Music Magazine Analysis: Contents Page #2

Contents Page Analysis #2

This contents page is taken from The Source magazine. The aspect immediately visible to me is the equal space allocated to the images and text. They both overlap each other in some way but mainly have half the page each. I particularly like this feature as it means that the reader is guaranteed to be able to read the text at the bottom as there is no complex image behind it, and can see an image at the top which isn’t overcrowded with text. 
This is something I plan to make use of when considering the composition of the elements on my contents page, as I intend to create an equality of images and text so one will not overpower another, by doing this I should hopefully keep the readers eye looking at every aspect of the page.

Looking more closely into the image it’s clear that the photographer thought very carefully into the composition of elements within this image. The crowd of people in the background are positioned in the middle row of the rule of thirds; this makes them a focal point of the image which causes the reader to take a closer look as to what is going on. When doing this you can see that there are multiple flags within the crowd, this represents the different communities uniting to enjoy this genre of music, it allows this magazine to open up and expand to welcome a much wider community of people as opposed to its commonly targeted African-American society. We can see the artist clearly standing outside of the crowd and in the foreground, this could symbolise his unique and independent musical talent and his ability to stand out of a crowd because of it. The image is also a content in itself, but because of its depth and complexity The Source didn’t necessarily have a need to add more description to it. 
I will without doubt ensure to photograph my images carefully taking into account what impression I want to portray, making sure it fits to the hip hop genre and attracts the young audience that is generally associated with that type of music.

The Source uses serif fonts on small areas of text, which in my opinion adds elements of class to the magazine; it shows it doesn’t need to use just one type of font to appeal to its audience. The serif font also gives hints of resemblance to money which is a common aspect which is often associated with this genre of music and is a subject of a lot of artist’s songs. 
I will make use of the idea of using more than one type of font, I believe this will also keep the readers eye across the page and will add more variety and complexity to the overall appearance.

The font used for the text in the contents is sans-serif; I think this is an appropriate type of font to use for this part of the contents page as it makes the text clear and simple for the reader to look at whilst giving all the text as a whole more variation rather than having the same font across the whole page. I think the way this magazine has separated its contents by using subtitles is a useful and effective aspect to utilise as it creates a more neat and professional arrangement.
I think using subtitles is definitely a useful attribute to have on a contents page; I will keep this as a consideration when forming my contents page, although it may not be necessary depending on the amount of text I choose to include on the page.

Staying on the subject of text, the designer of this page has carefully chosen the colours of the text depending on the background in which it’s situated on. As you can see the text at on the bottom half of the page is black, which contrasts perfectly with the white background behind it. The same colours are used on the issue number at the top left hand corner of the image, and white has been used on the number 70 due to the fact that the background is dark. The white on this text also links the two halves of the page together uniting them as one. Having my text as a contrasting colour to the background is an aspect which I will unquestionably include when making my magazine, the text needs to be easily visible, and can be made visible by doing this.

This magazine has made use of hints of red within this contents page. Common readers will notice that this is a colour which is frequently used throughout The Source magazines. By doing this, the magazine is instantly recognisable due to the way it has made this feature part of a signature style. 
This is an aspect I’ve decided I’d like to utilise in my own magazine as it keeps the readers eyes across the full page and doesn’t just keep their interest focused on perhaps the image.