Contents page analysis

Contents page analysis

Contents Page 1- Coast Magazine

 

 

This contents page is from Coast magazine. The masthead for this magazine is very informal and it very fun. This is because it is not just simple text and has graphics to go with them. This will stereotypically appeal to younger people as Hebdige said in 1998 ‘youth as fun’,which suggests that young people like things if they are fun and exciting so this graphic may attract them to this magazine. The size of the masthead for this magazine is unusually small and is not positioned where you would expect to find the masthead. This again may be used to attract a young audience as this could be seen as fun. The masthead doesn’t just feature the word ‘contents’ but it also features the month that the issue that was published. The colour blue is the dominant colour used in the masthead for this content page and the colour white is the only other colour used. The colour blue has a strong link with the sea and sky, which allows the magazine to relate to the target audience, as their whole audience base will be people interested or who live in coastal areas. The colour blue can be used to connote power and knowledge. The theme of knowledge may be used to attract their target audience as this magazine is all about informing people about what is happening in the areas around the coast of the UK.

The main image on the contents page is of a room in a house set in a coastal location, as you can see from the view out of the window. This will help their target audience to relate to the magazine, as this magazine is designed to appeal to people who live by or are interested in the coastal areas of the UK. This image is about the main article. Unlike a lot of feature articles on contents pages there is no writing about the article. This may be used to appeal to a young target audience as it creates a sense of mystery behind the article as there is no clue to what it is about apart from the image. This could been seen as fun, which would stereotypically appeal to a young target audience. However, the image shows the inside of a home designed in a contemporary fashion. This may appeal to an older audience because the article may be about designing a home by the coast. This would appeal to an older audience more than a younger one because they are more likely to be able to afford to settle down and build their dream homes.

There are not many colours used on the this contents page which may be used to suggest that this is aimed at an adult audience, which means when I come to making my magazine I should consider the kinds of colours to use in order to attract my target audience. The reason this may appeal to an adult audience more than a youth audience is because young people will find bright colours fun, which would attract them to a magazine. The different colours may attract different genders which again is something I need to consider when creating my magazine. One of the colours used on this contents page is the colour blue, which traditionally a masculine colour. The colour blue also symbolises the sea and the sky, which will have been used to attract their whole target audience as they can relate to the magazine. The colour blue connotes power and seriousness. This may be used to suggest that this magazine is the dominant one of its genre and that they are serious when it comes to what content they include for their readers.

The layout for these contents pages is fairly busy. One the first page there is a large image and below it a lot of text staring to describe the articles featured in the magazine. There is no text to explain what the features article is about. One the second pages there is a series of images on the right hand side with the text laid out in a column on the far left side of the page. Although this layout is fairly organised, which will stereotypically appeal to an older audience, it can also be seen as fairly fun. This is because the pages are fairly busy. This should appeal to younger people because as Hebdige said ‘youth as fun.’

The typography of the magazine may be used to suggest that magazine is aimed at a young audience. This is because the font used is fairly fun and doesn’t come across as formal. This is because the font isn’t as simple as most standard computer fonts and has different curves to each letter. This can make the font seem fun, which will stereotypically appeal to a young audience. This also may suggest that this is aimed at a female audience rather than a male audience because this will also stereotypically appeal to this kind of audience.

Contents page 2-  Cornwall Today Magazine

The masthead for this magazine can be seen as informal which may be used to attract their target audience, which the masthead suggests is a young audience because this can be seen as fun, which would stereotypically appeal to a younger audience. The masthead come across as informal partly due to the fact that the title ‘contents’ is all in lowercase letters, whereas a formal magazine would usually have a title with at least one capital letter at the beginning of it, if not in all capital letters. Another way in which the masthead comes across as informal is because of the font in which the editors have chosen to use. The font isn’t blocky or a typical font such as ‘Times New Roman’. Instead this font is thinner and more simple suggesting that it is meant to come across as fun. This may be used to suggest that the whole magazine is fun, which suggests that this magazine could be targeted at a young audience rather than an older one. 

The main image is used to represent the theme behind the magazine as Cornwall is a coastal based county, which is famous for it’s beaches and surfing. This helps the magazine relates to its audience because a lot of people will be reading a magazine such as this for the reason that they are interested about Cornwall’s coastline. The magazine takes up the large majority of the page, which suggests that they think it is important at attracting people to the magazine. This works well because it instantly attracts your attention making it seem more attractive, meaning people are more likely to purchase this magazine. Similarly to the magazine above, the main image of this contents page doesn’t seem to have a feature article relating to it, and if it does it is not easily noticeable. This seems to becoming a recurring theme when it comes to the design of regional lifestyle magazine.

This magazine has a similar colour scheme to the one featured in coast magazine.  However, with this magazine the colour blue isn’t used as much as on the previous magazine. Instead they have chosen to use the black for the headings for each of the article featured on the contents page. The colour black connotes power. This may be used to suggest that the stories they have included makes them a powerful force in terms of regional lifestyle magazines.

The layout of this magazine is similar to the first page of the one from Coast magazine contents page featured above. This is because they feature one main image and the text is placed in the other part of the page with very little text overlapping the image. However, this is reversed as there is one image and the bottom of the page and the text is located above it. This contents page takes up a double page spread unlike the one featured in coast magazine, which takes up two pages which are not next to each other. Similarly to coast magazine the stories are laid out in columns making it easy to separate the articles from each other. Again on this contents page they have featured a small description of each story under their heading, which seems to be a common theme between all regional lifestyle magazines which I have analysed.

The masthead on this magazine is very simple and compared to the other two mastheads on the contents page it comes across as quite dull. This suggests that this magazine is aimed at an older audience because if it was aimed at a young audience it would be stereotypically fun. The first thing that makes this seem dull is the lack of colour. This masthead is plain black and white, which is quite dull whereas brighter colours would make the magazine seem more fun and exciting. This suggests that this magazine is aimed at an adult audience. Another way in which the masthead is quite dull is because of the font. The font used is very plain and unlike the others doesn’t have any fancy styling. This again suggests that this isn’t aimed at a young audience because a young audience will stereotypically relate to something that comes across as quite fun.

The main image on this contents page is also very different to the ones featured on the other pages. The first thing that is different with this image is with the size of it. Unlike the others this image only takes up a small proportion of the page. Again this helps to confirm my theory that this magazine is aimed at an older audience. This is because a young audience will stereotypically prefer a page which is predominantly image based as they don’t like to read a lot of information at a time.

The colour scheme is very dull which suggests that it is not designed to attract a young audience. The only colours that are used on this page are white and black. The colour black connotes power and the colour white connotes perfection. This suggests that they feel that they are a strong force in the regional lifestyle magazine industry in Cornwall. This colour scheme will not stereotypically attract a young audience as they prefer bright colours because they come across as ‘fun’.

The layout of this magazine is probably the only the only thing that can be seen as fun. This is because it is fairly busy which connotes that the magazine will be fun. This is busy as it features a lot of text and a there are a lot of images. However this can be seen as messy as there doesn’t appear to be any logical order behind where the content is placed.

The typography is fairly boring as the font is fairly basic. This suggests that this magazine is designed to appeal to an older audience. This is because this is stereotypically what would appeal to this kind of audience.