Abbie Corbett

Contents Page Analysis

NME Magazine

Design Balance:

The design balance of this magazine is quite formal I would say, as the images used for example are quite formal and the whole magazine style looks well set out. The text all matches perfectly and it has all been placed in a certain way and it looks like it contains more text than images, which means more reading has to be done. Therefore, this gives me the impression that the contents page is formal, especially for this target audience.

House Style:

The colours used on the magazine contents page are mainly red, black and white which are all quite typical colours when put in a rock/indie/alternative genre type of magazine. It connotes that the magazine will feature this rock style and therefore includes rock/indie music. The colours make the magazine look edgy and have a sense of danger and again will make audiences link this to a rock type of genre. All of the NME magazines use the same house style, so they keep to the same colours and also have all the contents pages set put in the exact same way. They do this so that audiences are familiar with the magazine and they know that these are the NME magazines. The fonts used are also quite bold and they stand out, but they tend to use similar fonts throughout to again reinforce this certain house style.

Imagery:

The images on this contents page are of different artists and bands that are famous mostly in the UK and they all seem to be artists that are of indie / rock genres. For example, there is a quite large picture of Oasis on the cover, which many peoples attention will be drawn to straight away. This band is majorly famous in the UK as they are a Manchester based band and they are a Brit pop/rock band and this is what the contents page is all about, so these images represent what genre the magazine is.

Target Audience:

This magazine looks like it would appeal to young adults or older teens due to the amount of information that is given in the magazine. The magazine contents itself looks very formal and readable for people around the age groups I have mentioned above. I also think that this magazine tries to target more males than females by the type of music used and through the pictures and colours etc.

The Guttenberg Design Principle:

I think that this magazine does use the Guttenberg Design Principle, as in all of the different areas of the magazine match well with the design principle. For example, the top left hand corner of the magazine is the primary optical area, which is where audiences are supposedly drawn to immediately and on this contents page, this area shows the name of the magazine, which is obviously important to audiences. The terminal area mentions prices and gives the option to subscribe to the magazine. This would least interest audiences, as this wouldn’t be as important, therefore it seems to be in the right area. The weak fallow area is at the bottom left and this is where many people loose interest, they don’t seem to look very much at this part of the magazine and in this magazine, is where articles on contributors are which wouldn’t interest people. Lastly, in the strong fallow area, shows interesting articles that are going to be featured in the magazine and therefore is in the right place.

Abbie Corbett

Q Magazine

Target Audience:

Once again like the magazine above, I would think that the target audience would be young adults/teens because of the sort of articles that it includes. Again, I would imagine this magazine is mostly aimed at males based on the bands and artists that are present and the colours used all give me this impression.

House Style:

The colours used on this magazine are mainly red, black, white and a little amount of blue. Like the magazine above, this magazine tries to keep to the same house style throughout and this is clearly seen through the contents page and the colour scheme used. The typography is less bold, but is still bold enough where needs be for audiences to see clearly. All of these colours really represent the rock / alternative genre that the magazine is trying to portray. Due to the house style being kept the same, audiences are able to properly identify with the magazine as they will be familiar with it, as over a long period of time the house style has stayed the same.

Imagery:

The images used on the magazine contents page are very rock and alternative. They really support this idea of the magazine genre of rock etc. The photos are basically of the artists and different bands and in each photo, the artist looks really rock and they show how this magazine portrays this idea. All of the photos seem quite serious and just by looking at these images alone; you can clearly see what the magazine is all about. In the photos there is use of iconography and these artists are posed in certain ways to once again portray this certain genre. The images are pretty typically for this sort of magazine genre.

Design Balance:

The design balance of this magazine contents page is a little more informal than the above magazine. For example, the photos used on this contents page are informal, such as the two top photos, the artists in these images are shown to be quite wild and they look really rock, especially with their tops off or ripped open. These images just give of the impression of the magazine as a whole being informal.

The Guttenberg Design Principle:

This magazine contents doesn’t realty seem to follow the Guttenberg Design Principle, as the magazine is quite widely and equally spread out. For example, in the primary optical area, it does show the name of the magazine, however in places such as the weak terminal area shows the main cover story, which to many people would be very important and interesting. Also, in the strong fallow area it doesn’t really show much, as it says ‘the birth of British pop’ but this is repeated elsewhere, so it isn’t really shown as a strong fallow area. As well as this, in the weak fallow area, it shows other story lines that could be quite important for audiences, as this story lines are what the magazine will be all about.

Abbie Corbett

Summary of both magazines

To summarize both magazine contents pages, there are quite a few similarities and they also have their differences. The reason these magazine contents pages are very similar is because they are both magazines for very indie / rock / alternative genres, therefore they are bound to have many similarities. This is because they tend to have the same target audiences and so to get these certain audiences to read or buy the magazine, they tend to copy the same house style. Many music magazines that are based on rock/alternative use the same house style with the same colour schemes, they tend to use the red and black and white colours, which many people associate with this particular music genre. Both of the contents pages have been set out in quite a similar way with the way the text and images are placed, however, the do differ. The Q magazine seems to have more of an informal design balance and it looks a lot different from the other in certain ways, such as how they have used the images and the way they have placed the text etc. However, both magazine content pages give off the impression that they are trying to target the same type of audiences and they are both trying to do this through what they put on the contents page as well as the cover page, as this carries the information that people will read and want to buy the magazine.