Evaluation
The brief of this project was to research, design, and make a front cover, double page spread and a contents page for a music magazine.
At first we had to find and research the codes conventions of a music magazine front cover, double page spread and contents page. In order to find these conventions I looked at various magazines of different genres such as Mojo, Kerrang! and Hip – Hop Connections. My main focus was on Kerrang! and Hip – Hop Connections because my magazine genre is a cross between the two.
The most used conventions, which I noticed, on a wide range of magazines are:
Mastheads- Every magazine has a masthead, this is the main element of any magazine because it shows the reader what they are reading and the genre of the magazine. I chose my masthead name as Hip – Rock Connection, this is because it is a magazine of both of these genres and I based on the Hip – Hop Connections magazine.
Photos- Every magazine has some sort of photograph on the cover, this photograph usually has some sort of reference to the main story contained within the magazine. Photographs on most of the magazines I researched are usually medium close – ups mainly because they show facial expressions as well as body language. The photo I used front cover is a medium two shot, I liked the idea of having two people in my photo, one to represent the hip – hop genre and the other to represent the rock genre.
Stories- Again, every magazine I have researched has the inside stories mentioned on the cover. These stories are used to catch the reader’s attention and make them want to buy the magazine. They give an idea of what will be included in the magazine.
For my planning I already had a rough idea of what I wanted to do so I drew a few pencil sketches and posted the ones I was happy with on my blog.
