Contents Layout Drafts

Next in my production is the contents page so I'll start with layout drafts, as I plan on creating this through the same steps as my cover, starting with layouts, then text and image, my developed draft and final contents.

Unlike my cover, I didn't have a clear idea of what kind of contents I wanted, layout wise, so I drew tiny sketches of my considerations and asked a range of my classmates which ones they found more appealing, also asking them to give reasons. My range included 5 one page contents, 1 double page spread contents, and 1 two separate pages contents. Taking into account my target readers' opinions as well as my own thoughts about the conventions I learned from my research, I narrowed my selection down to 3 to make into bigger drafts. However, when I was doing my research I found that layouts for contents vary greatly for each magazine (or at least the ones I looked into), therefore I do have a certain amount of control of the layout of my own so maybe it would be better if it doesn't look like one already created, but still has that professional look. I'll label my layouts with the 3 sections I'm having (I'll just use Features, Regulars and Columns for now, but Columns may change when I come to decide on this) and I'll label my images as Act 1, 2 and 3 as I'm going with my audience research when they said they preferred 2 or 3 images.

Layout 1 - I tried to take inspiration from the Blender contents I liked and analysed, as it had the contemporary feel I am again aiming for to bring pop music content up to date and give it some credibility. This is a very simple layout which I think wouldn't stretch any conventions of a contents, and would be fairly run of the mill. The amount of images would hopefully appeal to my targets readers, however the block of writing may put them off, but if it does, are they really the kind of people I want to be reading my magazine? Anyway, I planning on having my list of content very spaced out to keep with that minimalistic modern feel, so it would also look very neat and hopefully have the same effect as the Clash contents had on me. Something I've decided on, is that I want to leave my images fairly unmotivated apart from the fact they are of celebrities, but I don't want to have captions on them. I want this because I want to develop that convention of the images being unusual, and I this would be even more effective because it gives an abstract element to the images, like the Blender contents which I believe worked very well. This is something I would impart on whatever layout I chose, so I may as well mention it now. But this contents is fairly safe, so maybe I need more of a shock impact to get that full sense of intrigue and contemporary-ness.

Layout 2 - This is my most unconventional layout which was really liked by those of my target audience whom I asked. It is a double page spread, which isn't very common and therefore pretty unconventional, but I have seen one. The one I saw was for a special edition and was a full stage shot looking out into the audience. Of course this was mega effective and amazing, but I considered why the same size and spread of content couldn't be used in just a normal issue of a music magazine. After I couldn't really think of a major negative effect it would have, I thought it could provoke that interest from my audience, and generally put my contents on a grander scale. It does look slightly too spaced out of this draft, but hopefully with more artful poses from my models would use the space up. Also it would leave room for any small quirky features I might include, like I was considering including cover credits as I have seen on some contents or a download code. I really like and I am starting to love the idea of doing something so different to get a shock reaction from my readers.

Layout 3 - This is again inspired by that Blender contents, but generally mixes things up a bit more than the first layout. This spreads both the text and image randomly over the page, whereas normally parts are kept together mostly on a contents. So I think by using this one, it's less safe than the first layout, but not as shocking as the second. I do like how my individual feature of columns would be separated as it really emphasises it to the reader the different part to my magazine. It fits in with how many images my readers would like to see, but again wouldn't have captions. I do think this one has quite a fresh vibe because of the text and image mixed up, so therefore develops the conventional contents, but still has a traditional feel to it.

Out of these 3 layout drafts, I'd really like to give layout 2 a try as I think it could work really well and be very individual if it worked together with everything else. I think if I receive negative feedback bad enough from it, I could revert to layout 3 if it was necessary, so will intend on creating 2, but have 3 as my back up. Before making my developed draft, similarly to my cover I will make some decisions on my language and images first.