Contents page analysis

 This is a contents page from the music magazine 'VIBE', the photograph dominates the page and is the first thing that the reader looks at. In actual fact, the picture takes up two of the three columns that are used in most contents pages. This is often the layout of the contents page in 'VIBE', a picture of an artist always dominates the page with only a little bit of writing on the right side of the photo. This contents page is very dissimilar to that of NME and KERRANG! for main reasons:

• This contents page only has one picture where as NME and KERRANG! feature more than one picture in their contents page
• There is very little information on this page but NME and KERRANG! both have a lot of writing on their contents pages

                


This is a contents page from KERRANG! It features an editors note which uses a mode of address that makes the reader feel welcome to the magazine. The yellow colour and style contribute towards the brand identity of the magazine. There are six different photographs featured on this contents page which draw the readers eye to the stories which those photographs are linked to. This contents page is similar to that of NME because of the amount of photos used, however this contents page features more writing that both NME and VIBE

The NME contents page is very simplistic, it features seven pictures each one representing a different story, there is a fair emount of writing however there is no editors note. On this particular contents page from NME there are several different fonts all of which contribute towards the brand identity. There are three columns used in this contents page however the middle column is wider than the two on the sides. The layout of this contents page is similar to KERRANG! because of the positioning of the photos, but it is very different and almost opposite to the contents page from VIBE, which is probably appropriate because they represent two completely different genres of music.

Contents page Final

Flat plans

This is the flat plan of my front page, I didn't add colour to the plan because I wanted to experiment with different colours that I could use and that would look best with the picture that I selected for my front page. The flat plan made the process of constructing the front page easier because it meant that I already knew what I was going to say and what writing I was going to put on the front page- this saved me time because it meant that the coverlines of the magazine were already planned.

This is the flat plan for my contents page, this has allowed me to know exactly what stories are going to be featured in my contents page which also saves me time because I don't have to stop and think about what I am going to write. In my flat plan there are only two columns, I changed this in my actual contents page to three columns, I did this because mainstream music magazines usually use 3 columns as opposed to 2; only two columns would mean that the writing would be too big for a standard page of a4.

  

Front page, contents page and double page spread photos

There were a lot of things that had to be considered when taking the pictures for my front cover, contents page and double page spread, for example: the clothes that my model was wearing had to match the genre of the music and she had to look old enough to feature on a real magazine. To take these pictures my model and I went to a cabbage patch near my house and luckily, there were giant tyres in the ground which looked good in the pictures. We took a lot of pictures with the acoustic guitar because that shows clearly that it is a music magazine.

Peer Assessment

In the peer assessment there were three main points stated:
1) the editing on the hair round the title could be improved
2) the writing and text boxes around the writing were good 
3) when the contents page was finished it would be of a good standard

As we went round the class we would sit at a computer and write down any feedback on a small piece of paper so that any changes that were suggested to be made, or anything that we thought was good about the work was recorded easily and clearly so that the person who's work it was could easily do this. This is what was written about my work.

Today in lesson we did a peer assessment, we gave our thoughts on other peoples work and in turn received feedback on our own work, the general impression of my front page was that the image was good and matched the genre of music and that the writing was generally good. Some criticisms of my front page was that the hair near the title could use some more editing because it was noticeably cut out. The general impression of my contents page was that although unfinished the space was used well and the images were liked but the title looked like 'THS' as opposed to 'THIS' so I will change that. This peer assessment allowed me to get more ideas that I could include in my own work and helped me to improve my front page and contents page.