Research for contents page

As we can see before in my front cover production I have completed an additional research in order to gain more knowledge about hip hop magazines as I have based my main research on pop/rock magazines. This means that now I have to look at the current hip hop music magazines in order to tailor my contents page to that specific genre and set a correct composition. After this I could then implement my own hip hop/pop music genre into the design. 

As we can see above the first code and convention which I have picked up is that the contents page consists mainly of one image either on right or left with the features written beside it. The shot of the model is mainly from knees or waist upwards which makes it a medium shot. This can be a code and convention which I can follow. Looking back at my contents page layout I have at first placed a big image with two picture boosts beneath it (top part of the page). Therefore I will choose to tweak my design and change the composition in order to have a large image of the person with the features next to it. 

Looking closer at two examples of contents page from the XXL magazine, we can see that they are very similar in composition. Both magazines contain a grey background with black text. This colour combination suits my colour scheme of the magazine therefore this will be an area which I will mainly focus on. By having a grey background I will be easily allowed to emphasise the artist (model) which the magazine is targeted at.On both examples of the contents page we can see that a creative use of text on the headline has been used. I really like the design on the left of the 'CONTENTS' heading. I have additionally seen a similar composition in magazines such as Rolling Stones therefore I will consider creating something similar. The last similarity which I have found between the two examples of magazines is that the features are written in two font styles. A bolder font style has been used for the 'FEATURES' heading and the cover lines which makes them easily visible against the background. Additionally a similar font has been used to write the cover line caption. This text is not so visible as it is more delicate. I will consider using a similar text composition. Moreover, many magazines including the one the right has used a pull quote on the contents page. I have already placed pull quotes in my contents page layout therefore seeing that it has been used in professional contents page shows me that it is a vital element of the composition.