Mario BalazMEDIA

COURSEWORK

Production Brief

Preliminary Exercise: using DTP and the image manipulation program, produce thefront page of a new school/college magazine featuring a photograph pf a student inmedium close-up plus some appropriately lay-out text and masthead. Additionallycandidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page todemonstrate their grasp of the programme.

Main Task: The front page, contents and double page spread of the music magazine

You will be assessed on 3 aspects of the courseworkResearch and planning 20 marksProduction 60 marksEvaluation 20

Sixth form survey

1.) Are you are female or male?

Male Female

2.) How much money would you spend on a magazine?

3.) what would you be looking for in a magazine?

4.) How much time do you spend reading a magazine?

5.) What type of genre of a film of your favourite?

6.) What is your favourite genre for music?

Nothing £1 to £2 £2 to £3 £3 to £4 £4 to £5

Music Celebrities Sport Products Other, please name:

None 5 to 10 min 10 to 20 min 20 to 30 min Other, please name:

Romantic Action Adventure Sci-Fi Other, Please name:

Rock R&B Hip-HopClassic Heavy MetalDub Step Other, please name:

There were 15 males and 5 females

14 out of 20 people wanted the magazine under £3.

20 out of 28 responses preferred music and sport.

8 out of 19 preferred to read 10 to 20 minutes.

19 of of 31 responses preferred action and adventure.

26 out of 45 chose R&B, DubStep and Hip-Hop as their favourite genre of music.

Audience ProfileFirst of all, my target audience will be aimed at male and females who likes music (R&B, Dub step and Hip-Hop).They are in the socio-economic group E because they are unemployed sixth formers. They do not earn enoughmoney as socio-economic group C so they would like to buy magazines under £3. This means that this magazineshas to be under £3 and a music magazine. As in results, there were more males than females surveyed so themagazines will be more concentrated male type magazines but could also have a few of female things.

Line is going across the magazine to show it’sseparated from the bottom of the magazine.

The “why we all love music!” text is smaller than theheading to reveal that it is a quite scream where asthe heading is massive and the biggest sized font toshow its serious at the same time linking to workand music.

Barcode is at the bottomright of the magazinewhere magazines usuallyput their barcodes.

Price of the magazine is on top of the barcode.Its lighter than the blue background and theblazer. This makes it to contrast.

I made the notes even more brighterand more vivid to stand out of themagazine.

Iv added a black outline to the circular shape.This does not contrast within the circle andcolour but does stand out in the backgroundto give it a better look.

Different font matches the wordsunderneath the headline. Its white tocontrast background. Font colourfading into grey and then blue to matchthe bright colours and dark colours

around.

Cropped out image and putin front of the backgroundlayer.

Different font with a different size fontbelow “BEST STYLES” to show that beststyle is more powerful.

The masthead is massive, black and boldto show contrast and also stands out

As you can see, There’s ablack shadow covering meon the right hand side of mecovering the edge of theblazer.

The white outline on the left handside of me showing that the side ismore brighter or also to show thatsomething is lighting me up.

Preliminary Cover Page

FeaturesI decided to putfeatures on the leftside of the magazinecontents page becausethat’s where its usuallyconvectional.

Publication andweb linkI decided to put thepublication at the topbecause that’s whereits usually put within amagazine andsometimes they putthe link at the bottomof the contents page. Iput it at the topbecause it looks moreeye catchy.

ImageThis is the image of meholding a microphoneand dressed in a suit. Ithought that wearing asuit, suitable for theaudience because it’s asix form so peoplewould recognize itsalso about educationand also because I'mholding a microphone,people can connotethe link betweeneducation and music.

EventsThis is where the eventswould be at the bottomright usually and also togive the students anopportunity to beentertained. I put it at thebottom right because itsusually conventional there.

Preliminary Contents Page

The type of magazine I was thinking of was an classical musical magazine matching with the colour suit I have and also wit the microphone. This is where the image was put into a mise en scene of amagazine mock cover. First thing I done was to put up the Photoshop programme and open up a white plain background for the scale I wanted it to be. I then imported the image into the whiteplain background and then cropped out the image so that I could put it in. I had to carefully remove edges of the image so that I do not ruin the image because it had rigid edges. Secondly I changedthe background colour in order to make it look a bit more stronger. I also added drop shadows at the right side (Black Drop Shadow) and the left side (White Drop Shadow) of my body to show thatI'm leaning on the right side of the magazine and also to show lighting. The masthead is at the top of the magazine to show what it is all about. I added straplines on the left aside of the magazine.As you can see that the fonts are black and white and the purpose for that was to keep it simple, clear and also contrasts with the background. The barcode is placed on the bottom right of themagazine with the price on top of it in baby blue colour.

Original After

Comparison Of Images (Cover)

Music Magazine

Production Schedule

week Tasks Description

1/2 • Six form survey• Preliminary cover page• Preliminary contents page• Comparison of images (Cover)

• I will need to do a survey in order to know who my target audience is• I will create a Preliminary Cover and contents page for the 6 form • I will make a comparison of the cover from the start and final product

3/4 • Questionnaire • Audience Profile• Audience mood board

• I will create a questionnaire in order to know my target audience is • I will create one slide of a audience profile for who its going to aimed at and

how I want the magazine to be • I will get images from google and create a mood board

5/6 • Target audience Pages (2)• Conventional features of a music magazine cover

• I will create 2 pages of magazines institutions and explain who their target audiences are

• I will analyse 1 music magazine with convectional features

7/8 • Cover Analysis (1,2,3,4) • I will create 4 different cover pages that will be analysed

9/10 • Music planning magazine cover • I will create a page of how the music planning cover layout page would be

11/12 • Contents Analysis (1,2,3) • I will create 3 different Contents pages that will be analysed

13/14 • Music Planning magazine contents • I will create a page of how the music planning contents layout page would be

15/16 • Music planning magazine DPS (Double Page Spread)• Masthead Design Analysis • Masthead Planning

• I will create a slide of how the music planning DPS layout page would be • I will get images of logos of music magazines from google and analyse them • I will create a page of varieties of different fonts for a masthead

17/18 • Take Images • Choosing a Cover Image/Editing the cover images

• I will take images with a camera of the person that I am going to choose for the Cover, Cover and DPS pages

• I will create a page choosing a image for my cover and explain why I chose that one

• I will compare the edited image and the original image with a description

19/20 • Evaluation • I will finish evaluation and answer all 7 questions

Questionnaire

4.) What is your musical hobbies in terms of interments?

