5 Double Page Spreads

Total Guitar – Double Page Spread (rock)

 Total Guitars double page spread is a very comic book based style. This is shown by the title which is “BIFF! BANG! POWELL!” Not only is this meant to look like a comic book, but it is a play on words as well because the fraise says “Powell!” instead of ‘Pow’ which is the cliché onomatopoeia you would usually find in a comic book when characters are fighting. The Powell stands for the name of the artist in the article. Andy Powell.

This double page spread uses the house style and the colour scheme from the front cover quite well as they have used the same shade of blue. This helps give the magazine some consistency and a bit more professionalism. Another point with the house style is that in the bottom corner of both pages it has the page number and the actually total guitar logo.

If you look close enough you can see that the image on the left actually crosses the centre line which makes this a dominant picture for this double page spread. The image its self is a mid-shot which are usually used to show off props. The prop in this image is his flying V guitar which is a typical rock n roll guitar. Not only does his choice in guitar show that this man must be a serious rock guitarist, so does his costume. He is wearing black leather and he has sunglasses on in a dark room. These are all things linked to these kinds of rock stars.

The article is laid out in three columns which is a perfect amount of text to have in one article, as anymore text and readers of this kind of magazine could get bored. All the text in the article is serif font which I feel gives this rock magazine a little bit of class and tidiness. However the first word is in drop capitals. Usually magazines will have only the first letter in drop capitals but Total Guitar have used the whole first word which just so happens to be the name of the artist.

Overall I really like this double page spread, however I’m not too sure on the whole comic book side of things in a rock magazine. I do like this double page spread and I will maybe try making mine styled around this. I especially like the whole of the first word being in drop capitals.

KERRANG! – Double page spread (Heavy metal/Punk)

Kerrang’s double page spread is again quite apt for their style of magazine. The page is extremely image dominated as you can see however the title takes up a lot of the space as well.

The background to this double page spread is taking up entirely by the image, which Kerrang have been smart about. This is because they have made all images on the page grayscale. Not only does this make it easier to read text above the image but it also makes the house style/colour scheme stand out more. Sticking with the house style, Kerrang have added their title and page number in the bottom left hand corner of every page, and using that famous Kerrang font while doing so.

The font on this double page spread is interesting as it all resembles the cracked glass look, very much like the Kerrang logo itself. As for the actual article, it is all in white sans-serif font on a black background except the drop capital to start the article off. That is a large red ‘M’ in that same cracked Kerrang font. As I said with Kerrang’s contents and front cover, they subvert the codes and conventions of normal music magazines by using sans-serif the whole time and only adding colour to their fonts and titles, while they keep their models as colourless as possible.

Kerrang laid this double page spread out specifically to me more of an imaged based page than a large read. This is shown because the dominant picture takes up the whole background and there are three other smaller images along the bottom of the right page. With the large title as well taking up a lot of the page this only leaves a very small percentage of the double page spread left for text.

I really like this double page spread as it can be seen in two ways. Completely image dominated, meaning that everywhere you look there is large high quality images that Kerrang want you to see; or you can see it in the sense that Kerrang have not put any colour into any images. The only colour is in the house style and the advertisement of their website. I will look to have a dominant image that takes up the whole background while the model is actually only in one half of the image.

Q- Double page spread (alternative music)

Q’s double page spread is all focused on Lady Gaga, which has been made clear as one whole side of the article is a medium close up of Gaga herself.

Their isn’t much of a colourful feel to this double page spread, however the house style has been added as they have used the red of the Q logo for the drop capital.

The drop capital here is massive, as it takes up the whole of the right page. Not only is this drop capital the only colour on the page and taking up the whole background, but Q magazine have chose to keep it in serif font, which isn’t usually the choice for a title or large eye catching pieces of text.

Again Q has kept to their simplistic style of layout by only having the one image and not much colour. This leaves a lot of space for text. Q has used 3 columns to present their work which is the perfect amount for the style of readers who would by this magazine.

I like this double page spread because of the individuality when adding a drop capital the size of the page and only adding colour to that one letter. However I don’t feel this would fit in with a rock magazine.

Top Of The Pops – Double page spread (pop)

Top of the pops’ double page spread, unsurprisingly, is very pink and girly again.

However the colour scheme here is all pink and white on a black background. This isn’t usually a TOTP colour using a black background. This is more something you would expect from a rock magazine. Very much like the front cover and contents page, TOTP magazine have stuck to having between 4-5 images. Most this double page spread is actually text as the large picture on the right isn’t even taking up all of the right hand side of the page.

The fonts are chopping and changing quite a lot within the TOTP magazine and this page is no exception. The title is all in serif font however the first word isn’t bold and the second word is.

Overall I still don’t like the TOTP layout and approach to music magazines as it always seems messy and unorganized. If I were to take anything from this double page spread I would take the quotes that have been put below a picture.

XXL – Double page spread (Hip-Hop)

 XXL have made their double page spread just as you expect, as it is mainly image dominated, the picture is of an intimidating rapper and theirs not much text.

Theirs not an obvious colour scheme on first glance however if u look closely at the quote and the drop capital you can see that the colour scheme is burgundy on white background.

The font on this double page spread is odd, as all the actual article is in sans-serif however the drop capital, the title and the quote at the bottom of the page are all in some sort of Shakespearean old English text. This may have something to do with that artist or it could be the house style for this issue of XXL.

Over all I like this double page spread, but I feel it isn’t suited to the rest of the magazine as they have been so simple with things to then go and use a completely new text is a bit of a mind tease. I will look to add a picture where the background is just as important as the foreground (i.e. in this picture it shows him in his gym, building up the idea of him being a rough character)