Double Page Spread Research

There are many different features that are used in the double page spreads of music magazines. Some magazines have double page spreads where a picture takes up a whole page, some have many different pictures of mixed sizes all over the page, and some have a main picture in the middle of the page with a smaller one to the side. They are all different and there are many features that I could use from different magazines to help create my double page spread.

This is a double page spread from NME magazine. The picture covers all of the right hand page and a tiny portion of the left hand page in the centre. The white background of the image continues throughout the double page spread and this element is taken in the pull quote. The pull quote has a black block around it, which creates a contrast, making it stand out. The black border around the quote also keeps with a colour scheme of the double page spread as it matches the colour of Lily Allen's hair and parts of her shirt. The pull quote is also very different to the rest of the text on the page; it consists of each letter being of the same font, but different sized and aligned slightly off from each other. This grabs the readers attention and pulls them in to read the article.

There are also other features that are unique to the magazine including the how the name of the artist and the writer are in red, and the date of publication of the magazine and the NME logo are placed at the bottom of the page next to the page number. I think that something like this on the double page spread of my music magazine would work well as a design feature.

This is a double page spread from MixMag. You can see that the layout of this double page spread is different to that of NME. The picture only covers half of the double page spread, and is one one page. There is a lot more text on this double page spread, and it has a more formal look as the main title is all the same font and is the same size. The way that the pull quote is used on this double page spread is different to the one in NME. This one is very plain and simply laid out. It doesn't jump out at you. The simple dark text on the white background does however make it stand out, and a key feature on the page.

Another few features that this double page spread has is the banner along the top of the page with text telling you what section of the magazine it is, and what type of article it it, in this case it is a VIP Q+A. The title text is very bold and underlined. This ensures that it is the first thing the reader sees when they open the double page spread. The artists name is also highlighted which is a feature that is also present in the NME double page spread. One other thing that differs between the two double page spreads is that the MixMag DPS has another picture inserted to look like a polaroid which is also has text wrap around it. You can also see that at the beginning of both double page spread articles there is a drop cap. In the magazines they both use the font that is consistent with the house style of the magazine, but then move on to a normal font for the rest of the article.