Deconstruction of a contents page

This is a deconstruction of a music magazine contents page. I have been looking at layouts and conventions of contents pages in order to help me in understanding what my contents should look like. 

Gathering from the images, colours and font styles this contents page is clearly for a rock music magazine. It consists of images from either live gigs, or bands and 4 out of the 6 images used contains a drum kit in it. The colours used are mainly red, white and black, stating that this magazine is very bold and masculine. The colour  red is used to make things such as the mast head stand out, whereas black is used mainly for the font and some images to portray a rock theme. The layout is very simple and neat compared to a lot of other rock music magazine, all the images are placed with numbers to direct the reader to the page of that feature. This contents page has one very large image to signify that it is the main article, and all the other images are smaller. 

Deconstruction of a front cover

To begin creating my music magazine, I have deconstructed a chosen front cover. I have looked at the layout of this front cover, and annotated each convention. 

I have looked closely at a cover which will be similar to my own. I am using Rolling Stones magazine as a guide, so in order to make my magazine like this one, I annotated it in a detailed form for my own help.

This magazine is very professional as it doesn't contain some conventions a typical magazine would. This magazine doesn't include the typical conventions such as; a puff and a pug which are usually used for promotional offers and a tagline which is a catchy memorable phrase associated with the magazine. As this magazine is clearly very feminine, the font is used to help emphasise this. This font is very thin and long, rather than be very bold and block letters.

As I am focusing my magazine on Rolling Stones, I needed to establish the differences between it compared to other music magazines. 

I have chosen to compare an issue of Rolling Stones which I will be responding to, to an issue of Q:

* Q contains a lot more text and colour on the front cover, whereas Rolling Stones features one person on the cover with very little text right aligned. 

* Q uses a colour format of red, white and black mainly, and Rolling Stones has a format layout of black and white, excluding the masthead. Rolling Stones has a limited amount of colour, whereas the use of red writing 'MADONNA' is striking and jumps out at the audience. 

* Both magazine covers use one main image, which supposedly in the main feature. However, Q contains an exclusive offer at the bottom of the cover, with a smaller image. This is also used to make the magazine stand out as it contains a freebie. 

* Both magazines uses the same font on the entire magazine cover, just with different colouring. 

* The mastheads that are used are both seen as logos - Q's is short and bold, whereas Rolling Stones covers the whole top of the cover. 

* It is clear that there are two different target audiences for these magazines, Q is bold and colourful which may signify that it targets a young audience, whereas Rolling Stones is simple and dark which targets an older audience. 

* As well as attracting different ages, both the magazines focus themselves on different genres of music.Rolling Stones has a large target audience as it is based on the genre of pop and rock, whereas Q focuses on Popular artists. 

* A very important difference is that Rolling Stones is a USA based magazine, a opposed to Q which is a UK based magazine.

This has helped me greatly as I am able to know how to see the differences in music magazines, and also it has helped me in establishing what my music magazine target audience is. Rolling Stones usually features music legends, so I have chosen to feature Lady Gaga. Its target audience will be 20-35 years of age, and people who enjoy the genre of mainstream music, mixed with rock and pop mainly, but also for people who like to read about politics. 

Starting my music magazine

To start my music magazine, I have created a detailed form of what genre my magazine will be, and based around that I have built up a list of what it will also include. 

I have decided to create a music magazine similar to rolling stones featuring Lady Gaga. I have chosen Rolling Stones as I like the layout of the magazine compared to others, it is very bold and sophisticated. I have chosen to feature Lady Gaga in my magazine that I will be creating because Rolling Stones usually have music legends such as Mick Jagger on the front cover. 

http://www.srds.com/mediakits/rollingstone/demographics.html

This is a press pack for the magazine Rolling Stones.

This press pack will help me in finding more out about Rolling Stones and what their audience is. 

The target audience of a magazine is very important as it helps me in knowing what to include in my magazine. Another way of establishing the target audience is to look at certain things on the front covers of music magazines, such as advertisements and what gender and age it is aimed at.

Completed school magazine - contents + front cover

This is my completed school magazine with my front cover and contents page. 

This magazine is made to look as if it were designed to be more aimed towards the lower end of the school. It is a magazine complete with fun, activities and nothing to bore it's reader. There is so much included in it, so the reader is bound to enjoy at least one thing!

Final front cover

Draft front cover

Finished contents page

The draft of my contents page is not very different from my final as I was completely content with the layout I had chosen. I have made a few improvements, and placed features in different places. 

Draft of contents page

Results of questionnaire

After tallying my results from the questionnaires, I found that:

Questionnaire

A total of 15 of these questionnaires were handed out to a multiple of students. I used multiple choice questions, and gave specific questions which would help me in order to create my own type of magazine. 

School magazine comparison

Start of the preliminary task:

To start this unit, I have begun comparing two different types of school magazines - stating the clear difference between them from the use of font, colour and imagery. I chose two actual school magazines which run frequently throughout the year in those schools. This task has helped in showing me the different conventions both of these magazines entail.