Research: Double Page spread #1

This is Q magazine and this double page spread started on Page 54. There are two columns of text on the left side of the double page spread, therefore the text doesn’t fill a lot of the page and probably is about 20% of it. This is due to the image covering the whole right side of the double page spread, and the majority of the left side is covered by the title. This layout has been effective as it has caught the readers eye, and the sans serif font of the title being very messy and rushed links into the title stating “THIS IS WHO I AM” they work very well together, as it is very aggressive and the underlining of the word “this” reinforces the individuality and forces people to accept. The black shows the anger and the power in the title, which is also what the model on the right side of the double page spread is wearing. Similar to the font of the title, the model is also carrying a sign with a rushed black font on it.

The column has around 1 cm distance from each other, which I feel is very suitable since if they were any bigger it would be a waste of space as the double page spread already consists of very little text. This article lacks pull quotes, cross lines, drop capitals, I feel this is the reason that the reader is not interested in the text and is not attracted to it, therefore I will definitely include these in my double page spread to interest the reader. The font seems to be at 10 and all the speech marks are the same size of the text. The shot is a long shot of a female holding a sign saying “FIGHT TRANSPHOBIA”, this links to the article and the title as it is screaming aggression to those who are unaccepting. This links to Stuart Hall’s representation theory as representation cannot possibly be a fixed unchangeable notion, as presented here society is changing.

This image suits the target audience as the model is wearing black which is very stereotypical of rock fans to wear, and to have dark eye makeup and to have a sultry look on her face. The model is declining Lauren Mulvey’s male gaze as she is clearly not dressing for men as she is covered in black and looks angry which isnt to impress men, as many rock fans do not do anything to impress the opposite sex. The shot is taken outdoors with natural light and is very pure which I feel adds meaning to the article and the representation they are portraying, there are no obvious photo shopping either.

The only thing on the page that indicates house style to me is the red box as this is the only thing with colour on the page and uses the same style shaping and colour as the magazines masthead of Q. A detail I noticed is the way the word “who” from the title actually overlaps on to the background of the image, this connotes to me that they are actually making a mark and a statement as it is linking to graffiti. This also connotes to me just how significant this article is and how they want to make a permanent impact on the reader, just as graffiti does on a wall.

There is not a lot of white space however there is a lot of grey space as the background of the image is on a grey background. The grey matches the black and the black is stereotypically known and to be linked with rock, which links to Hartleys theory of genre, which states it is an agent of ideological closure.

This influences my creativity and planning as I want all of my image, title and article to link together very clearly and I want the representation to be very clear and the attitude of the double page spread to be very evident. Due to my genre being bhangra and not rock, I would use a similar layout however brighter colours and a different image. Perhaps similar to the one below, as this represents my genre much clearer.