The Making OfContents Page

Contents Analysis

The page is clearly split into three columns.

The sections that are included give an indication to the nature of the magazine in this issue.

The page has pictures of live performances

It has a band index which shows the bands that are going to be listed in the issue.

The colour scheme is consistent throughout.

I analysed the contents pages of NME and I can use this information to influence my own contents page

Step One – Research I started out with the basic NME layout and

decided to keep a similar structure in order to maintain a professional look.

NME Layout My Ideal Layout

Step Two - TitleI copied the masthead from my front cover and gave it a black ground.

I stretched the black box across the top of the page and made it clear that it is the contents page

I also put the date in the same format

Step Three – Band IndexTo create the band index I started with a black box on the left hand side.

Then I put the layer of text over the top, in white.Next, I put the strips of colour underneath the letters.

Then inverted the colours and the strips so that the words were red and the strips were white.

Step Four – Festival NewsI added two boxes of short articles to give an example of

what can be expected in the rest of the magazineI used some quotes to make them stand out.

Step Five - PicturesI took the photo of shelved glory in the studio, The photos of Gentlemen’s club and Ben

Sayah (The Poppies) I had taken myself previously, the first at a friends house whilst recording and the other at a local gig that I organised.

It was important to me to capture the live aspects of music as well as studio shots.

Step Six - SubheadingsFor the right hand side I decided to stick with the subheadings

Although I changed them to suit my magazine.I put the editors note in red to make it stand out from the rest

Step Seven - ContentI looked at many past issues and tried to capture the general tone and voice of the

textUsing elements of humour and short sentences

I also added page numbers in red

Step Eight – Editors NoteTo finish I added my editors note

I included a handwriting font for the editors nameI also added a photo of one of my classmates to act as my editor

Step Nine – DecisionsThroughout the making of my magazine I had been debating whether to go against my

instinct of keeping my colour scheme Red, White and Black.So at every stage I would substitute the colours and see which looked better. As I was

struggling to decide, I opted to put it on Facebook and take the opinions of my audience

In order to get some feedback on my work I posted a picture of my work on Facebook. First I uploaded my unfinished version of my contents page, the colour scheme of which was blue, white and black. It was clear that the reception for my page was great, which I was very happy with, although, the one, repeated, criticism was that the blue parts of the page would look better in red.I decided to take this criticism on board. After all if these are the types of people who would be interested in my magazine then their opinion is very valid. So I finished off the page and converted the blue to red and reposted it. The same people commented on my picture and decided that It looked much better in red. And I agreed, I felt that it was more true to my original research, which I should have stuck by in the first place.

Complications The live picture of mike was more difficult to get, as his band is

under management, in order to get live shots of them performing.

I had to ask for permission from his management. Here is a picture of the email I sent with the reply.

Fortunately, I was able to get a live shot of Mike performing and I feel that it works very well and make the page look even more professional.

‘Yes you are welcome to use some of the shots from our gigs...I recommend the

Haigh Hall shots and maybe some from Club

Nirvana/Lux’