Detailed analyses of five contents pages

This music magazine is by the famous RnB Company ‘Vibe’. To cover nearly the whole page is the very popular artist Kanye West. It’s clear to us that this contents page has gone for the very image dominated style and not the ‘blocky’ look. I like how they have used this technique as it catches the reader’s eye and their attention is drawn straight to the page. This contents page looks very smart as if nothing is out of place and all clearly linked up with the house style. Including the colour contrast of the image itself as it’s got a strong grey tone on it. I personally believe this is the better approach for a contents page and I may use a very similar layout when creating my contents page. I will just be using large image but with nice smart text around it.

As soon as we look at this it’s clear to us that it’s a contents page straight away as it has the word ‘contents’ split up into 3 lines. This creates individuality and makes it their own. It’s also now quite stylish to have quirky little features such as this on your magazine. When creating my contents page I might include some quirky features and follow the trend as it makes it more interesting and what the audience would portray as ‘cool’.

As you can see this whole page is in black and white, including the watermark, the image and the text itself. The only one thing that is in colour is the small red heart mysteriously placed under the women’s hand. This gives a clear message the there is an article about his personal life mainly his love life as the women’s hand and the heart both have connotations of love. They have made the heart red to stand out and so we see clearly what it is. When creating my contents page I will insert an image that will tell a story as I believe this is important to do this as it can be used in a very clever and powerful way.

Another feature that stands out in this contents page is the watermark of the big ‘V’ behind the image and text. The ‘V’ of course stands for ‘Vibe’ the name of the magazine. If you read Vibe magazines you will see this occur a lot and is just another one of Vibes trademarks to make it clear to their audience that this magazine is by Vibe. When creating my magazine I may include something that links with my style or name to act as a trademark so my audience know that it is by the name of my magazine. This is a very clever technique.

            As you can see in large bold writing at the top this music magazine it shows it’s by NME. As you can see there is one main focal point used in the centre of the page which is the image. It is clear to us that this is what we would call the ‘blocky’ look. We know it’s the blocky look because there is a lot of text separated under different sub headings. My personal opinion is that I don’t like this blocky look as I feel as if there is too much going on text, bold writing and a few different sub headings and this specific one doesn’t work well with the colour scheme. This may be the reasons why I personally prefer the image dominated look.  

On the other hand this specific contents page does stick to most codes and conventions. For example it does have stories plugged such as a brief description on the arctic monkey’s story. It also has small little details such as page numbers dates etc. Even If I don’t take the blocky approach with my contents page I will be sticking to the codes and conventions as this is what makes a contents page.

What I like about this page is that it sticks to a consistent house style throughout, such as following the red, white and black theme. I believe they picked this house style to link up with their red and white logo. Everything they do if it has enough detail it will consist of these 3 colours. For example they have a red bullet point with black text and a black/white sub heading. So they try and fit these colours in as much as they can but in sensible way. What I mean by this is that they haven’t gone overboard with these colours but used them enough so we can see a clear a house style. I will make sure I stick to a consistent and clear house style in my magazine; I will try and link it up with the colours of my logo. It creates a certain individuality so the audience can tell going off the colours who the magazine is by.

Another thing I like about this is that they have included something that is completely irrelevant to the content and told the reader how they could save money by including an advert. This is clever as the contents page is important and dedicated readers will check it so they are most likely the audience who buy this magazine weekly and would like to save money on it. I will maybe include a similar feature as I believe e it’s a nice added touch or I might include it on another page as NME have built up a reputation with their audience and I am just new so I won’t have much of an audience so including it somewhere else in the magazine maybe be a better idea for me.

            This magazine is by the company known as ‘Q’. The first thing that stands out to me on this contents page is the layout as it’s the blocky look. Usually the block look will have a ‘Masculine’, ‘unfussy’ appearance or ‘Dotty’ line separators. But I believe this has none of them compared to the NME one. This is exactly what I like about it as it looks stylish, neat and not in your face. These are exactly the features I would use if I were to go for the blocky look because I believe it works really well and makes it clear to the audience what is what.

