My music magazine contents page analysis

By Namibia McLean

My Final Contents PageOverall I’m pleased on how my contents page looks because it could possibly pass as a real contents page. As the maker I know a lot of work went into making the final product and I’m proud of how it has turned out on the way.Additionally I think I have included content page conventions such as a variety of graphics and the numbering next to my articles although the way I have layered it is a contrast to real magazines because I do not believe that real magazines would put watermark photos behind the text and a graphic but then again I wanted the magazine to be unique and different to typical music magazines. Also the fact that it ties into my front cover for me makes it more conventional and more realistic than if I didn’t tie the themes and colours in with the front cover.

This was my original flat plan idea and I chose to make it like this on the basis of hip hop magazine conventions and what I thought would look good within my magazine. As you’ll see I have changed some conventions along the way of making the front cover of my magazine.

This was the final product for quite a short while. As you can see the main things I changed was having a graphic behind the masthead ‘word up’. I did this because I like the idea of the magazine having a logo and it was moved their by mistake but I think it was lucky that I did because I really like it. Also I also changed the graphic because now looking back at my original graphic it looks silly and unprofessional however having one main person makes the page seem less crowded. Also I have changed the colour of the ‘Contents’ simply because I used too much purple on the page already and white stands out the most on a black banner. A minor change is that I have changed the ‘stories’ to ‘articles’ because it sounds more professional as stories

sounds child like.

This was my final Contents for a long while. It was not until I looked at other magazines that I decided to change it once again. From the last final I’ve toned down the outline around my graphic (behind the ‘Word Up’) because it looked messy. I also put an outline and a shadow around all the numbers because it made the number stand out more. Additionally I’ve changed some of the numbers and added another article to fill up the space a bit more. Lastly I have made cropped the graphic so that the audience can focus more on her face and not on her body posture.

This is my final product and as you can see I have come a long way from my flat plan which I will go into analysis further on within the presentation. However I’ve added more graphics so that the magazine itself looked more conventional and had the fell of a real magazine. I’ve added another article as when I got feedback I was told to add another one in as I didn’t have enough. I’ve also added captions to my picture due to the basis of other magazines and I have added who the images were taken by as this is a popular convention through all magazine types.

Here are some of the steps I took to make my contents page:

Here are the main conventions I changed from my original flat plan to my final contents page:

Graphic behind the ‘Word Up’ magazine – I decide to put a graphic there on the basis that I don’t believe that it has been done before so by putting it there makes it look as if it is a logo. Additionally making it grey makes it blend with the rest of the colours and goes along with the masthead as well as the people in the graphic are pointing upwards.Bricks behind the graphic – Originally when I was analysing my flat plan I debated that I would put a brick wall or black background behind the graphic. I decided to use a brick wall to show diversity and if I had used black then there would have been to much black presented on the page.Graphic – The long shot graphic has changed to a mid shot graphic because I didn’t think the graphic before looked professional and also I think that the graphic before looks childish. I wanted my graphic to have a natural element towards them and the pose before didn’t seem natural but too staged.‘Story’ to ‘Articles’ – As mentioned before having the word ‘stories’ typically sounds childish and my magazine is aimed towards eighteen and upwards so I think changing it suited this brief.Add new articles – I decided to add new articles because I wanted to fill up the space so that it looked like a real magazine. When I had typed this all into my magazine I realised that there was not enough information presented so

therefore this is the reason why I had to put in another article.

Graphic – I added some more graphics one a long shot and the other a mid long shot graphic because I saw that the space was empty and so I took the opportunity to add some graphics to take up the space. Originally I was suppose to have a male within my magazine so that it showed that my magazine is for both genders but because of time and commitments I didn’t think I would have enough time to do a photo shoot. Luckily I had the chance to quickly take some shots and in the end I think the result turned out good.Watermark graphic – I do not see this a typical music magazine convention so to put this close up shot graphic in makes my magazine seem unique and different to others. The image is of the same girl that is standing at the bottom centre because the article says ‘Leah’s space’ so I thought this tied in really nice as made my magazine seem more realistic.Contents is white - I made the contents title white because if I had stuck to the purple then the actual title wouldn’t have stood out as much, not only s it a common convention for the contents to be white but it looks professional.Captions – Apparently this a common convention seen within all magazines. I decided to add it into mine because it gave the magazine a sense of realm as even though I want my magazine to be different from other magazines of my genre I want it to have some sort of major conventions and this is one of them.No yellow border – The yellow border was too jarring to the eye and would take the audience’ attention from the magazine to the border itself so it was for the best to take it out.No purple border – This would have been a nice feature but I simply had too much purple and there was not enough space hence why it is not there.