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.

Double Page Spread Analysis

The double page spread of a magazine, is the main feature, what people mainly buy the magazine for, this means there has to be enough information which will interest the reader, and keep there attention, but not to much so it over powers the page and the information which is been given, i.e. a double page spread would never have two pages full of writing on it, and many of the time it doesn’t even have one page, the section will be split up. With a 3^rd of the page only having text included, and the text wont be just placed randomly on the page, it will be included in the overall design and flow of the double page spread, with the image incorporating the text and not showing as its a random layer, as text may flow around the image, or the image could incorporate space for the text to be put, a clear area with no image noise to disturb the writing.

The image wont just be randomly placed it will have to be included in the feature which its about, but also express the character of the artist, without wasting text and time explaining who they are and what their about. The image should portray this, but as it would be the main feature of a magazine, the reader should already know who they are and for that reason buying the magazine in the first place, because with a feature, the artist would also be placed on the front cover as well, as a selling scheme to attract the attention of the customer/target audience.

The first magazine which i will be analysing  will be from the source, and the article is about T.I. this is clearly shown by the image which has been used but also with the large tag line which incorporates this into it, ‘T.I.me’  the large tag line is used to express what the text is going to be about, and with the small overview bubble explaining, if readers don’t already know. This sets the reader up for what the text is going to be about. The colours which are also used are also within the theme of summer time, with the bright blue, green and reds used because with the simple white background, there has o be more than the image and the text included, so the colours brighten and liven the double page spread up.

With the image having a plain white canvas, it has to stand out and adequate for filling in the space, and instead of a simple standing pose, the artist is in a different, not normally seen stance, which means  mores going on, and the space filled is larger, and with the white background it is used as a minimal effects look and works well.

The second double page spread is completely different to the first, how the image and text are used together but still how it works, with this double page spread, the image and text are separate as in they are not on top or involved with each other.

With the image been a very urban image with dark colours and next been unable to be included in the image without creating problems and mess on the page,  the text has its own white background , it is still seen as a part of the magazine, because of the cut of the image been jagged (not a clean cut) which also adds a urban feel to the spread, this continues with the minimal use of straight use of lines and sharp corners. This continues at the end of the white section, where graffiti style pain splatter is been used  to break away from the average flow of a magazine, the gold colour used also flows with the gold font of the tag line.

The text which is included is also in columns which makes it easy to read and connect with the writing, it also makes the image very clean and manageable,  the only text which goes against the grain is the extract from the interview, where the text is a different style, size and colour to the rest, showing its importance but also basing this around the interview, and gives a understanding of his personality.

The final double page spread used is different from all the rest, not in a good way, but in a individual way of showing text and a spread, the articles from the magazine black & gold,  about john legend, this is clearly showing in the title, ‘john legend’ which is simple and it works, because the font colour isn’t a colour is a image of him transferred into the text, so while showing the readers who the article is about, it also gives a visual image of him at the same time, which is a good way of visual interpretation. This is done twice in the double page spread, with the track list been show with another image of him behind it,  these are the only two images in the magazine, which creates a boring spread, and with the background colour been back the white writing doesn’t have the same effect  just with ‘boring’ columns been used, there is the slight use of red in the text which is used to emphasise the importance of that text, i.e. grabbing the readers attention for been different.  But as the simplicity of the magazine, even though it is different, doesn’t work for me and doesn’t come across interesting.

With the 3 double page spreads analysed I will incorporate some of the styles used to create my double page spread.