This the contents from the September 2008 issue of Clash, featuring main features on Kaiser Chiefs and Oasis. I like this contents as it's quite basic and simple, but still effective and sophisticated.
The main part of a contents is the features, so I will focus first on the language used to show off it's features. The page is just named as Contents rather than Clash Contents, but I think that gives a more sophisticated feel, as obviously the reader will know what magazine they're in if they've just opened it, and doesn't need to be told again. It's also as if they're less desperate to advertise themselves or associate themselves with their own work, probably appealing to their critical readers.
I like the way the contents is separated into the 3 sections; ClashFeatures, ClashRegulars and ClashFashion. I think it shows the magazine encoding variation and trying to show that there is something for everyone, not just through the differences of genre probably on the cover. This separation also causes an appealing layout, clear and organised as I believe it should be in order to promote the magazine in the best way possible. I think this is why I find this contents so appealing, however weird that sounds, but it just seems to have a neat vibe.
As for the feature names and descriptions listed in the contents, most of them seem to be pretty ambiguous. For example, "Psapp - Don't just sit on your arse - play it!" could have a lot of different connotations as I don't think the meaning is very fixed at a first glance. Even those that do make sense and have a obvious denotation are very vague, so I think this is a convention in order to encourage the target reader to have a look at the features, basically the point of a feature description. I think this is something I'll be able to do because a) I don't actually have to come up with a full magazine of real features and b) My cover lines on the school magazine cover were fairly ambiguous. I think the feature names have to be clever and attractive also, something that will intrigue and entertain the reader. Things like Gang Gang Dance and Moshi Moshi, are generally just good words which appeal to the readers and have lots of different readings because of their ambiguity. Also a way to make these names seem clever they incorporate the magazine name, like in Personality Clash and Clash Click. When it comes to separating Clash from other magazine by the contents, their What's On Your CD feature and ClashFashion separate them from similar magazines, so I think the contents is pretty vital for being subtly unconventional. I will need to think of parts I could include in my own like this.
Looking at the features themselves, most of them appear to be there for diversion and surveillance, something I will have to take into account when making my own contents. Most of the ClashFeatures are interviews and articles, on bands, genres and public figures. The ClashRegulars seem to also be for personal identity, as values and learning behaviour could be drawn from such things as a public figure's blog (Bowman's Blog) and a career insight (Inside Knowledge). Other general topics are new artists, reviews, charts and band's diaries. The ClashFashion section is fairly brief, just naming celebrities modelling and brand names.
As for the images, they're both fairly simple, one which I have already analysed while doing the double page spread. But I've noticed for this issue of Clash, the cover stars and main interview feature are Oasis, but the images of them on the cover, in the contents and in the article are all different. This may be something I have to consider for my own magazine. As the images on the contents are going to be of celebrities, they're already motivated signs, however levels of connotations will differ, so the magazine has to be careful who to feature. I think here in Clash, they've just gone for their two main interviews as they are their biggest and best features, so they need to draw attention to them, which is generally what the images are for. They've also used captions to give the images even more anchorage an outline the best features of the articles.
The Oasis image also draw attention to their faces because of the dark background and clothing, the preferred reading being that they're trying to show exactly who they're interviewing, and again like the cover and spreads not distracting with OTT clothes etc.
Over the whole cover, only 2 fonts are used which I think adds to the simple informative edge. One is the smaller one used for all the articles too, so this is used for the descriptions and captions. The other is what I'm assuming is one of Clash's signature font's with the square serifs, and is just used all over, but in different colours and sizes for different effects. Something that is quite unusual, is that apart from the 2 main features, all the other features are the same size, which I think leaves the audience to flick decidedly through the magazine any way they wish, giving them more active audience control rather than influencing them too much.
Again to fit in with the simple style of things, only 3 colours are used, which I notice are very similar to that used on the front, which I hope is just a coincidence, as I'm already confused about what colour goes where, as I know each issue of the magazine has a different colour scheme for the cover, so then I'm not sure if double page spreads should match and if contents are the same every month. I may just have to decide this for myself, or hopefully it'll become clear if I look into particular issues. But the black and white are mainly used, with the accents of orange around and on the image, which again gives it a very tied together feel and neat layout.
I am really a fan of this contents, as I said before, although I'm not definitely sure of why. I think this is exactly the kind of layout and crispness my contents will need, with my own house fonts used along with variations of the features on here.
