Final changes made: Front cover and Contents page



This is the front cover of my magazine, which I created using "Photoshop". Although my magazine front cover overall follows the conventions of "Hip Hop" magazine, such as the pose in which my artist has been placed in and the colours used. However changes needed to be made, as there were far too much colours used on the front cover alone. The norm of magazines consists of three to four colours the most, but as you can see my magazine contains five colours, this therefore needed to be changed in order to follow the convention of colours used on magazine front covers. The main reason as to why I had originally used a lot of colours on my front cover, comes down to the fact that, due to the colours on my artist shirt, this made it difficult for the text used to be readable, as it clashed with the colours on my artist shirt. This then led to be changes some of the text to be orange, in order for the text to be clear and able to read. However due to the vast amount of colours used, I had to change some of the text which were written is orange to be either black or white. I then casted a shadow on the text, making the text easier to read as well as stand out from the rest of the text which were present. I then tackled the problem of too much text being used on the front cover, I took away some of the text due to the fact that the text was crowding my artists, making the page look far too busy. Because this is not the convention for "Hip Hop" magazines to use a lot of text, by taking away some text allowed my magazine to look like a real life "Hip Hop" magazine front cover.





This is my contents page, I used "Indesign" to create this contents page. The colours used links well with the colours used on the front cover of my magazine. This is a convention of "Hip Hop" magazines, which I wanted to follow as it's the genre of my magazine. There were some changes which needed to be done, in order for my contents page to look like real life contents page in music magazines. The first change that needed to be done was to ensure that my editor's letter was Aline with my bottom left (32) image. This was done in order to make my page look professional and well thought of layout. I also had to the the same on the other side of the page (with the features section). I had to make sure that the page within that section was divided equally, as some spaces were larger than other. I also had to Aline my features section with the guidelines that were provided. Lastly I fixed the line that appeared on top of "Contents".



Final finished product of my front cover

Final contents page with corrections made

Quick update: distributors

Unfortunately I have not had any luck looking for companies who will distribute for my magazine. From earlier research, as well as current research has led me to believe that there are not a lot of companies present in the UK do not distributes for my genre of music magazine (Hip Hop). This is due  to the fact that many of the Hip Hop magazines are based in the U.S rather than the UK, meaning that more than likely that distributors will also be based in America. Although I have been on "Vibe" and "Hip Hop Weekly" (Hip Hop magazine),  website into finding out who their distributors are, I have not found any of this information on their website.
My research continues.....

IPC for distributing Lyrical?

Due to the fact that "Bauer" does not distribute my genre of magazine, this lead me to look further into detail as to which distributors, which in this case is "IPC"to see if it  would be ideal for distributing my magazine. However from further research shows that "IPC", also does not distribute my genre of music magazine. This may be due to the fact that it distributes the "typical" British  music magazine, such as "NME"(which is associated with punk rock, but also combine other music genres). What I found interesting is that although its one of the major distributors for magazines within Britain, they however do not distribute for other genres of music magazines such as "Hip Hop" and "R&B". This therefore means that I have to continue my research for distributors for my magazine, or to simply distribute it online, and therefore offering home delivery. In addition to my search, I will be looking further into the distributors of "Vibe" and "Hip Hop weekly" magazine.

Upon further research on "IPC" website, here are some examples of the major magazines based in the UK that, the company distributes for:





These goe to show that the company "IPC" provides distriubting for all age range, from teenagers  to adults.

Research into distributors- Bauer

I have been looking for distributes for my own hip hop magazine. First on the list, I had a close look for one of the major distribtors of magazines. Due to the genre of my magazine, I was not suprised to see that "Bauer" did not distribute hip hop magazine, rather they distribute major magazines that are popualr within the UK,such as the following:

 

As you can see, most of the magazines that "Bauer" distributes does not include any hip hop magazines nor does it include any R&B. This therfore means that such distributors would not be ideal to distribute my own magazine, as they do not deal with my genre of music.

Contents page in "Indesign"

This is a rough layout I completed using "Indesign". I found out that by using such programme, it made it easier  to fit all my text inside accurately, making it look professional. All the text along with the image were placed accuratly with the guide lines. The only problem i had with such programme was the fact that my masthead's colour could not be changed. This meant that I had to copy the title and then put it into "photoshop", before the colour could be changed.

Layout in photoshop, testing out ideas

Hip Hop with politics

This is another Hip Hop magazine "The Source", which incorporate Hip Hop with politics. This comes down to the fact that "The Source" is a Hip Hop magazine. Here it presents rappers and Hip Hop artists who support Obama, as a way of encouraging more people to vote.

Another Hip Hop magazine of "Vibe", in another issue which uses Obama on the front cover of their issue. In this issue the image focus is on Obama, through the use of close up of Obama's face. Although the main image is of one of a politician, other Hip Hop regular storyline can be seen such an issue of Jay Z.



This is the front cover of Vibe magazine, which is one of the largest Hip Hop magazine based in America. As you an see, Vibe has an image of Obama on the front cover to possible promote this policies in order for the public of America to vote for him. Obama may have been used on the front cover of the magazine due to the fact that he is black, as most Hip Hop magazine promote the success of black people.

I have used similar headlines in my own magazine (Lyrical)stating "Special juice issue, it's Obama time for the second time". This is because other Hip Hop magazines include such issue as it's educative.

Double page spread changes

I started my dps using "Indesign" but after I had completed a rough layout, I found out that my creation for my dps did not match my flat plans and so therefore needed changes. In addition I decied to change my dps from Indesign into "photoshop" due to the fact that my images on top of my article were, looked are too crowed, which was not the look I was going for.

Contents page edit using "Befunky"

This is some of the ediits I have done
for my contents page. I have added
text in order for my image  to relate
to music, I have added text to the image.
In order to make the image stand out, I have
added a border around the image, which
goes with my colour scheme (using
colour wheel).

I wasn't sure which images I wanted to use for my
contents page, due to the fact that I liked both images,
in order to find out which one suited my genre.
I asked people which image they liked the most, and
at the same time understand my genre of music.
I wanted to put two of these pictures next to each other, as I couldn't choose
one image. I had added border around this image aswell, so that it relates to
the one above.