Task 9Create a layout for your fanzine article. This should be about trying out different things and breaking the rules.

As with the previous tasks, you should use you understanding of page layout techniques and your audience to create something suitable for them.

Decide on images, fonts, a flat plan and your use of grids before you start production.

Production methods are at your discretion and hand made as well as digital work is acceptable provided it is added to your blog.

You should take lots of screen shots during production to show how you have constructed your page and made your designs decisions.

I have done some research on fanzines in the past during other projects but I thought I would look more into specific types of fanzines. As my fanzine is relating to the hip hop subculture I have found various different fanzines from the internet that include that abstract hip hop element. I have gathered these to help generate my own ideas for how I will produce mine. The pages to the left are all very colourful using a specific house style of pink, blue and white. I think using a house style of colours and fonts makes the zine look neat and professional but at the same time it gives a very creative feel with the layout and the text placed in different places upon the page. Creativity for a fanzine is key to ensure you attract the right audience and make it appeal to them specifically. When coming to produce mine I need to think carefully about what colours will appeal to my audience as well as imagery and art work I decide to include.

I have decided to collect imagery that could appeal to my audience and relate to my fanzine. I have specifically chosen imagery that is artistic and drawn. The stencil look is very popular and looks very effective when used in the right way. I have included silhouettes of dancers as well as microphones, spray paint and tapes. These are all aspects that typically relate to hip hop and they will make the fanzine a lot more attractive to the audience as these are the things that they like. An advantage of using silhouette imagery allows me to change the colours of the images as well as making it look cool and funky to appeal to the audience.

Here are some images I have sourced from the internet by searching into the search bar ’50 cent quotes’. These imagery are created by fans and people who are interested in 50 cent. This information is important because when I come to producing my fan zine I need to take every aspect of the fans involved into consideration deeply. The quotes are all presented over laid onto a photograph of the man himself. They connote many different emotions and feelings which I think will work really well if some were presented onto my fanzine. It’s a more personal incite and approach into 50 cent himself and his life that the fans will appreciate and understand.

 

Behind Closed Doors50’s Secret Drugs and alcohol. Addictive and destructive. Typically associated with ghettos, the streets and a rough, deprived background.  These are all the stereotypes linked to 50 CENT: the big badass from The Big Apple, living the hard life in a poverty-stricken urban neighbourhood. After 50’s mother Sabrina went off the hook, drinking a drugged drink and falling dead when 50 was only 8 years old. His grandmother took in a confused, fragile boy, telling him: 'Your mother's not coming home. She's not gonna come back to pick you up. You're gonna stay with us now.' At this point in his life was when the tables turned and he became a baller. 

THE STREETSRolling in the dollar, having your gangsters who you can rely on, busting caps; not a care in the world. Sounds like a dope life, right? Selling cocaine isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, the cash is kushty and you may feel your life is easy. The power you can achieve by smashing people and pulling the trigger is a dream in the urban world but in reality the consequences can be fatal. After many drug related hustling, selling at just the age of twelve, he eventually encountered the law numerous times and made occasional visits to the damp and dirty prison full of criminals such as himself. His desire for things would drive him to the block. Looking into 50 Cents life, he has hard it hard during his early years. He has grown up without a mother and a farther, but his ambitions grew stronger. Wanting something was not hard for 50 cent. Money was easy to make and he was living the luxury lifestyle that all the homies in his area would have died for at the time. He brought drug money and guns to school and had a passion for boxing. He recalled ‘’When I wasn’t killing time in school, I was sparring the gym or selling crack on the strip’’. In the mid 80’s Jackson competed in the junior Olympics as an amateur boxer. He later stated ‘’I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too, I reckon rappers condition themselves like boxers so they all kind of feel like they’re a champ’’. After been caught by metal detectors at his high school, he confessed to his grandparents about selling drugs. Jackson was embarrassed. After his f*** up at school, Jackson was sent to correctional camp, where the name ’50 Cent’ was adopted as a metaphor for ‘change’. This name was derived by a man named Kevin Martin who was a robber, known also as ’50 cent’. Jackson states that the name was chosen ‘’because it says everything I want it to say. I’m the same kind of person 50 cent was. I provide for myself by any means.’’  In his early career, at 21 years old he busted his raps down in one of his friends basements; using turntables to record over instrumentals. Rapping was one of his qualities. His voice is different and endearing; he always has something to tell. Now look at him, his music is one in a million. The lyrical genius thrives off rapping. He allows us to look from a different perspective and his songs almost describe how hard his life has been. 

This is my fanzine article that I have previously created during another project. I have included it in my research so I know how much space I will need on my page when coming to produce my fanzine on InDesign. I have highlighted the title and subheadings as these are aspects that need to be larger on the page and stand out.

