"TOC: Conventions of Genre and Layout Plans"

 

In this blog, I am going to present my drafted table of contents that I drew based on some conventions and observations I made on the other science magazine's table of contents. As I saw the examples shown to me, I soon began to realize that there are many different ways you could present a science table of content's page with varying designs, some breaking and some abiding by the rules. Either way, the point expressed (in my opinion) is still relevant. I created three different drafts, and in this one, only one broke the convention rules, by using a technique that is not commonly used in this specific genre. I will indeed explain fully why I decided to still go along with it and how it can loophole back into the genre again. The base of a science magazine is usually like this one on the left, containing not much out of the box designs and has the usual textbook look. One of my drafts has this look, but the other ones have more modern designs.

Draft 1

This is the first draft that I drew, which has the normal textbook look. I wanted to have this as at least one of my drafts so that I could show an original design that would be accepted anyway and not be too out of place. It has the convention of a science table of contents because of how it contains lots of information and many headlines. It gives one image and one graphic, which is usually fine for science tables of contents since they tend to focus on the words and information more anyway. I added the typical "Contents" word in the typical contents area too and near that, also added the name of the magazine which I added in the contents page because I wanted it to be a bit different than usual standards. I added the graphic too to show that the words inside the balloon relate to it and put a headline there too named " Is releasing balloons in the atmosphere bad". This also contains a page number showing that the answer to that question may be found on that page. This is the first draft of my table of contents and has the traditional style for science magazines.

    

Draft 2

This is a more modern turn to the table of contents page, which contains more images and pull quotes than the actual information itself. This is also fine in science conventions, which in certain circumstances can allow images to be more of the main picture, especially in the table of contents section. This can give the reader a more aesthetic look at what is inside the magazine how boring/fun it may seem to that specific person. The headlines will go over the main parts of the magazine because space over here is limited and most of the text will have to go in one of the five slots. This also contains a pull quote for the reader to see, giving just a small part of a possibly larger conversation/article inside. On the top-right side of where the image is, there is a website and email given over there so that the reader, from the start, knows where to contact the magazine company in case of any mishaps, which might happen in smaller production companies. This is the second draft that I made which was more focused on the aesthetically pleasing look and the use of one main image to give a warm welcome to audiences with any background of knowledge. 

Draft 3 

This is the final draft and also the draft that did not follow the conventions a bit. The reason for this is that it utilizes white space, which isn't a very common or praised tactic to use in the science genre. I still used it because giving the design some white space, the design did not actually take much from the main idea itself either, which I was very pleased to find out. I, therefore, kept this design as a draft because I felt like even though it did not necessarily abide by the rules, It wasn't taking anything away from the idea being portrayed itself. I kept three images that each had headlines, and I also kept some headlines on the right side of them because some of them could not have been covered with pictures. I    also included the name of the magazine at the top of the page to give it a more formal view.  The contact detail was also listed in the bottom right corner of the contests page, giving the audience a place to look at in case they want further information. This is the third and last draft of my contents page and is the one that uses white space to break the convention rules and give the audience some subtlety.

Conclusion: In conclusion, I feel like all three of my drafts could work as the actual contents page, based on how I want to present my magazine and what kind of image I want to give the audience about my writing and personality. If I had to choose one, for now, I think that the second and third options seem the best to use, considering that they are more modern than the first option. I can't base my opinions based on the color scheme yet because of the lack of color, but I can infer that the third one might have the best shot with the color scheme.