Media Evaluation

Media Evaluation

Final-Finished-DPS

Final-Finished-Contents

Final-Finished-Frontcover

FrontCover

Front Cover using found Images-Improved

Changes:

• Holla masthead made bigger in order to encourage recognition of the Brand
• Plus Holla Magazine top 10 section made smaller so the image is presented bigger
• The story of Bigge and Tupac moved as the writing on the story was hardly visible.

XXL DPS Analysis

Title: The title here is good things come to those who wait. This is to suggest that the story is going to be about Dr Dre and how his patience for Stardom gained him his place in Stardom. The title is Black on a white background in order to help the title stand out on the page and entice the reader to the DPS article.

Layout: The layout for this page is very simple as with a lot of Hip-hop Magazines. As it has a big headline and small writing underneath with colour coding to show the conversation with a page of the Interviewee Dr Dre on the right.

Picture: The picture used here is of Dr Dre, he is a very popular Rap artists and has been going for almost three decades. Therefore he would be a big feature for XXL and that’s why they put him on the DPS of the magazine since readers would be very interested in stories such as this.

Colour Scheme: The colour scheme used by XXL is very simple, as it is Black on a white background. This is to make sure people are wowed by what is actually written rather the appearance of the magazine itself. This works well with the main picture as that is meant to be the attraction of the article since it is about Dr Dre himself.

How does it appeal to its audience: XXL magazine like Vibe has gone for a simple design for their DPS. This helps the reader to become instantly attracted to the article rather than having to work it out as readers of this genre would prefer. XXL has also featured a very popular artist in this Genre and therefore would attract not just its main target audience of 16-25 year-olds but also the slightly older generation of 30-40 year-olds. The last way XXL appeals to its target audience is by using a very informal approach and as most readers of this genre are generally informal it would appeal to them directly.

Contents Page

DPS

Contents Page

Vibe DPS Analysis

Title: The title for this DPS page is How High, which can be interpreted as marijuana as the picture on the left suggests or how high the artist Wiz Khalifa is in the music charts. The big WK above the title is simply for the initials of the artists and instantly tells the reader who they are going to read about.

Layout: The Layout on this page is very simple. With a picture on the left page and Writing on the right. This is done to help the reader instantly get the message as this type of audience would not wish to try and work it out, they would wish for a simple message which is exactly what the DPS has got.

Colour Scheme: The Colour scheme used on this DPS is white, black and Orange.  This has been used to highlight the important parts of the DPS such as the information under the title and the Sub-heading of each section.

Picture: The picture here is of the hip-hop artist Wiz Khalifa who is very popular in this type of genre. He is known for taking Marijuana and this picture of smoke coming out of his mouth suggests the idea that he is smoking Weed, which helps to get the message of the article across.

How does it appeal to the audience: This DPS appeals to the audience, firstly by using a simple message that readers will easily understand. The second way it appeals to the audience is by using a picture of a Wiz Khalifa with a not bothered look on his face which is how most of this audience feel towards smoking Marijuana. The final way in which this DPS appeals to its target audience is by featuring an article in which they care about and using a big bold font to present it so that the message really stands out to the readers.

XXL Magazine contents Analysis

Masthead: In XXL the masthead has been contained in the features panel of the page.  This is to make sure readers know which brand they are reading. They have kept the Unique Red and White XXL in order to create continuity throughout the magazine. This colour scheme has also been used in the title and throughout the contents page to again to help create continuity.

Title: The A-side title on the contents page connotes the idea of the start as in alphabet and the idea of west side and east side which is very big in the USA hip-hop scene and keeps consistency with the theme of the magazine. Again the colour scheme of red and black has been used.

Features: The features headline banner has also used the XXL colour scheme. The editors for the feature section have used black bold headings on the contents page in order to help the stories stand out and have used a small grey text for the information about the stories, but within these stories there are bold black pieces of text for people wishing to skim over the page such as @50cent which is 50 cent’s twitter so they have a general idea of what will be in the magazine.

Main Picture: The main picture being used on XXL’s contents page is of 50 cent and Soulja Boy, two well-known celebrities within this genre. This has also been used in order to ensure people know what the main feature of the magazine is going to be. The framing used is very important for this contents page as 50 cent is portrayed in the background to show he is one of the older, more established artists in the genre and Soulja boy has been positioned in front to show he is one of the growing artists within the genre and that he has learnt from 50 Cent. Quotes have also been used with this picture to enforce the idea behind it.

Pre-Lim Task

Vibe magazine contets Analysis

Masthead: The masthead here is the Co-nten-ts. The masthead is presented in white here in order to stand out from the dark coloured background. The V (for Vibe) is also displayed here with a white outline this is also to help make sure it stands out on the page and that the reader knows exactly which magazine they are reading.

Main Picture: In this contents page the Image in the only image and all the text has been centred around it. This is to help the picture stand out, so that readers can immediately tell which kind of stories will be in the magazine in this case it is Ciara who is a big R and B artist, this then tells the reader that this magazine will feature stories on R and B. The legs of Ciara have also been used here to Symbolise and emphasis the V above.

Main Features: The main features part of this contents page has been laid out in a very simple fashion. By having two sections the first being all about particular artists such as Ciara whereas the second section is of the music as a whole and features stories about legends in the Hip-hop genre. The sub titles are also displayed in blue so that they can be differentiated from the rest of the text. The next part of this is the brief description under each sub-title to give the reader a feel on what the topic is about.