7.) How many music concerts have you been to so far?

3.) What would you be looking for in a Hip Hop magazine?

5.) How passionate are you about Hip Hop music? Scale

from 1 to 10. 1= really poor 5= normal 10=obsessed

6.) From the following music artists who are you

most likely to listen to?

1.) How much money would you spend on a magazine?

Nothing £1 to £2 £2 to £3 £3 to £4

2.) Who is your favourite music artist ?

50 Cent Eminem Snoop Dog Dr. Dre

Products Clothing Celebrities Events

Guitar Piano Drum kit percussion

Eminem 50 cent Tyga Tinie Tempah14 out of 20 people wanted the magazine under £3

18 out of 20 people chose Eminem

Tick one or two boxes

19 out of 20 people Clothing and 17 out of 20 people chose Events

15 out of 20 people chose drum kit as there favourite interest

18 out of 20 people said 9

19 out of 20 people chose Eminem

9 people out of 20 said 7 4 people out of 20 said 3 2 people out of 20 said 63 people out of 20 said 9

I want my magazine to be like the magazine XXL because I think that the XXL magazine is aboutlooking cool and being successful. It will be aimed at 16 to 20 year old males that like fashion andlike to become a inspiration to who ever they want to be.

Its most likely going to be aimed at people that are in love with the Hip-Hop culture and industry. Ihave analysed RESPECT, VIBE and XXL magazines and out of these magazines I thought that the XXLmagazine is more interesting to me which actually makes me think about aiming it at people nearmy age that are interested in fashion and music.

My magazine will be quite similar to XXL but there’s going to be changes with the ethnicity becauseits going be UK based. Its going to be mixed with the ethnicity in the UK to their interests. Thetypes of magazines my audience could buy is VIBE because VIBE is also about looking cool with theway you look also entertainment. Their buying habits would be looking at celebrities.

Audience Profile

Audience Board

Vibe’s objective is to refer to hot, new andcool things. This magazine is aimed at 18 to 34years old approximately which are passionateabout music, fashion, entertainment andpop-culture industry. Its mostly read byBlack/African American people between theage of 18 to 34 also the results show thatthere's more people employed that arebuying these type of magazines. Furthermore,more men are reading Vibe’s magazines.

Target Audience: VIBE

RESPECT is a New York-based, quarterlyhip hop and photojournalism magazinefounded in 2009 by Jonathan Rheingoldand edited by RapRadar's Elliott Wilson.The publication covers hip hop culture,focusing on music, photography, andstyle. As opposed to mainstream hip-hopmagazines, RESPECT.'s aesthetic is morehighbrow which means it focuses moreon how they represent their magazinethrough the Hip-Hop culture, targeting a"sophisticated” and intelligent readerwho desires a publication that speaks tothem with class. Its circulation isapproximately 250,000 per issue.

Target Audience: Respect

Target Audience: XXL

XXL magazine is a Hip-Hop magazine that wasestablished in 1997 by the former employee of sourcemagazine and made XXL similar in its style. It self andsource magazine are the most widely read magazinebased on hip hop genre. XXL has branched out intodifferent magazines such as scratch, hip hop soul andeye candy. The age group that would read XXLmagazine would be 16 to 25 year olds because theyusually listen to this genre of the music industry alsofrom my experience, I have seen people wearing stuffthat relate to their favourite music artist which showsthat these people in this society are inspired by thisgenre and there for, it matches to what their interestsare which link to the magazine. There are mostly about78% readers, median of age 27, people that are collegeeducated 44.7% and African American 67% that readthis magazine. They speak to the rap-music generationwhere they are really passionate about the lifestyle.

Straplines- Words around the magazine

Masthead- Its like the headline

Colour Choices- a range of colours

Image- a picture

Splash- the main story

Tag- they are single words

Kicker- different font to make it pop out

Conventional Features of a Music Magazine

MastheadThe masthead would usually be at the top of the magazine but asyou can see, Usher’s head is covering the masthead; there is noneed to show the whole title because it is so popular.

ImageThe image of usher is very cool. The clothing and jewellery thathe is wearing represents that he cares about the way he looks.The glasses and jewellery he is wearing is bling there for, it showsthat it could be aimed at people that love looking cool stuff. Hisfacial expression is very masculine because his face looks serious.

ColoursThe colours on this is very vibrant as you can see that there’sbaby blue, yellow, white, red and more. It could link with musicbecause music and colours gives you an emotion.

FontThere's 5 fonts on this magazine. This could show that there's anrange of genres. The fonts gives the person to feel what kind ofmusic industry it fits in with. Some of the fonts are bubbly andsome have straight lines there for, it juxtaposes.

SplashThe splash of the magazine “Swagger”, is the only one that is redthere for it stands out. It links with maybe the ghetto industrybecause it looks more like a graffiti font. It could link with thepeople that live their life's as young youths.

Cover Analysis 1

Image and Representation:As you can see, there's a lot of polysemic signs that just come from the money.The money connotes being wealthy. Especially the big icon 50 Cent sitting on apile of money. In fact, the strapline “The future is now” actually fixes the image ofmoney to be more motivated and the strapline to be anchorage. The straplinealready gives the audience an idea that it is about one thing which makes it lessabstract even though the image of money just it self could be polysemic. Besides,the handcuff on 50 cents wrist is on one wrist, this reveals that he doesn’t followlaw, the face expression interprets a apathetic suggestion that he is carelessabout rules and as an individual doing his own thing, with money, puttingeverything else to the side.

The way he sits on the pile of money symbolises that he is the diamond in thebucket, he’s got power and is also a role model to the audience. This will inspirepeople that look up to 50 cent. His cap is on the side showing that he is notbothered about how he wears it perceived about his own appearance. The whiteglow around the 50 cent reveals that he is the star and representing him as a king.

The actual magazine it self shows the a lot of money and really stands outbecause its filled up the magazine cover nearly half way. In fact, the colour to themoney and background.

