Now Magazine
This magazine grabs you straightaway with its vibrant, vivid and almost completely clashing colour scheme, and when you open the contents page you see the trend continues, the bright pinks, the vibrant blues the yellows, all look as if they shouldn’t be there, all clashing against one another, but that’s what sets this magazine apart from its competitors, its unique look and feel.
On a first look you see that the main focus of this contents page is linked to the story on the front, you’re bombarded by pictures of the magazine saying that they’ve known it was coming and they even have a mini article on their contents page which links all of this together. You have a competition at the bottom of the page and the contents of the entire magazine running down the right hand side of the page, almost like they’ve been tucked away from the reader, the only thing drawing attention to them being a series of colour boxes that add a flash of colour to the page.
As far as images for this contents page go, they are only the covers of past issues that the magazine have done really, there’s on for the competition and one of the columnist but apart from that there are 4 small thumbnails of previous covers, so all in all not a very exciting contents page, it seems as if the page is an article with he contents pushed to one side.
Friday, 28 January 2011
FHM Bionic Contents Page
FHM Bionic
This issue of FHM that I bought is split into two magazines, FHM and FHM Bionic; I have chosen to look at the contents page from FHM Bionic. At a first look it’s quite a clean cut, well presented page, simplistic colours have created a very casual yet efficient looking scheme to the reader. It’s appealing to look at, the orange giving clear indication to the page numbers is a bold contrast from the crisp white background of this page, the black lettering also helps it stand out and become even more enticing than it already appears to be. The pictures that are being used on it are also sticking with the colour scheme and overall look of the magazine, the main image is an extremely strong one, it’s the crisp white tank top, the cut over his eye and the post production editing tweaks that create a strong imposing image, that straightaway draws you to want to read the article its advertising to you.
The other images that have been placed into this contents page fit in with the point of the magazine as its advertised, they are directly linked to the articles about which they represent, they are in keeping with the bold vibrant look and feel of this issue, the colour scheme is again dominant in all but one of the images, which I feel gives it a very strong overall feel to the magazine.
This issue of FHM that I bought is split into two magazines, FHM and FHM Bionic; I have chosen to look at the contents page from FHM Bionic. At a first look it’s quite a clean cut, well presented page, simplistic colours have created a very casual yet efficient looking scheme to the reader. It’s appealing to look at, the orange giving clear indication to the page numbers is a bold contrast from the crisp white background of this page, the black lettering also helps it stand out and become even more enticing than it already appears to be. The pictures that are being used on it are also sticking with the colour scheme and overall look of the magazine, the main image is an extremely strong one, it’s the crisp white tank top, the cut over his eye and the post production editing tweaks that create a strong imposing image, that straightaway draws you to want to read the article its advertising to you.
The other images that have been placed into this contents page fit in with the point of the magazine as its advertised, they are directly linked to the articles about which they represent, they are in keeping with the bold vibrant look and feel of this issue, the colour scheme is again dominant in all but one of the images, which I feel gives it a very strong overall feel to the magazine.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
These are my 2 ideas for my own masthead for my magazine, i feel that they are both very current and at the same time they are also very different from one another, the top one seems to be a little bit more of a clubbing scene, electric, trance and dance style. Whereas the bottom one to me is more modern and simplistic, the font and the background graphic seems to me that it just fits together better and looks a lot more like a masthead than the top one, these are however only preliminary designs and I have no doubt that I will be developing it further as I design my
magazine.
Q and Mixmag Masthead Analysis
Q:
The masthead for Q is possibly the simplest one around, its simplicity is what makes it the recognisable icon that it is, the colours are simple, yet they are contrasting to make it stand out on the shelf.
The way this masthead has been put together would suggest to me that it is aimed at a higher end of the market, with the readers probably from the 26-40 age range, its almost a modernistic type of masthead which implies that the readers have a taste in the modern but they also like the older things, they like to be able to reflect on their past.
