Magazine Table of Contents Design

Table of Contents Design (Without pictures)

Step by step Process...
At this point in magazine production I finished my magazine layout and magazine research. The goal for me now is to produce a visually appealing table of contents that effectively lays out the featured articles in the magazine. For this project I will refer to the page layout from the magazine design.

x1 COVER (1)

x1 TABLE OF CONTENTS (3)

x47 ADS (2,4,6,7,9,11,12,14,17,18,20,21,24,29,31,32,33,36,38,39,42,43,45,57,60,61,62,63,65,69,71,72,76,77,78,79,82,83,85,88,89,94,96,97,98,99,100)

x12 1 PAGE ARTICLE (5,8,10,13,19,30,37,44,64,70,84,95)

x6 2 PAGE ARTICLE (15,16,22,23,34,35,40,41,58,59,80,81,86,87)

x2 3 PAGE ARTICLE (66,67,68,73,74,75)

x2 4 PAGE ARTICLE (25,26,27,28,90,91,92,93)

X1 11 PAGE ARTICLE (46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56)

First layout:

After finishing this I realized I didn't like it at all. I went back to the men's health magazine for inspiration...

I noticed a couple of things: Since this issue celebrates Men's Health's 30 anniversary, they include a picture of their first magazine cover. The magazine included a gold border on the sides, and lines separate the categories. Every article is categorized into three categories, has the article titles, and page numbers that they are on. The only colors for the actual table of contents are red and blue and white (background)... keeping it simple.

There's now a problem for me... if i'm doing a 25-year anniversary issue, then will I have to create a second magazine cover to show as the first issue of the magazine? Or could I get away with claiming it has been here for 25 years and not do anything special? I decided to finish the table of contents and leave a space for a picture before I decide.

The Men's Health magazine provided the needed inspiration for my magazine table of contents. I adapted the horizontal bar at the bottom of the page showing the page number, issue of the magazine, and magazine title for my own magazine. I also took the 3 color concept and applied it for my magazine. The 3 prevalent colors I chose for the table of contents and most likely will be using for the cover page are white, black, and gold. I feel gold exhibits subconsciously to the reader a commanding and trustworthy tone that is able to attract a reader into buying and/or reading the magazine. I also borrowed the section-based format from this magazine as I've seen it was present in several other magazine table of contents.

I decided not to do anything special on the table of contents for the 25 year special except for including a box that says it... I want to focus my time on other aspects of the magazine and not do it because creating 2 original magazine covers is going to eat up time with the deadline coming up soon.

A problem that arose because of this however, was the extra space on my table of contents. I solved this by increasing font size and included text boxes which say featuring interviews/tips/form, etc, to fill up the patch of extra space.

As a whole I feel comfortable with submitting this new table of contents. 

My new magazine table of contents:

I included all of the articles in the table of contents because I want this to be more of a reference for the reader to make sure they can find the specific articles they're looking for. This format works because I feel it remains equally informative and visually appealing, following my initial goal. 

I have two special categories in the magazine- 25 year anniversary and special interviews and tips from some of the experts I've shot, which have many years experience with bodybuilding and weightlifting. I included these categories so the reader would be more interested/likely to read an article they might have not considered before.

Choosing the photos was tough. we shot so many variants of exercises, that I knew I wouldn't be able to include them all. I decided on fading three pictures together, making it look like a band on top of the magazine table of contents. I feel the photos I chose connect with the target audience (average gym-goer), as they are basic exercises that everyone should be familiar with.

I used three different fonts with this table of contents. The first font, (Rockwell Extra Bold) was used with the title Muscle Magazine (48) and Contents (28)... I feel it size and design make it the first thing the reader sees when flipping to the page, which is why I used it. The second font,(Haettenschweiler at 36) was used with the subheadings. I've noticed in the fitness magazines I researched, most of them had this style of font which seems universal with many magazine headings. For this reason, I used it so the reader can associate this magazine with other fitness pieces. The third font I used (Copperplate Gothic Bold 14) was with the article name and page number, as well as the publish date, magazine name, and table of contents page number at the bottom. I feel like this font went with the overall disciplined theme i'm trying to portray in the format of my magazine.