Double Page Spread

Double page spreads are usually found in the very centre of the magazine. The double page spread topic usually corresponds with the main cover line of the front page of a magazine. Topics that you would usually find on a double page spread would be articles on the artist, interviews about the artist/bands up coming songs and tours etc. and  things such as reviews on artists and their music. 

Key words that will entice your reader:

1. DANGER - The word danger makes alarm bells ring in the readers head as they will want to find out what is so dangerous and therefore feel the need to read into the magazine article and find out more. 
2. CONTROVERSY - This word will let readers know that something may come up in the article of interest as there may be conflict or tension between the interview and artist or artist  and people they know or associate themselves with.
3. ORIGINAL - Original gives the impression to the reader that the artist could be first to come up with an idea or something along these lines, being original often means standing out from the crowd and not being too mainstream (as many artists tend to move towards) so readers may want to find out more about these 'original artists'.

Double Page Spread Mock Up

This is a mock up of my Double page spread design. This is roughly what I want my double page spread to be set out like and hopefully when producing my final piece I will be able to recreate this design while including the different components that will make up the double page spread.

Contents Page Mock Up

For my Contents page, I looked at copies of VIBE magazine for inspiration. I saw an edition of VIBE where the editors had set out the contents over two pages and I really liked some of the features from both. After studying the two pages, I came up with the idea to try and 'fuse' them into one. By doing this I came up with this flat plan for my contents page. I have decided to use the conventional 'contents' as the title of this page, however, I am going to try and recreate the style that VIBE write it in, where the text is broken up to convey the convention that hip hop goes against regularity.

Front Cover Mock Up

This is my flat plan (mock up) of what i think my magazine front cover is going to look like. My inspiration for the layout of the magazine comes from the magazine 'VIBE' which is also a hip hop magazine that includes all the latest hip hop news and trends. After looking at 2 issues of 'VIBE' magazine I have managed to recreate my own layout which I think will give a sophisticated look to the front of my magazine so readers find it easy to navigate the magazine front cover and see which cover line represents the cover photo and so on. Instead of using a typical banner across the top of my magazine I will be using a strap line which is a bit different to conventional music magazines but after doing my research I discovered that a strap line is fairly common on hip hop magazine like VIBE. I think that the strap line is a good feature because it will further attract readers to want to discover more from the inside of this magazine. I have decided to implement this into my design because it will leave room on the rest of my cover for my cover lines to go and will not over crowd the page.

I will be making my masthead solid block capitals and the colour of the font will have a gradient overlay that fades into a transparent colour so that you see the background. This is an idea that I have seen on multiple issues of vibe and I think it gives off a really nice effect. The cover line that will be aligned right will be on the right hand side of the page and will be aligned to this side to correspond with the side of the page that it lies on giving off a real sense of sophistication and a look of professionalism as almost every magazine using this technique in the industry. The main cover line will also be a bigger font size to the cover lines that lie on the left side of the page. This will suggest to the readers that that this cover line coincides to the main cover photo and will therefore be one of the main stories/articles in the magazine.

One thing that I have chosen to do is to keep text to a minimum on the front cover because this will make my front cover look over crowded and will take the focus away from the main cover photo and this is something that I do not want to happen. After doing research I also found out that most readers like to look at the picture so I do not want to include too much text and make the ratio of text:images too big. This is because most people often pick up magazines to have a quick glance at the images before further reading into the articles and stories.

Second Analysis of Music Magazine (VIBE)

Here is a second edition of VIBE magazine that I have taken the time to analyse by breaking down different components within the magazine. I will be looking to VIBE for a lot of inspiration when creating my magazine because I am going for a similar look as I feel like it is very styled yet sophisticated.

First Analysis of VIBE

Here is a presentation in which I have completely analysed the front cover, contents page, and double page spread of VIBE magazine. I have tried to include as much detail as possible for each part of the breakdown. I tried to leave out features that were less important as I would avoid using these in my final production anyway, therefore  I have analysed fully features that I deem impressive and would like to try and re-create in my final production.

Final Font Choice for Masthead

I have thought hard about which font I would like to use for my masthead. In the end i have decided to use the font Bebas Neue. I chose this font because I took to this font quite strongly when I first saw it. The font has a very clean, straight edge to each side which gives the text a quite sophisticated look, and I would like my magazine to give the effect of sophistication and professionalism when readers pick up the magazine. That is another reason that I will decide to use this font as my masthead font, because I wish for my magazine to look professional. If I was to choose a font that suited the genre a little bit better but it was graffiti font, then this can be a problem for some readers as graffiti can often be difficult to read. Also, fonts like graffiti can look rather tacky and will make the magazine lack professionalism.

Title of Music Magazine.

After lots of thought and preparation, including brain storming ideas and creating a moodboard with pictures linked to my chosen genre, I have finally decided to give my magazine the title 'MIXTAPE'. This is because I feel that there is a link between my genre and the title. A mixtape is something that small time rappers compose and put together when trying to make it in the music industry, they either sell it or give it away as a mixtape. By naming my magazine 'MIXTAPE' I feel that people should be given a strong enough idea of what genre my music magazine is and can therefore decide whether or not they wish to purchase it.

Font

I have reduced my options to three main fonts for my masthead. Bebas Neue, Old Sans Black and Arial Black. The reason that I have decided to shortlist these three fonts is because of their 'boldness'. I am really fond of the font Bebas Neue because it instantly caught my eye as a stand out font that would be ideal for my masthead. The next two fonts, I also really like, however, I much prefer the look of the first.

Brain Storming

Below is a picture of a mind map that I had drawn out in one of my lessons. The main idea behind this mind map was to brainstorm as many possible ideas into a mind map that I could that were to do with my chosen genre, whether it be artists, clothing, lifestyle... Whatever.

The main outcome from this was to hopefully think of a few titles for my Music magazine.

 Although the mind map is not completely full or finished, I think that I have jotted down a good amount of ideas which will help me decide on a title for my music magazine alongside my already fairly good knowledge of the genre.

Chosen Genre

For the chosen genre of my magazine i have decided to pick Hip Hop/Rap. I chose this because I feel like I have a real passion for this Genre of music. I have listened to and enjoyed this style of music for a number of years and still do today. I often wish to know what is happening in the Hip Hop industry with regard to artists and albums and I think that this ardor for this certain genre of music will help me produce a music magazine of the finest quality.