Thursday 4 March 2010

Double Page Spread Interview

I spoke to Ricken Ram about his newly released album and how it has taken the Hip-Hop album by storm.

''I am delighted with the recent news and figures i have recieved from the Hip-Hop world, i cannot believe how well my team has worked and my fans have utterly amazed me with their fantastic support. I have always wished for suppoet from followers but now im living the dream i feel i owe my fans alot ''

i asked Mr Ram how he overcame the loss of his manager, his reply was very emotional.

'' I miss the unique style of father-like advice he gave me and the support he gave me towards my music life and my day-to-day living. He was a fantastic man and having to carry on without him is very hard but my new manager has shown great support and provides fantastic musical talents for my work.''

I then asked Ricken Ram if his new album will be in contention to break Hip-Hop sales records.

'' Getting a record for hip-hop sales would just be out of this world. I dont plan for it but if it came to it i would be overly excited to see the contenders for this months album charts. I would like to add that my music is not put out in competition with others, i merely aim to please my fans a produce good music for my listeners. I learn so much from other artists in my genre and i would like to add that alot of them have welcomed me and helped me in my musical success.''

After the interview Mr Ram gave us great pleasure by performing his chart topping track which has reached number 1 in the U.S and number 2 here in the U.K. This is an artist who will be around for a while and we are hoping to great success throughout his years in Hip-Hop.

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Final 25 Word Pitch

''Base, Beats, Booms and Blasts.. Is Your Life lacking this? Get the Hip-Hop Magazine that can change that.. Bass-ics''


I used this pitch as my final one because it has emphasis towards my magazine. It Implies my magazine is full of action and shows my use of allieration. I used alliteration for effective and uses Hip-Hop and music based language.

Thursday 11 February 2010

Contents Page Draft

Double Page Spread Draft



My draft version of my double page spread includes a picture of bith of my model artist i am using for my magazine, a quote from the Hip-Hop pair, the logo of the Hip-Hop group and my final piece will include an interview done with the group. I used a white background for simplicity, and the picture of both artist sitting down show the audience it is relaxed and they are both smiling showing they were happy to take part in the interview. i used a quote to interact with the pair and how they feel about their own and everybody elses success in the music industry. I used opacity on the picture of the pair to show them in the background but putting the interviews writing on top it shows that they are saying it and its a genuine interview.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Monday 8 February 2010

Magazine Cover Draft



This is my first magazine mock draft as an example of my final piece. I used the colours i origionally decided to use, red black white and grey. This gives an urban effect and as Hip-Hop is urban related and based i think it fits in well. I used Ricken Ram as my front cover model because he fits in with Hip-Hop based things such as his taste in clothes, music, shops and hobbys. He also enjoyed the taking part side of this photoshoot and was happy to be included. My background is very much like a spotlight, i used gradient on photoshop to produce a diamond shape background and used a sharp, bright colour to contrast with the black to produce a lighting effect. My masthead and sub-heading are in red to stand out from the black and white attrcting readers automatically to the logo and title to make sure they are aware of what they are reading. My Writing on each side of Rickens pose shows recent and important news to readers to make them want to look inside and is almost a cliffhanger which makes them want to read more.My use of speakers show music representative and the speakers are large and bold. The zig-zag speech bubble with more information in are giving the illusion of vibration showing the speakers are creating base and loud beats. My magazine cover will be similar to this draft and i will use ideas to help me achieve a greater final product.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Jae Millz Billboard



I like this idea because it shows the artist being portrayed on the billboard, Jae Millz, is a very popular and well known person. I took a picture of Jae Millz and cut it out and placed it on a billboard. The pose he is stanced in is asif hes looking down on everyone looking up on the billboard to show power and his wealth.

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Double Page Spread Mock


This is a Mock idea of my double page spread. all the information is inside the glasses lense to explain how it is done and why i have done it.

Louis V Mag Mock



I used a louis Vuitton background to show wealth in this, also Louis Vuitton is very common clothing to big Hip-Hop stars such as Young Money who represent on the front of this magazine.


