Decision on my Genre

After not much deliberation I have finally decided the genre of my magazine will be rap and hip hop. The decision was generally easy to come about considering that the music I listen to tends to be predominantly rap and hip hop and because I can relate to this type of music genres I believe I would be able to put that across and create a new and exciting magazine.  I have conducted various research on already successful rap magazines such as Vibe and The Source however the magazine I have liked the most and gained the most inspiration from is XXL which is why I have decided to model my magazine on a similar sort of layout and design.

Reader Profile

James is a 16 years old student currently studying in college. James is your who enjoys raving, going out with friends and playing sports. He listens to music as it makes him feel disconnected from the rest of the world and also writes his own music as he sees this as a way of expressing himself .  James’s favourite genre of music has always been rap and hip hop. His favourite artists include Drake, 50 Cent and Rick Ross as he feels he can relate to these artists. James gains inspiration from not only the US but also the UK and artists who came from the underground scene to become huge stars such as Tinie Tempah and Chipmunk. James often uploads music videos of himself onto YouTube to try and gain a fan base and breakout as a predominant artist that can be looked at as the future of rap music which is why such a music magazine appeals to him..

Semiotics - XXL

I am going to deconstruct XXL magazine on how it uses semiotics and polysemic images and signs convey a particular theme. Imagining there was no text associated with the magazine the two fingers pointing to his head would instinctively make you think suicide as it look as though two guns are pointed at him. Also Immediately the red piece of text which says ‘self destruction’ catches your eye and the use of the colour red which is usually associated with blood and death further adds to the use of semiotics, self destruction could also be seen to be associated with suicide. The ‘smoke sumthin’ piece of text on the left could also symbolise the smoke from a gun after a shot has been fired.

Magazine Research

Deconstruction of Rap Magazines

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Final Preliminary Task

Here is my final preliminary task. I chose red for the masthead of this educational magazine as I thought it was a bright colour and would stand out. I tried to keep continuity by using the same red and yellow in both the cover and the contents page as this would make the magazine look more proffesional instead of having a variety of different colours across both pages.

The images were well taken in particular the two on the contents page. On thew contents page i placed the images along the right of the page with my text in a column along the left. I did this as most magazines write the contents in columns and I was trying to create a magazine that looked proffessional. Instead of using a background I kept the original background from the photo that I took and based the rest of my cover around that image. 

This was my first time ever using photoshop and I found it extremely hard too use. Everything from resizing an image, to cropping out pictures was all very hard and i was constantly going to sir for help on how to use the software. However for a beginner using photoshop I feel the overall outcome is not too bad.

Evaluation !

After a long two weeks working on my preliminary task, it is finally finished. I began working on my task placing my title and picture onto photoshop and playing with the background. After a couple days I realised that the photo I had chosen was not working with the rest of the front page so therefore decided to take a new photo to use. I chose a picture of two students studying together as working is a vital part of school life if you want to ‘excel’ in not only your exams but later life also. The picture is of a boy and a girl rather than two boys or two girls as it shows variety and caters to both genders instead of just one.

The background of the photo was a light orange which I decided not to change as it is a warm colour which fit in with the titles colour of red. I transferred the same background colour from the title page to the contents to interlink the two pages. I decided to keep the masthead of my magazine red as it is a vibrant colour but also distinctive and very eye catching. I highlighted the outline of the masthead in white to make it stand out more and any other text on the magazine was written in black as to keep with the three colour theme of my magazine which was red, white and black. I found that three more dominant colours worked best as I did not want to overcrowd the front cover with many different colours as then the magazine would not have been as effective.

As it was my first ever time using photoshop I found everything difficult. I struggled to figure out how the tools work, what they do and also how to edit all the photos. At first I would stretch the image leaving it distorted and constantly found myself not knowing what to do however as time went on I gradually got to grips with the basics which then made everything a lot easier. I also learnt some of the shortcuts such as 'CNTRL T', which is the re-size tool, which really helped me speed up the time it took me to complete my task as I did not have to keep searching for the correct tool.

The Blueprint !

This is my flat plan. I decided to use the red for the colour of my title as it is a very eye catcting colour and would grab the readers attention immediately. The contents page would use the same font as the title page to give a proffesional look to the magazine and allow it to coinside together. I chose to use a female for the front of my magazine as other girls can relate to her and because it also entices males towards the magazine.