5 Content Pages

Total Guitar – Contents Page (rock)

Total Guitars contents page is very different to the front cover in the sense that the background is white, the page isn’t dominated by one image, it is in a blocky layout and the text is organized into three lists of pages and in serif font.

There isn’t much I can actually say about this contents page as it is very simplistic, however you will notice that the issue number and date on the top right hand side of the page is the same colour as the page numbers in the three columns. This is the house style for that magazine. Total Guitar will add a page number or little bits of text in that red font with that same style of font. This is to help recognize the page belongs to Total Guitar.

As for the colour scheme, the house style is about the most colour on the page involving text. There is black serif font in a lot of places to push aside the wildness of the front covers and to show the magazine is serious about their music, as it seems like a better organized and smarter layout that on the previous page.

As toned down as Total Guitar have made this page, the text still gives off the immature, laid back, rock n roll idea. For example the title of the main story is “THRASH RULES!” This I believe is taking us back to the front cover and reminding the readers that although they haven’t gone mental with this page, this is still a rocker’s magazine. Rock magazines don’t usually stick with main stream music and can dwell in the past (i.e. “1986: THRASH RULES!”) which is what Total Guitar have done here, however they have focused their contents page on 5 main images. These 5 images try to show the variety of stories, both past and present, that this magazine will cover. For example they have the Thrash Rules image (main story), they advertise a new guitar amplifier, they also advertise an artist releasing a new album (Elbow) and they have a story about a hard rock café kind of place.

As I am sticking to the rock genre for my music magazine I will take into consideration a lot of the techniques used by total guitar, as they try to almost balance out the madness of their front covers with a more civilized content page, so that every page is not to hectic. I do like how they added their house style in the top right hand corner with the issue number and date. This is something I might add into my contents page.

KERRANG! – Contents page (Heavy metal/punk)

Kerrang’s contents page looks as if they have split it in two, with a large dominant picture of Slash on top and on the bottom organizing their pages into categories.

The house style of this contents page is quite clear, as you can see the large yellow sans-serif font at the top which reads “contents” and below you can see “This Week” in that very same font and colour. All the different categories for the page numbers are in this house style as well.

The Colour scheme is still quite similar to its previous front cover as they stick with the blacks and whites with little dabs of red and yellow. This is nice that Kerrang stick with patterns, which again will make it easy to recognize each page as part of a Kerrang magazine.

Looking at the style of fonts chosen by Kerrang here, you can see that they have used the same smashed sans-serif bold font as Kerrang for all there bit titles. This could class as a house style, as this font will now be linked to Kerrang if people see it anywhere else. Kerrang have chosen to go against the usual conventions of a music magazine by having all text, even articles, in sans-serif. Usually magazines will have their titles in sans-serif to grab people’s attention then they will have all smaller writing in serif font. By Kerrang doing this, it almost gives off the idea that they don’t want to be like any other music magazine, and that they will do what they want. Using sans-serif font for all text really gives the magazine a more informal, laid back feel to it. This is perfect for the heavy metal/punk rockers who would read this.

This contents page is a good example of what I would like to base mine on, however I maybe would like to combine a larger page dominating picture with the contents. On the other hand, when I do my initial ideas I will try out a few different styles of contents pages, i.e. blocky or image dominated.

Q – Contents page (alternative music)

This contents page for Q magazine is still making Cheryl Cole the centre of attention with having a dominant picture as it fills up over half of the page. Q have left a small column on the left hand side to advertise other important pages and two pictures to help that however most attention is still at their main story.

The house style for Q magazine comes from the title its self; the white ‘Q’ on a red background. The red is one of the only colours actually seen on the contents page. This is helped by the fact that all the pictures are either grey scale or the only colour visible is a flesh tone. Q has added red bars going horizontally to help organize the content page, and separate the articles. Q has managed to make their magazine look extremely professional with the simplest of colour schemes by only using red, white and black.

Just like Q’s front cover they have stuck to using serif font a lot more than sans-serif for titles. This again works brilliantly for this magazine as it gives it a sense of class. The whole layout of this content page looks sophisticated, tidy and classy. I do believe that the use of font styles has played a big role in making this magazine look as good as it does.

I like this content page the best with the large dominating picture and only little amounts of text. I will look to base my content page on this as I feel, as a rock magazine; readers won’t want to see a page just packed full with words. It’s all about the presentation as well and having high quality images at everyone’s attention will be great for my music magazine genre.

Top of the Pops – Contents page (pop)

The Top of the Pops (TOTP) magazine front cover on is still just as feminine and as wacky as its front cover. The content page is in a blocky form and has every page listed unlike the other magazines, where only important articles were listed. There is two main images on the page, one being a picture of the front cover which has been labeled the page numbers on and the other picture is of a big band who are featured in that issue in the bottom left hand corner. All the other space is filled up by 5 different boxes with lists of page numbers and articles that fall into the specific category. For example the 5 columns are named “We ♥ boys”, “We ♥ shopping”, “All about you”, “Wins & offers” and “Celebs & gossip”. These are very girly topics as it mainly is women who prefer to gossip and shop.

They have stuck to the house style as seen on the front cover, by sticking to a pink and yellow theme, two stereotypical female colours. TOTP magazine don’t really have any different colour schemes other than their house style which has taking up most of the page.

The text again is all over the place. This meaning that they have, numerous different fonts, they have serif for the title and sans-serif for articles (subverting the codes and conventions of a music magazine) and sections of the magazine look to have been high lighted as if to give them more importance.

If I were to take anything from this content page and add it into mine, I would probably take the idea of having an image of your front cover there and it being labeled with the page numbers. Other than that I still feel TOTP have made this too over crowded and it doesn’t look professional.

XXL – Contents page (Hip-Hop)

This contents page is very good. It still has all the attention of the model from the front cover (50 Cent) and has a long list down the left hand side. I really like how this is laid out as it isn’t too much yet it isn’t an empty contents page. This will be perfect for the Hip-Hop audience XXL receive as they have an icon taking up one whole side of the page while still having all relevant information in chronological order on the right hand side.

  The house style has been branded into this page quite nicely as the red of the XXL logo is in the page numbers and the red bar at the top of the page. Other than this there isn’t a colour scheme. Only that house style with the red on white.

The font is all sans-serif and what looks to be impact, which is a nice, simple and clear font. XXL seem to be able to make their magazine look better the simpler and emptier it looks. This is unique feature as other magazines have to cram their pages full of pictures and text to grab the attention of the readers.

As I said when talking about Q, I really like having a dominant picture taking up one side of the page, however XXL only have that picture which gives that image more meaning and presence. I would like to try putting this technique into my initial ideas and see how it looks, however this could be a risk as a rock magazine might not suit this style.