Comparison rough cut and final cut of contents page

Here is my final cut and my rough cut of my contents page. The final cut is on the left and the rough cut on the right.
The difference between the two is very noticeable in terms of how conventions and quality. There is a  different design and idea for both of the cuts. The first being that the final cut is based on Mojo and the rough cur on NME. Also the final cut is following the image dominated look where as the rough cut is more of a blocky look contents page. However that isn't the only difference. The rough cut is just all round poor in terms of the quality overall and the conventions used. The images for the rough cut look like floating heads in a sense and have no real correlation to the rest of the page. This is no longer an issue for my final cut as the image is clearly the main focus point and this is clear to see. The colours for the rough cut aren't very conventional and the gradient used is nothing sort of poor. The final cut has a clear colour scheme and is very effective as it gives it a professional look.