Jerome Blake A/S Media Coursework

JEROME BLAKE AS MEDIA COURSEWORK PRESENTATION

KING Magazine

I have decided to use KING magazine for my research. I chose this magazine because it is successful and it is relevant to my the genre of my magazine being Hip-Hop.King is a monthly men’s magazine who’s target audience is African America and urban. It features articles about hip-hop and R&B, as well as articles covering sports and fashion. The magazine is published by Harris Publications. This magazine was a spinoff from the magazine XXL, which ceased publication on March 31, 2009, because of a reduction in sales due to poor economic circumstances. KING then released monthly instalments soon and It resumed publication, this time as a commercial magazine, in late 2009.The magazine is mainly features high quality photo-shoots, of women wearing little to nothing followed closely by an interview from the featured model.

CLASHAnother magazine I decided to use for my research was Clash I also think this is a successful magazine I chose to research this magazine because the target audience I am aiming my magazine towards is young black women, this magazine has elements which cleverly depicts on its target audience being teenage women.

And it is a combination of this magazine and king I plan on using to make a hip hop magazine which is targeted at young black women.

Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the U.K. Its published every month and the very first issue was released in June 2004

Conventions of music magazines

• Masthead• eye catching images• Taglines• Bright, eye catching

colours• Uniform colour scheme• Busy front cover• Bold text• Often a picture of an

artist/celebrity or band (celebrity endorsement)

• Taglines• Left third• Cover lines• Use of bar codes• Image bleed • Eye catching cover lines• Splashes

Magazine front cover ideas

I took inspiration from both Clash and KING the reason I chose to research these two magazines because I believe by following the codes and conventions of them both and combining them I can target a unique target audience in a genre that doesn’t normally target this audience the audience I am targeting is young black women through a hip hop. I chose Clash as I particularly like there stylistic layout and use and placement of codes and conventions, I chose to research KING magazine to get inspiration as to the different ways I can pose my model; I also like the use of typography used in the mast head and selling lines of there magazine.

My intentions is to take the classy look from Clash and the urban look from King and merge them together to portray young black women in a different way then they are in hip hop and show that women do not have to be so revealing to appear attractive.

My ideas and influences This image shows a magazine front cover of previous issue of “Clash” and “KING” magazine. As my target audience is young black women I need to include particular conventions of other women's magazines. From my research women are attracted to “pretty”, “vibrant” and “eye catching” colours and tend to pick up a magazine which looks appealing

On “clash” magazine I particularly liked the general colour scheme and in particular the box advertisement in the bottom left hand corner of the page, I figured I this could use this to add celebrity endorsement to my magazine, in order two follow the “two step flow” theory. So my magazine being the source of mass media I could use celebrity endorsement to put across my message to my target audience.

Since the magazine I am creating is a hip hop and R&B I decided I like the use of font and typography in the masthead as its bold effective and stands out and this is a convention that is seen throughout “KING” magazines

Contents page ideas This is the contents page for a

previous edition of Clash magazine along with its front cover I think this contents page is very effective and works very well with the front cover. because

• the colour scheme is consistent in both the front cover as well as its contents. In this case its, green, pink, the only variant is the background of the contents is white, but it is clear it is from the dame magazine.

In my opinion this contents page is very effective as it follows the general scheme of the front cover whilst following codes and conventions

In what way does my media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?

My intention is to create a magazine where the outcome will be a combination of conventions of two separate and established magazines the first is “clash” the second is “KING” the conventions I will take from each is the use of font in “KING” and the generic layout and colour scheme from “clash” the colour scheme I will use will not only relate to my target audience but my genre of music as well

my music magazine challenges other magazines on the market, by depicting on a target audience of young black women but portraying them in a different way than most hip-hop and R&B magazines portray them to give them a positive reading on the media text.

In doing so I believe I can expand the target audience of this magazine to the young black male as by reading my magazine they will have been given a different outlook on women as to be respected rather than just sexual objects.

How will my media product represent different social groups?

My intentions are to have my magazine represent young women aged 17 –20.

I would like my magazine to have a positive representation of women unlike many representations of young women in magazines and the general media today .

My magazine will represent women as being independent, confident, sexy and respectable. I will do this through the pictures I take and the quotation I choose to display in my double page spread.

What media institutions might distribute my product and why

Since I am using both KING and Clash magazines for my inspiration I done some research as to what media institutions publish them , and out of the two of them I believe The XXL Media Group would most likely publish my magazine as it XXL tends to publish urban hip hop and R&B music magazines which is the category my magazine falls into.

I also believe this as I am following similar conventions to from KING in my magazine.

The reason I don’t believe the Art8amby would distribute my product as they tend to distribute pop music which isn't the genre of my magazine and the only conventions I am following from Clash which is distributed by the Art8amby is the bright colour schemes and the generic layout to bring depict on my target audience being young black women.

Who will be the target audience for my media product?