Cover Analysis 2

Straplines:As you can see, the “THE 100 BEST HIP-HOP WEB SITES”, gives you now weblinks to access online which is for the audience that are interested into anyother Hip-Hop industry. Its placed in the top right hand corner with a differentfont following along below with it. Further more, the plus sign that involvesother international musical artists are also involved in the magazines for moreoptions to get interested.

Masthead:The Masthead is very clear and it is in a big font size. Interestingly, you can seethat 50 Cents head is covering the “L” from the logo. No matter how much theycover the logo, I'm sure that the target audience would recognize that thismagazine is XXL; its so popular.

Cover Analysis 3

As you can see the mast heads in the magazines may have similarities but also have differences. In the“RESPECT” masthead you can see that it is within the top on the frame to show that its the most importantalso represents that there is no need for it to stand out because its already at the top with a bit of 2pacs headcovering some of the parts to show that people could still recognize it quite quickly. The effect of themasthead with 2pacs head in front makes the image stand out and to show that the person is important toowhere as in the XXL magazine the masthead is not at the top within the frame but is positioned at the top lefthand corner also its not at the edge but has left a gap in between the edge to show that the box is standingout. The “XXL” masthead has a black outline and white surface within which shows contrast with the redbackground colour. This applies the same for the “RESPECT” masthead but with no black outline.

The centre image of RESPECT Magazine is Tupac in a big portrait. The image is grey to represent the losswhen Tupac died. His life story was a bad road even though he made a change in the Hip-Hop industry andalso changed others. He also made change, went against illuminati and groups of people would frame him todestroy 2pac’s image. This grey effect of Tupac symbolises how bad situations were for him and reveals howpeople feel shocked that Tupac died. This effect is easy for 2pac’s fans to understand and have empathy forhim because of his loss. The image is massive and is positioned straight in the middle to show that he is themain star. Furthermore, the colours of this image is very contrasting. The white and black are juxtaposingagainst each other and could symbolise that he is dead and he is a legend. The chain on Tupac really standsout and symbolises that he was the one to change the society and shows that because he lived in the ghettoIn America from the 1980’s to 1990’s gangs would usually use revolvers. This weapon symbolises power.

As you can see the mast heads in the magazines may have similarities but also have differences. In the “RESPECT” masthead you can see that it is withinthe top on the frame to show that its the most important also represents that there is no need for it to stand out because its already at the top with a bitof 2pacs head covering some of the parts to show that people could still recognize it quite quickly. The effect of the masthead with 2pacs head in frontmakes the image stand out and to show that the person is important too where as in the XXL magazine the masthead is not at the top within the framebut is positioned at the top left hand corner also its not at the edge but has left a gap in between the edge to show that the box is standing out. The “XXL”masthead has a black outline and white surface within which shows contrast with the red background colour. This applies the same for the “RESPECT”masthead but with no black outline.

The straplines in RESPECT magazine are linked with the past and presence. In the magazine you have modern rappers and old school rapper 2pac. Thisshows that all these modern rappers look up to Tupac. This is a contrast between all the rappers in that magazine which means that they still sell itbecause the rappers still exist but not 2pac. The modern rappers are the big stars now and there for their fans still look up to them which means they arestill inspired by them. The message from these strapline sizes represents that the modern rappers are below Tupac and Tupac is irreplaceable like it says.Also because the strapline “2pac Irreplaceable”, its on its own which Anker's the image; Tupac is on his own where as the other straplines of the legendsare put together. The barcode is at the bottom right of the magazine and isn't really that noticeable

Cover Analysis 4

The XXL masthead is in a large font size and shows that, that is the main thing aboutthe magazine. Its red and this is a rich colour there for it represents that this is thetop Hip-Hop magazine. The colour is red juxtaposing the “XXL” in white font colour.The colour red connotes, danger, Swag, blood and even a variety of different lifestyles. Also between the two “X”s is a diamond shape but not exactly. Besides, itcould link with the magazine that there is lots of wealthy icons in the magazine.

The centre image is very big and its just the face. Really zoomed in. The faceexpression of Jay Z is very serious. His eyes are very concentrated on the audiencethat buy this magazine so it looks like he is looking at you. The mode of address reallymakes the audience catch more attention. The picture is very clear portraying howserious the magazine is represented. The magazine is represented as a very simpleformat. Not that much things going on. Just simple colours and very serious fonts.The fonts are very bold. Even the money sign in the “business” already shows whatthe magazine is about and money connotes power and serious things. Jay z is wearingjewellery representing himself as a real Hip-Hop star especially with the chain aroundhis neck but mostly, it’s the face of Jay Z that stands out of the magazine. If yourealise, the words are pushed to the left side of the magazine and Jay Z left as hisown on the right side which represents that nothing is touching, even words whichlink to how untouchable he is. It shows that no one can frame Jay z and ruin his imageas a superstar.

The straplines are bold and are mostly in black. They really stand out with thebackground that is white and also its put to the left hand side of the magazine whichmeans that all straplines are all put to the side squeezed near each other instead ofbeing all spread out. In fact the squeezed straplines are most likely to get noticedbecause they are all near each other contrasting the image of Jay Z put to the righthand side. The clothing that Jay Z is wearing is grey which kind of fades in with thewhite background and hasn’t got a dark colour to it. His earrings that he is wearingrepresents the money and links with the business. His chain just makes the wholemagazine look sophisticated. There’s a range of fading's that go from white to blackwhich makes the magazines lighting fairly shaded. There are high key lighting, low keylighting and naturalistic lighting.

MastheadStrapline

Image

Strapline

Strapline

Barcode

Main article

Date/Price

Music Magazine Planning Cover

Strapline

Strapline

The XXL little masthead in the corner is so much smaller than its original font in thefront of the magazine cover but as you can see, the XXL logo of this content page isnot at the top of the magazine and replaced with “the A-side” This is very interestingbecause usually the XXL masthead is the main thing about the magazine.

The Contents page it self is very contrasting and simple using no more than 3 fonts. Ithas straight lines giving us a feeling that it is very sophisticated and modern. Thefeatures with the brackets are sans-serif portraying that the magazine is all aboutbeing slick and sophisticated.