Background: For this magazine the background they have chosen is a white fade into black (Starting from the bottom going up). This has been used to create the effect of having a range of colours for a range of stories and to help emphasis everything about the contents page such as the blue sub-heading colour and the colour of Ciara’s legs and shoes therefore making the main image stand out and of course in order to make sure the V for the magazine stands out.

Basic Information: This contents page also contains basic information such as the date, page number and title of the magazine as you can see in the bottom right hand corner of the page.

My Front Cover using Found Images

Masthead Mock-up

Here are some ideas for my Magazine masthead. As the magazine will be called Holla these are the ideas i have come up with.

Contents List

Contents List:

My magazine will be split into three parts these are:

Interviews:
This will contain interviews with artists and producers. On their music and big topics. For example TJY(my created rapper) will be intervewed on his rise to stardom.
TJY-Rise to Stardom
Biggie and Tupac-The Story
Wiz Khalifa-Life

Whats going on:
This section will tell readers about what is going on in the rap world and who is doing what.
Feuds
Purchasing and Cars
Arts and Tags


Relases and Concerts:
This section will be all about new songs released and where they rank on the "Holla" magazine top 10. Plus any new concerts going on.
New releases
Top 10 Holla magazine chart
Concerts and Tickets

Mood Board

Here i have created a mood board which I feel depicts the target audience I wish to aim my magazine at. I have included stories about rappers, pictures of famous artists within the genre and pictures of closely linked interests such as Cars, chains and Spray Paint. As I feel this is what my readers are interested in and would want to see in a Rap magazine.

The Source De-Construction

De-Construction of Vibe Magazine Frontcover

My Questionaire and Analysis

Here is a questionaire I have designed to test my target audience on what they wish to see in the magazine:

From the results of this data I have found out that 7 in 10 people would prefer to have a Bold healine rather than a stylish one. I also found out that an artist or producer would be ok to put on the magazine. The three parts of information I found out that people wouldn't mind the difference between is how much is on the frontcover of the magazine, modern or historial stories and artists and records. However, i have found out that people would like to see more interviews with rappers in this genre of magazine.

My Chosen Style of Music

Rap:

I have chosen rap as my style of music as this the music i enjoy listening to and what my target audience 16-18 year-olds will enjoy. As this style of music encorporates "flow" which is rhythme and rhymes with beats of hip-hop music. This style of music originated from West Africa and has now become a world-wide sensation. This genre includes many artists but the most famous are Eminem, Tupac, Snoop Dogg and The Notorious B.I.G. These artists have featured on many covers of rival magazines such as The Source and Vibe which shows how significant they are within the rap genre of music magazine.

XXL Magazine Deconstruction

XXL magazine’s masthead again contains big bold letters. However, this magazine is slightly different as the letters are not the main colour feature the background is. The background for this masthead is red with white lettering over it. This again attracts readers and helps the letters to really standout. This masthead is used on all magazines by the company in order to keep the continuity of the magazine and brand name.

When designing my magazine masthead, I plan to use a big bold font as this is the font used for most magazines in the hip-hop genre. Plus I will carefully plan which colours to use in the masthead as this is a big factor in the survival of music magazines and helps to attract readers. I have also noticed from these deconstructions that pictures may or may not be featured depending on what message I wish to send the readers about my magazine.

The Source Masthead Deconstruction

The Source masthead is two words and picture. The two words are designed in a big bold font and there are two microphones in the masthead. The words are created using a red font outlined in white, this helps The Source magazine to catch the readers eye as red is the first colour that most readers notice especially on a black background.. The two microphones in the picture straight away tell the reader that this is a music magazine and may be suggesting that this is the magazine for voicing opinions in the rap/hip-hop genre.

From this magazine I can tell that the colour is big factor in creating a masthead plus the background used to make the font standout even more, I can also gather from this that bold font is used a lot for rap/hip-hop magazines and I may look at using this for my magazine.

Vibe Masthead Deconstruction

The Vibe masthead has big bold letters in order to stand out on the shelf from other magazines. As this title is bigger than most other music magazines it will can the eye of many consumers. The masthead is very simple as there is only one colour used although for some magazines this is changed to either red or yellow. The white background helps the lettering to stand out and although this masthead doesn’t show much about the magazine it has gone for a simple but bold look in order to attract the reader towards the magazine until they see the picture on the front as that is the main focus for Vibe magazine readers. This masthead is similar to magazines of the same Genre as most of them go for big bold letters.

This immediately tells me that if I was to create a rap/hip-hop magazine I would need to use bold lettering in my masthead in order to initially attract readers to the magazine.

Brainstorming Music Magazine Ideas

Names:

Rapper

The record

Holla

Beat

The Hop

Target Audience:

16-25 year olds

Male

Consumers who are interested in:

Rap

Hip-Hop

Want to learn about the Rap industry and what goes on.

Are interested in rapper feud’s and “Beef”

Wish to learn about concerts and tours of mainstream Rappers.

Genre:

Rap and Hip-Hop

Including artists such as Eminem, Lil-Wayne and Drake etc.

Content:

Interviews

Full profiles on Rappers

New album releases and concerts.