Contents Analysis
House Style/ Brand Identity
When looking at various magazines, I have discovered that quite a lot of music magazines differ from the front page to the contents page and although it is common to use the same model on the front page and the contents page, however quite a lot of magazines use totally different models and I think this is to do with showing a varied range in features inside the magazine instead of seeing the same person on the first two pages. Most magazines also change the layout and background on the contents page as well as their style and genre from the images on the contents page.
As you can see above, NME has used an orange background on the front cover and then used a white background for the contents page. Other features change as well such as the the use of red on the contents page as there is no red at all on the front cover. In contrast to NME, Q has a much more unified house style as the front cover and contents page look very similar in terms of colour coordination, the use of background and font colours. Below you can see that the front cover of Q have used the model 'Brandon Flowers' but have not mentioned him on the contents page which helps give me a better understanding of the ideas I can incorporate into my contents page. I could either use the same model on the front cover and contents as a lot of magazines do this, or I could use different models like a lot of other magazines do and not even mention the featuring artist of the magazine in the contents.
The contents of the contents page use pull quotes to give the reader an idea of the story. For example one of the pull quotes for page 38 is 'When I was young, people used to mistake me for a girl" the reader may see this as an intriguing topic and want to read on, so when constructing my contents page I will need to display eye catching pull quotes to invite the reader in. The subscription box in the bottom right hand corner of the contents page is an element I would incorporate into my magazine as I feel it is an important feature to have on the contents page and it gives a variety in features on the page.
The contents of the contents page use pull quotes to give the reader an idea of the story. For example one of the pull quotes for page 38 is 'When I was young, people used to mistake me for a girl" the reader may see this as an intriguing topic and want to read on, so when constructing my contents page I will need to display eye catching pull quotes to invite the reader in. The subscription box in the bottom right hand corner of the contents page is an element I would incorporate into my magazine as I feel it is an important feature to have on the contents page and it gives a variety in features on the page.
There is a unified house style achieved with both of these magazines and when making my contents page I need to be sure to achieve a unified house style. A house style is the presentation and layout of a magazine which is original to that company. Q achieves this very effectively as you could immediately tell it was part of the same magazine. The same white background with red and black writing has been used on both the front cover and the contents page. Also the same fonts are used as you can see from the cover lines on the front such as 'BREAKING BAD' and "CONTENTS' on the contents page. When making my contents page I will be sure to use the same fonts and colours as the front page to achieve this unified house style. Using a unified house style gives the magazine an overall brand identity which is important in the magazine industry as each magazine should be recognized with a certain individual feature that separates it from other magazines. In this case, Q Magazine has the red square with white writing which no other magazine has. In my magazine I have the reloading sign as part of the title of my magazine which gives it a unique feature that no other music magazine has.
The house style from the front cover to contents of DJ Magazine is clearly unified as they use an effective design element of smiley faces on both pages to ensure that they are easily identified as the same magazine. Also the use of a white background is used to keep the same style throughout both pages. Although there is no red text used on the contents page the same black and white font is used to represent the brand identity of the magazine. There is a lot of free space on both pages of the magazine so you can see the white dominates the page. The layout of the front cover and contents page is simple but effective as the spaces are clearly laid out so the text and images can easily be seen.
There is a clear link between cover lines on DJ Magazine from the front cover to the contents page. On the front cover there is a heading saying "Reasons to be cheerful" which is displayed in a large font as a main feature on the front of the magazine. It is then displayed on the contents page informing the reader of what it is about and the page number it's on.
There is a clear unified house style and brand identity in through the front cover and contents page of Rocksound magazine. The use of yellow is strong on both pages as it is used for the background on the front cover and the yellow boxes on the contents page. The same band/group is used on both pages which makes it easier to identify that they are part of the same magazine. The way the images are cut out are followed through onto the contents page as they are not fully cut out leaving a white border around the image. The same fonts are used on both pages in different styles and sizes such as "Don't panic" and "All Time Low" on the front cover and "All Your Favourite Bands" on the contents page. There are also a lot of design elements on both pages of Rocksound using small circles and other shapes to be the base for some text to go over the top. This is something I may include in my contents page. All of these features that are incorporated from the front cover to the contents page are what makes the brand identity of the magazine.
Layout
When constructing my contents page I want my layout to be clear and well aligned with not much space left on the page. I will be following the style of Q magazine that I did a contents analysis on however I am planning to have more pictures on my contents page instead of one large image. I have been looking at the design elements on the contents pages above and there are a lot of shapes and borders used to give the contents page an individual look.
