Use of Conventions -Front

Cover Throughout the front cover various conventions

where used to generalise a typical Hip-Hop/

R&B music magazine.

I used shorter sentences, which helps the audience

to get a quick glance of what information

is held within the magazine, “Vyper is back” – although short, the

audience can automatically know what the word “back” implies.

Similarly to “XXL” magazine, the masthead is surrounded by a red square

which makes the letterings stand out more.

The background is coloured in using a gradient filler, the customisation

of the background makes the front cover visually interesting to view and

helps focus the main image.

The use of colours are consistent throughout the front cover, colours such

as blue, red and black are kept all through the magazine. Hip Hop

genres involve a diverse range of colours which also helps attract males

females.

The word “EPIC” is in clear large lettering, not just to make it more visible

but to portray a visual link between the word “Epic” and surpassing the

ordinary. Making this magazine, the best.Barcod

e

Masthea

d

Use of Conventions –Content

Page

The content page is visually attractive

towards it target audience, the content

page has a title and also an image of

the front cover which you would

generally find on a content page in a

music magazine.

In addition, the colour scheme remains

consistent, which enables a

professional look between the front

cover and the content page.

The listings go in order, with page

numberings next to the images.

Use of conventions – Double

PageTitle Additional

information, (competition)Page

number

Main image

Additiona

l images

My intentions

where to make

the double

page spread

exquisite in

order to

introduce the

artist in a grand

style. Opposing

the genre as its

less classy in

the Hip-Hop

genre.

Bold

lettering

to make

text

stand out

Text flow

around

image

Particular social groups

My Magazine is purposely geared towards the middle class social

group. The representation in which it gives out, are that nobody

should be stereotypically judged and that with hard work and

commitment anybody in a any social group can achieve their aims

and goals if followed.

You can see the confidence and determination the sturdy look and

confident look of my main image (artist) on the front cover.

My artist (character) was purposely chosen to be from a urban part

of London, which counter attacks any views of

Londoners, especially in the south east side of teenagers being

violent and anti social.

Although hip hop can be argued of not being “classy” , if used

appropriately and in a professional manner there is definitely a

sense of seriousness and proficient work in the world of Hip Hop

These two images contradict each other, although the image on the right is off

three artists, who are now very much successful ( they where originally raised

and bought up amongst other teenagers who are stereotypically viewed as the

image on the left). My music magazine opposes these views of teenagers.

Social groups and stereotypes

Type of media distribution

My magazine contents involves wide uses of images and lot of colourings

with trendy fonts. What that means is that distributors must be able to

provide printing and distributing with a wide range of different designs to

major outlets and clients, my magazine is targeted to a mainstream

audience, that is where most sales are generated.

From research, the most appropriate institution or

distribution group would be “FuturePLC” – what made

this company appealing is that they offer a wide range

of designs, have experienced editors and the latest

technology in media production. An ideal choice of

company to approach if “EPIC” was to be launched.

Audience for my magazine

My target audience for my music magazine as stated on my audience profile are a common group.

16- 24 year olds who favour Hip-Hop/ R&B genre of music, Rap can also be added to the list.

Gender is not specific, my music magazine is targeted to both sex groups.

Who my audience for my magazine can be obtained from the target audience profile.

The audience of my music magazine are very generic and can be stereotypically viewed as young adults who enjoy party going, living a fun and exhilarating lifestyle. But there are many factors contained within the magazine that apposes mystery views of young adults being foolish about life and do not appreciate work in society.

Attracting audience

In my personal opinion, I too can fit in the profile of my target

audience, therefore I had much easier way of knowing what would

attract my audience, if it had attracted me.

My front cover is consumed by a female, who was chosen

specifically, as she has the features to look attractive, this as a

result would draw attention to both sexes. But the image alone

cannot be the only source to attract my audience. The colour

scheme of my magazine was blue, red and white/black. They where

not too intense and where not too light, making this magazine

attractive towards both male and female.

