Magazine Cover Evaluation - HENOK ISAK

My magazine cover is called Paradox. It is based on hip-hop and rock music. This is why my group named the magazine Paradox, as people may believe that hip-hop and rock music can never combine or work together. This allows our magazine cover to be unique because the title relates to the type of genre music. This will attract a huge audience as hip-hop and rock fans will now be a potential buyer of the magazine. We decided to do a hip-hop magazine because half of my group listen to hip-hop and the other half listen to rock. We also got our idea from the famous Jay-Z and Linkin Park collaboration album. This gave us enough evidence that there is an audience of hip-hop and rock combination fans and that our magazine will therefore be saleable and research tells us that there is a gap in the market for our type of magazine.

Firstly, our magazine challenges other magazines because it is unique. It generates a huge audience as the hip-hop and the rock music has many fans. The increasing combinations of hip hop and rock artists working together is growing. This will give us many exciting storylines that we could right about so we would never run out of news to please our audience. Research gives us evidence of this, as the most recent hip-hop rock fusion was hip-hop superstar, Busta Rhymes and rock super group Linkin Park just put out a song together.

I believe this magazine can compete or challenge real magazines because Paradox is fresh, new and gives you more than bargained for because if you only like rock music there are sections just involving rock music or if you are just a hip-hop fan then there are only hip-hop relating articles, basically a two in one magazine. I also believe that real artists will love to presented on the front of my magazine cover and have articles on them because it will give them a chance to attract a larger audience. For example, if you are a rock fan looking through the magazine, you may find something you like in hip-hop and the fan could possibly become a growing hip-hop fan. This will be ideal for upcoming artists, as they would have a chance to prove themselves. This will challenge magazines because the best or most popular artists will appear on my magazine instead of the competitions and therefore sell more.

The magazine is young and fresh and allows upcoming artists to be known. Purple Pills is my group as a hip-hop rock band. I am the person appearing on the front cover, as I am a member of the group. This represents youth, which could convey fresh music, and hip-hop rock music is something new and fresh to the music industry. This will attract teenagers, which is very important because they are the most magazine buyers.

The pose of the picture is important, in my opinion, because it reaches out to the audience and most real magazines have a certain pose the artists do to show a little about the artist. For example, Hip-Hop Collection had the Rap superstar; The Game gives a gangster, cool and relaxed pose that is purposely done to reflect his music. My pose shows confidence and relaxation through the reaching hand and the hand and the slight smile as this could reflect on the bands, Purple Pills, type of genre music and that my band are confident that are genre of music will be a success. It also gives an ideal look to the targeted teenage audience, which could appeal to them. The effect of the glow and large picture of my body could show the superiority and this could contrast with the little picture of another group’s photo. In addition, there is another contrast as the main headline is about the positive upcoming band with the picture of me, Purple Pills, and the break up of another group with the small picture of a member of that group, DTO. The picture of Ola looking up at me makes me look even more superior and emphasises that my group will become very popular and his group has crumbled apart.

The target audience is aimed out at an age group of 13 to 19 and the front cover shows this as the two boys in the picture are both young and are in their teenage years. Also, many hip-hop and rock fans are around this age group so this makes it even more appealing to the target audience. It is aimed at both genders, boys because they are the main fans of the two genres of music but also girls because they like boy bands and that is why I specifically put strictly boys on the front cover as most girls that love the bands type of music, they usually fall in love with the males within the band, this, I believe, is a good selling technique because it is eye-catching to the female audience.

The target audience will have a working class socio-economic status and the dark colours, used on my magazine cover, portray this. The two genres of hip-hop and rock usually represent negative issues in life and therefore I have used dark colours in the background to connote this. In addition, the dress code of the artists on the front cover reflects their genre of music therefore working class people can identify what the magazines about easily and will be attracted to it.

The colloquial language will also make it easier for the social class to identify that the magazine is targeted towards them. The language is used in the genres of music so it is necessary for it to be in the magazine.

The interests of the audience will be things like skateboarding articles as rock is associated with this sport. Their interests will be the artists that feature of the magazine like my groups band, Purple Pills. In addition, the basic things like the competitions and games will attract the audience. Another thing I added was the free posters and the free mixtape CD for the interests of the hip-hop audience because they will interested in the new music of the rising British hip-hop star Sway. I decided it to be Sway’s mixtape because he is British and this will be more appealing to the audience, therefore attracting more of them and also as it is a British magazine.

The colour theme of white and purple is purposely used because the white is there to stand out against the black background and the purple is for the main headline, Purple Pills, so the colour reflects the name of the band as the main focus of that issue is about Purple Pills. This is a good attractive technique that I decided to use. The masthead was in the font ‘cracked’ because it symbolises something broken which many people regard hip-hop and rock music to be. The strapline is large so that it can be seen from a distance. The layout is of a basic professional magazine to add realism to the front cover, this was mainly the position of the bar code, masthead and the strapline.

I learned how to use the technologies of the process of constructing the magazine by analysing professional magazine covers. Using the key skills I gained I added the main features such as the masthead, strapline, main cover image and cover lines. Photoshop is were I added all these elements Photoshop was very hard to use at first but as soon as I got the hang of it things started to stick together.

If I were to make another front cover, it will involve more rock related pictures because I believe my magazine looks only hip-hop related and this is not only the theme of my magazine. In addition, I would change the position of the date and price of the magazine to nearer to the bar code because it seems more professional as most professional magazines have their date and prices in this area. Another thing will be the font because I think I should have made it more basic like real professional magazines. The last thing I would change the position of the offer sign of the free CD to the top left hand corner so it is more noticeable and therefore attract more customers and even new potential customers because a free element is a simple marketing tool.