Mixmag:
This masthead is one that says to me, younger market, current market and a market that wants to be kept up to date with everything now. It looks ‘techy’ which to me means that the audience that its aimed at like their gadgets and i would hazard a guess that there would be a section on gadgets inside this magazine.
The masthead for Q is possibly the simplest one around, its simplicity is what makes it the recognisable icon that it is, the colours are simple, yet they are contrasting to make it stand out on the shelf.
The way this masthead has been put together would suggest to me that it is aimed at a higher end of the market, with the readers probably from the 26-40 age range, its almost a modernistic type of masthead which implies that the readers have a taste in the modern but they also like the older things, they like to be able to reflect on their past.
Mixmag:
This masthead is one that says to me, younger market, current market and a market that wants to be kept up to date with everything now. It looks ‘techy’ which to me means that the audience that its aimed at like their gadgets and i would hazard a guess that there would be a section on gadgets inside this magazine.
Q Contents and Double Page Spread
Contents:
The contents page in Q is completely different to the one that is in Mixmag, this has a more upmarket look and feel to it, but then again the market for Q is a more upmarket audience. The house style of Q also helps to reflect this, the colours are kept to simple reds, black and white, these 3 colours help with giving it a distinctive feel and look.
The contents page immediately displays all of these house colours and the house style, simple fonts, the 3 colours it is all there. The first page of the contents has 2 images on it as well as an image of the front cover of this issue, the larger of the 2 images on the first page is shown to be about an article as it has a page number on it and the contents show that its to do with the Manic Street Preachers, on the other hand the other image doesn’t seem to have any specific relevance to the contents page but from the title of this issue i thinks its a band that have an album in Q’s top 250.
The image of the Manic Street Preachers has been taken where i believe to be china town has been given a retro look to it, the clothes, the way the photo has been edited in post production, it all makes it look likes it got a new take on an old concept.
The second page on the other hand has a lot more images on it but they are still following the same type of style as the CDI on the first page, a slightly retro look and feel, and again the house style has been applied to the layout and the colour scheme in the overall look of the page, the layout of these 2 contents pages has again been broken down into subsections so that readers can find the articles that they want to find.
Double Page Spread:
The DPS that i have chosen from Q is one on George Michaels new album ‘Faith’ which is going to be released on the 31st January 2011, straight away your eye is drawn to the article by the oversized P that starts it off, its easily 7 or 8 times the size of the rest of the text and so stands out from the rest of the page, the other side of this DPS is an image of George himself, which I’m assuming is the cover of the new release, in my opinion this image is keeping with the way that he is already perceived, retro looking, slightly camp, yet a strong masculine image.
As its a review there is a rating of what the magazine think of the new release, they also have a small strapline about it, on the left hand side of the DPS they have a section which is saying if you like this then try this and its a series of other artists and their music that they would recommend to their readers. This is a good feature as it engages the reader and may help them to explore thei own music horizons and find something that they might like.
There is a quote from the article in the middle of the first page of the DPS, its in a larger font, a bordered box and a different colour, the quote itself makes you want to read the article as it makes the review sound like it has more to offer to the reader.
I like the way that this DPS has been done because it engages the reader, it offeres advice and an honest opinion of the album, the way the quote is in the middle enticing the reader in as well, it all offers different ways that you can make your audience feel like they have an influence on the magazine.
Mixmag Contents and Double Page Spread
Contents:
Mixmag’s house style from looking through the magazine is one which uses a lot of bold vibrant colours, it also uses a lot of contrast in the magazine to make it easier to read and draw attention to it.
Looking at the contents page, straight away it’s clear that the house style has been applied here, the pages are high contrast, black backgrounds with white and yellow text, making it very distinguishable when its being read. The first contents page has 2 images on it, there’s a larger main CDI and then a smaller one which is directly linked into an article, the main image is a very stereotypical clubbing image, the scene, the way the lights have blended into the image and what appears to be random lights in the image suggest to me its been taken in the middle of a busy club and the camera has captured part of a light set as its going off, the subject of the image is probably who Mixmag would consider to be their target audience member.
