Contents page mock up

Before creating my mock up I did a lot of research of contents pages of music magazines, I found that they are often split up into sections for example news, features and reviews. This is a convention I decided to follow as I think it gives the contents page structure and it makes it easier for the reader. The way they split them all up is something that I also want to follow, I did this by making subtle changes to the colours of the boxes that the text is written in. This way my contents page becomes more appealing to look at because if not there would be just a white box would not interesting to look at.

I want my page to seem uncluttered so I have chosen not to feature every page that will appear in the magazine, if I was to feature every page the page would look too busy and people would find it hard to know what to look at. This is why I have only featured a selection of articles and have explained them fully to make them appeal. To ensure that a large amount of people are interested in reading my magazine I have included reviews of all the latest releases on the Indie scene. I have made sure that no artist is included twice to attract a wider range of audiences i.e the fans of each of the artists.

One thing I had to correct was the amount of text that I had written as a description for each of the articles, I found that I had written too much and had maybe gone on too much and had bored the reader or I had given away too much of the story. If too much of the story is given away the audience won't want/feel the need to continue to reading, this would be bad for my magazine because the whole point is for it to be read. For this reason I decided to cut down on the description and leave the reader curious. I also like my front cover included audience participation, I offered them the chance to interact with the magazine in the 'extras' section I added quizzes, the competition and a chance for them to subscribe to the publication. This will allow the audience to gain a deeper connection with the magazine and be more inclined to buy it in the future.

In terms of photos I will include a photo of two fans of Indie music posing with a record, this is because they will be reviewing the latest releases. I think this sets my magazine apart as people can see what other fans are saying rather than just the opinion of the magazine editors all the time. For my larger photo I will have a picture of the band rehearsing, I will aim to shoot this in some kind of garage to illustrate the bands small beginnings. I will do this as a side on shot as it will look and fit better in the space that I have to work with due to my layout.