Front page and contents analysis

Front page analysis

Throughout all magazines bright bold colours are used; this grabs the readers attention and would make it stand out on whilst it appears on the shelf since there is such a variety to choose from today.

Again on all magazines there 2 or more photos featured on the front cover, this makes the information on the front cover more interesting and the text becomes more appealing to the eye. Because if it was all writing nobody would want to read it especially since all these magazines are aimed at teenagers. ‘Fusion’ is the only one with one central Image, however this is appropriate since it is a music magazine and makes it more edgy.

All magazine names on each of the magazines are bold and mostly in capitals, when you write in capitals it is almost like you are shouting at the audience so this is a good technique to use to approach readers.

‘Bishopbriggs’ and ‘Evolve’ are the only two magazines out of the selection that do not have any paragraphs of text on the front cover, this would be more appealing to the target audience as they just get straight to the point of what the magazine includes instead of writing loads of text. On the rest of the magazines the text is placed on either the far right or left of the magazine this presents the cover better and makes the text look more approachable to read as they are only small little paragraphs. And if the text was scrambled all over the page it would look too much.

None of the magazines use rule of thirds on the front covers this is probably because they haven’t used proper programmes to create them it looks as if they have just used word.

On each of the magazines a colour scheme of only two colours is used, two colours being ones that go well together, which they all do. This colour scheme is followed throughout the page with the text in one colour and the background in another; this makes it look more professional and less busy because if there were loads of different bold bright colours you wouldn’t know were to start.

Contents page analysis

One main feature on a contents page is ‘Page one’ then a line or a couple of words to say what the page is about. All of these magazines do this apart from ‘Top Terrace’ which doesn’t have one. But is definitely a requirement in a magazine.

Another feature is the colour scheme; this is normally repeated throughout the page and normally tends to be up to 3 different colours. They usually bold bright colours which are appealing to the eye.

There hasn’t been many pictures featured on the contents page of magazines, there is only one magazine which includes them. So I will only use up to two images on mine, these pictures are normally of school children doing something do with what is in the magazine and they normally tend to be having fun in the photo. These photos are normally an average size and don’t take up much of the page.

The fonts on the magazines tend to change throughout the page with different sizes and boldness for different headings. The fonts are not fancy because then that would make it hard to read so a basic one is normally used which makes it look simple. The font of the title ‘Contents’ is the biggest on the page so readers are aware of what it is, it is normally big and bold and takes up the top of the page, it is one of the main features on the page.

Boxes of a certain colour are used for each different section in the magazine, e.g. sport- green. This makes it easier for you to pick out exactly what you want to read about, instead of reading through the list of what is in. It also makes the page less busy and easier to read. The ‘George Stephenson’ magazine does this, however none others do. ‘Fusion’ magazine also does this but to highlight main points as since the background is white the 3 different colour boxes stand out with the main information they want to put across.

Each magazine has their own signature picture that is placed on the contents, this isn’t a digital image. It is almost like a cartoon which represents the magazine; this image normally takes up a small amount of space and is positioned at one side of the page. However the one in ‘Fusion’ takes up the top third of the page but still looks effective. ‘Chill’ doesn’t do this but instead uses clipart shape tool to add effects onto the page to not make it so plain.