First draft of Music Magazine contents page

This is my first attempt of designing my contents page. I have recently research on magazine conventions so I would know what to include making sure my magazine can survive in the market. For the contents page, we decided to split the page in half like Kerrang! does. We split it into the top half being images and the bottom half being text. The imaged I used is my own photography and is of a stage at a gig. I feel like this image is a good choice as it also has a personal feeling to it as it is taken from a fan within a huge crowd. The image is all in focus and the colours of orange and red are good to have in an image as they are very alarming colours. The fire is also a good effect because it can represent maybe a 'fiery' experience at a gig. Also along with the background image on the top half is my own picture of one of my peers posing as an editor for my magazine. I have also included a short editor’s note. By looking at contents pages, most editors’ notes are long, and it's a waste of space as many readers just want to get on with reading the whole magazine so most readers may not even see the editor’s note. I put it in because it gives a close and personal feel to magazine. On the top half I have also included a bit of text referring to a page number which is in relation to the background image, 'p14 Gigs for 2011!’ I added a black strip which is what most magazines may have to split up a page. I made sure it was black as black can easily go with the image above and with the content below. Along the black strip I state that it is a weekly issue by saying ' This week in'. It is then followed by the masthead front the front cover. I and my partner decided to have 6 categories of content. Instead of going for the obvious 'News', we chose 'Bulletin' as we felt it was a better name than 'news' as that is used all the time. We also have Charts, Features, Reviews, Gig Guide and Win! We chose the name Win! Instead of competitions because like 'news' it is used continuously. The 6 content categories are placed in a black box with white text on top (WOB - white on black). i chose this because there would be no worry about colour matching and it is also easily stood out. Lastly, on the far right side, we came up with a section called 'Top Picks'. This is a section where people within the magazine have their say on what aspect of the magazine they like in the weekly issue. We thought this was effective as particular features within the magazine may not be as big as others but yet it will still be recommended. I feel this is a good attempt for a first draft but I can drastically improve it by the feedback I have got.

Improvements to be made:
• To place the page numbers more carefully and maybe get rid of the 'P'.
• Under 'Top picks' I would make it clear who is giving an opinion and I would change the placing of the text.
• Maybe change the Font
• Could use colour on the bottom half
• Maybe change of image in the top half with more less overwhelming colours.