Research Task Five: Style Magazine Contents Page Analysis

 What is a 'Contents Page'?

Contents Page from December 2010

The contents page of a magazine is designed as a 'road map' to help guide the reader through the edition they've purchased, as most Condé Nast lifestyle and fashion magazines are over 100 pages long, some over 200 or nearly 300. This makes it a similar length to a fiction novel and would take ages to find the content you want without the contents pages so most magazines use either a single page or a double page spread that feature details on the front cover image, the main stories, features, beauty, and more that a high class society would be interested in. It allows an audience to pick and choose which parts of the magazine they want to read or where they want to start, giving a reader the feeling of choice.

Condé Nast magazine contents pages tend to follow similar conventions that continue over every issue of the magazines for continuity. They tend to have white backgrounds with black text, not much colour or imagery as they save the majority of their content for the contents page given their front page will only have one main story and maybe a content plug or two. They use societally "attractive" models - thin, white, feminine - for their front covers that have feature sections in a corner, stating each of pieces of clothing and where they're from, the brands of makeup, the setting, the lighting so their readers can feel attractive and high class like the models themselves.