Front cover image

The images which are going to be used in the front cover has to have a urban edge to it, be different from all the other usual front covers and the effective use of black and white in the image to create the raw feeling which it has, the images will all be mid-shots or close up shot, just showing the face, with some environment showing behind it, to show where they are and it sets the scene for what there are as a person, this is a great example of mos def, Notorious B.I.G and Jay-Z showing themselves in the environment, and showing there personality through the facial expressions, and with the black and white it really emphasises by only focusing on the facial expressions and not the bright colours and background images, these are also seen as been blurry so it doesn’t create attention.

The other images which could be used is more of a studio look, with a plain background and the image been produced so to speak as the other ones are more of a individual look and seen as a snap shot into the scene what’s really happening. The studio look could be used but it would be the right kind of feel the magazine is aiming for and the edgy look which its going for.

Pitch

The magazine which I am going to make is for the hip hop genre of music, for males, because research has shown more men read the magazines,  and the age from 18-25, this age because of my research has shown that this is the main market for the magazine industry, this would because they have the most disposable income and mainly most in tune with the current style and scene for music, and with the hip hop scene changing all the time i thought this would be the right target audience, this would then have an effect on the way the magazine is designed and how it flows, from the formality of the text, to the colour which is used, i.e. neon bright explosive colour don’t need to be used to attract the attention of the audience like in children magazines, the age range have a more mature look on music, but still want to know the latest gossip and what’s happening in the hip hop world.

The colour which is going to be used is the typical red black and white, this will only be for the font, not the colours of the images, because the boldness and the outgoing colours of the hip hop fashion have to be shown throughout the magazine.

The images which will be used will mainly be mid shots of the person, not to much going on in the image, I want the image to mean something, if the background had to much going on then it would take it away from the image and the meaning behind it, the image has to have meaning and be very specific to the article which the image will be promoting.

The Masthead will be outgoing to establish the magazine, and be able to stand out from all the other hip hop magazines out there, it wont be plastered all over the front cover, it might be hidden slightly not to take it away from the image and the look of the front cover

Advertising In a Magazine

The adverts which are included in the magazine are also very important, if you take the magazine XXL, they wont put anything random in the magazine, and on the other end, the companies wont randomly advertise in magazines which target audience doesn’t read, the company Casio G-shock, have a very successful company and have become iconic, this would be down to the constant advertising and marketing done by the company and typically their adverts would be included in the magazine, because ‘all’ of XXL readers would own a G-shock and it would be seen as a investment for the company to advertise in the magazine, this also carries on the fashion style which XXL have going on, exposing the new styles which is appearing in the hip hop scene, so the adverts which are chosen don’t always look like advert, they could look like features, so it isn’t just seen as another selling pitch from the company.

The design of the advert is also very important for the company, as you can see in this image of one of the adverts, its very urban and would appeal to the readers of the magazine, showing the tattoos on his arm while riding a bike, looks care free and the rush of going quick on a bike, shown by the blur in the background.  This showing, the watch has something to do with it and the personality of the person.

Media Pack: The Source

 

With the use of media packs for secondary research is a good way of already knowing, what target market I should be aiming for and what appeals to readers, by the representation of the magazine layout with the correlation between the demographic of the readers, i.e. the source has a majority gender of men and the median Age is 28 and with a earning of 38,000, and the majority ethnicity is African American, with 26% white behind that.

This doesn’t mean as a magazine they specifically chose articles which will aim for that market, as a quote from the source ‘The Source has the most diverse audience in Hip-Hop. Regardless of sex and race, The Source captures the attention of Hip-Hop fans period’. So as a magazine, they know what there target audience is but it doesn’t change from the point of showing the hip hop scene, they carry on doing what they have been doing, because people have come to them because the dig what they are doing, not because it ‘suite them as a demographic’ do you have to change the magazines you read because of your age, colour and gender?

With the demographic, with hip hop its all about the style, and the source magazine have identified the key characteristics of them:

 -style makers

-Forward thinking

-Technologically savvy

-Entertainment junky

-highly social

-Gamers

-Fully accessorized

Even though this is been stereotypical, it helps the magazine identify what needs to be in the magazine, and as I am doing the same genre of music, I will have the same target audience so i will have to include this in the overall flow of the magazine .

With the circulation of the magazine very important, The source have shown that they sell 2/3 of their magazines on the newsstand, which shows the appearance is everything and without a good looking magazine could jeopardise the sales of the company, this means selling the magazine as much as you can with the looks, i.e. you might have good articles, but the readers don’t know that until they buy it, this will obviously mean customers will come back but to appeal to new audience and customers the front cover is very important, shown by the statistics.

Style Sheet

A style sheet is used to represent what the magazine wants to look like, and what the colour scheme is going to be and what the mast head is going to be to like, or what the idea are like, so the specific masthead but one of them will be, this will be open to ideas and change, the images which are shown also shows what the magazines style is going to be, with my style sheet, it shows more a mature representation,  of  the hip hop scene, showing the image which isn’t captured in all the other magazines. The style sheet also goes into detail the font sizes, text and size of the magazine, so its gives a outsider a look into the magazine, and this will be used as a blueprint for my style of my magazine.

Mood Board

Mood boards are used to create the style and image of what your target market is about, showing things that represent them and the artist within, the mood board has been created to show the areas of a magazine, and where the magazine needs to be aiming for, and the style which it needs to create, as you can see in the mood board, hip hop is a very bight and fresh genre with the music style and the colours which are associated with them, also the fashion which is seen within the scene, its totally different to anything else which is out there.