CONTENTS PAGE ANALYSIS

ETHAN WALKER

VINTAGE ROCK (ISSUE 19) The contents page of Vintage Rock is really surprising due to its simplicity when comparing it to its front cover. The front cover is done expertly well but its contents page looks underdeveloped this is because of its use of countless images that fill up one and a third pages and a boring list. The contents page is almost too conventional, with its use of completely obeying to a grid page system and basic list it is made to seem fit for toddlers only. Apart from the images the colour scheme is basic with its plain white background and standard black text the only thing that is slightly interesting is the word ‘contents’ which is in a playful, red font but even that is made childish. The whole contents page doesn't fit with the rest of the magazine, the general audience for the magazine would be around 40-70 but the contents page looks like its audience are young children. The oversized numbers on the images look as if they are placed there for very elderly people who struggle to read. Although this would make sense if that was the case, then the fact that there is very small text in the list it doesn't add up, this just adds to the confusion we get from the contents page.

Q MAGAZINE (ISSUE 352)The first thing I notice is the vast amount of images scattered around the page this could tell us that audience are not too bothered about convention and order and more interested in what catches their eye. There is rather little definitions for the pages which may mean that the magazines audience is not into large bodies of text, this could be an indication to the age of the audience. The use of a white background allows the colours and the images to stand out better. The size of the images indicate which page is the more important with 23-page-special list being the biggest followed by the cover story, this is done so the reader would be attracted to the larger pictures thus making them go straight to the more interesting pages. If you look at all the images you will notice that they are artists within the same genre of music, this makes it instantly noticeable what type of music the magazine will contain. Bold, black font for the artist names make them very noticeable. The fact that the contents page is over two pages instead of one Is done to show that the magazine is jam packed with interesting pages. Although at first glance the contents page looks messy it is actually very neat. First of all there seems to be 4 main columns, the artists and their pages within the columns each have their own box which separates them from the rest. This allows the contents page to stay professional.

MIXMAG (ISSUE 294)The contents page is very similar to the front cover due to the lack of information and colour. The colour scheme of MixMag magazine is black background with white text, this could have been done to add to the simplicity of the contents. Also it perceives the contents as having no connection to the reader, there are no images trying to connect, they aren’t trying to engage the reader. This can also be proven by the lack of text the contents page has. The use of minimal text for the definitions of pages can also be used to try and make the reader turn to those pages to find out. There is a lack of professionality from the text on the contents page for example, lack of capital letters, slang words such as ‘tunes’. This could be done to address the type of readers the magazine is targeting, they aren’t interested in the text as much. The use of black background allows the images to stand out more which in turn catches the readers eyes better. There are large page numbers on the images, this shows the importance of the pages which makes the readers want to turn to those specific sides. The whole contents page is very neat, the text is in columns and the images are laid out in a grid system this makes it easy for the reader to establish what to focus on. The fonts for the pages in the lists are very basic and simple, unlike other contents pages all the page titles are equal which could tell us that the editor believes every page/artist is as important and interesting as the rest. There is a plug on the bottom of the first page which helps promote the magazine.