Analysis - Vibe Magazine Contents Page

Target Audience

The primary target audience of Vibe magazine is working-class (social grades C1-E) black men aged between 15 and 30.

Layout

The top right of the page is taken up by the word “Contents.” An image of Kanye West takes up the centre of the page, with a caption to the left of the image. The list of contents is slotted along the right hand side, appearing as if it was an afterthought. In the bottom-right corner, there is a note saying who took the image, and standard copyright information.

Colour

The entire contents page is coloured in greyscale, except for a heart on the main image, which is coloured red, to stand out. This is a very stand-out colour scheme, and is a very bold choice. The colouring could refer to the rapper on the central image, Kanye West, and how he is often portrayed in the news as being a bad person, yet they may be representing how he is always seen in black and white as a crook, even if this is not true.

Imagery

Instead of the common conventions for contents pages, there is only one image shown on the contents page, and it looks like it would be more suitable on the front page. The only colour on the whole contents page is in the image, reflecting on Kanye West’s album artwork for his album released at the same time, which was plain with the only detail being a red heart. The image shows West wearing a suit, suggesting that he is trying to escape from the stereotypes that are "grabbing hold of him", and are represented by the arm that is holding him back, as though it is restraining him. He also looks as though he is not very interested in what is going on, with a bored-looking expression and hands in his pockets, which is a classic expression of boredom.

Typography/Text

The main thing noticed about the text originally is how the word contents is broken down into three lines; co, nten, and ts. This is done across every contents page Vibe has done. The rest of the text, in comparison, does not stand out as much, and fades away more into the background. Other articles mentioned include a biopic about a hip-hop legend, the Notorious B.I.G., and an article about J. Dolla. Both of these rappers are well known, and therefore would hook in more of an audience.

Conclusion

Overall, I would say that this was a worse example of a contents page than the other contents page I have looked at, however it is still better than the contents page I looked at in my preliminary task.