My music magazine is aimed at young black women aged 17-20, who enjoy hip-hop and R&B and are itching to know what new music is to be expected .

As well as young women who generally like reading and knowing about celebrities lives and what inspired them

Stages of development part 1 (original photo)This is my original

photograph of my model the location is my front garden.

I had my model pose this way to fit into the genre of hip-hop magazines as it displays her assists

I took this photograph at night in so I could use the Flash setting on the camera to highlight features of the model.

I had my model dress in leggings a loose but translucent top and heels to fit in with the genre as women in hip hop magazines reveal features of her figure

I had her dress like this and not wear less clothing as I felt that would be inappropriate and I could still get the same effect whilst having my model fully clothed

Stages of development (photo)

  (edited photo) Secondly I edited the photo changing the colours my model was wearing once I decided on the colour scheme of my magazine I added jewellery to the model I did this also to fit my model in closer relation to the design of the magazine as a whole and the hip hop genre as well.models in hip hop music magazines are either coated in jewellery or in the case of women dressed in very little clothier which shows the model to be very revealing

This is me refining and experimenting with different fonts, when I decided on a suitable font and name I tried the different colours at different stages

Stages of development (front cover)

(Front cover development)The title pulse came from me brainstorming appropriate names for a hip hop magazineThis version is just a stage of development I made the masthead large in font size in order to see different ways in which I could arrange it The image of the model has been poorly cut out but I only quickly added it to get a feel weather the magazine would work like this, I felt it didn’t so I changed various aspects of it such as the colour scheme  and location and size of the model on the design

Stages of development (front cover first draft)

(magazine first draft)This is me further refining the main image as well as adding selling lines and cover lines to the design in order to bring my design in closer relation to magazines in general.

The background is just an image off the internet I do NOT intend to use this image as my background. It was just a basis so I can see how my magazine could potentially look.

How will I attract my audience?

I will attract my target audience by making sure that the colour scheme is consistent throughout my magazine.

I will attract my audience by using bright colours, eye catching images and bold text.

On my front cover I will have a strong masthead that stands out , a unique and interesting background and a complimentary picture of my model.

On the contents page I will make the writing informative so the audience know where to look into my magazine to read what they want , I will also make this page visually attractive by following the general colour scheme of the front cover but with a unique and attractive layout.

On my double page spread I will have several images of my model posing against shapes and text in, this I believe will work well in keeping the reader interested

Once I have done this to the best o my ability I am sure the target audience will be attracted to my magazine.

Stages of development (background of front cover)

(original background photo) This is my original image that I have taken into photo shop this photo was taken in the day at 3 O’clock I made it black and white in order to be able to manipulate the levels of colour to fit exactly what I have in mind .The reason I took this photo in the day was simply because I can see more of the graphic features of the wall itselfMy plan with the photo is to have my model pose against it and I took photo of this suburban wall to fit in closer relation to the hip hop genre because from my research I was the backgrounds of magazines used real location .

Stages of Stages of development (background of front cover)

My plan with the photo is to have my model pose against it and I took photo of this suburban wall to fit in closer relation to the hip hop genre  because from my research I was the backgrounds of magazines used real location This is my original image that I have taken into photo shop this photo was taken in the day at 3 O’clock I made it black and white in order to be able to manipulate the levels of colour to fit exactly what I have in mind.

The reason I took this photo in the day was simply because I can see more of the graphic features of the wall itself

Stages of development (background of front cover)The location of this photo is a suburban alley way two streets away from my house I took images of other walls but I decided to go with this one as it was in my plan to have the model pose against the wall

This was me developing the back round wall I used a technique called due tone on photo shop this feature make an image two colours where I am able top freely adjust the levels I chose mix between purple and pink as one of the colours as it relates closely to my target audience of females.The second colour I added was black to highlight key details of the photo I took this photo before I took images of my model I had to de them seperately as I didn’t want my model to be displayed in the duo tone effect.

Stages of development (front cover second draft)

(second Draft) this is my second draft for my front cover I changed the colour scheme as I felt red didn’t stand out in contrast to the background that I have now made up my mind on.

I then changed the size of the masthead in order to have more room in the design as a whole as I felt the sat head was previously too big and didn’t follow the generic codes and conventions of magazines.

 I added a selling line at the bottom of the design along with the date, price and barcode to add to the authenticity of the design.

Stages of development contents page (part 1)

the first thing i did was take a picture of the globe in an atlas i had at home, secondly i took the photo into photo shop and used duo tone with purple and black to follow the colour scheme of the front cover.with this as the basis of my contents page i now had to add relevent images.

