Final Product of Vybz Magazine

Final Product

Front cover

Contents page

Double page spread

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel that looking back from my Preliminary task I have improved on my use of Adobe Indesign.

I first did a Preliminary task, which was to create a magazine for my school sixth form, which is Trinity School. It was quite a simple task for me because it wasn't meant to be as perfect as my final product would have to be, but I still did try my best and did as much as I can to make it look professional as possible. I learnt how to play around with the colours, gradient, fonts and blending options to give my first magazine a good look and suitable for school.

This is my front cover of final project compared with the front cover of the preliminary task...

  

Music magazine



 

 

Prelim task school magazine



 

The layout of both the magazine are different, the reasons for this is mainly because music magazines and school magazines will have completely different codes and conventions to abide to. This is evident because the key images and the content on the magazine would have to apply to different audiences. I wanted the school magazine to look amateur compared to my music magazine, which this I think I accomplished successfully.

Here are the Contents pages for my music magazine and my school magazine...

The contents page for the preliminary task wasn't delivered as well as my music magazine and the layout was just too simple and not eye-catching compared to the music magazine which I spent a lot of time developing.

Time management was very hard during to stick to during this project as I had so much to do. The preliminary was quite rushed and at the end i wasn't happy with my outcome so I made sure that my final product I was ready and prepared for the challenge. In the main task, I spent a lot of time researching and planning, this helped me to achieve a fair better outcome than I felt after my preliminary task, where as the preliminary I had around a week to take photos and do research.

To conclude, the outcomes of the final project task was much more appealing than the preliminary, which I think showed a big improvement in design, and also showed my progress of how I adapted to Adobe InDesign which at the start of the year was a new software for me. I know feel that if I was given the same task again to complete in the same amount of time, it would be better as I would have the skills and research to back me up.

 



 

Evaluation Question 6



What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I used a lot of software and equipment that were useful and played vital parts in helping my media product progess. The technologies I used in this project were...

• Amstrad computers (at school)
• Adobe Photoshop CS4
• Adobe InDesign CS4
• Nikon D5100 SLR Camera
• Internet



Adobe Photoshop/ Adobe In Design

I used Adobe Photoshop for all my images because I find it easy to manipulate images on this type of Adobe software then using Adobe In Design.







I have learnt how to use most of the basic elements on Adobe In design, I won't lie and say I found it easy but the challenge was worth while after my final product was finally submitted. As I struggled to cope with the effects and making the product look professional whilst using this software. However, I learnt a lot from the preliminary task which helped me to not get confused with the layers on Adobe In design.






I learnt how important it is to get the basic conventions constructed a month before the deadline because that way I would have had plenty of time to amend things that don't fit the conventions of a music magazine or things that don't stand out enough to be brand filling as well as attract my target audience.









Nikon D5100 SLR Digital Camera




I borrowed a camera from my friend to do most of my photography for this media project. The reasons why I wanted to use a camera like this was because of the high quality pictures it takes and because i wanted my images to be at the best standard possible. The different settings on this camera are fantastic and I enjoyed experimenting and figuring out which setting was best for each shot.



Internet

During this whole process at every stage the internet has played a massive part especially when I was researching Hip Hop magazines that are currently being published. The most popular search engine that I used was Google and this helped me hugely as I am a custom to using the site and know all the aspects about it.
 


HERE ARE 2 SCREEN SHOTS OF WHAT I DID WHEN PUTTING IN A SEARCH ON GOOGLE:














Another site I used was YouTube to upload a video for my evaluation.











My YouTube Account





This hyperlink will take you to the video I created about how I managed to use the internet technology, such as how I uploaded my evaluation video onto YouTube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlehIWGqATs&feature=youtu.be 

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

 

To attract my target audience, I considered many things which I think would benefit my research into why the desired audience would buy my magazine. This includes the magazine genre, the aesthetics of the magazine (house style), the way it connects with the audience, what the content features and how much each copy of the magazine will cost. I will explain how the following features of my magazine attracts my target audience.