The red arrow at the bottom left is opposite the XXL logo on the top right which addsa bit of a different look instead of having black all the way. The effect of that is that itmakes it stand out and also contrasts the white background. The red arrow is a fast-forward that you would se on the old tape radios and the logo encourages theaudience to flick through pages.

The Black thick line going across the middle of the magazine beside 50 cent standsout meaning that information is being separated and symbolise that there is a hugedifference between the two side information. If the thick line wasn’t there or just athink line then It wouldn’t really look like its two different separate information butthe same so just the fact the thick line makes a huge difference to the human eye.

The range of colours and amount chosen is not a lot. As you can see there's moreblack, white fonts colours and not a lot of red colours meaning that the red standsout because there more black and white that filled on the mise en scene.

I think that because 50 cent is wearing a black shirt and cap, the writing and thickshapes are mostly chosen to be next to him; it looks like the writing and 5o sent isbehind Soulja Boy, this creates the content page to stand out from Soulja Boy beingput right in front of the contents page especially as a big image. If Soulja Boy wasn’tin front of 50 Cent, then it would look like an flat image.

The month is on the top right which contrast against the black thick line. Its veryclear that it has its own space where there is nothing else bothering or overlappingwit thee for its eye catchy and gets caught really quickly.

All the way at the bottom, there's an website link which is very clear because of theamount of plain white background there for, its also in bold meaning that thepurpose for that is to make it stand out.

Following along the left to the bottom, you have all the features to pages you canaccess and look at which are the main information for the magazine that theaudience need.

Contents Page Analysis 1

Contents Page Analysis 2The month is very clear and turns out to be next to the logo. Itswhite and it contrasts with the red background.

As you can see there's not a lot of things going on this contentspage and that’s what makes it interesting because its kept simpleand clear because the amount of space that is there.

The fashion feature and information is not separated by a line orany kind of line that separates information but as you can see theyused his arm to act as a line to separate the information. If therewas a line put into the arm part, I think that there's no need for itand also it could be distracting if it was there because there wouldbe too much going on around that area especially with thembracelets so its already clear that there is no need for a line.

There are 3 fonts used in this contents page with a mixture of bold,italics and lower cases which gives the contents page a differentlook otherwise, if it didn’t have any other different fonts then itcould quite boring I would say.

The image is huge and is the only image out of the whole contentspage and that shows that’s its pretty clear about this person that heis into fashion wearing all these chains.

This word “Fashion” in the contents page has an arrow next to itfacing on the right showing that its trying to communicate that itsclear its about this person making it anchorage with all these chainson a big image representing how fashion could be used. The arrowand the word “Fashion” just fixes the image.

Clearly in the top corner the vibe logo is very small and in thebackground you can see the first letter V part of the logo which isplaced in the middle top area but this means that they don’t reallyneed the whole logo VIBE because its so popular also maybebecause there was not that much space with the “CONTENTS” logoso they decided to put the “V” behind the “CONTENTS” on anotherlayer.

Contents Page Analysis 3

As you can see, you see that the big star usher isstanding on the right side of the magazine in a greybackground.

He has one of his hands in the pocket and there forit shows that he thinks he could be cool also in factthat the image is a large one, the image is what's itsfocused on and also could represent what themagazine is aimed for.

The large image allows the reader to directly look atthe image because its in a big scale. He is alsowearing a leather coat and has this urban stylewhich is usually people that like Hip-Hop whichcould be relevant. The gradient of the colour grey inthe background is dark on the top left corner whichthen fades more lighter as it goes to the bottomright corner.

The features are aligned to the left which then givesthe picture of Usher to stand out and have its ownpersonal space making it look isolated.

The features only have three different colours andthere for, makes it look different. If the fonts colourslook all the same then it would make the contentspage look boring so using different colours wouldmake it stand out more and also contrast with thebackground.

Music Magazine Planning Contents

IMAGE

EVENTS

REVIEWS

FEA

TUR

ES

DATEHYPECONTENTS

Main Image:As you can see, Florenceis wearing all blackwhich could look a bitsexual and flirty usingmode of address toshow that she is lookingat you. In fact, she hasher leg of the Americanflag showing that shereally does love Americalinking to the feature“got the love”. Also,“got the love” links toher song because shenamed her song got thelove. This is the reasonwhy they would put herthere instead ofsomebody else becauseshe could be patriotic.Also because the imageis following along withthe second page, if itmaking is lookminimalist because itsbig and allows to havespace in the doublespread page.

Feature Heading:The feature heading“USA got the love” have2 fonts in it. “USA” isbold and big followingalong to the next pageand “got the love” is initalics.

Article:The article is put to the bottom right hand corner on the second page following along withwhite space in-between 3 columns. The purpose for that is that if there was lines or textboxes, it would look more cluttered.

Columns:There are 3 columns on the bottom right hand corner making it look more pushed to thecorner because they separated the image so that there is more space and for it to be moreeye catchy letting you know exactly what is where on the double page spread.

Subheading:The subheading fontis bigger than thearticles font and isplaced below the “A”of “USA” making itstand out. As you cansee, it looks like fromthe left top handcorner, the fonts gosmaller as they goalong to the bottomright hand corner.Furthermore, thesubheading linkswith the pic from thequote “America ather feet” suggestingthat she is thedominate female ofAmerica.

First Letter:The first letter is in a Italicfont and also is the samefont size as “got the love”. Itlinks together making it lookcontinuous through thearticle so in the article, itcould say information abouther having love for Americaor by America.

Double Page Spread (1)

Main Image:The main image isnot spread acrossthe second pagebecause it’s notminimalistic. As youcan see, there's redlighting starting theleft side of thedouble page spreadfading into babyblue. If the redlighting was going toend on the right sideof the first page, itwould really not lookthat nice becausethere would be toomuch red coloursaround the middlearea so they decidedto spread the redcolours evenlythrough the doublepage spread.

Article:The articles are placed on the second pageof the double page spread to show theaudience that that image is completelyseparate and non-minimalistic.

Columns:The columns areevenly spread out onthe second pagefrom the top to thebottom making itlook morebusy/cluttered.

Feature Heading:The feature heading isplaced all the way at thetop of the second page“The Most Exciting PeopleIn Music”. Its very clearand its placed right in thetop middle.

