Contents Page Research

There are many key conventions to follow when constructing a contents page. I am going to carry out detailed research into existing products to help me construct my own. I am going to look at various magazines especially popular music magazines as this is what genre my magazine fits into.

This is a collage I have made using music magazines contents pages such as:

• Spin
• MOJO
• Billboard
• Blender
• Q
• NME
• Vibe

I have chosen a variation as some have very minimalist contents pages with little text and are image dominated such as 'Blender' and 'Spin'. Whereas the others are busier with a lot of text around the contents pages such as 'Q' and 'NME'. I think I prefer 'MOJO's' as it has some text but the image also seems large and important on the contents page.

I have picked out the Key Conventions of a Contents Page:

• A title of contents that stands out e.g made bold.

• A main image or object that draws your eye to it.

• Page numbers that aren't in chronological order relating to the content of the magazine.

• House style which usually follows the front cover, the rest of the magazine and the colour scheme.

• Structured layout which is clearer and flows. Has been created using grids/ guidelines.

• Columns vertical rows of text, usually more than one but less than four.

• Blurb of contents which shows main stories and cover line info and images. 

• Date and issue no. showing the reader regular information.

• Pug/starburst with subscription information about getting the magazine regularly.

I especially like these two contents pages as they have strong dominant images which are the main focal point of the page.The colours are kept minimal and they have plain/white background. The double page contents page looks effective as it has black filled text boxes with the page numbers in a red box. This makes them stand out so the reader can easily pin-point which page to turn to and which article it is too.

I want my contents page to look similar to these two but to also make sure that I adhere to the key conventions as well.