GENRE

The genre of my magazine is Urban, which is mainly focusing on targeting the rap and hip-hop lovers of the UK. The magazine includes artists who are in the Urban scene and also involves what kind of activity/news is going on in that particular part of the music industry. The Urban music industry mainly attracts the younger generation of the United Kingdom, ranging from the ages of 16 (where teenagers start to consider and choose what kind of music culture they want to fit into) all the way to 22 years old.

HOUSE STYLE

The overall aesthetics of the magazine is a main attraction to anyone buying the magazine, because I want my magazine to be aesthetically pleasing, the presentation of a magazine is the most important into attracting all audiences before the target audience. The front cover I did features an edited photo of a well dressed male posing for an Urban magazine, big text size and good font choice which will make it easier for the reader to understand and see what exactly they are going to buy, and also the colour theme which corresponds to the 'mise en scene' of the model on the front cover, which will be eye catching for the audience as everything is laid out evenly and attractively.

LANGUAGE

The language my magazine features is informal yet mostly understandable by most readers, especially the young generation. It also involves a lot of American and UK slang words which are related to Hip-Hop. There are a lot of different language techniques of different words and sentences in this magazine, but one thing that it has in common is that it is all related to hip-hop and the Urban scene, so therefore that particular desired audience will understand, which is the main thing.

CONTENT

The content in my magazine is one of the most important aspects that will keep my audience glued to the magazine. My content includes interviews, gossip, gigs, concerts and competitions that are all related to the Urban genre, which will satisfy the desired target audience. The contents page features everything that will please a reader of the magazine, it has pictures and artists that will be eye-catching for the reader to look out for. The double page spread also has the artist on the front cover which will be one of the main reasons the target audience will buy the magazine, because of what they see on the front cover so that is something to keep them attached to future editions.


PRICE

The price is one of the most important factors of my magazine as it will decide whether it is worth buying the magazine. My price for my magazine is £3.99, I believe this is a reasonable price for a monthly magazine, because it features around 80 pages of music related topics and is out once a month.

Evalation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be mainly young females, who love Hip Hop and the artists. I believe that my media product establishes who the audience is for my product because of the way I presented the elements on the magazine and how I strongly highlighted the conventions within the product so that my target audience would automatically recognize who it was aimed at. 

These are the types of audience I hope my magazine will attract. 

My target audience will be people who were:

• Brought up in a middle class family, therefore be a regular reader of the magazine.

• Have a social life which includes listening to Hip-hop, 'RnB', Rap and just general Urban music and living the culture.

• Be an avid buyer of musical products such as stereos, iPods, earphones/headphones. This means buying a magazine is just part of the lifestyle of this person.

• They enjoy living the street life as well as having a decent education. This means the person is adapted to the street and city culture, as well as having a successful life.    

• Watching TV on a regular basis to keep up with the latest news on favorite artists, as well as celebrities who relate to the Black music industry.

• A person who isn't narrow minded, isn't ignorant, non-racist and accepts all cultures

• Have a strong fashion sense related to the street/urban culture. Includes wearing maybe snapbacks, big t-shirts, baggy/slim fit jeans, jewellery, flashy trainers, anything relating to the Urban scene.

So after summarising a typical reader of my magazine, I decided to specify what kind of audience I want. A magazine company would normally have to choose what kind of audience they want using categories such as age, gender, race, class and religion.

• Age: 16years old all the way to 23years 

• Gender: Male and Female (but it will be mostly female)

• Race: Black, Asian, White, Mixed

• Class: Middle class, 'C2', 'D' and 'E' categories mostly.

• Religion: Christian, Muslim, Athiest (any)

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that the kinds of media institutions that might distribute my media product would be institutions like Supermarkets like Asda and Tesco, I would want my magazine to be sold to one of those stores because they are two of the UK's leading supermarkets. This exposure for my magazine would be great, as it will help my magazine to be seen by a wide variety of people.

