Contents Page Analysis #2 - Research

For this contents page, the article list has been written along the left hand side, with images along the right and centre of the page. This contents page is only a singular page instead of double paged ones that I have looked at previously. Initially I thought that making a contents page a single page only would make it seem cramped and untidy, however in this Billboard edition it has been laid out nicely and looks tidy and planned. There are 4 sections to the contents page and one column, there are 4 images and the heading for the contents page is quite large.

The Billboard masthead has been displayed in the top right corner, quite small but still noticeable enough to advertise the magazine.

The colours on this page have been used in a contrasting way, the images along the right hand side are all quite dark in clothing and backgrounds, whereas Hayley Williams is dressed as a candy cane in the centre of the page, breaking up the text and the images and adding a large amount of colour to the page.

As this edition of the magazine is from July, it seems odd to have the main feature artist of the page dressed as an iconic sign, almost synonymous to Christmas. However the article Hayley is advertising has been placed under the sub-heading "Christmas in July" and therefore having the candy cane colours on the centre of the page makes the sub-heading more noticeable to readers.

The page numbers of this contents page is in a style I do not particularly like, (similar to that of the Mojo contents page from the last post (last contents analysis here) ) as I think that the pages being shown in this way does not advertise the article they match with as clearly as they possibly could. However all of the page numbers are in the same font style as the numbers next to the articles for the full contents page and that creates a synergy on the page and also adds to a house style created through graphology.

How this research has influenced my ideas and creativity:

Analysing another contents page in this style has cemented in my mind the idea that I do not want to use this type of layout and that I would much rather have my images and articles and page numbers in separate organised groups like the Q magazine from the last post. I much prefer the orderly layout and I think it makes it easier to see which image matches which article. and I will endeavour to use elements of that in my magazine. However from this contents page, I like the fact that the font on all of the numbers was the same, for the images and list of contents, and for me I like how that ties the images and text together.