Music Magazine

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.