edited the cover page once more. Yes, I know, AGAIN. But there were necessary changes that I made after many conversations with Stoklosa.

Here is the *tentative* final cover. Because we all know I have said "this is the final cover" at least twice now and it continues to change. But for now, this is it. I moved the sub text around so the main story is alone on the left and two others are grouped on the right. I also added an outline on the sub text and extra info at the bottom to make it stand out. I had the same outline on the title but I played around with the other effects and thought the shadow worked better for this. I didn't make this decision until I started working with the table of contents because I wanted the fonts to match. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Okay now for the fun part. Like I said in this blog post, I created two concepts for the table of contents page and I stuck to my word. 

Yes, I wrote this blog post and drew this concept 20 days ago, but did I get tired of it? No, no I did not. I began taking this idea into Canva to see if my thoughts would translate onto the program. 

Just like with the cover, I assume this page will go through many adaptations and changes over the next several days but the first draft looks pretty good. I took the font (Playfair Display) of the "City of Weston" title and used it for "Contents" to save continuity. I used the same font for the text and story titles because it felt more formal than if I used the other font (Open Sans Extra Bold), like I did for the page numbers. 

If I'm being completely honest, figuring out the spacing between each page number and text under each took me a good 10 minutes. I kept changing my mind on how many pages I wanted to include but then realized I could only fit four different ones on the page. I used the same shadow effect on "Contents" to make it pop, as well as on the numbers. Originally I was going to keep the numbers in order with 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, but due to spacing issues, I spread them out more to add additional pages, making the magazine longer. I had seen some magazine projects where the page numbers are scrambled, 5, 13, 24, 39 as an example, but I like the organization better of even numbers in close proximity to one another. The cover story is of course "Spring Football Startup," which can be seen on the cover in different ways. For one, it is the only sub text on the left of the cover and the cover photo is of the football team. For the other stories in the contents page, I used a variety of team stories and student profiles. 

I really like how this came out, especially for a first draft. Come back soon to see if, and I most likely will, make changes to the contents page!!