White Space:The white spacein between all thearticles are notreally spaced outbecause there'sso muchinformationmaking it lookcluttered but itstill has whitespacing making itlook clear thatthere’sparagraphs.

First Letter:The First letter is very big making itstand out and also because itsblack, it contrast. Also, the big “J”on the second page could symbolisethat the whole double page spreadcould be just about Jay Z. Ainterview for the a big icon.

Double Page Spread (2)

Music Magazine Planning DPS

Image

JACK WALKER

Quote

4443

Masthead Designs Analysis

The XXL logo is very bold withwhite writing and red backgroundwhich makes it contrast. The edgeof the letters are not really sharpbut have a bit curve to it making itlook more bubbly I would say.

The VIBE logo is very simple black. One colour andone font. This could symbolise how serious they areabout their music magazine representing who theyare as a music industry. However, the “V” in the logois quiet slanted and it is not as a normal v wouldlook like but just that little slanted part of the vmakes it look different.

The Q logo is more of a middleclassed based magazine so itsgoing to have this sophisticatedlook to it to attract theaudience. The O shape of theletter Q is very simple on theoutside but if you have a look onthe middle, there’s an another Oshaped circle but rotated on adifferent angle and making itthin too that’s why the top ofthe Q and bottom is thinnerthan the sides right and left. Justthis two circles gave it adifferent look to the Q making itlook more creative also the serifpart blending in the O shapemakes it look like a Q but itshows that the middle classedaudience like it slick andsophisticated and posh.

The BLENDER logo is just simple black butnow this logo has more curved edgesmeaning no sharp edges and also it lookslike a more like a smooth font representingsomething about the magazine that is going tobe all about being slick and smooth.

The RESPECT logo is also aboutbeing serious. At the end of respectyou see a full stop which showsthat, that’s all they want and that’show the magazine is going to berepresented. The colour red on theback ground could symbolise maybea warning and also that they havepower so just from this logo you seehigh status from the Hip-Hopindustry.

Masthead Planning

Britannic Bold

Candara

Impact

Express SF

Terminal

Stencil Std

English157 BT

Freestyle Script

Harlow Solid Italic

French111 BT

Embassy BT

I have list of Bold fonts and italic fonts. I decided to go for the bold because theitalic is not conventional on a Hip-Hop magazine also because the impact font, itis bold, big and clear with soft edges. This is what makes the magazine looksimple and just makes it look more straight and clear to read which is whatmakes it stand out. Also I chose for it to bed red because red is a rich colour andis one of the most common colour used in magazines.

Images

These are the photos that I have took of Jack Walker to put into my Cover, Contents and DPS page. I tried taking pics of jack walker to do different kind of poses such as holding the headphones, holding the tie, standing to sides or just looking straight into the lenses. I wanted him to do the poses that it looks more cool when he is put into a cover, contents and DPS. I tried tilting the camera too so I can have different perspectives of the photos.

Choosing a Cover Image

This is the image that I have chosen. I have chosen this because his body language anchors the cool side of theHip-Hop culture and usually this is the kind of pose that you expect to see within a Hip-Hop magazine. Youwouldn’t usually see a man in a suit in a Hip-Hop magazine but because he is wearing the Streets by 50 ANCheadphones, it links with Hip-Hop because 50 cent is a Hip-Hop king of the underground rapper. Furthermore,its also because he is posing on the side which is one of the common poses people do so overall, I think thatthis image is a good image. You can see that he is looking straight at you and that’s called direct mode ofaddress which makes it more catchy for the reader and also because he is in the middle which makes it easierto crop the background.

Editing My Cover Image

As you can see, I have the non edited photo on the left and the edited version on the right. The things that I have changed wasthe contrast because it makes the colours look more darker and stronger which makes the photo look more darker in someareas and lighter in some areas which contrast. I done this because if I didn’t, the photo wouldn’t really look professional andwont have any strong colours and I don’t want that in the cover so it has to look more strong and quality. When I put thecontrast up, I also put the brightness bit higher because when I just put the contrast, it could look over contrasted so I had toadd brightness in order to balance the image colours. Another thing that I have done was the background was cut because Ididn’t like the background on the first image on the left; there's creases and it doesn't look that bright so the background is whatmakes the person stand out in order to get a great image so I did cut the background so that it looks more bright at the back butusing Photoshop to cut our the image wasn’t easy due to the background on the edge of the person that wasn’t cut so I had tozoom in to cut it carefully and give the image a sharp edge to it. Lastly as you can see, the bottom of the image was a bit cut dueto the bar on the cover page.

Evaluation

Evaluation of cover

1.)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real mediaproducts?

Use Of Conventions

I have used a number of conventions, which are what you'd expect to see within the mise en scene of amagazine so that it looks like a professional magazine and real as possible. I chose the masthead to be atthe top because magazines use mastheads at the top of the magazine massively and also because its big,it dominates the whole cover and magazine and there for on the other hand the masthead is eye catchywhich mean that it is easy to spot. I chose the masthead to be “HYPE” because I thought that this couldportray the whole magazine that its full of amazing pages ands that it sounds like they really care abouthow the masthead sounds and there for gives the magazine a style. I used straplines in conventionalareas and there for males it seem like a real life magazine. As you can see that the straplines are indifferent fonts and size and colours. Also thought that strapline in a bar or just a bar itself is whatsometimes make a magazine look more better because it gives it variety of shapes within the mise enscene.

Developing Conventions

One of the things I have developed was the straplines of the artist on the right hand side of themagazines. As you can see the straplines of the XXL magazine on the right hand side has no light opacityboxes behind it so on the hype magazine is what I decided to do so that the straplines stand out moreand looks more like a puff. Another thing is that I put Jack into a suit when I wanted him to be in casualcool clothes such as a snapback and a hoodie. But because he is a white hip-hop star, it wouldn’tnecessarily anchor the Hip-Hop theme. Another thing would be the plus sign on the 50 cent magazine. Ichanged that into words instead of a sign so this is what gave me that idea.

Challenging Conventions

The thing that is interesting is that it’s a man in a suit in a hip-hop magazine and you wouldn't be likely tosee that in a magazine especially in Hip-Hop magazines. In Hip-Hop magazines, you are most likely to seestars in bling, and urban clothing style like you would see in reality media in urban cities.