The use of car headlights show urban surroundings and the gravel floor is also urban. The headlights are focusing on Gudda Gudda to show he is the main attraction in this magazine cover.

Magazine Mock kanye



This magazine cover i have made is my favourite i have produced. I took a picture of Kanye West and cut out his pose in an action stance. I then made the rest of the magazine by cutting out speakers and placing them symetrically opposite to give a neat and tidy effect. The pink backgroubd was chosen for the use of eyecatching and sharp looks. The title is written in a very 'happy' and 'bubbly' font to show its appealing to happy readers but its also showing a hint of urban look to make it Hip-Hop based. I inserted zigzag speech bubbles coming from the speakers to show the speakers are not only vibrating they are almost shout loudly to the audience to read the writing in the speech bubble, which has important information in them to attract readers.


This magazine has Hip-Hop written all over it, from the Black and white background with bright red standing out coloured objects to the dress sense of the artists shown on the front. This idea came from wanting certain objects to stand out and using black and white against a sharp primary colour was a great idea and makes the objects the first thing readers look at.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Magazine Audience Example


Hi, Im john. I am 23 and i am a big fan of Hip-Hop music. My favourite Hip-Hop artists are 'The Game' and 'Drake'. I often buy and read Hip-Hop magazines because i enjoy to read about recent news and occurances in the Hip-Hop world. My favourite magazine is 'XXL' because of its popularity and i was recommended by a friend. I got into Hip-Hop when i was 15 and have listen to nothing but black musicians since then. I feel i can relate to the songs and lyrics because i grew uo in a rough neiburhood in england and the majority of my friends and brothers listened to this sort of music. I would be happy to try reading other magazine on Hip-Hop and a magazine such as base-ics would appeal to me because of its size and it is packed full of news and Hip-Hop artist i listen to on a dailly basis. I shop at highly reputated urban shops such as Pilot and Wellgosh which helps me express my love for Hip-Hop in my clothing aswell as my music.

Hello, My name is Tim. I listen to Hip-Hop music and read Hip-Hop magazines. My favourite magazine is 'Vibe', this is because of its related opinions to my, i am very biased about the different Hip-Hop artists. My favourite artists are Kanye West, Kid Cudi and Bobby Valentino. These artists are what i look for in magazines and will read about them over and over again. These artists are very popular at the moment and i like showing my friends i know all about them because i have got the information and news from Hip-Hop magazines.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Magazine Audience

My magazine is aimed at males. This is because of the male interest in Hip-Hop which overules the female interest in the specific genre of music. It is going to be aimed at males aged between 13 and 25. Being a 16year old myself i know that i am at the middle age range. I want this magazine to attract males because of its language and representation of the artists and groups. Knowing this is aimed at males i can choose my colour scheme to relate to males and the Hip-Hop world, getting ideas from other highly reputated magazines which also aim at males aged 13-25.

Monday 25 January 2010

including Tattoos



I used photoshop to imply this idea of including tattoos in my magazine. Using tattoos on my chosen models can give great Hip-Hop effect. Although the tattos are not real, i can use photoshop to make them look real, i can take a picture of my chosen person i will use to use as my magazine front cover, and place tattoos on the final picture using photoshop and ready drawn tattoos. an example of Hip-Hop artists using this idea is Lil Waynes album cover of 'Tha Carter III' Where a young child used to represent Lil Wayne has Lil waynes exact tattoos on his face and hands.

Saturday 23 January 2010

Thursday 21 January 2010

Wednesday 20 January 2010



This photo was origionally just the musician with a white background, but using photoshop i ajusted the image background to create emphasis. I used the gradient tool to add a 'Fill Effect' kind of bacground commonly used on Microsoft Word. This was a manual task in which i had to create the backgrounds shape and colour. My idea of colour was using a spotlight effect to show my artist is in the spotlight. I did this using a light yellow and black to create a distinctive light effect. I am hoping to use this idea for my final magazine to be different and effective to my audience.

