The R&B, Hip Hop, Rap genres that I have choosen is mainly based in America, that is why I chose to do these genres combined as these types of magazines are not popular in the UK and are not available to buy in local stores. Looking at The Billboard Charts the type of artists that are to feature in my magazine are (below). This list and images are taken off the Billboard charts ,R&B and Hip Hop top 25 and are the expected artists to feature in my magazine as they all fit in to the genre of my magazine based on the genre of music they produce.

This discusses the price of three magazines and how often theyre issued which will reflect how often my magazine will be published and its price.

This is a NME reader profile which shows the lifestyle of their readers, the image underneath is what the readers lifestyle of my magazine consists of. All the images used on this profile are of things my target audience would be interested in. By researching reader profiles it has given me an idea of the lifestyles run by each individual reader. By stereo-typically putting together things based on age and interests related to the fashion of today I have formed this reader profile for my future music magazine. This will help me when making my magazine as it will act like a guide for what to include such as the advertisements and celebrity appearances, their style and the layout of the magazine.

Initial idea moodboard - these are all things that i plan to incorporate into my magazine somehow through things such as adverts and compotitions.

Comparison of three front covers.

Comparison of three Content Pages.

Comparison of three double page spreads.

LIIAR of a Magazine front cover, Contents page and Double Page Spread.

These are a few artists that would be seen in my Hip-hop/R&B/Rap based magazine.

The genres of these images are R&B/Hip- Hop and Rap which are the styles in which i wish to follow my magazines. They are really simple yet very effective and show a lot of emotion which will help relate to the article that I choose to write about on my double page spread.

I plan for the genre of my magazine to be R&B/Hip Hop based with mention of rap and urban artists too. These magazines are of this genre as well as rap. I choose to do this genre as it is the style of music that i am interested in and i find the designs of the layouts and artists appearances really eye catching and unique.

Main Task

Main Task (Music Magazine): the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original produced by the candidate, minimum of FOUR images.
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Evaluation 

I have created a college magazine called Levels which is a magazine aimed at all students, both male and female, that attend Wyke Sixth Form College. Its aim is to entertain and inform readers about college activities, new events and also all different things happening around the world. Before I began creating my magazine I did numerous different tasks to gain knowledge on what would make a perfect college magazine. I looked at several different magazines that already existed, both college magazine and big worldwide magazines that base their genre on music and fashion. Some of these where: College, The College Issue, NME, ELLE, and SUGAR. I gathered together initial ideas for my own magazine and created a mood board, convention and LIIAR analysis's, survey, types of shots doc,, an initial idea spider diagram and mock-up ideas of a front cover and contents page. In doing my research I found that college magazines are very similar to that of a normal magazine that you can buy from a local newsagents or supermarket. They all follow the same conventions using mastheads, kickers, subtitles/tellers, splashes, cover lines, a main image with a cover line, date or issue line , bar code and consistent house style throughout. For my magazine I decided to stick with the conventions that I had seen on existing college magazines as I wanted it to be as realistic as possible and I knew that if I didn't follow these conventions it wouldn't seem real at all.
I first came up with a mock up of the layout and what the cover page would contain, thinking of ideas for possible inside stories that could be shown on the front. I thought about the language in which I would use, comparing ideas to the magazines that I looked at, mentioned above. Language on existing products where very vague but snappy and straight to the main point of the article, I liked this and planned to do mine in the same way. When putting all my ideas together to make my final magazine cover I started with the skyline which is there to give readers an insight in what they are going to get from the magazine as well as persuading them to buy it as its not just a magazine based on college life but things 'around the world' too. I then moved down to the masthead, I decided to call it levels as you are at college to gain A-Levels, so I thought it was a good idea to relate the magazine too this as it makes the audience remember that it is a college magazine made only for them and not a music, sport or fashion magazine that anyone can buy from a shop. I also added an issue line with a website too so that the audience can explore online features of the magazine with online submission and other features that will be explained and will relate back to the website link throughout the magazine. Down the left side of the cover I added a structured faded box border where I added long shot images along with subheadings and cover lines which relate to the images. These are were the language conventions of words being snappy and straight to point were introduced to my magazine. I did this so readers could see the images and then read the text to find out a short bit about the image but not too much, persuading them to get the magazine to find out what its really about. Below this I added a splash and a kicker combined. Young teenagers stereo-typically love new things and always want the newest thing out so I added a 'NEW' buzz word to gain their attention of their being something new, luring them in to find out what it is whilst also advertising the new submission feature that they can find inside for 'free', again another buzz word. 
The main image is medium close up of a student holding a work folder whilst displaying the convention known as direct mode of address, which makes the audience feel like they are being looked at no matter where they are. This acts as a type of lure, luring the audience into the magazine. This is something that I found was conventionally used a lot as it shows exactly who the magazine is targeted at, college students, it makes the audience feel a part of the scene as they get the chance to be on the magazine cover due to their, attitude, behaviour and activities that they may do. Along with this main image it is bordered with a faded image of the college corridor. This is there to remind the audience that it is a college magazine where its main focus will be to inform readers about things go on around the college or relating to it but it is faded to represent that there is freedom so there will be more then just college content within. The main medium close up image is illustrated with a main cover line giving a brief insight into why she is on the cover and what she has achieved within the college. This will be discussed in more detail inside, preferably on a double page spread as she is on the main image and it is expected that a main image is conventionally displayed as a double page spread inside existing magazines. Finally I added a bar code as this is something I saw on almost every magazine that I looked at, it is a feature used when selling the magazine and it wouldn't have been right to not have one.

