Other ideas for main cover -print screens

Making the magazine- Print Screen Front cover

Mock up Ideas

Print screens and edited images (final images)

To edit my photos i used Photoscape and played around with the Colour curve to get different kinds of effects.

These are my edited images. This image is of a girl (KID SHAW-T) against a brick wall. Most of my photos have the appropriate props and settings and I tried to create images that are representative of the Hip Hop genre. For example, my image setting included a brick wall, which is conventional of Hip Hop as this genre started out in the streets. I also took photos against a white background to allow the professional studio look, and from the images I have taken I have been successful in making them appear professional. As you can see from my images the props I have included are very representative of my genre, I thought hard about the props and came up with the Boom box, NYC hoodie, Glasses, headphones, trainers and a silk jacket with shined hood. In result I have considered props and settings and planned and organised the photo shoot very well and the Proof images shown on my blog also highlight that I have personally taken these images. The images of the girl in trainers is me and I conducted how the photo should be taken and at what angle and shot.
For this image below I took it at mid shot, in my head I had an idea of a double page spread, having a person located at the side with a background of a brick wall where I could place my text. Mid shot is effective, especially here as it shows off the props included. The bottom half of the girl would have been irrelevant, even if I wanted to show her trainers, there are enough Hip Hop representations just by looking at her waist up.

This image is one of my favourites. It’s a long shot of the whole body showing the costume and in my opinion emphasis on the trainers which, when looking at the type of trainers, is very conventional to the genre. The use of the N.E.R.D glasses and hood also support this. I played around on Photoscape to edit this image and it came out really well, the colours are bold and lively and only the face is blanked out with white, but this allows the glasses to stand out which is currently fashionable and in trend.

IMAGE'S BELOW- Here is another example if images I have played around on my editing software which came out quite retro and funky, which can be shown as breaking boundaries of my genre as you do see some images like this in those magazines but not so much these use of colours and editing techniques.

This image below is also one of my favourites, it is a great image that represents hip hop, its funky and fun and I love the use of colours I have created. I would like to use this image as a very central part of my magazine, but i will struggle to find a place to place it. For example the full body shot image I would like to use in the contents page but it goes well by itself with no distractions around it (simple). I could use it on my double page but I have very good and appropriate images for the double page spread taken already. One of my features is in the theme of Kicks (trainers) where this image will go very well.

This last image is in my opinion great for the cover, it’s bold and stands out with the prop and clearly distinguishes and supports the genre of Hip Hop.

Proof images

Mostly all images I have taken

I have taken a number of images, as there was many of them i have decided to present them all in a collage.

Colour schemes thoughts

As mentioned in my previous blog post, codes and conventions. I discussed colours and how many of the RnB and Hip Hop magazines of today have similar colours schemes.

Ideas for Hooks-double page-contents

I have thought of a few ideas for my double page spread. The main idea is a music interview with a hip hop artist. This is a simple idea, one which i can play around with the layout and break certian boundries that this magazine genre has. I can try doing this by moving ariound text and images in different places or even have a main dominant image for the background, or on one side of the page.

Ideas for hooks and teasers as well as the contents are as following:

- Exclusive tickets to Spring bling (a hiphop festival)
- Nicki minaj the exclusive interview (a famous female rapper from nyc)
- Top 50 artists of 2010
- New beats VS old beats
- In the fashion department- up your shoe game- latest kicks!, also the expected hip hop trends of this summer.
- Kid Shaw-T interview
- in the technology section- headphones - speakers- ipods must have!
- Hip hop shows on BET
- 106 & Park Backstage!

These features are planning to go inside the contents page and some used as hooks on the front cover.

Typeface ideas

These are some ideas for the typefaces i will be using in my magazine. However, with the use of editing, i can alter my typeface to make it unique. For example, the typeface

ROCKWELL, its a simple and common typeface but it is clear and gets the point across, which is what im looking for.

Potential names for Magazine

These are my ideas for my magazine's name, they include:
-WORD
-DOPE
-BEATZ
-DOPE FRESH
-DOPE SOURCE
-FRESH SOURCE
-FRESH KRUNK
-WORD UP
-STRAIGHT UP
-REPRESENT
-REAL HIP HOP
-ITS A RAP

I have tried to think of as many potential names as possible so i can have a variety to choose from. I have short listed these and the names i can see on my magazine cover are, Word up, It's a rap, Fresh source and real Hip Hop. These names are very representative of my magazine. For example,
Word up- the language in this title and like many other of the chosen names is very street and in the theme of hip hop. Word up refers to the word on the street and everything that is currently going on.