A Newsagents would also be another institution that could sell my magazine. It would be easier for people to buy and purchase as well because there are newsagents everywhere. Another great aspect of News Agents are that the magazine are always displayed in the correct area with the similar genre type of magazines, so if my magazine was with the other Hip Hop genre magazines it would more likely be purchased as the people that would go to the Hip Hop magazine zone would pay more attention than a Rock fan.





 



InterMedia Advisors, LLC, also known as InterMedia Advisors is a private equity investment firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in the media sector. This is the publishing company who since 2009 have produced 'VIBE' hip hop magazine. This would be one of the institutions who would be suitable to publish my music magazine because they would understand the vision in which I want my magazine to be promoted to my audience because they also have experience in publishing with a magazine that has the same kind of target audience as well as the same genre.


Harris Publications Inc. is an American consumer-magazine publisher in New York City, New York, that publishes over 75 titles, including Juicy, XXL and King which are all hip hop male orienated magazines, which would be good for my magazine because this company is mainly targeted at the American male, and my magazine doesn't fit in with this but they could bring it in, inorder to target women as well as men. My magazine would benefit from this institution because they don't have a magazine like this in their company therefore my magazine wouldn't be competting within the same company, like it would if I was published by InterMedia Advidors.

Lastly, it could be possible that IPC media the publishers of NME, (The New Musical Express, popularly known by the initialism NME) would be interested in publishing me as they are a well known music publication in the United Kingdom,  which have been publishing the NME magazine, weekly since March 1952. This company would be a great institution to publish my magazine because they are situated in the UK which is where my artist is from. Although, they havent published a hip hop magazine it would be something different for the institution as they would be doing something different.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

My media product represents particular social groups in the niche market of Hip Hop. The images used in my media product are mainly dark skinned, Afro-Caribbean young females  but I have incorporated a few males on the contents page. Just because the magazine does have mainly more women covered, that doesn't mean the magazine isn't for the male market. Infact I choose to use mainly women on the cover to attract the men and to interest and inspire the women. In my attempt to brand fill what wasn't currently out there and be unique with my music magazine.

This hyperlink will show you what another media student has commented about my media product, addressing the question above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJBRqzJGP9s&feature=youtu.be 

Evaluation Question 1

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

What I have produced so far, as in my front cover, contents page and double page spread I feel was a good attempt of trying challenge forms and conventions of existing music magazines, however I don't feel that I developed my work enough to be at a standard where it could be gone to bed. Though in this post I compare my final product with a various of Hip Hop magazines that inspired me and helped me to progress during this task, as well as pointing out the odd risks I took at trying to be different in order for my magazine to have a unique appeal.  

 

Front Cover



Below is my final product of my front cover, the way in which I wanted my cover to be interpreted by my audience was to straight away capture their attention to my key image. The way in which I handled this was to photograph my artist with a close up shot. This was purely done to grab the attention of my consumers. The use of the black impact font for my masthead was to draw my audience to the magazine and be able to recognise immediately the genre of my music magazine and who I was aiming my edition of the magazine to, which was to men and women who enjoy Hip Hop music, this was shown by the pink outline on the masthead and the black dominant colour for inside.

 

 

 

 Masthead 

This is the masthead for my cover 'Vybz' and for 'Vibe' magazine. During my research and production of my magazine cover 'Vibe' has been a inspiration to me and I like a lot of the elements of the magazine, especially the simplistic layout, which I find to be more acttractive to an audience then too much going on as it can confuse the reader.

I used a sans serif font because its a convention used on covers, so that the masthead stands out to the reader. The font I choose to use was Impact  because I knew it was a bold type font and would stand out on the cover.

