I used this contents page as a basis for my magazine as it is well laid out and easy to navigate.
The headnote includes the logo of the magazine and the date which are the first things noticed by the route of the eye. the logo is included in large letters along with a bold 'contents' so you know what page you are on(the contents page).
In the left third of the page, there is a NME exclusive feature known as a 'Band Index'. This band index is in smaller sized font which means it is the last area that the route of the eye will establish, yet a very important feature of this magazine. It lists all of the bands mentioned in this issue and tells you what page they are on. this is so that its very specific 'indie' audience can read about the bands they want as NME covers quite a few genres and they may not appeal to the individual reader. I found this an effective tool as it allows the reader to focus on what they want to read and they can find out what bands are in the magazine quickly before buying it. [I used this feature in my magazine as i used NME as a base to establish round and it is a very useful tool when dealing with very specific audiences like my target audience (16-25 year old predominantly white males interested in UK hardcore and metal bands only).]
In the centre of the page, NME puts their main article. The main article has one large image, a large bold text title and some smaller text describing the article. This is effective as there is only one image on the page and one large article, route of the eye guides to the image and then the article after the logo meaning the main article is read straight away which is effective to drawing in readers as it is usually the most appealing article to readers. Beneath this is a black box containing subscription details and a screenshot of the front cover of the magazine. This is effective as it is noticed after the main article is noticed which could convince them to subscribe to NME. The simplicity of one main article is appealing to a male audience as it allows them to read through and navigate the magazine easier as in the magazine world it is shown that women's magazines are much more complicated in their layouts while music magazines(lower/middle class white males 16-25) like NME have much simpler layouts suggesting an easy navigable layout. [I also copied the idea of centre articles(i chose to have two main articles as they were both important and it looked very barren with just one picture) because as i am aiming at a white mostly male 16-25 working class audience, i decided copying a similar audiences magazines simple and easy to navigate layout.
On the right third of the page, the rest of the popular articles are listed under: News, Reviews, Live. This is effective as you can navigate and get details on popular reviews or live shows and read some summaries of the latest news in indie music. Once again this is an example of making the contents page simple and easy to read. This is the second place where the route of the eye takes the reader , so after reading the main article it leads to all the popular articles so they can quickly, in a few minutes have all the details on everything in the magazine by just reading summaries. In this issue there is an exclusive heading which is about Reading and Leeds, and 'Previews' of it. This is a popular festival with the readers of 'NME' magazine and the 'indie' genre and this would catch the readers eyes. also, there is a less important 'PLUS' section which lists things not directly covering certain event or bands (features include questions to NME, letters about the magazine and a compilation of pictures from readers with famous 'indie' bands or their members. [I used the first idea of listing the categories of News, Reviews and Live as it is an easy way to navigate to the most important articles for my readers as they might want to read only live show reviews etc. how ever i did not use the PLUS category as i didn't have anything non related to bands, i should of included something like this but at the time i did not think of it as appropriate]
the layout of this magazine is a bit more complicated than NME as the route of the eye is a lot less simple.
The title for the contents page of Kerrang isn't very noticeable because it is in a small, yellow font in the top corner. although this is against convention and there is no logo, the way the magazine is presented shows it is of Kerrang origin. I would not base my magazine contents page title/logo off Kerrangs as it is too small for effect or to be noticed.
The left half of this contents page includes the main article and a foreword by the editor. the foreword is just describing events from the previous issue such as download festival (UK metal festival) and the main article's large picture, and two articles below it(sub-articles) although this grabs the attention of readers it is unprofessionally laid out and the reader would not know where to look after the contents page. i would not lay my contents out like this as it is distracting to the reader and they would not be able to navigate this complex layout unless they were long time readers of the magazine.
However, the right half of this contents page is much better laid out. There is a quote from a famous musician that is potentially worthless and not needed for any reason ( i believe it is there for comedic value yet is not valid or easily noticed). The next section to be noticed is the 'THIS WEEK' section which details all the articles not pictured in a short sentence. this is effective as it is quick and easy to read the summaries of the articles. However, the layout of all the articles listed with pictures is ineffective as it seems to have no proper order.
Overall, even with the effective but bland colour layout and consistent fonts, i would not choose a layout like Kerrang!'s due to an unprofessional and ineffective, hard to navigate contents page which would confuse its younger audience as the route of the eye is complete dysfunctional.
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