From doing my survey it helped me to decide the types of articles that I was going to include in my magazine. 80% of students said they would read my magazine and that they would like a college gallery page. I was glad to see this result as a gallery page would help to make the audience feel a part of the magazine and would help to reflect the fact that it is a magazine for the students. 70% would like to read about representatives at the college and ideas that are possibly going to take place. 60% would like a sports page and 90% would like a college problems page in which I would include a pull out fill in form where students could write down their problems or any questions which could feature in the next issue. Finally 100% of students wanted the magazine to include other things than just college life issues such as celebrities,sport and music so I decided to add that to the magazine. On the front cover the skyline mentions that the magazine contains other contents than just things at Wyke College but I didn't want to focus it on those features too much as it was the first issue and I believed that advertising the magazine as a college magazine at first with a small mention of other topics was the best way to go about it. This was because I want the magazine to be spoken about so if someone gets it thinking its just a college based magazine they will see there is more then just that and will tell their friends who will tell theirs and it will make it more fun to have this magazine.

The colours I used where based on that of the colours used for Wyke College but I also decided to keep them the same because they are a mixed gender colour and as my magazine is for both male and female I thought the purple fit really well. Purple connotes independence, creativity, ambition and luxury all in which I believe relate to college life. You have the independence to be creative within your work in which you use this skill to achieve your ambitions all whilst having study periods where you have the luxury to stay on sight and choose from a wide variety of food or you're allowed to go off sight and spend your 'free time' creatively. All in all purple is a perfect colour to symbolize college life and in relation to the magazine you have a wide variety of luxurious and creative articles to read about. The faded white graphics and background of the corridor image are all there to connote that people reading the magazine are all students and are now at the age where they're not all innocent children, the innocence has faded and they will make mistakes in the freedom that they are now gaining but they're at college to learn from these mistakes, to learn new things and to reach targets that they may have given themselves. Achievement is shown is the areas of light, again in the corridor image, this shows that although the student on the main image is far away from the light she is also in reaching distance and if she continues at the college she will get those goals and as she is the main focus of the magazine it proves she is somewhat close to getting to the light as she has achieved something already. The fonts used are all continuous and of the same colour, they just vary in size and angle. This shows that although it is a magazine for students as you can tell by the simple font and language used, it is all very structured and organised, reflecting how the audience need to start being during their time at college.From making my magazine cover and contents mock ups in Photoshop I have learned some new skills within the software and improved on some that I already knew. These new skills where things such as combining layers, skewing and fading the opacity of graphics and changing hue/saturation and contrasts of images to make them look as one.

This is the before and after of when I changed the opacity of the black circle. This effect is
what I used to fade the corridor image and the graphics on the front cover. If I was to do my magazine cover again I would possibly include one image or cover line about a celebrity article to advertise outer college activities more clearly. I would also maybe make the magazine have no relation to any existing colleges, I would make up my own college but this is not something that really matters as the magazine cover I have created only relates to Wyke by images used and the purple layout, anyone who doesn't attend Wyke wouldn't even know this has a relation. I am pleased with my overall product and I have done it to exactly how I want it to be so there isn't any big changes I would make if I was to do it again.

This is my final completed magazine cover.

This is the image that i am going to use for my front cover - Medium Close Up and the long shot image of the corridor for my background image of the front cover.

Initial ideas for my front cover.

These are the mock up ideas for a contents page in my magazine

These are my initial ideas for my magazine front cover and contents.

Here are my types of camera framing using some of the images that i plan to use.

This is a survey i took to see what people would like to see in/on my magazine.

This shows existing magazines along with my analysis of the product.

This is my inspirational mood board.

I have identified all the conventions used to make a contents page and why theyre used as well as a LIIAR analysis of a separate contents page.

I have created a LIIAR Analysis of a magazine front cover and I have identified all the conventions of a different magazine front cover and explained why they have been used.