I will be using headers with the colours from my front cover to represent the brand identity and house style. When I have put the images onto the contents then I will need to insert a white box over the image to put the pull quote over it. The title at the top is an effective feature to have with a header behind it. The layout of these three magazines is aligned with rectangular and square borders and boxes to separate different elements on the page.
The layout of the features is similar to how I am going to construct my contents features and the features include announcements, headings and news headlines. In Q Magazine they display the main headline and then have a brief description of what the story is about. They makes the headlines a bigger font so it is clear what the main topic is. The font and size of the page number is the same as the main headline but in a different colour so it stand out from the rest of the text. The contents include names of artists and famous icons that may stand out to readers and interest them in reading that particular page such as 'Charlie Watts' on page 40 and 'Paul Heaton' on page 70.
Image Portrayal
Page Amounts
Here I have created a 3D Bar Chart to represent how many pages each magazine has. All of the magazines are monthly editions apart from NME which is weekly as you can tell because it has far less page numbers than the other three magazines. When deciding on how many pages I want in my magazine I would like it to range around 100-115 which is lower than Q, Rocksound and DJ Mag but I feel over that amount is maybe too much. I found on average that the average monthly magazine ranges from 130-170 pages.
The house style from the front cover to contents of DJ Magazine is clearly unified as they use an effective design element of smiley faces on both pages to ensure that they are easily identified as the same magazine. Also the use of a white background is used to keep the same style throughout both pages. Although there is no red text used on the contents page the same black and white font is used to represent the brand identity of the magazine. There is a lot of free space on both pages of the magazine so you can see the white dominates the page. The layout of the front cover and contents page is simple but effective as the spaces are clearly laid out so the text and images can easily be seen.
There is a clear link between cover lines on DJ Magazine from the front cover to the contents page. On the front cover there is a heading saying "Reasons to be cheerful" which is displayed in a large font as a main feature on the front of the magazine. It is then displayed on the contents page informing the reader of what it is about and the page number it's on.
There is a clear unified house style and brand identity in through the front cover and contents page of Rocksound magazine. The use of yellow is strong on both pages as it is used for the background on the front cover and the yellow boxes on the contents page. The same band/group is used on both pages which makes it easier to identify that they are part of the same magazine. The way the images are cut out are followed through onto the contents page as they are not fully cut out leaving a white border around the image. The same fonts are used on both pages in different styles and sizes such as "Don't panic" and "All Time Low" on the front cover and "All Your Favourite Bands" on the contents page. There are also a lot of design elements on both pages of Rocksound using small circles and other shapes to be the base for some text to go over the top. This is something I may include in my contents page. All of these features that are incorporated from the front cover to the contents page are what makes the brand identity of the magazine.
Layout
When constructing my contents page I want my layout to be clear and well aligned with not much space left on the page. I will be following the style of Q magazine that I did a contents analysis on however I am planning to have more pictures on my contents page instead of one large image. I have been looking at the design elements on the contents pages above and there are a lot of shapes and borders used to give the contents page an individual look. 
I will be using headers with the colours from my front cover to represent the brand identity and house style. When I have put the images onto the contents then I will need to insert a white box over the image to put the pull quote over it. The title at the top is an effective feature to have with a header behind it. The layout of these three magazines is aligned with rectangular and square borders and boxes to separate different elements on the page.
Contents of Contents Pages
The layout of the features is similar to how I am going to construct my contents features and the features include announcements, headings and news headlines. In Q Magazine they display the main headline and then have a brief description of what the story is about. They makes the headlines a bigger font so it is clear what the main topic is. The font and size of the page number is the same as the main headline but in a different colour so it stand out from the rest of the text. The contents include names of artists and famous icons that may stand out to readers and interest them in reading that particular page such as 'Charlie Watts' on page 40 and 'Paul Heaton' on page 70.
Image Portrayal
Page Amounts
Here I have created a 3D Bar Chart to represent how many pages each magazine has. All of the magazines are monthly editions apart from NME which is weekly as you can tell because it has far less page numbers than the other three magazines. When deciding on how many pages I want in my magazine I would like it to range around 100-115 which is lower than Q, Rocksound and DJ Mag but I feel over that amount is maybe too much. I found on average that the average monthly magazine ranges from 130-170 pages.
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