Content Pages
The Source Contents
Target Audience:
The Source magazine is known for being one of the big Hip-Hop magazines. As soon as you look at this contents, you can see that they're reaching out for a certain audience. The main audience is between the ages of 15-30. This includes people up to 30 years of age because the artist in the main image is a older rapper which will reach out to people who remember the early 90s well. They've used a lot of other things to reach to the audience like the colours and text used. This way, anyone who usually buys this magazine will be inclined to buy the latest issue.
Layout:
This is a simple layout using 2 columns. The first is blank almost all of the way down and only includes the name of the magazine and a few minor details. The second includes all the text for the magazine contents. This way, it makes it easier for the target audience to read all the necessary parts. This is one of the easiest ways of laying out the contents page as it's only one column of text and the image.
Colour:
They've used a 4 colour pallet. This includes Red, black, white and sepia. The white on red is used very well as white stands out over red and black. Along with this, they've got the face of Ice Cube with a sepia style over it. This makes it look like he's leaning into the light with his face up against the camera.
Images:
There's only one image on this contents, as i've already mentioned. It's Ice Cube pulling one of his trademark faces. I think this is used really well as everyone recognises him and his fan base is huge. I think by using someone like him instead of someone like Kanye West is good. Even though West has a lot more fans at the moment, Ice Cube can reach out to the target audience well as even slightly older people like him. If they did only use big named rappers, they would get a lot of copies sold but it would be a bit predictable.
Typography:
They use similar typography for the text as with the masthead. This is to keep it all familiar. If they used a different font with every little bit then it would be too difficult to follow. This way, you stay with a font you get along with. I think that's a great thing as it can only improve the magazine.
XXL Contents
Target Audience:
XXL Magazine is aimed at young adults or people between the ages of 17 and 30. You can simply tell this from the fact they've got BoB on the contents and the words "doin' lines" across the top. This is not the sort of thing you'd have on a magazine aimed at an older audience.
NME Contents
Target Audience:
I believe the target audience for nme magazine is teenagers up to about the age of 20-21. I believe this because they are the type of people who go to more gigs and music festivals so they want to read up on bands so they know the latest news. Also i believe this because of the style of the magazine, it's very informal and looks as though it's made for younger people. Big bold texts are used and bright colours that make it stand out and make teenagers want to buy it, to people a bit older is doesn't matter as much what the magazine looks like more the stories that are published in it. Also the contents of the magazine of completely on certain music artists or venue's that are out at the minute that teenagers who are very interested in music would enjoy reading more and possibly understand more.
Layout:
They've split the contents into thirds as you can see. This is very common in magazines as it's a very simple and easy way of displaying information so the target audience can quickly find what they need to. The main imagine of the page takes up the centre third which simply attracts the reader to the page. Going back to the target audience, you can say that the layout appeals to them well. The photo in the middle with the articles listed down the left makes it easy for the teenage audience to find their way to the right page without making mistakes.
Colour:
This contents page has used a 4 colour pallet. There are many reasons why they've chosen this. Each colour has it's own job, for example, they'd use 2 colours for the main pieces of text, one colour for text that must stand out and one colour for adverts. In this, they've used the colour black for the main text. This is because it stands out well on the white areas. They've used white text on the main titles of the articles across the page.
Images:
There's only 2 images on this contents page and it's split down the middle. I like the way they've done that as it changes the mood of the picture completely. First of all they went with a long photo to spread across the page and involve the audience with the page itself. Because the photo is two separate pictures moulded into one, it really makes it more interesting as without one, there would be nothing going on. Now that there is two, you can maximise the enjoyment.
Typography:
They've used the common conventions of most typography. They make the titles bigger than the text and everything is a perfectly readable font. In the first paragraph of text, they take the first letter and make it a lot bigger. This is simply for effect as it makes the article much more interesting to read. This is a great idea as most of the time, people(namely the target audience) will only read really interesting articles which they can relate to. With this, they'll want to read it either way.
This contents page has used a 4 colour pallet. There are many reasons why they've chosen this. Each colour has it's own job, for example, they'd use 2 colours for the main pieces of text, one colour for text that must stand out and one colour for adverts. In this, they've used the colour black for the main text. This is because it stands out well on the white areas. They've used white text on the main titles of the articles across the page.
