Contents Page

This is my final, finished contents page.

When creating the page, I decided that I would go against conventions and not have the word "contents" written on the page - I felt that, although it is a straightforward addition to the page, it could perhaps connote that the audience may not be intellectual enough to figure out what they are looking at. I decided, instead, to place the name of the magazine at the top where, in the majority of magazines, an editorial note would go; though I did want to have an editorial, I felt that more time could be given to it if it was an actual column of the magazine, so I gave it it's own page. I kept up with the standard colour scheme of my magazine, using pink, black and red over the page: I felt that this connoted consistency with my magazine, and gave a positive impression of the time taken in creating it.

To attract my readers to certain pages (the ones which would, perhaps, be the most popular if this was a real magazine) I used images with corresponding number boxes, to allow for easy access to the sections I want them to read. By using bright pink boxes, this made the numbers stand out, but I felt that it made the page look very flat, so I gave each box an outer glow to give the impression that they are jumping out at the reader.

Each of the images, as you can see, is of a female; this is because my magazine is aimed at ambitious young women, and by showing the girls in the pictures as successful musicians - or in the case of the 'editor' - as just women who are successful in general. The top right-hand image is of the artist featured on the front page - this allows my readers to gain quick access to this page, as it is likely to be the one they wish to read as it has been advertised on the front cover.

All of the women in my pictures are, however, fairly average and I chose to use this approach to show that it isn't just the glamorous size-zero models who make it into magazines - very little editing was used on each of the pictures (other than that of my 'star artist') to give them a "girl-next-door" look. One other thing I believed would be interesting is the use of an image other than a person's face, etc. so I picked to use the picture of two hands, connected in a heart shape: this corresponds to one of the bands I came up with, but I thought it could also subtly connote friendship or relationships - things which are, stereotypically, the most important to women.

The layout for the contents was fairly straightforward -  I was inspired by the headings and captions in the Kerrang magazine, as I felt they created clear sections for each different area of interest. I kept the band names in red to make them stand out against the 'normal' words, as some of the names were a bit outlandish, but this is to be expected of an Indie magazine. The purple/grey colour used in the background seems much more neutural than the orange used on the front cover, and I felt that this gave a more professional, laidback approach: this also helped to make my front cover stand out more, because of it's difference.