Evaluation Q1

This was my initial design for my Music Magazine front cover, in which at first I believed looks aesthetically pleasing. However, when I embarked on secondary research via the internet, I discovered that generally my main image didn’t offer the same level of enticement and looked more like a celebrity lifestyle magazine, something not intended to do. Within my secondary research I discovered that generally Rap magazines especially ‘Gangster rap’ magazines have the tendencies to be more direct and aimed at the individual viewer or simply more ‘in your face’ with the imagery and wordplay, therefore I redesigned my front cover to suit this market normality and demand.

Furthermore, this is what I meant by a more direct and ‘in your face approach for a Rap magazines front cover. Firstly, the image offers a more undeviating and direct approach whereas my initial design did the opposite of this and had a more ambiguous approach that looked as if it deviated from a meaning or purpose, the aspect in which this XXL magazine on the left has the opposite in and has a prominence within its aesthetics. Furthermore, this rap magazine also had a straight to the point Main cover line as well, something I was not planning on using in my initial design, again being the reason why I redesigned the whole front cover. Moreover, personally I very much was enticed by this magazine when researching it and found the overall layout not only met the requirements for the general rap magazines codes and convetions, but also very intriguing and something I would try and similarly produce on a higher standard.

Furthermore, as you can see my redesigned and final music magazine product is not only revolutionary compared to my initial design, it also meets the codes and conventions that I desired when discovering my secondary research and found ‘XXL’ magazine. In my opinion I believe my product and redevelopment is much better than XXL magazines approach as it takes that foundation and builds on it even better, through the use of the Bright yellow enticing Masthead called ‘Rap Gaze’. Evidently, the main cover line is also similar to the one of XXL magazines, as are the other cover lines all in an attempt to match if not better the codes and conventions of a rap magazine. Furthermore, I also introduced Anchorage text through ‘Dr Dre’ as it suits the specific genre and is attractive, and made the addition of adding ‘Puffs’ as I am offerings exclusive interviews to the reader with Ice Cube.

Additionally, I again attempted to follow the rap genre specific codes and conventions within the design of my Music magazine contents page. I discovered Vibe magazines contents page and was enticed by their contents page layout and conventions.

Moreover, within my secondary research I again developed the codes and conventions of the rap genre Double Page Article and attempted to follow the rap genre specific codes and conventions within the design of my Music magazine Double page article located above.

Again, this reinforces the specific, direct and non-ambiguous way in which rap magazines present their magazines, evident in my article I have remastered and developed the codes and conventions by the way in which my face is so directly targeting the reader.