Images:
There's only 2 images on this contents page and it's split down the middle. I like the way they've done that as it changes the mood of the picture completely. First of all they went with a long photo to spread across the page and involve the audience with the page itself. Because the photo is two separate pictures moulded into one, it really makes it more interesting as without one, there would be nothing going on. Now that there is two, you can maximise the enjoyment.
Typography:
They've used the common conventions of most typography. They make the titles bigger than the text and everything is a perfectly readable font. In the first paragraph of text, they take the first letter and make it a lot bigger. This is simply for effect as it makes the article much more interesting to read. This is a great idea as most of the time, people(namely the target audience) will only read really interesting articles which they can relate to. With this, they'll want to read it either way.
Total Film Contents
Target Audience:
Total Film is a film magazine, which means the taget audience would be anyone between around 16 and 45. Because of this, you can see it uses a fair bit of text in the contents page. I think that they've done this to show that it's not a magazine for small children or people who don't like reading. It also uses images with the bigger articles. This would draw in anyone who is interested in that genre.
Layout:
I think the contents page is well layed out. It's easy enough to find out where the different films are. It's quite clear where everything is and if you're looking for a certain article, it will be easy to find. If I had to change anything, i'd change the size of each column. I found that with most of them the same size then two higher than the rest, it got confusing. But then again it all depends on how well you can follow the layout.
Colour:
The colour was a very simple choice. You can tell. They have mainly used black, white and red, same as most magazines really. Because of the black on white, the red lets you easily make your way through as it shows where the articles change and where important things are. The colours for the advert on the other hand are very different. They've used blue, yeollow, red, black and white. Sometimes this can be too many colours for it to be a simple advert as when you have too many complicated things on one advert you get distracted and won't bother properly reading it.
Typography:
The typography is well done here. All fonts go together, all the text is a readable size and nothing is hard to read. I like the way the title 'Contents' looks very good even though it uses no capital letters and is just straight forward. Even the way they use bold letters on the subtittles inproves the content. It makes you wonder what it is and draws you to the words.
Conclusion:
Overall, I really like this contents page. I find it very easy to get through the issue and it's not really boring. Because of this, you won't open it and struggle to find anything or get sick of looking. Even the advert is well placed so that it's not blocking any of the important things and you can easily avoid it. Most magazines place adverts in the middle of an article. I think that with this, it's improves the contents a lot. This is why it's a fantastic page, in my opinion.
Overall, I really like this contents page. I find it very easy to get through the issue and it's not really boring. Because of this, you won't open it and struggle to find anything or get sick of looking. Even the advert is well placed so that it's not blocking any of the important things and you can easily avoid it. Most magazines place adverts in the middle of an article. I think that with this, it's improves the contents a lot. This is why it's a fantastic page, in my opinion.
Faking It Contents
Target Audience:
The target audience of this magazine is quite obvious. It's females between the ages of 15 and 50. I mean basically all women like to read fashion magazines and this is quite a popular one. You can tell who the target audience is not just by the fact that it's about fashion, but the layout, images and colour. They've used all these aspects well to get the target audience interested.
Layout:
They've laid it out well for this kind of magazine. They've made it so you have all the pages down the left third then on the right side of the page, they added extra images of the page it represents. For example, you can find page 6 on the side and then also see a picture of the page on the right which shows that to expect on the page. I think that this is a good layout as they've used the most important pages in the images. For example, they've used a page with 'Sex let us entertain you' in big letters. This would draw in the target audience as they all want to know about sex and other things like that.
Colour:
The colour choice is very girly as it contains manly pink. The other colours include red, white and black, just like most magazines. This would interest most people as it's a mix of colours which all fit together really well. This is why they always use red, black and white. It also makes it easier to read as they've used a lot of each colour but not only in one spot. This will stop you struggling to read any of it. If they had used just pink for everything, you'd become bored very quickly and not be able to understand what any of it is saying.
Typography:
They've used the same sort of fonts almost throughout the contents page. The only time they've used a different font was the WFA logo at the bottom and the masthead itself. I think the use of a different font on the masthead was a good idea as it makes it look different and more laid back. They can't change the font of the WFA as it's the official logo. I think they've used a good font for it Reaches out and looks like most fonts used in fashion magazines. This lets the target audience connect with the magazine and actually enjoy reading it.
CentreSpreads
Kerrang CentreSpread
Target Audience:
This centre spread has appealed well to it's target audience by using an article about a big rock band. They've used mainly black on the spread. This is most likely because the target audience likes dark colours.
