Contents Page Research - Mojo Magazine

The above two images are taken from Mojo Music Magazine. They have chosen to set their contents page over two different pages. The colour scheme for the first page of the contents is green, white and red. I wasn't sure why they chose green as the background, but if the magazine was produced in December then I would assume that they chose red and green for a christmas related theme. The bulk of the text is white to make it easy to read a lot of text on the green background whilst the page numbers are made to stand out in red. All of the font style is the same as the masthead to keep the font style consistent. However, the quote is in a different style to the rest of the fonts which makes it stand out more. Red lines are also used to help make the cover story more of an attraction. Mojo, the name of the magazine, is the largest text at the top of the page. An issue number, date and locations of the main headquarters of the magazine is also included at the top of the page. The image used appears to be photoshopped and includes two young males looking away from the camera. A profile shot has been used to allow the audience to see their style in clothing. They seem casually dressed and the colours that they have chosen for their shirts (of blue and black) suggest that they are male colours and that they are easily seen against the green background. Page numbers as well as the Mojo logo are included in the bottom right hand corner and is consistent throughout.
The second image has more images than the first of the contents pages. It has three images which have page numbers and captions to help the audience find the correct page number easily. Black and white images also suggest that these people are not as important however they feature members of staff who have helped to make the magazine. The masthead in this contents page is black and not white but is still at the top of the page. Black text has been used on a white background to make reading the text easier because the audience are used to reading black on white. A red colour has also been used to help group certain articles under titles to make it easier for the audience to find the articles which they are more interested in. Gold has also been used to make finding the page numbers easier. Again, the same font as the masthead has been used to keep it consistent throughout the magazine. The text is written informally and casually giving the impression that the magazine is appealing to a younger audience who aren't interested in having a formal presentation of text. Images are cartoon and in the style of Scooby Doo because of the article title "Where are you?" and other captions are used to help describe the pictures and page numbers which encourage the reader to investigate within the magazine.

Contents Page Research

This is my first attempt at drafting my Contents Page, before I had done any research on contents pages and just using my previous knowledge of Music Magazines. After browsing through some music magazines, I realised that I'd have to make some drastic changes so I took some photos of some contents pages and analysed them.



This is the contents page for the music magazine The Word. It doesn't appear to use the standard convention of red logo for the name of a music magazine however it does use a red colour to help bullet point some of the favourite articles selected by The Word editor. This particular contents page seems to rely more heavily on text rather than pictures which can be clearly seen from the next contents page, however, it does use some images to break down some of the text. One of the images is of the editor which accompanies his letter on this page. The larger image suggests that this magazine is unusual as it isn't often that you would find a man kissing a monkey! Most of the images on this page are strange and don't really relate much to the theme of music. A common colour used is blue which suggests that this magazine appeals more to the male audience. The date is at the top right hand side of the page just underneath "contents". To allow the target audience, which I think are between the ages of 20 - 30 years, they have included a website address for them to check out as well as a teaser of "Subscribe! Special Offer!" to entice them in to buying more magazines. I believe that the target audience are young males between 20 and 30 as the magazine has a strange sense of humour which is more leanient towards this age group.

This contents page is taken from Q magazine. It includes the typical red logo of "Q" throughout the page, first at the top left hand corner by the page number and also next to "Q Review". This contents page relies more on images to allow the readers to find the page that they want faster as they will recognise the image, see the page number and flick to that page. It makes it easier and quicker for them to get what they want out of the magazine, however, it does also have a lot of text to not only describe more about the articles on that page but to also allow different titles of the articles to hopefully interest the readers. The font style is constant throughout this page and the titles of the articles are in capitals whilst the description is smaller and beneath the title. Page numbers to the articles are situated to the left to allow the reader to read the page number first and also for it to be found more easier than having to read all of the article title and description. The date of this particular issue is placed at the top left of the page and takes up a little square of room. Dr Who figures are also used which are related to this particular issue (the dalek and cyberman). These pictures are also accompanied with the red page number to allow it to stand out on the white background. Black text is used to make sure the writing stands out from the white background and is also what the readers are used to reading from.

Front Cover

Above is my original draft for the front cover of my music magazine. I drew it by hand to give me a rough idea of what I wanted and where I wanted it. I followed the typical conventions of a music magazine which include the name of the magazine and logo in the top left of the magazine, a banner (which is used a lot in certain magazines), a large main image, a smaller image, a barcode, date, large title / name of the featured band, price and other article titles inside the magazine. However, after taking some photos I realised that the main image would have to be altered dramatically, so that is a lot different to how I originally planned. The positioning of certain elements such as the smaller picture and article titles have moved too, which can be seen in later images created on photoshop.