Stages of development contents page (part 2)

these are the three images that feature on the contents page when i had my photo shoot i had my models take several pictures as i knew i would need more than one image to be able to create my magazine, also magazines tent to feature the cover model and other models in the magazine several time over; so i decided to follow this convention

Stages of development contents page (part 3)

This is my final draft for my contents page as you can see it features the photographs I mentioned earlier and the background of the globe that I edited using Photoshop.creating the contents page wasn't as challenging as the front cover as I already knew the color scheme I had to follow so that saved allot of time. writing the contents took very little time to I simple wrote down what I wanted to feature in my magazine in a word document and copied and pasted the text into the design, then manipulated the style and scale of the font. I made the page numbers stand out as the reader will need to know what page different content is on.the selling line I’ve added at the bottom I made in using "adobe InDesign" I crated two circles and the yellow strip the pulsating lines are several little line which vie layered and arranged to look the way it does.

Stages of development double page spread (part 1 )

creating the double page spread was abit more challenging than the contents page I started off with a black background in "Photoshop" and added an effect called lenses flair.

I did this because I felt it brought my magazine in closer relation to my target audience of young black females, fancy effects like these keep the reader interested.

Stages of development double page spread (part 2 )

secondly I added several purple sphere's initially I  then thought to have my model pose along the different spheres as if there are solid objects, the same principle applies to the "N" in canace being elongated on the last stroke of the letter the "exclusive interview with" was something I decided to put there simply to follow the codes and conventions of magazines.

from my research I realised that the typography used in the top left corner of double page spreads tent to stand out, so the reader can understand what the page is about without having to read too much.

Stages of development double page spread (part 3 )

The interview questions i had scripted a while ago and interviewed my model on the 18th of January 2012.

The interview went smoothly my model gave very open responses to the questions i asked her i then typed up the interview on microsoft word the very same day and pasted the interview into the design

Stages of development double page spread (part 4 )

this stage was reletivly simple aswell i simple used other photo's i took of my model on the day of the photshoot this was something I had in mind from before which is why I have had her pose this way, in order to fit amounts the shapes. I think this adds a nice effect as it shows different view points of my model and engages my target audience.

this in turn further adds to the point of what my model said in interview that a female doesn't have to were next to no clothing to be considered attractive.

Analysing my final front cover for my music magazine

Masthead – the main title of the magazine. Normally Including the date and price of the magazine. The font used on the masthead is “Horizon BT”, I chose this font because I think it relates to the genre of my magazine and is visually appealing

Strapline – this is a smaller headline which gives a general summary of my magazine .The font is Space bd BT

Strong complimentary main image- I used this image to attract my audience. The model is the main focus of my magazine

three smaller images to advertise other features in the magazine

The left side – makes the magazine easy to recognise in shops as it is filled with interesting text that varies in size

Analysing my final contents page for my music magazine

Different pictures of the model are used to make the reader want to read on further.

I included the editors letter because I think it is effective if the editor speaks to their audience. As It makes the reader feel important.

The colour scheme relates to the front cover of my magazine

I placed the text in columns to follow codes and conventions

Analysing my double page spread

Quotations to show the reader what the person in the double page has said as it may interest the reader making them read on

eye-catching photo’s to keep the reader instructed as it looks appealing visually

Head line – shows the reader what or who the page is about.I decided to use purple as it stands out on a black background, bold writing in lower and upper case because It stands out to the reader, especially the background

Feedback Contents pageI took my front cover to Facebook for feedback to be able to improve it a lot liked the colour scheme but disagreed with the placement of font.

But the page number was missing

Feedback feature page

I took my front cover to Facebook for feedback to be able to improve it a lot liked the colour scheme but disagreed it had grammar errors

Feedback front coverI took my front cover to Facebook for feedback to be able to improve it a lot liked the colour scheme but disagreed with the placement of font

Magazine Final draft

This is my final draft after taking into account my feedback I removed the text that covered my model and simplified the earpiece in the corner of the design as I felt the word “free” didn’t need to be there as it was self explanatory

Final draft contents page

From my feedback I changed the page number to “2” as the contents page is the second page in a magazine and I increased the brightness on the third photo and to make it clearly visible as my reviewers said.

Final draft feature page

The changes I made to this was a simple case of grammar punctuation and colour coding I put the questions in pink so the reader can easily distinguish questions and answers in the interview.

My improvement

On the left is my preliminary task for a school magazine since then I feel I have greatly progressed.

In my Photoshop techniques and my eye for designing as I whole, the clear difference comes from my improved understanding of codes and conventions of magazines and through extensive research.

My improvement

On the left is my preliminary task for a school magazine

And on the right is my final music magazine

What have I learned from the process and construction of my media product

In the beginning of the course I had no knowledge, ideas, or experience with the program Adobe InDesign have never I worked on producing a magazine before.

But never the less I have discovered it takes a great deal of time, effort and planning to put a magazine together.

I have learnt that with InDesign you can cleverly manipulate text and the placement of images on a page InDesign has probably helped substantially without it I would not have been able to of created my magazine.

Photoshop was simple to use as I have worked with it in another A-level subject Graphic design and it is a useful program to edit and manipulate photo's have found Photoshop very useful when editing my photos. Without it my images would not stand out or have any kind of effect

My media products