Also because usually Hip-Hop comes from an African background and you wouldn't usually see a whiteperson in a Hip-Hop magazine back then but now because there is white rappers, its now considered thatthey can be in a Hip-Hop magazine.

Evaluation of contents page

1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real mediaproducts?

Use Of Conventions

I have a few conventions of what you expect on a contents page. I put the features on the left of the contentspage because this is what magazines usually do. It gives space for any other conventions to be put in when thefeatures are aligned to the left with the events guide merging with information. Putting one thing to the side,makes your eye concentrate on that part of the magazine. Also, I have Numbers for the features in bold and abigger font size than the features information. This allows the features to look more sophisticated and usuallymakes it stand out. Usually you would also see the website links at the bottom of the contents page with a barin order to distribute this product or any other links that relate to the magazine. You would also see that therewould be a few pictures on the contents page and one of them would be big to portray that one of the picturesis the main story within the magazine. I put Jack Walker in big so that it stands out and shows that he is themain story in that magazine. You could see that the Layout of the contents to what you expect.

Developing Conventions

At the bottom of the ‘the B-Side’, you would see that there is a black bar at the bottom of the page with also aframe going all the way around. On my contents page, I do not have a frame going around the mise en scenebut as you can see that I put the black bar all the way at the bottom. The bar was adjusted to a smaller depthwhich makes it thinner but the thing that I have developed was adding in web links into the black bar in orderto show that it is a section of web links and also because it stand out. Another thing that I have changed wasthe colour on the “contents” which is the letter ‘e’ in white and rest in red. In magazines you wouldn’t usuallysee that. You would only see headings and mastheads in one simple colour going the same all the way. I havechanged this because there is a line that separates the information from the images. On the top of the righthand corner, it has a white background and on the left it has a grey background and there for I wanted to makethe “contents” word look more eye catchy with the white colour that contrasts to the background.

Challenging Conventions

The interesting thing about the second magazine is that the layout was different to conventional layout on acontents page. I don’t see enough features on that contents page and there for makes it unique. Besides, theimages layouts were interesting too because there's more than one image and it keeps it all simple and big onthe page instead of lots of information.

Evaluation of Double Page Spread

1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of realmedia products?

Use Of Conventions

There are some conventions that I have used for the double page spread that you would expect to see ina professional magazine convention. Usually in a double page spread you see that there is one big imageon the DPS. It would usually be on 1 page or it would just run across the whole two pages with the textin front or following to the edge of the image. The thing that I have done was putting the image acrosstwo pages with the text on the edges of the image. As you can see, I have added a drop shadow on theimage which shows that there is a background behind him. The drop shadow allows the person to standout more and also because its darker and transparent, the drop shadow makes the person stand out theimage. The image of Jack is what you would expect to see in a DPS because that’s the main focus of theDPS which the text anchors what the image is about. Further more, the heading “JACK WALKER” is aheading which is the main thing that shows what's it focusing on. Its in big and its in blue with all thetext below including the quote.

Developing Conventions

One of the things that I have added was the border line with the patterns in transparent grey. The thingthat made me that was that on the second DPS you see that there’s white dots going around the DPS asa borderline. So I went on google and got an image that had graffiti patterns that I could use for the DPSbut because it wasn’t transparent, I had to make it transparent for it to fade it into the DPS of mine. Ithought that because Jack hasn’t got any instrument to portray that that the magazine is about music, Idecided to add the patterns of graffiti which communicates the word Hip-Hop because usually the Hip-Hop theme of Hip-Hip industry is all about how the symbolise the Hip-Hop music and usually peoplethat do graffiti are usually the people that listen to Hip-Hop music and people that from urban cities.The image of the graffiti, Is placed behind the text and the image of jack.it starts at the bottom of theborder line which is white and as it goes up it goes transparent grey.

Another thing would be the article on the right side on the magazine which is In a small font. In a articleyou wouldn’t see big size font because it would take up space.

Challenging Conventions

The interesting thing is that the background on my double page spread is the patterns which is what youwon't see in a hip-hop magazine. Magazines usually have plain backgrounds to keep it simple butbecause I have a Hip-Hop theme, I decided to make it a bit different rather than having a plain black orwhite background and also because it links with the Hip-Hop music theme.

Evaluation of cover

2.)How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The ImageThe main image is the focus of the whole page which dominates anyother convention on the page. I wanted the main image to represent16-20 year old males in a masculine strapping way. The way 50 centlooks is powerful and looks like he is materialistic but in some of thephotos, he looks macho and that shows the masculinity in himespecially in suit. My music magazine is not just a music magazine butalso a fashion magazine. Dressing up well wont really effect anything ingeneral but surely can gain respect which is what I want in mymagazine. I wanted the audience to look up to a model to inspire andbe like him so I put Jack into a suit which is unusual for a Hip-Hopmagazine cover but that’s what makes it different. Adding a bit ofdifferent tips to the magazine cover changes the audiencesinterpretation in a magazine is a good way for the audience to know. Ichose a male teenager because I wanted my overall front cover tohave a masculine, British and American feel which matches thecolours on the front cover. His facial expression is neutral but alsoshows positivity in his pose because he is facing side ways and he lookconfident about him self and that’s how I want the audience to feel. Itried making the model have a similar pose to 50 Cent but changed theposition of his arms holding the headphones which suggest that he isonly interested and passionate about the Hip-Hop music.

StraplineI think the straplines I have used represent men in a certain way. Thestrapline ‘How Jack Walker rose to conquer the hip-hop hierarchy’ islike a guide for the audience, for people to look up to him and want tobe like him. Its almost as if the strapline is trying to make you dosomething in order to make you become that person to have the lifelike Jack Walker. As you can see the font colour is in white with a blackbar behind it in a low opacity which makes the white font stand outand that could portray its importance.

Evaluation of contents page2.)How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Main imageThe main image for the contents page represents men in a confident way. Themise-en-scene, such as his outfit, facial expression, body language all help theway men presented in this way. His costume is him in a suit which is what youwould expect in a formal high class magazine but because of his body language,it changes that high class perspective and changes your interpretation of him asbeing a young man who wants to enjoy himself and as you can see his facialexpression looks like he is proud about where he is . The models face expressionis quite natural and neutral. He is also looking straight at the camera which lookslike he is looking at you which is direct mode of address.