'VIBE' magazine masthead

 

My front cover masthead

I felt it was important to have the key image over lapping on top of the masthead, which is a common aspect that I noticed during my research. I assume the reason in which editor overlap the image is to show how the audience will know the title of the magazine, therefore they can take risks and cover the masthead. I utilized this element but I restricted from covering too much of the character Y because of the fact that this is a new magazine.

Key Image

 

The key image for both magazines have an attractive looking female, they are both Hip Hop magazines and having an appealing woman on the front attracts the opposite sex to the magazine known as gaze theory. The pose in both of the magazines are appealing to the oppoosite sex as well as the same sex. I wanted my audience to perceive my artist as a stong attarctuve woman and I didn't want her to be too sexy because I want her to be for male and female consumers. I took myself slightly out of the conventional hip hop music magazine key image because most of the women on 'XXL' and 'KING' are mainly aimed at men and they are successful hip hop magazines but I wanted to branch out and make my front cover appeal to both sexes.  

My music magazine key image

'Essence' music magazine



 Strapline

 The straplines from 'The Source' & 'Vibe' helped me to understand how important distance between each strapline matters, as it inicates to the reader that there is a new story. The weight of the text, font and colour, varies according to the importance of each story.

Strapline from 'The Source'





 Lead

 

The lead is also important to be established and normally is the key image of the cover so that the readers pick up quickly who the lead will be targeted at. For example, the cover for 'VIBE' you can see 'Nicki Minaj' is Bold and in bright pink and white to stand out against the contrasting blue in the blackgorund and she also is the key image on the front cover. I used this convention in my own cover with the 'Estelle Cooper' because I wanted my audience to recognise that Estelle Cooper was the key image as she also is a new and upcoming artist in the UK.

 

Lead from a hip hop magazine

  





The lead for my music magazine 'Vybz'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Contents Page

 

Again below, is the contents which I created to be easy to navigate for my audience as well as interesting to look at. I utilzed the same pink colour that was displayed on my front cover so that the colour of this feature of magazine was consistent. The colours used for each section on the contents was to help the readers quickly see which image was relevant to each section with the same colour outline on the number.

 

Contents masthead

The masthead for 'Vibe' is similar to my one 'Vybz' because I liked to V and the layout of the contents I chose to portray on my own was different and I think more effective because instead of overlapping it is slanted in a position so that it compliments the direction of the V charcater.

The colour of the font had to be pink so it would go with the house style of the overall magazine layout, which is mainly pink in this edition. I also put effects on the 'conents' so that it wil stand out to the readers.

 

  

Conventions of hip hop magazines

 

The contents page on the left is from Hip Hop/Rap magazine 'XXL' the middle is from my Hip Hop magazine 'Vybz' and the one on the right is from 'Kerrang'.

I incorporated elements mostly from 'Kerrang' magazine because there were a lot of different images going on. Although, having multiple images on the contents page was not a convention in my genre magazine, which you can see in my research. However I wanted to use that idea so that my contents page wouldn't look limited.

The colour coded images with the story on the contents text I feel will help the readers be able to identify which story is in each catergory and the pagintaion is laid out in a way that readers will be able to understand.



 

Double Page Spread

 

The double page spread for my magazine 'Vybz' is more like an interview, whereas the on of 'Lily Allen 'is an article from the music magazine 'NME'.

Similarites are the quotes from the artists, though, 'Lily Allen's' is more a headline and the one in my magazine is just like a sub-heading. The headline for my spread is above the mug shot of the artist and in bright pink like on the cover of the magazine indictated it is the lead.

The font of the copy is in roman a serif font beacause it is a convention to have the copy inside a magazine as roman. The questions are in a different colour to the reported response, to allow the reader to recognize the difference between the question and response from the artist.

The introduction is bold so that the reader can notice it and if they are interested by the headline they will then read the introduction to get a sense of what the main body text will be about.

 

My music magazine double page spread 'Vybz'

 

Double page spread from Kerrang magazine