Magazine Mock

Monday 11 January 2010

Colour Schemes

for my magazine cover, i have chosen 3 colours for my colour scheme. Black, grey and red. this idea comes from inspiration from XXl magazine which is a succesful hip-Hop magazine.

Sunday 10 January 2010

Magazine Template Ideas

For my magazines cover and use of pictures, i gope to use just a single action-shot photo for my front cover, maybe with only one person on the front either playin the guitar, posing in an action shot maybe from a concert setting or a shot of them singing. I got this idea of a single person picture playing the guitar from the magazine shown below.


I Think this magazine cover is very good in that it is spaced out, easy to read and the picture tells the whole magazine before you have read any captions. I hope to take this idea into my Hip-Hop based magazine by changin fonts, colour schemes, cover charecter and maybe add slightly more captions on the cover to draw people in to show it has alot to offer.

In the charecter change i was hoping to make my own photo of a person of my choice posing in a way similar to the photo below of Lil Wayne in a action shot playing the guitar.

Magazine Fonts




These are all potential fonts i could use for my magazine cover, but my favourite font is 'Weak Nails' because of its urban represented style and its cracked or erased marking in some letters, the font is very bold and outstanding and catchy the eye with its simplicity yet its urban related style. I hope to use a similar font for my Magazine because it will show Hip-Hop in the urban background and the fonts simplicity is readable and easy to fit in with most background colours and background settings.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Lil Wayne - Paradise



This is my favourite song at the moment because lil wayne is my favourite artist and the song is off his newest album 'Rebirth' which is unreleased at the moment but is expected to get very good reviews because of its odd mix of Rock and Hip-Hop.

25 Word Pitch

1. News, Gossip, Artists And Great Hip-Hop Music. What More could you ask for in a magazine, Your Greatest Music in a Magazine!

2. Ever Wanted to discover Young and New Talent in the Hip-Hop World? Our magazine provides Thousands of unrecognised and truely Fantastic Talent!

3. Base, Beats, Booms and Blasts.. Is Your Life lacking this? Get the Hip-Hop Magazine that can change that.. Base-ics.

4. The Latest Hip-Hop magazine out which provides great stories and news from the remarkable Hip-Hop world, Dont miss out..

Magazine Title

For my magazine i need a title. The title has to be easy to remember, related to my audience and genre, catchy and eye catching and something that makes the reader think rather than just glance and move on. My magazine is based on Hip-Hop music and is aimed at an audience ranging from the ages of 13-25, this is because of the present Hip-Hop craze and how artist relate to certain age groups. Because Hip-Hop is not as popular as it has been since its very beginning i want to produce a magazine to get people back into Hip-Hop and to do that i need to relate my magazine name to it. A few ideas for my magazines name are as shown below:



Hip-Hop Rebirth

Beat-Hop-Base

Auto-tuned

Money, Cars, Hip-Hop

Beats 'n' Boost

Base-ics

Thursday 7 January 2010

Wednesday 6 January 2010

XXL Magazine Analysis

This magazine cover is the one i have decided to analyse. I like this magazine cover because the magazine name,'XXL', is a very popular Hip-Hop magazine. The magazine features a single Hip-Hop artist posing on the front cover, with writing about Hip-Hop news and recent occurances in the music industry. Often occurances are such things like chart toppers, album and single releases, Artist live apperances, artists being revealed and artist retiring and general urban/street news. The magazine shows its label name in the top left hand corner to prevent blocking the photography and writing, but is made clear either by use of bright colours or bold fonts. This magazine is using colours which represent urban stereotypical colours, such as greys and blacks. The font is also very urban. It is bold and simpily typed and is scratched and looks damaged to show its uncared for and urbanly based, much like the artists representing the magazine. Red is the colour used for the magazine label to brighten the magazine and establish the brand over he whole magazine for viewers, first time they view the magazine.