Contents page 3

This is a contents page from 'Q' magazine; we know this because the masthead is included next to the title ‘Contents’. However, the size of the logo is not as large as it is on the front cover. This is because the audience are already aware which magazine they are reading from the front cover because the purpose of a front cover is to distinguish itself form other magazines whereas the contents page reflects mainly on the content of the magazine. The main colours on the page are black, white and red which shows a consistent colour scheme used throughout the magazine to make it more unique and personalised. 

The main image is a long shot of The Courteeners, an alternative rock band on top of a hill, and takes up about half of the page. The camera shot allows us to see the whole body of the musicians to emphasise their clothing and posture. They are dressed in casual clothes which makes them less glamorous to the stereotypical celebrity image.  Also below is a section titled ‘Review’ with a photo of Nick Cave; a musician. This layout is effective because the page is evenly composed of both text and images so that it is visually attractive and less cluttered with too much text or too much images. 

The ‘features’ of the magazine goes along the left hand side of the page, and it informs the audience of the content of the magazine  as well as the page number to read on. A summary is written under each story to give the audience an overview of what its about to draw their interest. This gives the audience a choice of what to read, having the topics in a contents page allows the audience more freedom to choose what interests them and also know about all that is inside the magazine rather than going through it all. This is efficient because when buying the magazine the reader can easily look through the contents page rather than go through all the pages and know all that’s included. A column with the heading ‘Every Month’ is included below to inform the audience of the main content found every month in the magazine. It keeps the reader looking forward for something each month as they become aware of some of the content that will be found inside that could be to their interest. All the headings are emboldened in white on a red backdrop which is the same as the colours in the logo ‘Q’ and similar to the front cover where the artists are written in white and highlighted in red to make them stand out and attract a larger audience. The colours make it easier to read and match the housestyle of the magazine. The other text on the page is mainly black because black is a dark, formal colour that is less difficult to read. Also it suites an older audience, they do not need lots of colours to be attracted for example in ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine the text is very bright and colourful because it is aimed at a teenage audience. The magazine overall keeps a consistent style throughout the contents page to make the reader immediately associate the page with ‘Q’ magazine.