Contents page research 2

Above the annotated contents page and right is the matching front cover for a Q magazine. The reason I included both in this post is so that the unified house style is evident. The Q contents page is the first contents page that I have come across when doing my research that uses a whole double paged spread to get the information across. This may be its unique selling point (UPS) because I have not yet seen this feature anywhere else. Rocksound do have their contents over two pages but not over a double page spread. Even the backgrounds in both the pictures are the same; the big, blurry and yellow lights will both add to the house style of the magazine. The colourings on both the front cover of the magazine and also the contents page of the magazine work well together; the three main colours used for fonts are blue, white and gold - on both pages. The effect of doing this helps to further entice the reader and helps them identify that the two bits of media come from the same magazine. If the house style works you should be able to rip out pages of a magazine and pick them all up and know what front cover or contents page goes with what magazine .

The design elements featured on these Q front covers and contents pages are minimal. The only one that stands out is the 'Q' logo on the top left of the contents page, this is then overlayed with the word 'contents.'

Contents Page Research

Above, there are the annotated contents pages for NME magazines and then the front covers from that edition of the magazine. The reason I have put these side by side is so their is a clear unified house style between the front cover and also the contents page. Judging by the two NME editions you can see that this is the case across the board, also the same band/artist does not appear on both the cover and the contents page, this is to add a unique effect to the magazine; it does not get repetitive and tedious. It also give itself a unique selling point (UPS) to other competitors, such as Rocksound etc.

Even though the covers all have a different formatting, the contents page format stays very similar throughout each edition of the NME magazines. This keeps an effective house style across all of their magazine editions, not just on one magazine - doing this will allow the readers to get a feel of how the magazine is and then relate it back to other NME editions they may have previously read, it easily helps identify the NME branding.

The design elements of NME's magazines are very similar. They feature the arrows pointing towards the actual contents; while researching I have not yet come across a design feature like this; NME seems to be the only magazine including these designs within their contents pages. Also, under the 'This Week' headline in NME contents pages they always feature either a thick black line underlining the headline, or their is a black square behind it; this is evident in the top example which I have annotated. 

Another design element which NME include in their contents pages are the advertisments for a discounted magazine subscription with them. Within this rectangular advert they tend to include a couple of previous magazine's to entice the reader into subscribing.