Contents Page

AnalysisIn this I will pick several contents pages from

music magazines and analyse them.

The first thing that you see is a red banner/strip that goes right across the double page spread. On page 4 it has the letter Q in white and the word contents in black. The letter Q has always been in white so doing the word contents in black makes it stand out a bit more from the page. Below the red banner you will find that they use 3 columns on each page. The first column on page 4 starts of with a subheading which says features. This is in a red text box just like banner at the top. Underneath that you will see a picture which seems to be a stamp with the letter Q in it. Below that it says ‘Q awards 2010 with Russian standard vodka-The winners’. This is something important to Q because otherwise they would not have posted it. So underneath the column ‘features’ it lists some artists and has a small description about them. An example of this would be the first one, which has the number 48 and then the band name take that. There is a small, thin, grey line between the two words/numbers. This just splits them up so you know that they are separate. The number 48 is the page number where you will find all the articles about take that. Underneath the number and band name Take That, there is a red line. This is thicker than the grey line because it is separating more information. Under the red line is a small description, which gives you a taster on what is on their page. This is all the same for each of the artists below the Take That. The second and third column on page 4 is taken up by a huge group pictures of the band Take That. This picture is in black & white and in the top left corner you will find the number 48 in black. Take That is the main the artist for this page. You can tell because they are advertising them the most by having a huge picture of them and being the first artist to look at under the features column.

On page 5 the red banner continues, and on the top of this it says Issue 293 in

white. This tells us that they have already had 293 issues of Q magazines

released. In the first and second column on page 5 there are photos that take up

the majority of the space of these two columns. The first pictures takes up the

two columns and it seems to be a pictures of some sort of band. In the top right hand corner of the picture there is

the page number that relates to the pictures. They have used black for the number because they want it to stand

out. Also, they have taken this picture in a studio, as they have a plain off white

background. In the first column the second picture down shows an image of

Rhianna and this shot also looks like it was taken in a prepared photoshoot. In

the bottom right hand corner is the number 42. This is found in a black text

box and the colour of the number is white. These two colours standout from each other which is why they would put them together. Below Rhianna there are

two images that seem to be taken from a concert. It is advertising Q Live. They

layered the second picture on top of the first picture, but only very slightly. They

have advertised this because they are wanting people to come to the live

concert so more money can be brought in for the company. In the second column second picture down there is an image of two artists, and I think they are different.

The first small image shows a guy playing the guitar, and the word ‘Crazy’

is written underneath. On the image next to it shows a medium shot of a man and

it has the word ‘Heart’ written underneath. Below these pictures is

another image. This picture is based in a café. There are two people sitting next to

each other and they seem to be looking directly into the camera. In the bottom

right hand corner is the number 34 which is in a black box and is written in white.

Underneath the picture in the café is a ‘Q review’. There is a thick, red line which separates the images from the review. This is a good way to separate pieces of text that may not be relevant to each other. The word Q review is in black font and the actual review is written in red. Next to this you have column 3 on page 5. This has a similar layout to the first column on page 4. At the top you have an image which shows a front cover of Q magazine. That front cover is focused on Take That, and it uses the same image that is on the contents page. Also the image on the contents page is taken slightly at a different angle and it is in black and white. Seeing this front cover image makes me think that on page 48 they are going to show some behind the scenes photos from the photoshoot. However they will not be showing the actual pictures that were taken, they are showing their own images that were taken at a slightly different angle. Furthermore underneath the front cover picture you have a banner that says regulars. The banner is red and the writing is white. Under this I think you have all the other odd features that you might find in the magazine. For example: the first one says ‘Q mail’ and as a short explanation

underneath it. They are all layered out in the same way. You will have the page number, then what the page is about. A red line will be underneath the page title and would have a short explanation of what the page is about. This is what the

column looks like all the way down the page.

This is also a Q magazine so it is set out in a similar way to the other magazine contents page. At the top of the page is a banner which has the letter Q on the right hand side, which is in white, and the word contents is written next to it which is in the colour black. This banner goes right across page 4 and 5. In the first column you have the features. There is red banner which has ‘Features’ in white written on it. Below this you have an image which seems to be a picture of the band Queen. The image seems to have been taken from a concert but its taken from the side of the stage. After the image you have the word Queen written in black with a small explanation of what is in the picture etc.. This writing is in red. Using these two colours means that they are more noticeable because they stand out from each other. Underneath you have a range of artists names/features and a small description which relates to the artist/feature written underneath. So for example: the third one down says the number 62 with the name Adele written next to it. There is a thin grey line between the number and the name which separates them and adds effect to the page. Below the name and number is a short description, which probably talks about what is going to be on that page about Adele. The description is separated by a thicker red line. As I said before this just separates the information and adds effect to the page. This is carried on all the way down the page for the following artist (in order from top to bottom), ‘Ready Eye, Linkin Park, Adele, Handwritten Lyrics, and Noah and The Whale’. Next to the features there is a image which takes up two whole columns. This image is a close up photo of a singers face. The camera is angled high up above his head and has probably been zoomed in a bit. You can tell that he has a very serious expression when taking this photo. In the bottom left hand side of the photo there is the number 46 in white. This is the page number. You can tell that this image is the main focus of the contents page because is it the biggest image on the two pages.

