Analysis of Contents Pages

Analysis of Contents Pages

Carve:

Carve magazine is a popular surfing magazine sold in the UK,  I think the magazine's target audience is 16-30 year old males that are fans of surfing. The Carve Magazine's Contents page is made up of half a picture in the background which continues onto the next page and shows a surfer performing a trick. The picture is very high quality and is a very well taken picture. They may have used this picture because it attracts the surfing audience due to it showing a specific trick that looks good and is difficult to perform without a lot of practise. Its made of light blue and green colours, then the surfer is more dark and his board is very white. This makes the surfer and his board contrast against the sky and sea and draws your attention to him. The colours are very summery and give it the ocean feel that you would expect in a magazine about surfing. From a quick glance the contents page looks very clean and simple, which I think might relate to water, simple and clean. From the look at the contents page, I think that magazine is aimed more towards men, because the colours black, white, green and blue might be seen as masculine to most people.

Masthead:

The title of the page is very noticeable because it contrasts well from the background and is very large. I think the fact that the word Contents is hyphenated and takes up two lines makes it very eye catching as well, although it was probably hyphenated so you can see the picture better. The underline under the title gives it a clean look and shows where the title ends and the list of contents begins.

Typography:

The words on the page are written with a very simplistic, squared font, I think they have used the simple font so it doesn't draw attention away from the picture as much, but is still readable due to the colours contrasting against the picture. I think the squareness of the font gives it a slick, smart and clean look which relates to the audience of males. The font used is very consistent and you can clearly see the hierarchy that the words are supposed to be read in due to the use of size differences, this allows the reader to follow the words down the page instead of being distracted by other things. 

Page Layout:

The layout of the page is excellent. The words are aligned perfectly down the page and has a strong edge line for the reader's eye to follow, this gives the contents page a more sophisticated, clean look which attracts the audience. The layout allows the reader's eyes to be guided down the words, then as your eyes reach the bottom, they immediately move along the surface of the water in the picture and you focus on the surfer.

Good Housekeeping:

                

The Good Housekeeping magazine is a magazine sold worldwide although I think the contents of the magazine differ from country to country, allowing a different set of designers and journalists to contribute in each country. The target audience is mainly 25-55 year old females that are mothers or housewives. The contents page is made up of 6 pictures which are tiled along the left of the page. The pictures used are very relative to the target audience, I think this because they have used pictures of nice healthy looking food which the readers might want to learn how to cook, or a pair of red heels which the readers might be inspired to buy. The use of healthy, smily women is also appealing to the target audience as it might make the readers feel at ease. There doesn't really seem to be a trend in the colours, as they have used a mixture of blue, orange, red, pink and green, but these colours relate to the month the magazine was released, May being in the season of spring which usually reminds you of bright fresh colours. The contents page is very full of stuff, the photos and text fit well together, but the amount of text may be unnecessary as it clutters the page.

Masthead:

The title of the page is very classic and traditional looking which appeals to the target audience very well. The fact that the title is actually the edition title and not the title of the page is a little bit confusing, but it gives the page a springy vibe, due to it saying May. The lines beside the word May guides your eyes to the title which gives a nice effect.

Typography:
The fonts on the page are very classic and easy to read, this reflects the audience because I think the readers are quite classy and traditional people. I think the typography is slightly inconsistent, on the right hand side of the page the font and writing is consistency, but at the bottom of the left side, the text doesn't fit in to the rest of the page, it seems to be smaller sections of text and the colour and size of the title which reads "In Every Issue" doesn't fit in with the blue theme on the right, this is slightly distracting due to the inconsistency. The alignment is also slightly inconsistent due to the small section on the left hand side as well. The font and the size of the page numbers on the pictures are inconsistent giving it a messy look.

Page Layout:
The layout of the page is very effective due to the tiled layout of the pictures and the way the contents are listed to the right of it, giving the list a very smart and regimented look, although at the bottom of the page I don't really understand why they have changed it. Over all the layout is very effective and well composed but some of the components of the page don't really make sense.

Billboard:

The Billboard magazine is a music magazine aimed at 14-30 year olds as its a magazine that covers the latest and popular music in the charts, which is not what a lot of older people like to read about. The contents page is very packed with text and images at a glance, but when you look closer, you can begin to see the components a lot clearer. The pictures used on the cover are pictures that relate to the target audience as they are pictures of recent and popular artists. The colours used are mainly grey, blue, white and black, these colours are very professional and subtle colours which compliments the slightly cluttered look, this is because if the colours were brighter, there would be a lot more noise and far too many different things happening on the page. 

Masthead:

The masthead of the page is very bold and contrasts well compared to the background colour of white. The font kind of has a stencilled look to it which gives it a cool, trendy look and also makes it stand out a lot more than a normal font would. The title is very clear and you can tell straight away what the page is showing from it.

Typography:

The fonts on the page are very modern and simplistic, giving the page a new age feel and making the text easier to read. The simplicity helps the reader to focus more on the content of the page, and focus less on the formatting of the page. The different sizing of the text is not very consistent and gives the text a confusing hierarchy, this means that the reader might not be able to read it in the order is supposed to be read in, due to there being larger text above and below certain points. The text is aligned very clearly from the right of the charts section which helps guide your eyes, which is helpful considering the hierarchy is unclear from the text sizes.

Page Layout:

The page is laid out in a very cluttered way at a first glance, this may be due to the fact that they have put a section for the charts on the same page as the contents, which makes the text for the contents more squashed together and compact, giving less space, and making the page look complex. I like the way they have used the main larger picture as a background for a section of the text and the text follows the subject in the picture's back down which leads your eyes down the page like stairs. I like the fact that they have used blue lines to clearly section off the different parts of the page, this gives a clearer view of what is where on the page and compliments the blue which some of the words in the text are coloured giving a more organised look. The images used seem to be very different genres/subjects which can draw the attention of readers because it can attract attention to things they want to find out about inside the magazine.