Double Page Spread Analysis - Louder Than War

Double Page Spread Analysis - Louder Than War

This specific double page spread is about a band known as "Ocean Colour Scene". The layout and content of this article is conventional in terms of other existing double page spreads. The article is spread over two facing pages. Firstly, the main focal point, or the CVI (Centre of visual interest) is the image of the band members of ocean colour scene. This image takes over about 3/5 of the left hand page, and bleeds slightly into the right hand page. This shows that the image itself must be important and integral to the article itself. Without the image, the reader (assuming they had no prior knowledge of the band) would not be able to visualise who the interviewer was talking to / about. There is a caption in small white text rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise on the left hand side bottom corner of the featured image, which states the members of the photograph.

The headline of the article reads "Seasides and Freerides" which could relate to the band's name - ocean is synonymous with seasides, and freerides could convey how the band have had a free ride, or the opposite in fact, that their journey to success has been a struggle. The headline rhymes, which is catchy and stays in the reader's head, which means they think about it later in the day even when they're not reading the magazine anymore. The typography is in block capitals, and the I in "Seasides" bleeds down vertically and becomes the first R in "Freerides" which could symbolise a slide going downwards, which are common at seasides. The colour is a pale kind of yellow-green which is different to the colours used on the front page and contents page. This reinforces the idea that Louder Than War change their colour scheme throughout the progression of the magazine to keep readers engaged and stop them from being bored by the same colours each time. This same colour of green is used in drop caps, briefly on one word in the stand-first subheading, and on the filler on the right hand side. The typography also features drop shadow to make the letters stand out more, and makes it easier for it to attract the eyes of readers browsing through the pages.

Beneath the main image and headline is the stand-first, which is black text on white background, again in block capitals. The text size is bigger than the copy text size and smaller than the headline text size. The stand-first here is  useful because it provides some background context to who Ocean Colour Scene are by briefly stating "Celebrating their 20th anniversary of their breakthrough hit album Mosely Shoals". This tells the audience that this band are 20 years old, therefore established. They now also at least know one of their albums. Now they are able to read the article because they know the basics of who they are. Within the stand-first subheading, the editor reveals his name to be Ian Chaddock, therefore he did not announce his name using a byline, which is what conventionally happens. This reinforces the idea that this magazine is not wholly conventional. 

The first line of the copy (text of article) is not arranged as a kicker, in which the first line of text is in a bigger font size than the rest of the copy. This once again shows Louder Than War's lack of convention. However, the copy does start with a drop cap of the letter F, in the same yellow-green colour used for the headline. Another drop cap is also used in the 5th column on the letter F. There are 5 columns of copy, and the alleys between each column are approximately 0.5 centimetres each. The font of the copy isn't serif, therefore its rather soft, and easy to read. The text itself is flushed left, therefore its aligned to the left hand side of each column. This is the conventional way of writing bodies of text. 

On the far right hand side, bleeding down from the top is a large rectangle, the same green colour used throughout this page. It is a filler, to fill space that the body of text isn't taking up. This rectangle contains facts about Mosely Shoals, the band's breakthrough album. The top of this rectangle features a vinyl record, which reinforces genre, and the genre of this magazine is music. The name of the magazine is shown at the bottom of each page in small black writing, which is often conventional in magazines.

To conclude, these pages feature a conventional image that sets the scene for the article. The headline is reflective as a play of words on the band's name and their struggle on the journey to success. Musical terminology and imagery (vinyl record, album cover) repeatedly appear, reminding the audience of the genre, Music.