Final cover, contents and double page spread

Double page spread analysis

The double page spread in this magazine has a large headline that catches the readers eye as soon as they turn the page, on this double page spread the headline is a pull quote from the article below. The headline has black boxes around each letter and all of the letters vary in size which looks like newspaper cut outs. Normally on a double page spread the text does not cross over the fold but on this one it does, the editors have done this carefully by using large text and using the edges of the letters near the fold so that nothing is hidden.

The large image of the artist dominates the double page spread as it takes up half of the page and has a lot of colour unlike the rest of the page which only uses black and white with a few red words matching the artists clothing which keeps things linked together on the page. 

The text in the article is very small and layed out in columns, this stops the text taking over the page too much and putting the reader off reading the text as if it was a large block of text it would look boring.

Most of the page is taken up by the photograph and headline leaving only a small place for the article, when people buy magazines to read they don't want to spend hours reading each article so by keeping the articles short the readers will feel enticed to read as they will not be spending too much of their time reading. 

A drop cap is used at the beginning of the article, drop caps are used to draw the readers attention towards the article.

This double page spread is from 'Q' magazine. Rather than using a conventionally large headline 'Q' have put "lady GAGA" on the top right corner of the page. The large photograph on the double page spread usually dominates the page, although the image takes over half of the page it is dominated by the large bright read drop cap on the other side of the page. There is a lot of text in this article which is quite unusual for a double page spread.

Contents page analysis

NME goes against the usual conventions of just using the word "contents page" and instead use "inside this week" at the top of the page. The large central image on the contents page is not the same story on the cover of the magazine. The main colour schemes of the contents page is a simple white and black. There is a promototion to subscrite to the magazine as gifts for christmas. The headlines on the contents page have a short summary underneath to show the readers what is in the magazine the summaries under the image are actually pull quotes from the articles in the magazine which is like a teaser to the audience making them want to read the article more.

The contents page of Vibe magazine is simple yet looks appealing to the audience. The large "V" in the background shows that this is a popular magazine as the audience will know what the "V" stands for. Usually in a contents page a lot of photographs are used, in this magazine only one is used and completely dominates the page and tells the audience that this magazine is probably a main feature in the magazine. The "Contents" is layed out unusually on vibe, but this is continuous through most of their contents pages, this is different to most magazine. The colour scheme on the contents follows the artists clothing which shows a continuity throughout the contents page. Vibe magazine have a 'fashion' section in their magazine, this gives the magazine a wider audience as it will become more appealing to younger audiences that are interested in fashion. music and fashion are both seen as big interests in most peoples lifes and they would probably prefer to buy a magazine with both fashion and music in one rather than buy the two.

Double page spread and contents, first draft

This is a first draft of my double page spread, I used text from www.lipsum.com , when I create the final contents page I am going to use an interview with the girlband but the text will be in the same layout. The image used for my double page spread here is not the image I will be using for the final one but I struggled to get an image as one of the girls on the cover was not available to take photographs of for my contents page.

In my final draft there will be more photos of artists and more page information. I think that I would also change the colour of the background as the text and images do not look very good against this background. I used "This week" at the top of the page instead of 'contents', I used this title as I saw it in the NME magazines and thought that it would work better with my magazine contents page.

Contents page research

I looked at the NME magazine contents page, instead of using the usual "contents" at the top of the page NME use "inside this week". This doesnt follow the typical conventions of a magazine contents title. In a weekly magazine the typical amount of pages is around 70 and in a monthly it is 140. There are alot of images used in the contencts page, NME follow a consistant house style of colours and layouts througout all of the magazines produced. The main focus on the contents page isn't the lead story that is shown on the cover of the magazine which shows more stories in the magazine. In all contents pages there are subscription information on how to subsribe and sometimes free gifts available when you sign up to a subsription, with the subscrition information there are usually some original images of the front cover of the magazine. At the bottom on the contents page there is a "word from the editor" sharing information on what is in the magazine and the editors thoughts on this weeks magazine.

I created a new magazine cover from scratch. I looked at NME magazines for inspiration for my cover as I wanted to create a magazine with the same genre to NME, the target audience for the magazine would be a younger audience, the magazine is aimed more towards a male audience between 17-28, I think that the majority of readers would be male but there would also be female readers of a similar age.

NV- Final draft.