The images that where used in the content pages where specifically

of males and females from the age group 16-24, which can help my

readers to form a relation and a better understanding.

The type of language used in the magazine where slightly less

formal and would be most commonly used amongst my age

group, the words are not difficult to understand and are still in a

mature manner.

Attracting audience II

Colours are attractive

towards the eyes. Less

vibrant, which makes

the main image stand

out more.

Main image is

clear, facial expressions

makes the magazine

more interesting and

eye catching.

Cap to give the “Urban

Feel”

Confident Look, Pouted

lips appealing to attract

the male/female

audience

Exclusive informationElegant Font

Style, adjacent to a bold

and striking text.

Use of artistic text

Technologies

Throughout the course of making my music magazine, I had to use various software's and hardware's to construct my magazine.

At the start, before using any technologies, I started of using the simplest of tools; a pencil, a paper and of course a rubber. From the sketches and rough drawings I was able to draw a skeleton for my magazine. Then using the following technologies I was then able to create my magazine.

Software's – Adobe Photoshop-CS5 (to create my music magazine, Photoshop was one of the software’s available to edit my music magazine to a high standard), Internet Explorer (to research music magazines and obtain secondary information), Microsoft Word ( to type the contents of my music magazine, check my spelling and grammar for any misuse of punctuations), Microsoft PowerPoint (to show evidence of my work).

Hardware – Digital SLR Camera, Mobile camera ( to see the difference between the quality of the images), Scanner ( to import hand drawn designs ).

I have learnt how to use all of the mentioned software’s and hardware’s, to a high quality standard.

Visual Progression– Front

Cover

Progression

Evidently, at the very beginning of this project I had lacked knowledge on many media terms, undiscovered efficient and beneficial ways of producing media products and how technology has played a vital role in the completion of my project ( Music Magazine). From secondary research, self learning and the valuable aid of teachers, I was able to attain relevant skills and techniques which has significantly broadened my knowledge in terms of media production, opening an insight of what possibilities can be achieved from a pencil and pad to editing on professional software's such as Adobe Photoshop.

I am guaranteed that I had achieved a vast amount of useful abilities in creating media products, I am also sure that this project was crucial in helping me develop those skills which I find enjoyable to learn and beneficial for many opportunities if I work with any future work.

From only knowing how to edit colours and shapes, to fully customising the attributes of layers, working with compositions, altering intensities of light/ colour, manipulating shapes/ text to my own specifications, where just a handful of knowledge and skill I had learnt, the fascinating part is that with the advances in technology, I am still able to learn more and more.

Personally, I believe I have gained substantial amounts of information and would like to work with other media products in the coming future.

Conclusion

My previous version of my music magazine did not completely suite the genre type of Hip Hop, as

a result I had to re shoot and collect images with different props to make it relevant to the genre

such as baseball caps. The main front cover of my new magazine was altered to a great extent in

comparison to my previous version. The background was stripped of and replaced with a plain

white background and the main image was replaced with the intention of having high quality

image. The result of this instantly made my magazine appear more professional. The colour

scheme was reduced to mainly two colours, dark red and white. This was kept throughout the

entire magazine which adds to the contingency and keeps the professionalism throughout the

content and double page spread. The layers on the content page made more sensible to read

because of the composition of the letterings and separated titles, whereas in the previous version

my music magazine looked disfigured and did not keep the same style and format through each

page. My double page spread in the new version contained more visual effects , such as a faded

image in the background and had a main title to highlight the purpose of the content. The

previous version had no title and the colour scheme was too mixed, which made the double page

spread look un professional by having no relevance to the entire magazine itself. Overall there

has been a major visual change to the my music magazine, the final version looks and fits the

genre of my intention, Hip Hop, with the same colour scheme provided throughout the entire

magazine and the use of planned composition and layering created a professional music

magazine which is adhering to Hip Hop characteristics of challenges, challenging the ideology of

Hip Hop as being not serious in comparison to other genres such as classical and jazz. And it

surely does not seem like a woman's pop magazine such as my previous version.