On the second contents page, again there’s the CDI and this time there are 2 smaller images at the bottom of the page. The CDI on this page is related to an article on fashion and i would consider this image to be a high level fashion shoot, they mise-en-scene of this image has been thought through and has the reflection of the clubbing scene showing through in it, the 2 smaller images are both being linked to articles on the artists that the images are of, one of them being a photo is a lot more personal, but the other is a cartoon sketch which would suggest the band or artist seem to be a lot more relaxed about their image and are comfortable with it being their own unique style.
From looking at the contents layout it would seem to me that the magazine is being presented in sections, and the contents page clearly has these sections being displayed with titles above them and each title having the page number and a brief description of the article beneath them, the fonts are bolder here to make it stand out from the rest of the text on the page and therefore making it easier for the reader to see what the articles are about.
The only place that I would consider Mixmag to have used their logo is on the first page of the contents in the top left hand corner, which is the use of the magazine title, however it’s not that big so therefore it even took me a while to realise that it was there.
Mixmag’s house style from looking through the magazine is one which uses a lot of bold vibrant colours, it also uses a lot of contrast in the magazine to make it easier to read and draw attention to it.
Looking at the contents page, straight away it’s clear that the house style has been applied here, the pages are high contrast, black backgrounds with white and yellow text, making it very distinguishable when its being read. The first contents page has 2 images on it, there’s a larger main CDI and then a smaller one which is directly linked into an article, the main image is a very stereotypical clubbing image, the scene, the way the lights have blended into the image and what appears to be random lights in the image suggest to me its been taken in the middle of a busy club and the camera has captured part of a light set as its going off, the subject of the image is probably who Mixmag would consider to be their target audience member.
On the second contents page, again there’s the CDI and this time there are 2 smaller images at the bottom of the page. The CDI on this page is related to an article on fashion and i would consider this image to be a high level fashion shoot, they mise-en-scene of this image has been thought through and has the reflection of the clubbing scene showing through in it, the 2 smaller images are both being linked to articles on the artists that the images are of, one of them being a photo is a lot more personal, but the other is a cartoon sketch which would suggest the band or artist seem to be a lot more relaxed about their image and are comfortable with it being their own unique style.
From looking at the contents layout it would seem to me that the magazine is being presented in sections, and the contents page clearly has these sections being displayed with titles above them and each title having the page number and a brief description of the article beneath them, the fonts are bolder here to make it stand out from the rest of the text on the page and therefore making it easier for the reader to see what the articles are about.
The only place that I would consider Mixmag to have used their logo is on the first page of the contents in the top left hand corner, which is the use of the magazine title, however it’s not that big so therefore it even took me a while to realise that it was there.
Double Page Spread:
The DPS that i have chosen to do is a Q+A with ‘one of the UK’s premier live acts’ Groove Armada, the Q+A is on why they’ve decided to stop touring.
The title of this piece is a large bold font, with simple block lettering, the title itself is predominantly black with Groove Armada written in pink to make instantly recognisable who the article is about, the contrasting in the colours of the title also help to draw attention to it.
The layout of this DPS is that one page is all the text and the other is 1 image of the subject of who the article is focused on, the first page in this instance is of the text, in this case the questions being answered, on the other page is an image of the boys which has been set out with the magazines house colours, the bold vibrant pink as the background and the contrast being set out by darkness of the clothes that they are wearing is also helped by the lighting that has been used on the shoot has highlighted parts of the subject creating a more dynamic image.
As they are possibly the biggest live act in the UK DJ scene the fact they are stopping their tours is what is going to draw people in to read this article, they have a large fan base and this is major news to them. After reading the article myself it becomes apparent that they aren’t quitting music all together but they are going into the club scene to play live sets.
I like the way that this DPS has come together, i think it shows that having large blocks of text can still be interesting and doesn’t have to just be boring, the fact it has been done as a Q+A makes it a lot easier to read, it gives the article a much more personal feel to it, it engages with the reader on a different level and that’s why it is a good article in my eyes and that’s why i like it.
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