            I like the fact this contents page uses more than one image. This makes more of variety which makes it more interesting and suitable to the audience because not everyone may like Adele. I also like how they are different sizes because it tells us what the main story is and what the second one is. This is a good portrayal just by using images and is a very clear technique. If I decide to use the blocky look I will include more than one image to just add variety and try and reach out to my target audience in more than one way as I have more chance of hitting them all this way.

This contents page sticks to a strong house style with two shades of grey, white, black and red. I personally believe this is too many colours as I think you should stick to around 3 maximum of 4. On the other hand the colours they have used aren’t extremely bold so I suppose they can get away with it. When I decide my house style it will be around 3-4 colours just so it’s not too over whelming.

I like the fonts Q has used on here because they are all clear and not too fancy. If they had really fancy posh looking font it wouldn’t suit the genre Q are associated with. They also seem to stick to around 3 fonts and sizes. When choosing my fonts I will stick to around 3 as I believe any more than that can look unprofessional. I will stick to a font I believe sits my genre so not anything too fancy but not hard looking.

 It is clear to us this music magazine is by Mojo by the large title at the top of this contents page. This is unusual as most magazines would have the word ‘contents’ at the top but as we see here it’s the name of the magazine. I quite like this approach because it’s obviously clear to us that it’s a contents page so they don’t feel the need to tell us as we can tell this through the codes and conventions used. As I say I do like this approach but I feel if I were to do it wouldn’t be the same and  wold just maybe have my logo and the word ‘contents’.

Even though this contents page has gone for the blocky look it doesn’t seem as bold as the NME magazine. I believe this is because it doesn’t have massive bold headings and sub headings which I believe is better because it’s not so in my face. It is also just one massive long list one under another and is not separates into different sections. Even though it doesn’t have sub headings it has page names which I think is just as good as it tells you what you need to know. I also like it how they have it in bigger bolder font to make it stand out. If I decide to go for the blocky look I may do something similar to this because it looks neater and tells the reader everything they need to know through the page name, so they get a rough idea of the content. This is good as contents pages shouldn’t give you every detail but enough so you know what to expect.

Another feature I like about this contents page is the column of images on the right hand side. The reason there good is because there not related to any of the description in the centre but have their own story, as you can see there is a page number and title next to each one. This creates a good variety and adds there personal spin on it as readings just text can get boring and an image can sometimes tell a better story and give you more of an idea. When I am creating my contents page I must think outside of the box and see what I can come up with to make me stand out like this layout by Mojo.

I like the fonts Mojo have used here as it adds variety and suits there house style well. Using italic fonts can be risky as it can be seen as classy but I believe it works really well with the page title and a little description. With my design I will use a variety of fonts and may in fact use italic because it looks stylish, classy and modern.

 ‘Ebony’ is an RnB magazine with all the latest RnB artists. The first thing that stands out here is the large image of these two artists so we instantly know this isn’t the blocky look but is the image dominated layout. I believe it is important to think about the mise en scene for image dominated layout and this is why I like how they’re both wearing white, for two reasons. It can be seen as a ‘sexy’ colour especially how they are wearing it open with their body language and unbuttoned. It makes us feel there is gossip between these two and we need to find out more. The other reason is that there colours links up well with the word ‘Contents, I also believe rule of thirds has been used to attract our attention and make us drawn in. I will think carefully with my miss en scene and rule of thirds as it can be used effectively to tell a story or in fact draw us in.

I also like how half of the word ‘contents’ is being covered, because we can all clearly see it’s a contents page without that title actually being there. It draws our attention to the two artists to infer they are more important and are the main story. I do like this technique and may use a similar one for my contents page; this is a common future used by magazines by putting an image in front of half of the title, as it does tell a story and attracts you to the image rather than the title.

In the bottom right hand corner there is a promotion for their iPad app. This is a clever technique as it’s a good way to promote as their target audience will read the contents page so will most likely purchase the app. I also like how they have even managed to link there promotion up with their house style of white and yellow text.  I may use this technique and try and promote a feature or maybe a link to a website because it does work and is just another way to promote their brand.