This is my first draft of my front cover - although there are some slight changes I would like to make. Originally, the main image was moved down, but I positioned it slightly over the masthead to follow the typical conventions of a music magazine. It also allowed me more room to narrate my second image which is of the artist Spotlight. Although, I do want to swap the yellow SpotLight with the "Why I'm actually really shy ..." as I don't believe they look linked with the image. The reason why I chose to have a red background and yellow outline for the picture was to help to link the article titles with the picture. Another reason why I chose red, not only for the picture, but for the masthead too was because other magazines use red in their masthead too, therefore following music magazine conventions. I have included a banner running along the top of the page exclaiming interesting and appealing features for my target audience of 13 to 20 year olds. My magazine appeals to this audience due to the image of young people who are all dressed in the style of teenagers. I also asked the female member of the band to wear pink to emphasise the fact that she is a girl compared to the boys and I also believe it allows a contrast between the band as well as other images / features of the front page. The name of the band "Mute" appears like something similar to a comic because of the font which is the effect I wanted to create as it seems fun. With the main female member of the band having tape over her mouth, it helps to reinforce the band's name of "Mute". The image overall also helps to give the audience some idea of who the band are and what they are like. For example, the male to the right of the page seems more playful and comical compared to the male to the left who seems quite moody and cool; I made the girl the main focus of the magazine because of the tape on her mouth and also because the colour of her coat is more eye-catching for a colour to attract the audience. The price of £2.20 is easy to afford for the target audience as well and is the average price for most music magazines.

Above is another stage of planning for my front cover design. I swapped the Spotlight title with the "Why I'm actually really shy" which I believe works better. I also changed the bottom to all yellow rather than red and yellow as I believe it looks a lot better and shows that they are linked to the same story. The yellow behind it also represents and reinforces the name of 'SpotLight'. The quote by "Nina Choo" has also been added on to the front cover to try to break down some of the mass of white in that top right hand corner. I think to improve, I would like to take away the box around the artist 'Spotlight', perhaps move the members of the band lower to show off the logo of the magazine and also make the date and price of the magazine smaller.

Above is my FINAL FRONT COVER for my music magazine. I am very pleased with the stages of progress I've made and the improvements I've made along the way. To improve from my previous idea, I changed the artist for Spotlight to another young female and continued the yellow outline around her which shows that she is Spotlight. I also made the barcode slightly bigger and made the date and price smaller. I also changed the other articles inside, so instead of it saying "Nina Choo" I now have names of bands in a yellow box to link the colours of the front page together. I also moved the band members of Mute down to allow the logo of my magazine to be in view. Overall, I think my front page follows the typical conventions of a music magazine, however, if I had the chance to change anything about this page is probably to alter the font on the banner at the top of the page and also to improve the edges of the female as it seems obvious that she's been photoshopped.

Some Images for my Music Mag

Here are some of the images I took to include in my music magazine. These are all related to the band Mute which my magazine is covering. Unfortunately, one of my male band member's didn't show up on the day I was taking the photos, so I had to use the same male to pose for both the drummer and guitarist. In the double page spread, I'm going say that the two males are twins which will explain why they both look the same. I experimented with tape to help reinforce the band's name: Mute. The members are young to appeal to my target audience of 13 to 20 year olds. Their clothes are trendy and casual to suggest that they are laid back and modern. It also makes them more likeable to the target audience as it shows that they are similar in the way they dress and in their music taste. My main genre of music which JAM Magazine is influenced by is Pop and Indie which are just two of the most popular genres for my target audience. I will edit out the background on Photoshop later on, as I think it looks too busy and doesn't tie in with the effect I want to create. The girl is wearing pink to emphasise her gender and the boys are wearing block colours of black and white to show that they're opposites (similar to ying and yang) and that they're different people. It also suggests that they're not as important as the girl singer as she stands out more because of her colour and is often positioned in front of the boy(s).

I also took some pictures for a friend for her music magazine. So, because I needed to change my image for the artist Spotlight, I decided to use one of those instead. I had the choice from the following below. The one I chose was due to the fact that she was looking directly at the camera (which images on the front page of a magazine do) and also because the overall shape seemed to fit ideally with the corner of my magazine.

Font Styles of the Music Names

For my music artists, I've decided to cover a band called Mute and a singer called Spotlight. The font is important as it represents the type of music genre the artists cover. Below are some examples that I tried. Mute is expressed as bold, large font all in capitals to represent the name of the band 'Mute'. In comparison, Spotlight is more elegant and scripted representing feminism which will hopefully help portray the female artist I want to show. Below are the two examples I've chosen. I decided upon these as I believe they will portray the artists intentions better than the others. Mute reminds me of gaffa tape, which I will hopefully be using in my image, because it is black and bold with little space in between the letters. Spotlight is one of the easier fonts to read out of the previous ideas and I believe it is most suitable for my image.

My Music Mag Logo

This is my first attempt at creating the name and logo of my magazine. I thought of JAM as it is easy and simple to remember and say. It also stands for "Just Awesome Music" which I thought was unique. The red not only symbolises the typical expectant colour for a music magazine, but it could also be seen as representing jam as the food, for example strawberry jam. I'm happy with how my logo looks and I think this is what I will probably use on my finished product. Although, I did experiment with stars and music notes as well, which I have included below. I orginally wanted a guitar somewhere on the logo because there is a saying about "jamming to music" which often uses a guitar, but I couldn't create one which was small enough or fitted with what I wanted.