ColoursI have tested and trailed different colour options to see which colours look good together and which would be the most appropriate for my fanzine. I have included a large mix of different colours to show how each house style would be. I have decided to go with a colourful approach with a very vivid contrast as I want my fanzine to stand out. I have also done this because I feel that these kinds of colours will work well with silhouette imagery and will give the overall theme of a very cool and funky atmosphere. I have also included black and white as hip hop can also have dark connotations. The colours that I think work the best are the rainbow colours in the fourth column down and the top yellow and black. I feel that using a majority of colours can portray graffiti which is involved in the hip hop subculture. I feel that black and yellow would also be a good colour combination because the contrast is very extreme and alerts will alert the public straight away attracting the audience towards the fanzine. The combination is used in various different newspapers and magazines to alert the public about something important and to highlight parts that give the impression that the story is important.

I have started to produce my fanzine using the mixed colour combination to see what can be achieved. I have used an 8 by 8 grid and used an A4 size paper on the program InDesign. My master head ‘Behind closed doors’ is typically the largest aspect on the page as this is going to draw the audience in to reading the fanzine/ The text is very bold and I have tested this by using a large stroke as well as using different colours to see which can relate to hip hop and the audience more. In the images to the right I have tried to include an image of 50 Cent himself in the background with a low opacity so writing can be placed over the top. I have also included a sourced image of paint splatters that are all different colours. I have placed this in the bottom left hand corner that blends into the photograph in the background. Its important that I stay within the grid to make it look profession but at the moment I don’t feel that my fanzine is going anywhere. It looks far to messy and I cannot seem to find the right places for each aspect. I have tried to include far to many images for the background and with text over the top it makes the whole page look unprofessional and messy. I want to achieve a cool look which this is not doing. I am going to leave this page as it is and use the yellow and black colour combination with silhouette imagery rather then a normal photograph. I need to take into consideration how much text will be on the page and try and make it look as professional as possible.

I have started to produce something that I feel will work very effectively and well for my hip hop fanzine. I have used the yellow and black colour combination and also added some white to create a good balance and contrast to break the colours up accordingly. I have used an 8 by 8 grid again to ensure that I can fit all of my information I need onto the A4 page. I started by making a thick black border and a yellow background which as you can see is in the middle of the page. I firstly started by including the master head ‘Behind closed doors’. I decided to use the font ‘impact’ as I feel like the bold black look will go really well with the theme I am trying to achieve. I have added a pentagon shape which covers the background and the border in the top right hand corner. I feel that this makes the fanzine look abstract and creative. I have placed the master head inside of that shape in black capital letters with the subheading ‘50’s secret’ in a smaller size with a yellow stroke around the edges to differ it from the title. I have also placed an image of a gun underneath to make it relate more to hip hop and the story the fanzine is going to unfold. I had to edit this image on photo shop as it had a white background therefore looked unprofessional and ridiculous on my fanzine. I changed the background colour of the image to the exact yellow the background colour is using the CMYK tool.

Final PieceHere is my final piece which I am very happy with. I have used the grids and guides accordingly to ensure that everything is neat on the page and everything interacts together. I decided to include another pentagon shape in the bottom right hand corner as when I came to the end of my fanzine there was defiantly something missing. I decided to do this shape in black to contrast with the white one opposite. I made this shape a little larger then the other one to show my creativity and flare as well making the overall look abstract. The writing over the top of the shape is not the same as the rest of the text it is white and flows into the shape where as the rest of the story is presented with a white background colour with black writing. All the copy that can be seen on the page is all ‘impact’.

In the bottom right hand corner I have also included a musical note. I have done this to express to the reader that the article is about a musical figure. It gives the article that edgy hip hop look and also has a good relation to what the story is about. In the middle of the page underneath the opening paragraph and the gun is a quote that has specifically been said by 50 Cent himself. I have ensured that I have kept this piece of text separate from everything else and I have also made sure that it is in a larger font. It is one of his most famous quotes therefore fans will realise who the article will be about by reading this. Even if they have no idea who the quote has been said by it emphasises feeling and emotions of anger which people in the hip hop subculture are interested in.

Fro

nt C

over

During my research I had not decided that I was going to do a front cover for my fanzine. I came to the conclusion that I was going to create one because I realised I had a lot of contingency time left as making my inside article did not take long at all. I had already decided upon a name for my fanzine in my Writing Copy unit that I had done earlier this year and thought a front cover would be a good idea to place this name. It is very simple as I did this very quickly and roughly. I gathered the image of the persons head with musical notes coming out the back from the internet when searching for ‘hip hop’. It’s a very good image in relation to the fanzine its self as well as the article on its own. The name is a good play on worlds collecting the word ‘hip’ and hypnotise connecting them and using the S as a dollar sign that also portrays money which is a very big aspect is a gangsters life.