5th Contents Analysis: Mojo 25/2/16

Mojo is a popular music magazine that was first published in 1993. It publishes monthly in the United Kingdom and has a large age demographic due to the large variety of musicians and singers that the genre covers. Although this contents page is dated back to 2011, it is simple yet effective with particular conventions that are still used to this date in the majority of magazines. 

The overall design of this contents page is minimalistic and suits the general house style of the entire magazine. It is also very typical of every issue created by Mojo as the layout, fonts and style of image are always similar to the page shown above. Additionally, a brand identity is created by using the same red, black and white colour scheme and fonts as the magazine becomes recognisable as having that simplistic colour collection and writing style (which is very alike to that of Q magazine). 

The only image, is a mid-shot of Bert Jansch sitting down with his guitar on his lap. The image is in black and white to suit the rest of the colour scheme. His facial expressions are very serious and the styling is very old-school and trendy suggesting he is a unique character. He is represented as a person who doesn't take things for granted through the use of a quote from Colin Irwin. The quote is in a large and different font to those of the rest of the page making it stand out and therefore draw attention.

The layout is relatively simple and there are different sections to the page. There is no overlapping of text and the use of thin lines helps to divide up the page. The bolder font of the stories in the magazine also help the text to stand out as it makes the writing more prominent and eye-catching. The theme of this contents page shows a high level of sophistication and the arrangement of the contents page is clean and polished. The red headings and numbers stand out as they are the only coloured things on the page- simplifying finding particular stories for the reader. The text is arranged neatly around the image of Bert Jansch making it very visually pleasing. 

With regards to brand identity, the contents includes the name of the magazine in the top centre of the page- in the same font as that on the front cover. Additionally, by having the 3 main cities where the magazine is most influential beneath the title, it makes it more personal as some readers may be from these areas. Moreover, the magazine company are represented as simplistic and creative due to this effective and minimalist creation.

For my own contents page, I would like to follow some of the conventions this one follows. Firstly, I will include a simplistic colour scheme as not to over complicate the page and distract from the image and text. Additionally, I will ensure that I alternate between fonts including their size and boldness so that it is easy to distinguish between stories. Finally, I will clearly section the page so that there is minimal overlapping as I believe this is the most effective way to present the information and images.