Analysis of Two Contents Pages

Analysis of Two Contents Pages

Kerrang Contents Page
This contents page is quite simple in comparison to how Kerrang magazines usually have their front pages (full of images and usually quite messy) although it does have a few images (5) and one semi big portrait shot of a musician which takes up around 40% of the page, even though the contents page has quite a few images which are quite large and take up rather a lot of space, the overall layout of this page is quite clever in the fact it doesn’t make the contents page look messy or cluttered it makes it look quite simple. This contents page follows the general house style of kerrang (yellow and black fonts and bold titles) the background colour of the base of the page is a neutral pale grey which I think has been coloured like that to suit with the portrait shot of the musician. The overall contents of this page is good, it has an album review, some general news about music, some reviews of gigs and live acts, it also features a few interviews with bands such as Metallica and Children of Bodom. The only criticism I can find about this magazine would be the small font at the top of the page, which from a distance may be hard to read, or generally for some readers may be hard to read.

NME Contents Page
This contents page is unique as it has a coupon at the bottom of the page, whereas usually contents pages don’t have coupons so it’s quite unique because of it. Another interesting part of this page is it has a top 10 chart which is quite odd as you’d expect the chart to be devoted to another single page, but in this case it isn’t. The general colours of this page are quite vibrant and bold, they draw the reader’s attention to them rather than the text of the image, this contents page doesn’t have a limited pallet of colours although it is still quite easy to see a style of colour on the page (vibrant pink back ground and headings with black writing). There aren’t many images on this page (two clearly visible ones and two slightly smaller ones) I think this is good as I think what NME’s main focus of this page is – is the chart and they are trying to divert all attention to it, the biggest picture of this contents page only takes up around 15% of the page which is a huge difference compared to the previously analysed contents page with the biggest picture taking up a whopping 40% of the page, I think it’s good how NME have done this as they’re trying to minimise the space taken up by pictures so the reader focuses on more of the style of the contents page and the actual contents.