Contents page analysis - Billboard

 

This contents page is a traditional one for 'Billboard', it has a selection of image related to the articles, and it has its trademark music chart at the left hand side. This makes the customer aware of what songs are the most popular and what is No 1. Billboard has it's own charts, and it being at the very beginning means that readers are instantly shown what it is they probably want to see, without them having to search the whole magazine to find it.

 

The colour scheme seems to consist of mainly black, white and blue - excluding the music chart, the black writing and the black clothes of the person in the image both contrast with the bright white background, making it easier still to read. The blue of the subheadings further separates and makes it easier to locate the different categories of the magazine.

 

The pictures underneath the 'contents' all correspond to the articles in the magazine which give a slight preview to the stories. It also highlights which are the most popular and the biggest stories. In the bottom left corner of them it shows what page you can find the article linked with that picture, this is a good way to make it more simple for the read inside of having to search all over for it, it also looks more professional.

 

The title of the page 'contents' is easy and clear to read as it is in sans serif. it has an odd style to it with lines separating parts of the letters, however it still seems to look quite tidy and not rugged. The subheadings have been put in a serif font, which gives a little bit of edge to the rest of the text and it would look boring all being in the same font. Separating the magazine into subgroups, allows to reader to quickly flick to whatever page it is they are wanting to read, and can clearly see the other feature stories and what is included in the magazine.

 

In my own magazine I aim to include one main image and then other smaller images on my own contents page as I feel this would appeal to my target audience, similar that those of this magazine, I will also aim to include the magazine title, page number and issue at the very bottom of the page.