Contents Analysis

I like the layout of MixMag and am also planning to use a dark colour scheme similar to they have used; with a black background and a light text. I had originally planned to also have one large picture with the list of pages at the side but I have changed this idea as I don’t think it looks effective in MixMag’s contents page so instead I will be doing something more like Mojo, where the list of articles are tightly surrounding the figure in the photo down one side of his body.

I’d like to organise the layout of articles like Top of the Pops did as it has been put into useful categories making it easy to read and means I can add more colour to make it livelier with boxes, separators and other shapes to split up the groups.

Unlike Mojo’s contents page, I’d like to include a lot of pages because I don’t think this was a very successful contents page as it only informs you of 4 articles that included in the magazine where in opposition I could do something like MixMag where they have included as many articles as possible.

I also did not like the fact that NME used 7 different pictures on their contents page because although it does successfully explain a mixture of various articles that the magazine included. I thought that the quotes they used and a short sentence underneath on what the article was about was an effective way to list articles and by making the page number large it was clear what pages to find the articles that interest the audience. Top of the Pops also achieved this by labelling a diagram of the front page to show the reader which page to find the cover lines that they are interested in on, although I think this made the page look childish whereas I am trying to make my magazine appeal to a young-adult audience.

Well done Vicky – you have thought carefully about the contents pages of the magazines you have analysed and considered how to use these ideas when creating your own contents page.