Contents Page Research

Ana Silva

Compared to most common Contents pages, I believe this would transmit an artistic image to the audience. The actual theme itself and the colours too are not bright, in fact the colours are quite dull and simple although they all work together well. But the image used speaks for itself and once again it’s not a common pose, especially for a contents page. Most common contents page will go for a layout that enhances more images used even if they’re quite small, whereas in this contents page, the artist is the main focus in the page and all the features blend in around her. One of the best things about this contents page is that, it’s not crowded with information which emphasizes the point that the image actually does speak for itself and to the target audience.

Even though this not a contents page for a music magazine, I thought this would be a very interesting existing piece to analyse as also said it’s very artist and this reflects on music because music too is artistic and creative and sometimes even strive to be different. Also the female in the image looks like a common Hip Hop artist with a comfortable outfit to dance (As Hip Hop revolves around dancing etc.)

Ana Silva

Very differently we have a NME music magazine contents page, which strictly follows the colour scheme (all based in white, black and red) even though at the bottom of the page there's yellow bold writing. This is the section where they offer stuff to the audience, competitions (basically where they speak to the audience) etc. which would explain the yellow writing, because it makes it stand out. One of the biggest differences compared to the previous magazine is that instead of having an artistic image which stood up for itself, it actually has an image of a building. This must have some sort of interest in the readers or even represent something towards them, which smartly they both speak for themselves but in different ways. Also this theme seems that it played safely, whereas it’s not adventurous and it doesn’t break conventions the way the previous one did and how it was different. This could possibly be because their target audience is used to this layout even the colour scheme and this way they don’t risk on loosing their audience. They’ve been successful like this so either way it works for them. One of the positive thing is also that it is not over crowded with information but somehow still includes more information than the previous; it’s well organized and tidy in relation to the information, the fonts etc. it all works together to create a contents page for a well known magazine (NME)

Ana Silva

In this existing contents page, there’s technique rarely used, the way one of the image (image at the side) is in colour whereas the bigger image (middle) is in black and white. This reflects that this magazine is related to old music so perhaps even older and more sensible target audience, also in this contents page there’s no reference that it is a contents page which highlights the idea of it being purposely made for a older and wiser target audience. The layout and the format of this contents page is so simple, the only colour you see is in the numbers around the page, and it’s still a dull pink emphasizing the idea that their biggest target audience is females. Altogether, personally I don’t think this is a common layout for a contents page, it somehow looks like a blog page; the bit on the side where you have information included and then you have the ‘posts’ – the main image with a little caption.

However, the contents page has everything needed to be successful: all the features and all the little information needed, and it’s strictly made for a specific target audience so whether or not it’s different from the others it’s perhaps what makes it work.

Ana Silva