Magazine contents page production - Initial stages

I decided that it would be more productive for me to produce some of my publications in line with each other - so I started to design and put together my contents page aswell as my front cover.

From looking at contents pages, I found that they are quite compact - and there is not a lot of space left blank. This inspired me to plan my contents page to be quite full and busy, but not too distracting as I do not believe this would make my product very successful.

I decided the first thing I needed to do was ensure that I had a title for my contents page that made it obvious that is what it was. I looked at other magazines of a similar genre for inspiration and found that a lot of these magazines do stick to something quite simplistic, often choosing one colour to use consistently throughout the page.

I decided to use the colour yellow as it is bold and will stand out on the page - yet it is isn't a gender biased colour so it will still appeal to my audience of males and females.

I also added the Issue number and Cover date in a smaller font underneath my title, making my product look more sleek and professional.

I then decided the next move should be to add a column - typical of most music magazines - for what will actually be contained in this issue. I stuck to the page colours of black and yellow, using the two colours to compliment each other and stand out.

I used subheadings for a category, such as 'gigs' and 'live reviews' in order to make my contents page more accessable for my audience.

Furthermore, I ensured that I used bands for my features that my target audience would be familiar with - researching bands of a rock/alternative genre to aid me.