Content Page Analysis

Content pages are used in magazines to establish the content of the magazine, what main features the magazine has, and what individualises this magazine from any other.

 As a reader, you would go to the content page, to see if the magazine was worth buying the front page would do the attracting of the customers and the content page would be to keep the reader, so the content page has to be able to tell how the magazine is going to flow, and the theme of the magazine, to also give over information of features  and columns, to much information, would mean the page would be full of writing, therefore overpowering the page, and readers would become bored, as my page group aren’t seen as sophisticated and educational, to many works could put them off.

The first content page is very minimal, showing an image of a artist, and with a column to the right of the page outlining the features and information of the magazine, it gives a small sentence on the content, so the readers will know what’s to come, the main image, is the main feature, no information is given but the title of the feature, and the image does all the story telling.

The font which is used defines the title, content, and points which need to be read, so with the column on the side all the subheading are in bold white, so it attracts the attention of the reader, and separated it from the content, this also makes it easier to read and the flow of the column is easier and more effective. The yellow coloured text is the information which is also important, this is only used for the page number, cover story, and name of the artist appearing in the cover story.

 The image on the content page would be the second main story, if the content page has outlined the information of the cover story, this is the case in many magazines, where there are two main stories in one magazine, its to entice the customer, but also the cover story may not be powerful enough to carry the magazine for this edition.

The second content page is very similar to the first, this is a very simple, productive and popular way of designing the content page, as it is called in this magazine, the ‘master plan’  the design and flow of this content page has been based around the image which has been used and integrating the content text into this image, and shaping it around the image, without distorting the image, but also not making the image to square, so adding a square box, which has been faded to create a area to write but not to block the image, is a great way of creating a writing area on a image.

The image which has been used is very simple, doesn’t  take to much attention away from the writing,  if it was an overpowering image, the text wouldn’t transfer and would make the content page messy and hard to read,

The image which is also used will be a feature for the magazine, so it also entices the reader as well.

The third and final content page, it totally different to the first two, this content page is from NME, this content page is more structural and has a specific format to the content page every week, and the images and text which just change, even though it is information rich, its design poor, and comes across very boring, and with the black white and red simply been used to often, it becomes repetitive and boring, and as a magazine, I don’t want it to come across like, that. Even though it is a  tried and tested way of colour working well together and working in sink, but the overall repetitiveness of the use in the magazine, a change could be beneficial?

The image used in the content page is smaller, and less dramatic, but it still represents emotion and the genre of the music.  With the genre which am focusing on, the square, black boxed out boxes wont work, and wouldn’t be genre specific, hip hop is more flowing true and interpretable, this content page leaves a lot to be desired.