Contents Page Analysis 1 - Research

In our lesson today, we were looking into the contents pages of magazines. To begin with we compared the difference between the Lily Allen Q magazine contents page, and a contents page from an issue of Mojo from August 2001.

These are the two contents pages below.

Alongside the notes in the grid at the bottom, I would like to add that I prefer the layout of the Q magazine contents. The way the page numbers have been added over the top of colourful puffs makes them stand out more, and the placement of them in separate boxes next to the article they are indicating allows the page to be not only bright and for the articles to stand out, but creates synergy between the cover and the contents via having a dark, grayscale theme with colourful additions included to draw the reader's attention.

For me the Mojo contents page is less appealing, the clustering of the images onto the right hand page and partially onto the left hand page makes it difficult and tedious for the reader to know which image matches which article, the only indicator being the matching page numbers, as even when they have been matched, the sub-headings are different for some of the articles. For the reader to know which article matches which picture, it is a process of finding the image, page number, and then reading the entire contents in order to find the page number that matches. This is not the way I would like to present my articles on my contents page, hence why I prefer the less conventional Q contents pages.

Below are the grids we created in the lessons to show the similarities and differences between the two magazine contents pages.

After realising I missed out one of the boxes I would like to add that the company that publishes Mojo magazine is now Bauer. Bauer took the magazine over from Emap in 2008.

How this research has influenced my ideas:
This research and comparison activity has allowed me to already begin eliminating style of contents pages that I do not like, and has begun to allow me to create a list of magazine contents pages I do like to take small ideas from to interpret and change to help me create my own contents page for my music magazine. For example from this comparison, I love the idea of having the page numbers in small puffs to make them stand out more on the page. However I also like the idea of having an image for almost every article advertised as a feature in my contents page, as to me that makes the article already seem more interesting and engaging, just from the inclusion of a photo.