Double page spreads are a standard component in all magazines, they can be very stylised, say if we were to look at a slightly more modern, ‘cutting edge’ magazine such as "NME". Double page spreads can also be simple, subtle in their approach. The section of the article I have chosen as an initial starting point comes from an edition of "Mojo" September 2001 issue 94 is an example of the latter, and I intend to use New Order's image as inspiration to some extent when designing my band's image.
The first point to make about the section of the article I have chosen, pages 80 and 81, is the colour photograph of the band on page 81. The picture incorporates the whole of the band in question, possibly at a house party, maybe just hanging around. They are dressed in clothes popular in the 80’s, but at the same time their style isn’t ostentatious, the look is simple, cheap, ‘real’, reflecting the northern working class voice image from their Joy Division days. The idea that they are in a fairly standard house with bland curtains and furniture add to this image, the tea identifies the band immediately as British, bands from the UK at this time were very into national pride, representing their roots, keeping to them, not changing into posers as they gained money and fame.
Also, when looking at the picture it’s important to notice that the front man (Bernard Sumner), has had his face blurred. This is done partly to set him apart from the other members of the band, identifying him as the lead, but also to get across another part of New Orders’ identity: the abstract. This has been a part of the band since Joy Division when they were just starting up, and they kept trying to tackle the avant garde scene all through their career as musicians.
In terms of costume, it’s vital to point out that two of the band members are wearing leather jackets, a fashion of the day, but also a signifier of a rebel, or a dark horse. New Order were certainly outlandish in their approach to music, rebelling against the mainstream while at the same time gaining mainstream success. Sumner's trench coat is a nod to New Order's (but mainly Joy Division's) obsession with the army, particularly Nazis, and army memorabilia.
Moving away from the picture and onto layout and colour scheme of the article, we can see that on this double page spread the layout is simple, two items break up the text, one is the picture I discussed earlier, the other is the black box, entitled Heart and Soul (a reference to the Joy Division song), which contains a condensed interview on Ian Curtis. The contrast between the rest of the text (which is black on a white background) to draw attention to the extract is a clever and subtle way to catch the audiences’ eye.
Of course the other, more subtle reason for this, is to suggest to the audience something about the identity of Joy Division, or to enforce it depending on whether the reader is a fan or not; the band were always about being simple, about an absence of colour (an idea popular in the post-punk genre), the colour scheme that "Mojo" elected to use is all we need as an audience to know that Joy Division were a band about being not only simple, but quite melancholic in their approach to music, black being a colour that goes hand in hand with the ideas of darkness and misery.
If we were to look at all of these elements combined we can see that the double page spread works because the layout isn’t complex, it is about the band, but it doesn’t overload our senses by hurling images at us. I will keep in mind the merits of this concept when designing my double page spread and may incorporate elements of it into my work.
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