1) The document describes the design choices made for a hip hop magazine project. Plain black, white, and gray colors were chosen for the magazine covers and contents page after researching popular hip hop magazines. 2) On the cover, vague text like "weekend madness" is used to intrigue readers without giving away the story. The double page spread describes things simply so the target audience of young, lower class adults can understand. 3) White space is used on the cover and contents page for impact and effect. On the double page spread, space is limited by the placement of images. A quote is added to fill space and add drama.

1. Q1 – Forms & Conventions
Matty Lane

2. Front Cover
Double Paged Spread
Contents Page

3. House Styles
Colours:
After researching up and looking at other popular Hip-Hop and Indie magazines I decided that
just a plain and simple white, black or grey colouring on my magazine would suit best and be
the most effective for my magazine genre. I developed this by searching through real Hip-Hop
magazine pages and also by making one or two previous cover pages and contents trying out
different colouring until I found one I believed was effective.
The text/information added on the cover page was simple but also confusing to the reader
when first read. I did this so that the audience will be curious in what I wrote about, for
example the ‘weekend madness’ drags attention towards it as it sounds interesting but does
not give off any ideas of what the story is about. This will hopefully make the audience read
on through the pages and to the double page spread.
In my article on my double paged spread I describe things simply and made sure it’s easy to
understand, however I also wrote as how I see young Hip-Hop artists, over-confident,
arrogant and to create humour. After using social grades and psychographics to see who my
audience are, lower classed students or non-working young adults, I decided to write the
article and describe everything simply for them. Things are described on my contents page to
make my audience seem curious, interested but also to understand what my magazine offers
easily. The information is presented well towards my audience.

4. Layout & Space
As I went with the plain colours of black, white and grey for my
magazine I used clear white space on my cover photo for effect and
impact to appeal to my audience. My contents page does not have any
space empty except for next to the main image, which is dead space as
I had nothing to enter there, but the white space still is effective even
though it could have been used for something else.
On my double-paged spread the space on the left side cannot be used
for anything as my image holds a person on the left and a person on
the right leaving space in the middle that cannot be used. To help clear
the space I added in a quote to create drama and add a bigger effect on
my magazine.
The layout on my cover page is used to create clear white spaces to add
effect and to emphasise the house styles and genre of the magazine.
The rest of my pages have similar layouts to other Hip-Hop magazines
with my own content and a few changes.

5. Conventions
The Masthead ‘TheMadness’ is used to give an idea of what the overall content in my
magazine will be and to also highlight the genre of my magazine. I have two kickers, which are
both used to give ideas of the stories involved in the magazine to create curiosity towards the
audience without giving away what the stories are about. The headline ‘Anis Nane Priorities
takes over’ is to mainly emphasise the well known artist and to also include a slightly
confusing headline ‘priorities takes over’ to draw the reader in for them to then understand
the headline once reading the article. The selling line is used to show a artists album and uses
the ‘Exclusive’ in a different colour to catch the readers eye. This has an effect as it shows my
magazine offers a variety of things just on the front cover. The anchorage ‘They only see the
dark side of me’ could relate to certain people In the audience but also again create curiosity
In making the reader want to understand the artists story and problem created in the
anchorage. The flash is placed on the bottom of the magazine, drawing the readers eye with
the word ‘plus’ in a different colour. The flash simply gives the audience an idea of what other
artists will be shown in the magazine. The Featured Article Photo is using a certain pose and
facial expression to give off hints of what genre the magazine is, who the main artist is and
also gives of a clue to the article. Once read the article the audience can they relate back to
the main image of the cover.

6. Principles Of Design
My final draft was affected by many things. The main reason my final draft turned
out the way it did is because I mainly used a lot of my research on Hip-Hop/Indie
magazines, the research from my questionnaire so that it suited my audience and
also the social grades. I used these as they helped me do my house styles, design
and layout to emphasise certain areas of my magazine that I believed would catch
the eye of my audience. The research on other magazine covers, double paged
spread and contents pages helped me improve my magazine to my final draft as I
could take different ideas from different magazines and turn it into one, which is
my final draft.
I used my own knowledge of how I seen my audience, who enjoyed Hip-Hop, to
design my main overall design of my magazine as I believed my audience would
be attracted to certain colours, designing and a certain layout, which turned out
to be a plain layout with a large amount of open space. Empty spaces normally
show the magazine hasn’t got much content, but I used it on my magazine cover
for an effect.