Events guideThe music events guide box says a lotabout men and their hobbies. Somepeople would just buy a magazine just forevents that they want to go to and thatrepresents men as being into music andwant to take a road into the music career.This allows the audience to keep up todate with the latest news/music and forpeople that are interested in tracks andalbums.

Web linksThe web links which is at the bottom of the contents page presents men as people who are interested in socialnetworking sites. I thought that maybe if id put a website of the institution “HYPE”, they can search it up andread the magazine online instead of reading the magazine in your hand. Also the web. Also I have put aFacebook web link which is for people that like to communicate and interact on the website.

Evaluation of Double Page Spread2.)How does your media product represent particular social groups?

BackgroundThe background is one of the ways that show that the magazine is about Hip-Hop. Asyou can see its supposed to be graffiti patterns on a wall but I changed it into a lowopacity grey colour to match the white background. In urban cities we see a lot ofgraffiti done on walls usually caused by gangs or just people that want to symbolisesomething or can be used as a message for the society to know. I chose thisbackground theme because I wanted to link it with Hip-Hop and Hip-Hop has thisurban feel top it especially in music.

Main imageThis image presents males as being self-confident and he looks verydisciplined which alters the way the audience would think about him. Thefact that the model is wearing a sui, this connotes that men have powerand they are dominate. Also because jacks arm goes over takes the nextpage a bit, this could suggest that everything is his and he is taking over ormaybe taking rising to the top. The direct mode of address makes it looklike he is confident in himself.

QuoteThe quote “…it was full of gangs and conflict” is like a message to the males thatit just doesn’t happen in his area but happens everywhere and even though hehas struggled, it connotes that even starting from streets, you can get yourdream that you want and that’s it is possible to achieve. So this quote could letthe people know to be more aware about them self's.

Evaluation

3.) What kind of media institution might distribute yourmedia product and why?

I think that the media institution ‘XXL’ would distributemy media product. The reason why is that its all aboutthe music business and XXL is the biggest Hip-Hop musicmagazine which they are passionate about the Hip-Hoplifestyle. In XXL they aim at people who are 16 to 25 yearsold and its mixed with people that are 78% readers,people that are college educated (44.7%) and AfricanAmerican’s which is 67% that read this magazine. Jack isa young person within the HYPE magazine and he is therole of people that are still into education. I would saythat the magazine I have produced is closer to the XXLmagazine than the RESPECT magazine; Respect isn'tworld wide and is only based in America but XXL isdistributed in the UK too.

Evaluation

4.) Who would be the audience for your mediaproduct?

My audience is black or white males aged 16 to20 that like fashion and people that really enjoymusic or do music as a living. In my featuresthere will be me talking about musical eventshappening so that people could come and joinand see what the Hip-Hop industry is about.There would be addresses of links to artist suchas a Facebook page where people could keepup to date. In the features there would besome parts where I talk about swag which is astyle that usually people in urban cities dresslike and that will appeal to them. Also I havefound out some research of how many peoplelisten to Hip-Hop. The Hip-Hop industry hastaken the music industry very far and lots ofpeople who listen to Hip Hop music is twenty-four million people ranging in age fromnineteen to thirty-four. These listenersrepresent all nationalities, all religions, and allethnic groups.

Evaluation of cover

5.) How did you attract/address your audience?

From my research I learnt a lot about certain conventions that are altered so theyappeal to males. Firstly, it is conventional for a magazine that is aimed at men, forthe masthead to be coloured with a masculine colour such as a dark red. The font iskept simple, big and bold which then keeps it clear for the user. Therefore I decidedto use the font Impact and colour the whole word ‘HYPE’ in Darker red because it’s arich dark colour. Usually a lot of different magazines have red in their fonts so Idecided to use that because it’s the common colour that stands out. This will makethe audience to look straight at the top because its eye catchy.

This is not what you would see in a magazine with thin lines going throughthe word because its not conventional but because its different, it standsout; that’s the only font singled out in the magazine which makes it uniqueand interesting. I chose this font because it has this urban feel to it whereas my masthead is just simple and plain connoting the simplicity of themagazine. I thought that maybe this could anchor the cool music side.

The Straplines are kept in a small font size and this shows the juxtapositionof these font sizes because the masthead is massive same as the word“superstar” but this portrays the variety of fonts I have used to put in areasof the magazines where I thought it was right to put in.

The Only vivid colour on the cover which makes it stand out and is placedon the top left below the masthead which also juxtaposes the font size butit balances out because of the vivid colour baby blue of “SMS” and thefont size of “HYPE.

Evaluation of contents page

5.) How did you attract/address your audience?

In the features box, you have 5 colours in there but they completely contrast. This makes thereader understand why I have done the fonts in those colours. In the features area, you have thewhite headings to show it’s a section for example, what the page is about so it gives the audienceto not read the whole text but anyway I have done the text below the headings of the features inblack to show a little brief sentence about that page. The features side allows the person to lookdirectly into one side and find what page they find interesting so I tried keeping the features areasimple but also adding colours to it so that it stands out. I thought adding a grey background colourmirrors the red colour on the big “H” behind Jack which gives it a nice sharp edge.

I decided to add a events box because it’s a music magazine and that’s whatpeople that are into music expect to see because Hip-Hop is big and peoplewould want to see massive stars so I think that this is a good way ofdistributing the Hip-Hop industry and keeping the audience satisfied. Ithought that because if there was no events or prizes to win to excite theaudience, then that could put them off so keeping the audience excited is agood way of keeping them up to date with the Hip-Hop Industry.

The big “H” behind Jack is red but in a lower opacity which keeps it soft and makes it looksmooth. In fact, because the “H” is right in the middle behind jack, it has the edges that alignwith Jack hands and because it’s a low opacity “H”, it keeps the edges smooth and soft to makeJack stand out even more because Jack in that image had a strong contrast and brightness level.The “H” is also massive which stands for the masthead “HYPE” which is nearly about the sameheight as Jack.

