Research and Planning: Double Page Spread Analysis x2

The double page spread from the music magazine ‘Q’ features the ‘Festivals of 2012’ in the February 2012 issue. The layout of the page sticks in with the simplistic and sophisticated feel that Q desires. With a use of minimal colours, blue, orange and green, the magazine quite clearly is focusing on the content rather than the image of the page, which is very typical of the ‘Q’ house style. It centres a picture on the page spread, showing a map of the UK and pinpointing where each festival mentioned is situated. A range of mid and long shots of celebrities featuring at these festivals have also been placed on the map, to add a slight amount of brightness to the page along with allowing the audience to identify which festival would be suited to them, thus making the magazine desirable as it is being used as an informative tool in this sense. The use of serif font ties in with the theme of the magazine, as it is the typical font that you are likely to come across when reading the ‘Q’ magazine regularly, as it also featured on the contents page. It also gives a list of ‘5 festivals outside the UK to be at’ which is for the more adventurous reader who may be inclined to go overseas to get their festival intake, therefore catering for all tastes within their audience range. The text within the page is very minimalistic and to the point, tying in with the theme once again, as it just states the key facts about each festival giving a link with more info.

The double page spread of the well known music magazine ‘Q’ is commonly idealistic of the house style of the popular magazine. With the tagline, featuring the phrase ‘the music industry’s finest’ the article immediately caters to the taste of the target audience, as it is focusing on what the ‘heroes’ of the music world have to say. It is keeping in with the key colour theme of the issue, using predominantly pink and yellow, along with the common monochrome feel, which gives off the punk rock feel that the magazine continues to anticipate. With the use of ‘Nicky Wire’, ‘Jonny Marr’ and ‘Jonathon Pierce’ in the article this once again supports the punk/rock feel to the magazine as these are some of the greats which are featured continuously in this genre. The predominantly serif font, ties in with the rest of the house style for the magazine, showing that it is what is in the article that counts, not what is happening on the page. the ratio of 70% writing to 30% images also shows that the magazine is focusing on engaging the more sophisticated audience to read and appreciate the criteria.