On page 5 you also have three columns. At the top of the page you have the red banner which reaches across both pages. On this it says ‘Issue 296. The first

image takes us two columns and is a picture of a band. This seems to be set in a lounge or sitting room. The image has a slight vintage vibe to it. There are four people in band and they are all spread on in the photo. Below this image in the first column there are two more images, and one is below the other. They seem

to show a page in a magazine, whether that’s Q magazine or a different magazine. It is hard to tell what is on in the image but on the left hand side of the image there is a whole article. On the picture below there is a man sitting

don but you can’t see his whole body. On the right hand side on the image there is another article. The first image has the number 74 written in the bottom left

hand corner, and the image below has the number 40 written in the bottom right hand corner. Beside these two images is a photo of Adele, and this photo is in the second column. In this picture Adele is sitting down, but the photo is cropped so you can’t see her legs. She is laughing in this photo and the actual photograph has been taken in a studio. You can tell because they have used a plain white

background. On the right hand side, half way up is the number 62. Having these numbers on each artist helps the reader because it means that they can go

straight to the page they want, which talks about the artist they want to read about. This is the page number for Adele. Below the image of Adele you have the Q review. This is accompanied by an image, unlike the other one. The image is in the first column and the review is in the second column. There is a small red line which separates the images above from the review. On the red line you have the phrase ‘The Q Review’ written in white. The image for the review is a picture of

Paul McCartney.

The last column on page 5 shows the regulars. Just

above them is an image of the a Q front cover, and the

artist used for the front cover is the singer in the big image of page 4. The front cover is

just a typical front cover page for Q magazine. They have

used that front cover image, because they are trying to

advertise their magazine more so that if anyone who likes that artist can go get

that certain magazine. Below the picture you have the

regulars. This is layered out in exactly the same way as the

features, but for this they just talk about different things. At the very bottom of the page

they have the page numbers and the year the issue came

out. The page numbers are in a black box with white writing.

The colour scheme for this page is quite

simple, but effective. The colours used are red, black and white.

They are a good mixture of colours

because they all stand out from each other, but at the same time

they work well as a colour scheme.

This is a contents page for billboard magazine. On the left hand side of the page you will see a charts lists. This features a range of artists who's songs and or albums have got in the chart. At the top of the charts lists is has number one written in white and is against a black background. In much smaller font the words ‘on the charts’ is written next to ‘No.1’. They have written number one in much bigger front because they want to try grab peoples attention. For example: Those who are interested in the charts will see the word number one and will instantly look at that section of the page. Using black and white is a good idea because these two shades stand out from each other the most than any other colour. Below the title, is has two lists for the charts. The first column says either the artist, band name or song title, but for the other column, I am unable to read it as the picture is too pixelated to read it. The words albums, artist, songs and the phrase ‘this week on’… are all in yellow and are in a grey box. Using the colour yellow makes the writing stand out more, which makes it more obvious for the reader. Furthermore, at the very top of the page nearer the right hand side, is the word contents. This is in the same font as the word number one and also it is in black font. There is a thick blue line which separates the word contents from the writing and images that are below it. You could say that this makes the word ‘contents’ stand out more because you could say that it is on its own. What I mean by this is that there is nothing surrounding the words contents that could distract the reader from looking at it, therefore its stands out more. There is also another blue line, (this one is thinner), which separates the charts from the other information and images on the right hand side of the page.

Below the word contents there are three column and at the top of theses columns there were three

images, which all seem to be photos of artists. I don’t know any of the artist featured so I can’t give

their names. The first image is a photo of a man singing with a microphone. It seems a if the image was taken from a concert or something similar. It is a medium shot and the artist is looking towards the

left of the page. On the picture you have the number 12 written in white. This gives you the page number. Inducing the page number on the picture is a very good idea because if someone sees the photo

of the artist they like, they might want tot go straight tot the page with them on, so this gives the

reader a quicker and easier way to find the page they like. The next image is a photo of a man

holding a guitar. This photo is more zoomed in than the other one. I would say that due to the guitar and

vintage feel the photo gives me, the style of music this man does could be either, folk or country music.

Just like the one next to it, this image has the page number written on it in white. Looking at the third

image, I can tell straight away that this is to do with rock music. I can tell because of the outfit the artist is wearing. Just like the other two, this picture also has the page number at the bottom. Below these three images is a whole section of text, and to the

right of the text is a photo of an artist. This is medium shot which is in black and white. Using this

colour scheme shows a sense of professionalism. You can tell by the background that this photo was taken within a studio. Also, the background for the

image also counts as the background for page. Starting at the top of the text, the first heading is ‘Upfront’. This is in capital letters, which makes it

stand out more. The subheading then says Time to dance followed by a bunch of text below. The next

heading is features. Like the other heading, this one has several subheadings with some information

underneath. Beside each subheading it has a number. This much be the page number. The last

two headings of this section are, ‘music’ and ‘in every issue’. Unlike the other two these ones only

have subheadings a no information underneath each one. At the very bottom of the magazine, it is

advertising their online website and events that will be happening. It also tells you about touring and

futuresound, which is an event that billboard hosts.

The overall colour scheme for this contents page is quite simple. The use of cool tones gives the magazine a cool and higher end feel. The

black was mainly used for headings, subheadings, text and the masthead, and the blue was mainly used for the dividers that split up

each section of the page.