This is the bar above that is located at the very bottom of the contents page and shows all thelinks to the institution HYPE. It has a black background with all one of the most popular website“Facebook” where lots of people socialise which is a good way of distributing this product HYPE.

Evaluation of Double Page Spread

5.) How did you attract/address your audience?

The patterns in the background is what makes the white background standout because you got dark shaded areas on the border and page but becauseit runs across the whole page it makes it look different compared to anyother background on a double page spread and this is what you wouldn'tusually see in a double page spread. I thought that because my targetaudience is 16 to 20 year old males that are into Hip-Hop and fashion, thiswill appeal to them because it’s a graffiti and that maybe could have arelationship to where they live or how they live their life's.

The “JACK WALKER” is in capitals which suggest importance as well as theboldness and font size. This shows that JACK is the only important personon that focus but because its got strips within the font, this could suggestmaybe some kind of flashing light effect which connotes that he is asuperstar and that’s a unique font that you probably wouldn’t see in anyother magazines. Its also in the same colour blue as his suit to portray thelink. The “JACK WALKER” word nearly covers half way through one page toshow to level of important and that’s what stands out the page becauseits massive with extra little black lines on the left and right of the word“JACK” which I thought could symbolise the hands of his.

This is the image on the double page spread and is the biggest feature on the DPS. As youcan see, his facial expression anchors everything about him. He looks very positive and youcan tell by the way he is look through direct mode of address. His eyebrows are raised toshow that he stands tall and his hands on his head suggesting his stressful times he hasbeen through but on the other hand it connotes that he has just gone for his dream and isproud about what he has accomplished. The direct mode of address makes people want tolook at his eyes and his facial expression. Further more, you can see that he is standingstraight and not facing side ways so it shows his whole body and suit. This suggests thepower of Jack.

Evaluation

6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

With the camera I have learnt how to take the photos in different perspectives/Angles in order to takephotos such a mid shot, close up shot and long shot of the person. I thought that just because of aplain background, it makes a huge difference to the image that is taken because the image would lookmore clear instead of taking a picture with lots of props at the background so a plain backgroundsingles the person which makes the person stand out and contrast from the background. Also lightingis important because you want dark areas and light areas to make the image balance. If the image hasno high key or low key lighting, the image would look like a image taken from a phone so the lightingis important in order to take great professional images.

In Adobe Photoshop, I have learnt that sometimes this programme is good for lots of things butwhen you have an very good image there’s no need to do much to the image if the photo is alreadywell shot but if the image is not that good enough as you think it is, Adobe Photoshop is a good wayof fixing, developing or changing the image. I had images that were not good as I thought it was so Idecided to use this programme to change the contrast, brightness, cropping and adding extra thingssuch as the background, colours and text to the image. For example if you didn’t like the backgroundlighting, then you could crop that out and just put a background that can be edited to make it lookrealistic.

In InDesign, I thought that this was the easiest way to produce my double page spread because youcan get on whole page that have constructive lines to show the equality of two pages within one andthat allowed me to put everything neatly within the DPS. This makes the DPS look more balanced outand there for keeps it simple but it was sometimes hard to use because it’s a bit different from AdobePhotoshop because it was lay out differently so this programme took more time to create the DPSwhere as the Adobe Photoshop programme was more organised and clearly presented so I know howto use it properly. I think that adding borders to the background is much more simple because youdon’t have a list of layers like Adobe Photoshop does but in this all you have to do is click on ‘send toback’ so I think that was useful.

Evaluation of cover

7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in theprogression from it to the full product?

Looking back on my sixth form magazine I feel as if I have learnt a lot of skills,knowledge and understanding on how front covers are set out and presented.First of all, my first preliminary task of the cover, I believe it to be good at the firststart because it looks conventional and actually looks like magazine not a poster ora leaflet. I have already had an idea of how the preliminary task should look likeion my head and that's why it ended up like that. I thought about how should Imake it musical so I added a micro-phone to show the music side and also themusic notes. I tried contrasting the font size on the first preliminary task and itworked because if all the fonts were the same font size, then it wouldn’t look as ifa professional magazine so you need varieties of font sizes. I didn’t really like thelighting on the preliminary task because the image wasn’t strong in terms ofcontrast and brightness so I added lighting on the side of me to show where theperspective of lighting is coming from but its kind of ruined the face because that’snot how naturalistic lighting looks like so in comparison the thing that I didn’t addon the final cover was lighting but this time I added the brightness and contrastwhich made the image look more sharp and strong so this made a high differenceto the image. On the preliminary task the splash didn't really stand out butbecause the fonts were serif, it stand out communicating with the theme of the 6form. I learnt that on a magazine, in should keep everything squashed togetherand try keep the magazine look more conventional with simplicity but because itwas tricky, some parts didn't go right to make a perfect magazine. I think I haveimproved on the way magazines are laid out and how I could create a feature in away to target my audience to have the interpretation that I want them to focus on.The improvement overall has improved a lot because I used different tools tocreate that final product whereas I didn’t use a lot of tools for my preliminary taskcover.

Evaluation of contents page

7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you havelearnt in the progression from it to the full product?

As you can see, on my preliminary task of contents page, it is notprofessional and looks rushed. There isn't that much colours to it andthe image is just a normal photo taken with a camera which has noedits to it what so ever. There’s only two different types of fonts whichare bold but don’t have any good look to it. I still have the sense oflayout to it but it wasn’t done properly which made it look basic. Ihave added a few pictures to it such as the Harris Academy Greenwichlogo and the Car park logo behind the “WIN” word. I would say I haveused a couple of skills to create the preliminary task such as the Carpark logo with a low opacity which I have changed. There isn’t anycontrast on the contents page and there it will not grab the audiencesinterest. On my final product of contents page, I have learnt a lotabout how to make it look professional. I have used a lot of strongdark and bright colours to make it stand out such as white, grey, red,blue and any other colours you see in the mise en scene of my finalcontents page. The image was cropped out so Jack has a betterbackground with a “H” behind him and extra images to make lookmore interesting instead of too much information on it. I have alsolearnt that the bars/lines should be thick or thin to make the contentspage look more Hip-Hop style instead of thin lines that are usuallyused in classic high class magazines.