Daniel's evaluation

My magazine cover incorporates some of the more traditional styles and techniques of a magazine but with a few modifications. My masthead is left justified but doesn’t span the width of the magazine, like most magazines, due to the fact the name NY is so short stretching it would distort it and would make reading it uneasy. I used a strap line to show the issue information beneath the title. However instead of having a banner above, I had a cover line next to the masthead to sell the magazine but more to show that NY is not your conventional magazine and to make it that little bit more different. I used a graphic to highlight the price and attract the reader’s attention to it. The use of the word only helps to create the ‘affordability factor’, which means it will appeal financially to any class of person. My main Cover line was in the largest font like on other magazines I had seen, to attract the reader’s attention to the issues main story and, I in turn made the picture relating to it the largest, thus making it main focus of the cover. Like on most magazines I saw I had the picture of ‘ELLZ’ one of him looking straight at the camera to connect with the audience.

Hip-Hip is a genre plagued with negativity and rebellion. My magazine cover aims to disassociate hip-hop with that serotype. Use of colour played a big role in doing so. I chose a white background to give the cover a fresh and peaceful appeal to it, but vibrant text to give it an energetic twang to it as well as to look appealing. Also however I wanted the cover to show that hip-hop means an appreciation of music. So although the main image was of a rapper which would be expected on a hip-hop magazine the second largest image was of the band ‘Peace Makers’ who don’t look like they would typically fall into the hip hop category. This was to appeal to a larger market but again to show the diversity of our magazine.

Our magazine is aimed at hip-hop enthusiasts but anyone who likes music so any shops selling magazine would sell ours so it is accessible to any. As well as what’s stated above we used one of hip-hops iconic figures to help attract people to our magazine. We included an interview with 50 cent. His picture is the smallest of the three because my cover focuses on fresh new talent but is placed near the top of the page so when on a self and glanced at it would be able to be seen to show we talk on the established artist in hip-hop as well. Also people will tend to buy something they recognise or can identify with and an establish artist would achieve that more than new ones. Referring back to the main image of rapper ‘ELLZ’ I chose to put a car speakers and I microphone behind him to related to the text next to him but to show the lavish lifestyle associate with hip hop in a more humbled way with the focus on him as the text oval covers most of the car.

I have learnt that technology has come a long way in making this magazine cover. To see how far pictures have come, even from the clarity of pictures due to mega pixel cameras to the editing of them in Photoshop. Even how easy it is now to transfer images directly from a camera to a computer, printer etc, in comparison to film cameras that use to have to be processed in a dark room. Photoshop allows you to do so much with images like cutting out objects or people and putting them in another completely different picture, cloning images, duplicating them flipping and rotating etc means you can be as creative as you want with images.

If I was to make another front cover I would make it more traditional to approach it at a different angle to what I have produced. Like use one image to be the background as well as my main image as in most magazines. And had banners and cover lines in the traditional places, to ensure a look that regular magazine buyers would be familiar with and mite feel more comfortable with. Also the arrangement of my magazine could be different like having a known artist as the main story to really show we are a hip hop magazine that knows bout who’s hot as opposed to knowing more about who’s new. I would try a different colour background to white as well to see if I could give the magazine a more interesting. All in all doe I am pleased with the work I was able to produce and enjoyed working on this project.