Evaluation of Essential magazine.
Essential magazine uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products. Essential is a monthly full colour magazine covering Hip Hop music, Fashion, and Technology.
I decided to create a special edition magazine called the water-colour edition this would mean that all the images in the magazine would have a artistic effect to them which I thought would interest the target audience because it would be different and exciting to the eye.
1.
The photos I took emphasised the Hip-Hop attitude and look I was trying to portray for my magazine genre. The images were taken using high quality mega-pixel cameras. The pictures came out very well and represented our Hip Hop magazine very well however the artist clothes colours did not match my colour scheme of my magazine which is blue, black and white so I decided to go and take more pictures. I got my model to wear the same colour as my colour scheme as I belief this is very conventional for magazines of my genre to do. I took some mid-shot photos which is also conventional to show the artist look and attitude. The chain and earrings show his wealth and attitude to money. I used a beautiful model to pose by wearing sun shades, a chain in an innocent sexy pose because for Hip Hp magazines it is conventional to use female models to entice the male readers.
Our layout of Essential follows the conventions of general magazines but in particular, the genre Hip-Hop. The general layout of the front cover is conventional I did this by positioning the masthead at the top of the page in the largest font as it is important to immediately identify the title to the reader. However it is a convention to sometimes overlay the masthead with the main image. In my magazine the full title of the magazine, “Essential” is partly obscured by the positioning of the image; this is a convention that many magazines follow with the belief being that the target audience are already adequately familiar with the ‘House Style’ of the magazine despite the full title being obscured. I made sure I put as much effort into producing a house-style suitable for my genre and it is cohesive in terms of colour, font and layout because it gives the magazine an identity that can be visually recognised from numerous other similar titles in the market. The main cover features that I used that establish a unique ‘house style’ are my choice of fonts which in this case is bold block capitals in “IMPACT” font for the masthead; strap lines and headlines in sans-serif fonts because it is easier to read and looks more professional. Also it is not discriminating to people who have a disability in reading. When writing I wrote my feature article the reading age is most likely to be lower than the target audience reading ability.
The layout of the magazine is also conventional the cover lines create a border around the image to give a professional and tidy finish. The design of my page is simple and not too congested with cover lines and strap lines.
Cohesive colour palette across the magazine is corresponding to the same colours used in the feature article, contents page and front cover which is conventional. I used three main colours on the cover and this is conventional for magazine covers because it keeps the professional look, defines the house style, and stops the magazine from looking foreign towards its audience. The three main colours are white, black and blue which are all used in the fonts and all the fonts are sans serif; this helps create consistency and defines a House Style. The main strap line “T.I SQUASHES LIL WAYNE BEEF” is in a different font “STENCIL STD” so that it stands out and it looks rough and military to give the effect of war between the two artist, white the use of the bright colour for the cover line anchors it to the image. The choice of blue for most of the text shows the importance of the artist in this issue. Above the Masthead is a strap line “DAY 26 LILWAYNE BEYONCE RICK ROSS PRETTY RICKY ” which draws the target reader to the main features in the magazine.
The language I used is appropriate to the target readership, but also gives further information to the reader about the content of this feature but not too much information so the reader is enticed to buy the magazine to find out more. I made sure the tone of this article was sensational and dramatic which is appropriate for my target readership I used exhilarating and swift tone of voice through the writing to relates to the Brand values of the magazine. I also decided to use Slang to the brand values and the target audience would appreciate the language used and it would make them feel more loyal.
3.
The kind of media company or institution that would put your magazine out for sale to a real audience are COMAG who distribute Hip Hop Connection world wide having a world wide audience and also CURTIS CIRCULATION COMPANY who distribute The Source this would be ideal for our magazine as we researched The Source and used some of there magazine features in aiding us to create Essential. Alternatively TVT and RNFR would also be a likely distributor because they specialise in distributing magazines of this genre and my audience is practically identical. I would also be interested in creating a free mini fashion related version of Essential which would be distributed in designer and retail shops such as Foot locker and JD Sports which are shops the target audience would regularly visit. I would also have an online digital subscription version in which the audience would be able to view the magazine in their own time at anytime. the on-line version would have extras and hidden features to make the subscribers feel loyal and important as they would be paying extra for this service.
4.
My audience for my media product would be uniquely diverse audience that cuts across all lines. Regardless of sex and race however there would be a bigger population of the target audience which would be focused on which would be young people aged between 15-24 from a black background who are interested in Hip Hop, Technology and Fashion. They are most likely to be students, working part time Essential would capture the attention of
Hip-Hop fans which could be inspirational readers from urban cities and International readers Most of our readers would be highly interest in the Hip-Hop world and culture.
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