College Magazine Front Cover

Construction schedule

October – Create templates for the magazine cover, contents page and double page spread, create the mock-up of the cover

November – Gather information of magazine industry, publishers, demographics, etc. Create questionnaire for the main task, let results flow in.

December – Begin to do main task planning work (analysis work) and research the magazine and music industry.

January – Collect images, results from questionnaire, create concept of the layout I want the music magazine to look like, begin construction of the final products.

February – Complete evaluations.

Contents page mockup

Target audience questionnaire

Twenty people were questioned.

What other topic would you like to see in the music magazine?

Fashion: 13      Movie Reviews: 2     Tech news: 5

What colour scheme would you think would be most suitable for an independent music magazine?

Bright colours: 5     Dark colours: 6     Grey/Black/White: 9

Would you be more inclined to buy it if there was a cheaper, online version?

Yes: 15     No: 3     Maybe: 2

How much should it cost?

£0.50: 14     £1: 4     £2: 2

Would you like to see competitions and prizes in the magazine?

Yes: 17     No: 1     Maybe: 2

Would you rather have it printed on A4 or A5 sized paper?

A4: 16     A5: 4

Evaluation 7

For our preliminary task we were asked to make a mock-up of a college magazine. The main things i learnt since the first cover i made are the importance of colour schemes, fonts and images. The progress i have made from the start to the final cover is very easily noticeable, i changed the entire scheme and all the colours, I used a different more suitable font for the updated magazine and gave it an overall more modern aesthetic. I didn't exactly learn any new editing skills, everything i done. i done from personal experience with Photoshop. Overall i made a vast improvement from the start to the final product.

Contents textual analysis

From the contents page we can see 50 Cent standing on a pile of money with a briefcase full of even more money. He is wearing jeans and a mostly all blue outfit, this could show that he is either affiliated with the Crips or that it’s his preferred choice of colour. The whole page seems to have an aura of wealth and riches, the font used for the ‘Features Dec/Ja 2010’ is very formal, this could be to relate to banks and accountants which reflect back to the pile of money which is the main attraction to the readers’ eye. The cover lines all seem to have something to do with either, murder, rap, gangsters, robberies or all-round thug activities which could implement the idea of the articles being about topics such as these. The masthead is done in lowercase letters to give a more thuggish attitude to the page and show a lack of education and stereotype the artist featured, ironically who is holding an unreal amount of money at his feet which could show being literate won’t always bring you riches. The XXL logo is still planted in a small partition of the page where the reader can still see it easily to remind them of the publisher. The thin border gives the page a much neater look and make it look much more sophisticated. The colours used are those that you are likely to see in banks and on grainy buildings such as the ones on Wall Street, yet again bringing back the idea of wealth and riches.

Cover textual analysis

Denotation – From this front cover we can see Kendrick Lamar in the foreground and Dr.Dre standing tall behind him.

Connotation – In more detail, we can see Kendrick in the spotlight of the cover, with Dr.Dre standing behind him as his shadow so to say. Both artists have a strict serious facial expression indicating they are professionals in the industry. Dre is wearing what appears to be black pants and a black long sleeve t-shirt while Kendrick seems to be a wearing a silk jacket with polka-dot sleeves and a throne like pattern on the main part with a hood on his head. 

There seems to be only one font on the cover, seeing as this is the 15^th anniversary of XXL keeping one font would make this magazine more special and unique to itself. The cover lines are all related to hip-hop/rap in some way or another, the two artists on the front are both rap artists which connote all the cover lines surrounding, this helps to attract a more specific audience. ‘KENDRICK LAMAR’ is in a large, red, bold font headlined by a short sentence above it in the black text, the build up to Kendrick’s name is effective as it establishes the main feature in the magazine, and Dr.Dre is also in a larger font to gain attention to both artists on the page. The ‘Special Collector’s Edition’ above the 15 year anniversary headline is effective because it establishes this is a coveted magazine and should be treated as such.