Its a rap- i really like this idea for the name, i thought of it whilst brainstorming some hooks, teasers, cover lines, i was originally going to have it as 'it's a rap-birdman puts his rap career on hold', and realised that 'it's a rap' can be very representative for a title. It's a rap can be seen as a very clever title because on music videos the director would shout out `it's a wrap' meaning done, but instead of that i used 'rap' which represents hip hop (rapping) so in result the title is saying it's a rap meaning (this is rap, the magazine is about rap and i am going to give you everything rap).

Fresh source- This title is very self explanatory and straight forward, its a fresh- source, meaning all the things included in the magazine is current and up to date interviews, photos, music charts, concerts etc.

Real Hip Hop- This name is simple and has the straight forward meaning of real things in Hip Hop, everything you will be seeing is real and current.

Overall i think my two favourite names is Word up and its a rap. I am leaning more towards 'it's a rap' i quite like this title and the fact it has a clever meaning behind it.

Flatplans

These are my flatplan ideas for my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Case Study on magazine Industry

Condé Nast -VOGUE Case Study

Condé Nast Publications is a worldwide magazine publishing company. Its main offices are located in London, Madrid, Miami, Milan, New York, Paris and Tokyo and its run by S.I. Newhouse Jr. Condé Nast publishes a number of magazines; one which my case study will be on is Vogue.

Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle publication which is distributed monthly in 16 countries. Vogues first issue was in 1892, found by Arthur Baldwin Turnure who later died in 1909. Condé Nast went overseas in the early 1910, after success of this movement, Vogue started in Britain. The movement to Spain was not so successful, however publishing in France was. In 1973 Vogue became a monthly publication. The current editor-in-chief of American Vogue is Anna Wintour, and since taking over in 1988 she has worked to protect the magazine's high status and reputation among fashion publications. To achieve this she has made the magazine focus on the latest and more accessible ideas of "fashion" for a wider audience. In 2003, Anna Wintour joined the Council of Fashion Designers of America in creating a fund that provides money and guidance to at least two up-and-coming designers each year. This has built loyalty among the emerging new star designers, and helped preserve the magazine's dominant position of influence through considerable influence over American fashion. Vogues target audience is mainly females 16 to early 30’s.

Vogue is very easy to access online, you can simply just go on http://www.vogue.co.uk. They get:

- Banners - £35 cpm

- Skyscrapers - £40 cpm

- Rich Media - £45 cpm

- Email sponsorship from - £65 cpm

- Email List Purchase - 250 cpm

- Promotion - From £5k

- Sponsorship - POA

Vogue can be accessed online through www.vogue.co.uk

The pictures above show what the Vogue website looks like and some of the features included. As well as buying vogue in shops, you can subscribe to vogue online. The website includes many features for their consumers. They can search for all the latest fashion news, gossip, videos, beauty, blogs, the latest trends and also enter in competitions. This online distribution can be very handy for many consumers, and if it’s not, for example, not having access to the web, buyers can purchase the magazine copy in shops.

The website itself is busy and complete with features which would appear in the magazine itself, the background is which, however, images and black text contrasts against it in order for it to stand out. The magazine itself is quite different to Vogues online presence. There are more options online such as visual videos instead of just still images, also you can choose what you want to view, when and how, and this is referred to pull media. The magazine itself would be push media, because everything the producer wants you to see is page by page given to you, and in the order they want you to view it. With vogues online presence, it allows audiences to choose what the want to view. The website is updated daily and one way in which we can see this, is a feature on the website that reads, Breaking news. This is news that is quick and easy to consume and new.

Advertising is included on the sides of the website, the advertising is mostly videos which audiences can click it, in order to be taken to a separate site, this benefits the advertisers a great deal, because unlike a print magazine, the consumer may look at the magazine, but may not act upon it there and then. By seeing the advertisement online, they can click it and be pulled towards the product and may want to research more into it. Quoted from the Condé Nast website ‘CondéNetUK's stable of websites now attracts over 2.6 million unique users with 46 million pages viewed each month; 250,000 people have requested to receive emails from us on a daily and weekly basis’ this strongly highlights the effect of vogues and other Condé Nast publications online presence.

Viewing Vogue online is completely free to anyone however subscribing costs £19.99 for the first 10 issues. An issue in stores is around £3-4.

Conclusion

I have looked into Condé Nast and its publication Vogue. I have discussed its online presence in detail and overall I think it’s very important for magazines to consider their online presence. Not only does this cater to a wider audience and become in reach with technology, it advertises better, which is benefited to those companies. By doing so I believe Vogue is targeting the younger generation which is very important as they are the next generation to reach the target audience. The internet is very popular in this century and is in some cases the only way people will consider viewing the magazine, as the printed magazine may not be so popular with them. Although internet is mainly being used a lot by the younger generation, it can limit audiences if it’s published more towards the online presence.