Layout:
The layout has been focused mainly on the right side of the spread. This is where they've used the majority of colour and text. They've also used a white box down the right side with text inside. This makes it stand out a lot more than the larger text but it doesn't stand out as much as the title of the article which is a mix of two bold colours.
Colour:
They've used 3 colours here. They've used Red for the bold words and places which need to stand out, White for the text and right hand side box so you can read everything clearly and easily, then Black for the background, some pictures and the text in the white box. Because of this, everything stands above it well and it adds some depth to the spread.
Images:
The images on this spread are set out exactly the way I wanted on my centre spread. They've got a main image and lots of smaller images to make it far more interesting. I wanted a main image which came across the entire page with some smaller images at the bottom just to make everything easier to read and get through. If they only had one large image then it would be much more dull. But not only have they made the images black and white, they've spread it along the edge of the page. This brings out all the colour in the text.
Typography:
The title is the only thing on the page that's a different font. This is because it has to be the first thing you read on the page. If it was the same size and font as everything else, it wouldn't interest you. Other than that, they've used the same sort of text for everything else. They only difference is they've changed the colours to a lot of the parts of text.
Uncut CentreSpread
Target Audience:
They've used a mix of colours on both pages with a few pictures and a lot of text. This is because the target audience of this magazine are older than the audience of most magazines. They are most likely between 25 and 35 years old. I have come to this conclusion as they've used colours like gold, red and black. These are quite simple colours which will make everything easier to read and see. All the photos are different sizes and there's a black and white image. This almost gives it an 'old' effect.
Layout:
The spread uses 2 columns on the left page and 4 on the right. It's used a main masthead on the left page in large which makes it easy to find out what the article is about. I like the way they've only got 2 images which are bigger than the rest in ether corner and it makes you look over at the page and make you want to read the text.
Colour:
Uncut magazine doesn't use the same colour conventions as most music magazines. Instead of using all bright colours on top of dull images and backgrounds to stand everything out, they keep everything natural. This centre spread uses a bright red and black title on top of the dark cream background so it jumps out at you. Along with this, they fade out the background behind the text on the left page. in order for you to read the black text. They have just a plain white background on the right page in order for you to read everything fine.
Images:
The only images used in this spread are on the right page. A selection of images are used and are all different sizes as they're used for different things. 2 of the images are in black and white and placed in the top right and bottom left corners. This is done to keep your eyes on the text in the middle. They then uses coloured pictures throughout the text just to keep it readable as no-one is interested in lots of writing.
Typography:
Going back to a point a made earlier, the typography is very plain as it's not for young people. This means that they don't need to use fun fonts to attract young people. I believe that because they stick to a simple font which is easy to read then they can appeal to a larger audience who won't just worry about how the text looks. They are only interested in the articles themselves.
Vibe Centre Spread
Target Audience:
The target audience for Vibe magazine is mostly younger people. They are mainly between the ages of around 16-30. This centre spread shows that well by having a massive artist as the main attraction. I don't think that this centre spread reaches out to the target audience well. Most of the audience don't enjoy non stop writing with a lot of information piled into one page. I think that only the slightly older people will be interested in reading the entire article.
Layout:
This spread has used a 3 column layout on both pages. On the left page, they have 1 column for text and the other two for the high image. On the opposite page, it's got 3 columns of text with a large image on the top of the page. The main reason they've set it out like this is to split up the text. It makes it far easier to read the text if part way through you see an image, almost like a break between reading.
Colour:
This is not a great example of use of colour on a centre spread. One of the images is black and white, and the other one uses a black background. Although, they have used red text to introduce you to the page. This way it's like a breath of fresh air. I think that if they had used a better choice in pictures, this whole spread would be far better but it's a shame they've used such bland images.
Images:
As I just said, I don't like the images used here. This is because of the colour of both images. I think that they are very well edited and laid out well but I would have chosen a brighter image for the first page and maybe not a black and white one for the second. Apart from that, they're good pictures and would be suitable for a cover or contents but it's not good enough for the spread.
Typography:
There isn't much you can say about the typography used. They've used 2 colours for all the text; red for the start of the article and black for the rest. This way, it's easy to read on the white background and you don't get so lost while reading through it. I think it's all a fine choice in font and size of the text but maybe a change in colour couldn't make it worse.
