Note to Examiner

Dear Examiner,

I really hope you enjoy looking through the work I have produced over the past few months. I have learnt a lot about the media industry as a whole during this course and what goes into the production of a magazine to make it efficient for shop shelves, I'm sure you'll find this blog shows my progression in knowledge and skill of the subject. Below you will find my final magazine, preliminary task and my evaluation questions, following that a large amount of research and work that has gone into this course. I have labelled the most important posts on this blog to make it easier for you to find what you're looking for.

Regards, Joe Loomes, Lutterworth College.

Final Cover.

Final Contents.

Final Double page spread.

Preliminary Task.

Evaluation Question One.

Comparison to other magazine

XXL magazine is solely based on Hip-Hop, the magazine that I created is identical in this field. I wanted to create a magazine that focused on all of hip-hop and all of the different approaches artists take to this genre. The title of my magazine doesn't follow trend with XXL magazine, XXL is three letters that stand for something much longer, whereas my title is one word that is much longer. The layout of this XXL magazine is similar to my magazine in the way that the title is at the top of the page, however due to XXL having such a short title it doesn't spread across the whole magazine whereas mine does. My magazine is similar to XXL through the fact that the bar code is located in the bottom corner of the page, however XXL have it in the bottom right and I located mine in the bottom left. XXL have A$AP Rocky's name plastered over the image of himself, I used this in my magazine to highlight which artist is on the cover. Alternately my magazine doesn't format the other featured artists in the same way XXL does, XXL list them down the left side of the magazine whereas I located mine beneath the cover photo. XXL highlight the fact that it is a Hip-Hop magazine through the fact that A$AP Rocky is wearing a Death Row Records hat. the genre is also reflected through the stereotype of most artists who make up this genre are of African-American descent, A$AP Rocky also has small dreadlocks coming from the side of his hat to reinforce the stereotype for hip-hop artists. A$AP Rocky also has gold teeth in this photo which is something else that is associated with the hip-hop genre. My hip-hop magazine doesn't use the same camerawork as this issue of XXL magazine, I used two images and placed one on top of the other, I then turned the opacity of one down to make the background image equally as visible. Whereas XXL have used one single photo of A$AP Rocky that doesn't have a frame visible on the page, I used two photos that featured a frame as they didn't take up the whole of the page. This issue of XXL uses a colour palette of red, white and black. I used the same colour palette for my magazine because I thought it was effective when used on XXL magazine, therefore I wanted to use it for mine.

Title of magazine

Magazine

Evaluation Question Two.

Evaluation Q2

My artist can be most recognisably compared to The Notorious B.I.G. I based my artist on the 1930's mafia look that The Notorious B.I.G. was often seen replicating, this featured a bowler or trilby hat and a suit. Accessories associated with this look were canes/walking sticks and a variety of different ties etc. The Notorious B.I.G. was often seen smoking large cigars which I incorporated into my photoshoot with my artist, I wanted to replicate every element of this style possible to make my artist seem real. My artist is of the same ethnicity as Biggie Smalls and is a similar age to him when he was killed. This style gives artists a classical gangster look, The Notorious B.I.G. adopted this look which inspired me to do the same with my artist.

There are two specific social groups that I have aimed to reach out to with my artist, these are the 'DIYers' and the 'Get Paid Crew.' I think my artist would appeal to these specific groups because they are already associated with making music and trying to earn money. These two groups are both associated with grafting hard and making themselves from nothing, my artist followed a similar way of making himself and therefore these particular groups can relate to him. People feel more inclined to listen to an artist if they can relate to what they are saying in their songs, therefore people who are associated with these two particular groups would be more likely to listen to Welfare G because he would have been in one of these two groups before he hit fame.