Dominant Images and Sub Images

Pose Research

My Competition

 I initially will always have competition when creating a brand new product on the shelves. However, I would face the biggest competition with magazine in the same sector as me. Vibe and XXL are both two very successful Hip-Hop and Rap inspired magazine. Both of these prints have been on shelves for a respectful amount of time and are loved by fan worldwide. They provide a healthy and entertaining source of information based around this genre, and is updated and designed to keep up with current trends in all areas. I would class these as my competition as I am almost decoying their ideas to create another form of information on this genre. It is clear  by just looking at these example covers that they provide a reliable and enjoyable source of information, and are high quality products, due to the professional images, and well thought designs and layouts of the covers.  Also, these mags have already created fans or profound readers of their own, giving them infinite support over mine already. However, I will create my product while being inspired by these products, but at the same time using some of their own original ideas, so that I am positive that my content will be suitable for usual readers of these types of magazines. I would therefore compete with these products by thinking about what kind of conventions I could add to my magazine that would rise above what Vibe and XXL usually include. This could be difficult, however, if I stuck to traditional elements of these magazines, while also putting my own spin on a variety of conventions, I could initially attract my own audience.

Influences Of Other Magazines

This Prezi presentation explains and presents my personal favourite music magazines, that I am using for inspiration for my own creations. The point of this is so I can examine and identify what aspects I do admire and enjoy from these already existing magazines, so that I can incorporate these initial ideas and effects in my magazine.

Possible Magazine Colours

In the process of researching and planning what I could possibly do or produce for my music magazine to fit its genre and target audience, I had to think about the possible colours that I could use. I decided on these colours shown. My options I chose are:

• Black
• Red
• Grey
• White
• Purple
• Gold

I significantly decided on this range as they would all be suitable for a Hip-Hop magazine, and wouldn't allow it to hold any confusion of the genre or target audience. They are all popular and liked colours which would potentially help make my magazine to look as professional as possible.

What Makes A Good Image - Part 2

 
This slideshow presents what aspects could create a successful image, referring to aspects and themes I could use with my own photos to enhance their effect. These aspects include: Effective Lighting, The Facial Expression Theory, Effective Positioning and The Rule Of Thirds.

What Makes A Successful Image?

This slideshow presents my ideas on different camera angles and shots that I could potentially use in my Hip-Hop magazine. i have discussed how different shots could be effective for my magazine and how it will help impact my chosen genre, and also how it could not.

Font Samples

I have went through various fonts and examined different ideas to which I can use for my magazine masthead or font within my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I decided on these kind of fonts as I believe they present the Hip Hop and Rap genre significantly and effectively and doesn't mislead it so that it could be recognized as a different musical genre. All of the fonts are bold, as I knew from my past research that most Hip Hop magazines have bold headlines or mastheads and gives the effect of the whole magazine and the subject of the magazine. Some fonts present a paint or graffiti type look. I chose to consider this as graffiti is in the Hip Hop nature and culture, and using this would allow readers or viewers to guess and notice the genre fairly quickly. Others look quite glamorized, which is significant as in the current Hip Hop era it is generally quite glamorous and fashionable but sticks to the music genre at the same time, therefore having an effective and glam font for a masthead would be effective.

The magazine Institutions

This prezi contains my analysis and information I have gathered on Magazine institutions which own a range of current music magazines. I have also expressed and elaborated on the one that I would choose for my own magazine, and why I have chosen that particular company.

Assessment Feedback

In groups of four, we looked at different magazines that have been produced  by other students. We graded and gave our thoughts on the front cover, contents page, and double page spread. 

For the front cover, we believed that the material was appropriate for the target audience and task at a Proficient level, as there are many sell lines on the cover which would indicate who the possible target audience could be. However, we can clearly notice the genre of Rock music by the images and text. 

Also at a proficient level, it shows understanding of conventions of layout and page designs. We chose this level as the front cover could have included a more steadier layout, as not much further information about the magazine has been included, and a lot of the focus is on the main image, and sell lines could have been spread out more. 

However, we believed that the cover had excellent use of accurate language and register, as the cover includes language and vocabulary that would relate and connect to the Rock genre, and this also links to the target audience, as it is wording that they would understand and appreciate. 

We gave a proficient for the appropriately integrate illustration and text, as the text could have been used at a better level, as it could have had different fonts and sizes to make the front cover look more effective. Also the main image has been zoomed in quite a lot, and then small images have been put on the cover, which may look slightly odd or unprofessional. 

As the images look as if they have been took in different settings by looking at the small images on the cover, we gave this option an excellent, as this factor has clearly been shown, and adds variety to the front cover. 

Again, we gave an excellent for the manipulating of photographs as appropriate to the context, including cropping and resizing. We can clearly see that the main image has been zoomed in or cropped to make it fit the Rock genre in one form. This is effective as it contrasts to a selection of magazines, but still looks professional and suitable for the target audience.

We then analysed the contents page. We thought that the material produced was appropriate for the target audience and task at an excellent level as almost everything needed for a contents page was shown and effectively put together.
We also agreed that it had showed understanding of conventions of layout and page designs at an excellent level as the page was set out extremely clear and was easy to understand.
 However we gave a proficient for the awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text sizes, as this could have been extended further as most of the font was the same, and sizes were basic, however this was still presented appropriately.
Saying this, the use of language and register was definitely accurate, as grammar and wording of the contents page definitely displayed so that it represented the genre, and showed good understanding of the music choice.
We thought that the integration of the illustrations and text could have been expressed better, as images just look as if they have been placed there without any thought, and could have been placed differently to create a different effect, due to this, we gave it a proficient level.
 Another issue was the point to shoot a variety of material appropriate to the task set. We gave this a proficient as there wasn't a lot of variety to the photographs, as they all looked similar.
 We also gave a proficient to the point which includes resizing, cropping and editing images. The images shown weren't edited much and were set that they were the same size which added hardly any variety to the photo's or the layout of the page.

The last we thing we analysed was the double page spread. We believed that the creator produced material appropriate for the target audience and task at an excellent level, as the double page spread included every aspect that it needed to fulfil its purpose for the reader and target audience.
We also gave an excellent to the point to show understanding of conventions of layout and page design, as the layout has been set out effectively and is very appealing and professional.
Showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text sizes was at a proficient level as some aspects could have been different. Overall it was shown acceptably, however some of the texts could have been different sizes to represent difference of context or importance.
The use of language was proficient , as again, good context of the genre, however, more advanced use of language could have been used to allow it to sound more professional.
The integration of illustration and text was excellent, as we can see this thoroughly through the double page spread, as most readers  by looking at a spread can tell if it is professional or not, this particular piece of work definitely shown that as the ratios of text image looked appropriately set out.
The variety of material appropriate to the task set was at a proficient level, as there's seems to be only a small variety of different images, as the photo's look as if they've been taken all at once. However, they do still fit the genre, which makes them acceptable.
 As there is only one image shown on the page, the manipulation of photographs as appropriate to the context including cropping and resizing has been given a proficient as the image doesn't look greatly resized, and just been placed simply on one of the pages. However it does look slightly edited when looking at the colours to help it fit in with the colour scheme which is effective.

Hip-Hop Moodboard

The first thing I needed to do was to pick a genre for my music magazine. I decided on Hip Hop/R&B as I personally enjoy this particular genre and I have a fair amount of knowledge on it. Once I decided I created a mood board, in which I have also included here. I used Microsoft PowerPoint to help create a fluster of images to present the idea of Hip Hop and R&B. I have included pictures of artists from the genre, but also pictures of past music magazines to help me with my inspiration and ideas.