Monday 27 February 2012

Stages of development for my Double Page spread


At first i had to crop out some of the pictures I was going to use on Photoshop.





I had to use InDesign for my double page spread and this took me a while to learn how to use this software. The picture was the most important so i did that first before the questions etc...



The next stage was text and this took while because mine was interview Question and Answers.

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Contents page update

I have already started on my contents page and have chose the fonts and colours and pictures i want to see. Unfortunately i cannot show you a print screen because i am updating from home, but when i get to school ill do so.

Monday 20 February 2012

Update 20/02/2012

This is my recent update on my front cover of the magazine. I think i've almost done with this and the colours go really well with the colour of his clothing.

Friday 3 February 2012

Update: 03/02/12


I have started on my magazine cover and have progressed quite a lot. I have done my fonts and chose the colours I want to use for my magazine. It took me a while to get the hang of InDesign but the more time I spent on it, the easier it would get.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Update: 30/01/12

Today I took pictures for my Front cover and contents page. I also took pictures for my double spread page but I am not satisfied with them so I'll be taking more tomorrow.

Friday 27 January 2012

Planning for my magazine


Today (27th January) I will be taking shoots of my models for my magazine shoot.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Magazine research


















This front cover is not just attracting the attention of hiphop/rap fans, but also fans of Rapper/Actor/Producer Ice Cube.
They use good colours which make Ice cubes face stand out as well as the Subheadings. The background is white and the XXL font (Name of magazine) is in the small red background which is visible. Seeing as Ice cube is on the front cover of the magazine, this makes it a successful music magazine which reaches its target audience because Ice cube is one of the most famous, if not the most famous Hip hop artist to come out of his generation.

I am going to create a magazine very similar to this magazine. Its going to be a hiphop/rap based magazine which has loads of bright colours. My front cover will have a picture of one of the upcoming artists in UK and USA.

My target audience will be hiphop/rap fans who are manly aged between 16-25. (New generation hiphop) So my design will have a lot of life, bright colours and will appeal to those who are 'young wild & free'.


















I chose to use these magazines as inspiration because i feel that they portray the style of magazine that i would like to create. They are targeting the audience that i am trying to target whilst still appealing to a wider age-range. However both magazines do not tend to stick with a certain typical layout for each issue, because although they always use the same font and colour. For example, XXL always use a red block with the font in white, and this is the same in every issue. Although Hip-Hip Weekly do not do the same, they use the same font, but each week they play around with different styles and it is in different positions compared to the last issue.























With regards to price, Hip-Hop Weekly is sold for £3.25 in the UK, and so far, i have been unable to find XXL Magazine anywhere in the UK. However the £3.25 for the first magazine is quite a decent price considering that it is an international magazine. They usually use yellow for the fonts of the main article on the cover because that colour usually stands out against all other colours therefore whatever colour used for the background, the yellow will always stand out and catch peoples attention.

XXL has the look of a typical hip-hop magazine, and that is the first genre that would come into your head when you first see all covers of the magazine. Particularly in this cover featuring Nas, the fact that he is not wearing a shirt and all his tattoos are visible automatically attracts hip-hop fans. Also the font used for his name, and the font underneath is quite rough and rugged-looking which associates to the music. The layout of the magazine is generally very good and well-spaced. There is no excess text on the cover, only pull quotes and the main cover story to attract the readers. The lack of text is clearly because the magazine aim to make their cover artist the sole focus of the issue, and therefore the cover represents the spotlight on them.
























The close analysis of both magazines will definitely help me with making my magazine; I will take all of this on board when making mine. I now have a bit more of an idea how to target my audience and what I must include on my front covers etc.