Evaluation

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.

Final Contents Page

This is my final contents page. I followed the Layout design for the contents page and i did not have to change it at all, unlike my front cover which had to be changed in order to get the main picture to fit in nicely.

I am happy with this contents page.

Final Double Page Spread

This is my Double page spread, I stuck to the layout design at got the outcome i hoped for.

This is my contents page layout, again it is simple and effective.
By using a big picture it attracts the readers attentions and makes them want to read whats inside.

This is the draft layout for my final front cover.

I chose this because it is simple and effective and it gets the main articles across to the audience.

Final Front Cover

This is my finished front cover, as you can see i had to change the format from what i had drafted up on the computer, this was because I asked many people if they thought is was effected and they recommended I only have one article to attract the readers attention.

Textual Analysis (Double Page Spread 2)

This is a Kerrang! magazine double page spread. It is clearly visible, to the reader, that this is a rock magazine, through the use of colour and the clothing worn by the singers used.

The guitars used also show that it is rock genre, and the way the page is laid out, it looks messy and cluttered, yet still attractive to the reader.

I suspect these images used are photos taken during gigs/concerts, and they all compliment the rock genre because they are all shown in action. Whereas, the Hip - Hop genre have the models in a controlled environment and posing.

Kerrang! is aimed at teenagers and the design of this magazine is all 'messy' so in a way it could be implying that teenagers are messy.

Textual Analyisis (Double Page Spread)

Here is a double page spread from a Hip - Hop Connection magazine article.

The first thing that attracts the readers attention is the full page picture of a well known rapper, from the "Wu Tang Clan", GZA.

The heading states 'Pure Genius' and the sub - heading mentions that without GZA the Wu Tang Clan would not be as 'big' as they are now. It says he 'Still has creativity to burn' implying that he really can take the Wu Tang Clan a lot further in the industry.

The colour scheme and font style are the same as seen on front cover of any Hip - Hop Connection magazine, and therefore it may even be seen as iconic of this magazine.

One page has a picture, and the other, information related to this picture. In this case it is a picture of GZA, and the information is about his rise to fame along with the Wu Tang Clan.

For the reader, it would be a lot easier to understand what this article is trying get across if they already know who GZA is.

I have finished my final piece for my front cover, but I am not able to post it at the moment because there is something wrong with my computer.

Right now I am working on my double page spread, I have edited the picture and it shall be posted on here by tomorrow.

Final Picture (Unedited)

This is the picture i have chosen for my front cover.

It is effective because the models used represent both, Hip Hop and Rock genres.

The model used to represent the Rock genre is holding a gun, whereas the model representing Hip Hop has a drumstick.

The inverted expectations are what i had intended to use from the beginning to fight against stereotypes.

Another of these inverted expectations is the colour scheme used, it is stated that followers if Hip Hop wear dark and baggy clothing. Here, however the Rock model is wearing darker clothes and even has his hood up.

I will soon edit this image to fill out the blue background and it will be good enough to use on my magazine cover.

Contents Page Layout

This is my final layout for my contents page. Again it is very simple, and has lots of room for various information.

Front Cover Layout

Here is my final layout for the cover of my magazine.

I chose this over the others because it is simlple, yet effective.

Preparation

I am nearly ready to take my pictures for my final piece. To do this I asked one classmate to be in the picture with me, and another to take the picture. They are the same people as before, so my main picture will not be too different from my last draft.

The props I need are two hats and I have arranged for them to be brought in by Friday. (The day me photos are being taken.)

For now I am making hand drawn and computer drafts of my front cover and contents page, which is a double page spread.

Kerrang Contents Page (Analysis)

This is the contents page of an article of Kerrang!.
Kerrang! Is of the Rock genre, it is noticeable that this magazine of a rock magazine because of the pictures used to illustrate it.



This magazine is aimed at a teenage to young adult population, and it is clear because it uses explicit words such as F**k. The lyrics used/ screamed are also explicit, so it is not appropriate for the younger generation.

The colours used for the text are highly contrasted so the writing stands out, The yellow writing has a black background, and the black writing has a yellow background. This is effective because it catches the eyes of the reader.

Dark and bold colours are symbolic/Iconographic of the rock genre and in all of the pictures darkness is used to emphasise the genre.

Q Magazine Contents Page (Analysis)

This is a contents page of Q magazine. It follows the usual conventions of contents pages, Which are:
Heading - There is a clear heading which states that it is the contents page.
Sub - Headings - Feature, Every Month and Review, all these are written in Block capitals.
Pictures - There are two pictures located on this page, they will be related to articles within the magazine.
Date Of Issue - In the top right of the contents page it states October 2008.
Page Numbers - Though it is not clearly visible, the bottom left corner has a number written to indicate to the reader what page they are on.

All the Headings and Sub - Headings on this page are done in the same style used by Q Magazine across the front cover.

Contents Page (Analysis)

From all the music magazines that i have looked at, i have noticed that the very first page is an advert to promote items related to music, such as car stereos, iPods, MP3 player etc. Or nothing to with music whatsoever ,such as, perfumes and alcoholic beverages.

The next page in is usually a double page contents. It involves the use of lots of pictures as well as detail on the articles that are contained within it.

Many magazine's contents pages run onto a third page because almost all music magazine have over 150 pages, a few of which are used to advertise.

Contrast (The Real Hip - Hop)

Here is an article of Vibe Magazine, in this article the main focus is on the rapper, T.I.
In comparison to the last magazine i evaluated, T.I is dressed much more sophisticated, with a suit, but still has a "gangster look with the black tie and a top hat. The glasses make the rapper look intelligent.

The background in this picture is white, in comparison to the Hip - Hop Connections magazine article from earlier, and makes T.I seem "clean" from all trouble, as if he was never living a rappers life.

One of the sub - headings on this cover states " Mavado, Gangster For Life" Though the front of this magazine looks "clean" there are still sections of the 'Gangster' genre within the magazine.

This is the real Hip - Hop.

Textual Analysis

This is another article of Hip - Hop Connection magazine and the highlight of the week is the artist , Snoop Dogg and the record label, Deathrow Records.

The masthead is the same as the article i analysed earlier, and a bit of it is behind Snoop Dogg's head, it shows that the magazine is well known and would still be recognised with a few of the letters missing.

The image is shown in "The Godfather" style, mainly because in the Hip - Hop industry Snoop Dogg is known as "The Doggfather" so this style of image is complimented with the name.

The writing under the Sub - Heading states " DEATH ROW: THE STORY OF THE WORLDS MOST FEARED LABEL" It straight up shows the power and dominance of this label through the colour scheme, mainly black and red to indicate danger.

The fact that the three rappers shown above, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur are/were the most dominant rappers in the world gives them so much power within the industry, and it would be expected of them that they live a "Ghetto Life", when infact they live in LA homes. It shows that the Hip - Hop genre would not be followed if the artists did not portray the lifestyle, so in this picture Snoop Dogg is wearing a very big Baseball jacket, and Tupac is holding a ciggarette.

There are many negative stereotypes based on the Hip -Hop genre and instead of confronting them these artists, as well as others, have gone alongside these stereotypes and made big fame and money off them.