Double page spread evaluation

Double page spread evaluatin- KERRANG! magazine below)
On this double page spread of what I believe is an article in a KERRANG! Magazine, the TA (Target audience) / reader would be attracted to the bright colours i.e. the use of the colour yellow on the page stands out from the background colour, which is grey. The repeated colour of yellow also would allow the main images, which are located in the middle of the page, to stand out too because there isn’t much yellow in them, they are bright with colours, black, white, red and purple. These images are brighter compared to the backdrop given to them, as they are outlined with black against the grey and yellow on the pages.

The colour scheme which consists of black, yellow, grey and white give me a type of ‘warning’ sign look, I would see these colours on a hazard sign and believe it must be dangerous, the word dangerous is also mentioned in the main headline where it says “Front tour destroys Southampton” which is an obvious clue to the design of the double page spread and the choice of imagery. So the magazine has tried to make the band look like young, rebelling teens, who don’t care about decency, for example in one of the images, one of the band members appears to be rather naked, with his shirt pulled up and his hands hiding his indecency; also with the other band members in the background around and next to him, who are girls, their costumes make them look like rebelling school girls, with the knee high socks, short skirts, slightly opened top and messy, bright coloured hair. The band members in the images make them all look to be ‘party animals’ with the look of alcohol in their faces, including lust, rebellion and not to mention looking like their having fun as youths. These images and the band in them also link to their name ‘Mate in a state’ rather well as that is how they all look i.e. under-dressed, messy and intoxicated, letting off a sexual appeal. (The male and females are under-dressed in some images.)

To prove that this magazine may be a ‘Teen’ music magazine, the columns of information and text are rather separate with the large gutter (the gap between them to make it look like there is less text) and the fact that there are only two columns of info for the TA. But this is not a downfall to the double page spread, there are plenty of images for the reader to look at, images being more interesting for a teenager of the ages around 16-18, thus the magazine would be sold to them easier. For evidence that teenagers prefer to see images in a magazine, my questionnaire results reveal that teens around the age of 16-18 have voted for ‘images’ on the question ‘What would you prefer to see in a music magazine?’, thus following the conclusion for this double page spread that images are more appealing to middle aged teenagers.

The text under the images which are called ‘annotations’ surround the images in gaps and underneath the image that they are explaining more for the reader, who wants to know more about a certain image with their favourite band member doing something etc. The annotations are again in yellow and white, these allow them to be noticed around the images for when the reader has an urge to know more information from the magazine. The colours of these again make it look dangerous and a warning to the TA / reader of this magazine double page spread. I noticed that the main columns of information on the first page of the double page spread aren’t covered with a background of yellow or white, they are on the only piece of background on the two pages which is grey. It is also the last pieces of text that the reader would really want to read, as they are more interested in the images on the page than the text columns. But this is not a downside for the columns of information, even though it is in a black format with a dark grey background, which would presumably make it almost invisible to the reader, but least we forget that it is the most uninteresting part of the double page spread.

This allows an advantage for the magazine too, as the reader’s eye would attract straight to the images of their favourite band and or musician in the large bundle of images in the middle of the double page spread, I noticed that the double page spread looks like it is joined together because of the show of images almost directly in the middle of it. The images look like they belong on a wall, bound to it with a nail, because the images are all bundled together and some of them are tilted to create this effect of a messy, freelance and rebelling look. In other magazines, the images would probably be neatly lined up and generally lovely looking to a different type of audience, not to mention a different type of music genre than Indie.