Contents pages

This is the flat plan for my contents page of my magazine. One of the problems that occured in making my flatplan was that whilst i could think of many bands to write articles about, i couldn't actually think of anything to write about them so as for the moment i have left them blank. I have chosen to use a rather simple and formal format compared to my front page, as contents are meant to be well organized, hence the formal layout. It is clear on the eye and is simple to understand as the articles are in order of appearence in the magazine. I have also decided to include only one image as contents are merely a guide to the magazine, and is the area where there is a brief insight into each article. Therefore images aren't needed as they don't always provide a summery of an article, which is what is needed in this case. The image that i have used is one that relates to the main flash on the front cover portraying the urban mondays, contrast to the front cover i have set it in a rural area with a tree as it shows contrast and shows that the band are very diverse in a musical sense. I have linked the photo with the article by putting the number next to both the image and the article introduction. At the top of the page i have put this week in bold white letters, and i am going to use a red background, as this stands out. It is also commonly used amongst many forms of magazines especially in the rock genre. This makes my magazine look like an official rock magazine. It also links with the front cover as i had a red background at the top of the page then with black writing. But this time i have replaced it with white, the reason for this and not having it black, is because i am thinking of having a black background for the rest of the page. The reason for this is because black is very much a gothic colour, which is a more extreme form of rock, thus catagorising this as a rock magazine. Also throughout many magazines the common background colour is white, so by using black backgrounds it seperates my magazine from the rest giving it its own unique style. So i included white writing to provide a diverse range of colours so that the contents page didn't come across as boring.

I have also decided that i am going to use my brand logo on each article in order to establish each article as a "NOISE music magazine" exclusive, by placing it near or by each article at an angle much like when something is stamped. It shows that this article is definatly good enough for NOISE readers and it has been stamped and approved, not many magazines use this, thus creating my own unique style for my magazine.

Here is the completed version of my music magazine contents page. I have kept to the format and only provided minor changes that i feel have benifitted the layout and format of my magazine. I have had to use tracking in order to get "THIS WEEK" to spread along the top of the page. This was something that could only take place at college due to the fact that i didn't have any of the correct software at home (it is worth pointing out that apart from the photos used in the magazine everything else on the production of the magazine was complete in college as you need Adobe InDesign, this therefore restricted the amount of time that i could spend on the actaul magazine and meant that some alterations couldn't take place.) I have included the sub-heading of features, it is a general format seen throughout "Rocksound" and "NME" so it familarises itself with other contents pages.
When it came to taking the picture some problems did occur. As one of the origional members was unavailable for this set of photos i had to narrow it down to just two people, and the photos taken by the tree didn't come out how i'd wanted them to. The photo that i did uses was actually meant to be used in the two page spread, but i decided to use it here as i felt it was too dark to use as a main image in a two page spread. I also had problems in the form of it was too dark so it had to have the brightness modified in Adobe Photoshop (another software that i didn't have at home) But eventually i managed to get it how i wanted it to look despite switching back to the urban look, and the fact the it was taken at night means that it doesn't leap out from the page at you, so it allows you to concentrate more on what is actually going into the magazine, rather than concentrating solely on one article. The quality of my camera also meant that i could stretch the photos as far as i would like to as they would get pictulated, therefore i had to fit in another article in order to fill blank spaces left by the fact that the photo wouldn't stretch out anymore. I have also changed the poses in this photo compared to the first.I ensured that neither of them were looking at the camera. This implies a cool and suphisticated look about them, and it proves that they don't have to be looking at the readers in order to grab the readers attentions, thus creating a certain imnportance around them, and it locates them as the center of attention, with out the readers being drawn to their intentions. It aslo makes it almost seem like a natural action shot, as if the camera wasn't even there, and this is how they behave when there not in the limelight.

As far as the content of each article went i decided to make it relevant to what was actually happening to that band around december time. Therefore i included the story of Axl Rose going AWOL from band Guns N' Roses, The Killers talking about the former number one album Days & Age, and a competition in which there is a chance to win tickets to see the Pigeon Detectives who were actually playing in London, unfortuantly not in the 02 Arena and it was on the 6th so many competitors would have missed out. So next time i may make it more accurate so that what i right actually is true. Each and every article is also relevant to my target audience's likes. My target audience is classed in the ABC1 catagory, much like NME readers in the Socio-economic classification which means that they are; higher ranking professionals such as doctors, middles ranking professionals such as teachers or white collar (office) workers, with the majority of these being between 16-25 years old. Therefore i can use play on the words to isolate the true fans of rock from the mainstreamers as they will understand some of the synopsis' for each article. These include "The Fratellis: dig the dagger into rival bands". Chelsea Dagger is one of their well known songs therefore my target audience can immediatly relate to the these articles as they know the songs where as other "mainstream" readers may not understand. Another example of this is "Nicklebac: on why we all just want to be big rockstars" the later part of that quote is a line from their number one hit "Rockstar" thus straight away aiming this at fans of Nickleback who are more than likely to fall under the catagory of rock fan.

As i mentioned in my flat plan i have used by brand logo as a stamp or a ceil of approval for the magazine. Yet i have decided to keep it the exact same shape. What i mean by this is that it has the same height and the same length as the brand logo used on the front page. This helps solidify the establishement that readers have of this logo as it is always the same height, length and colour, with the only acception being the positioning of it and whether it is straight or diagonally placed on the page. I also felt that "THIS WEEK" stood out too much as everything else was white writing on black background. So i decided to make the page numbers white on red much like "THIS WEEK" so that it helps establish the format and therefore the page numbers also stand out more. I have decided to stick with "Dirty Headline" for the brand logo and have contin ued with the trend of "headline one" for things that i want to stand out such as "THIS WEEK" and also band names as it lets the reader know straight away which article is realted to whci band, without having to read the whole introduction to the article. And i ahve decided to use the font "headline two" as the smaller print, it wiil probably use this technique in the two page spread aswell in order to keep a contsant pattern going throughout each page, as this helps familarise the reader with the format of the magazine. I also feel that each article is related to what usually appears in actual rock magazines. There are mentions of gigs, new albums, individual tracks, lifestyles. There is also a summery of the year in the "100 greatest indie rock tracks" as december is a time to look back on the new year, this also provides contrast with the "Urban Mondays" article in which the magazine is looking into 2009, this makes the magazine seem like it is covering all aspects of stories, and it also has a chance to win tickets to a concert which is another reason to draw the readers in. It would have been ideal to put this on the front cover, but adter playing around with the idea of it, i couldn't find a layout that would work so i had to leave it out.