Front page making

Today,finally,I've started working on my front cover and I will show you the progress of it step by step( every time I make some major changes) :

After creating the first draft we can see I am trying to stay close to what I've planned to do in my design. However, some changes may be made to the design in future steps.

As you can see I've removed the QR code and decided to move it to the content page as people don't usually use QR reader these days , so it would just take up some space. Also I have moved my barcode to the right as it makes my magazine look more original. Another change made at this step was putting quote "I take 3 L's to the head LOVE.LIVE.LIFE" together, at the bottom of the page, as it gives me more space for cover lines. Speaking about cover lines, I have added a few cover lines, however we can clearly see it is not enough so I am going to be working more on my magazine's front cover.

After creating my third draft, I compared it to the second draft I've made and could see a lot of progression, as I have added more cover lines it made my magazine look real. Also I had to change the strap line as Dappy was added to the coverlines so I had to swap him with another artist in the strap line.Hopefully this is the last draft, however, a few changes may be made

I've made some new changes to the draft I thought was the last one. The main change made was the picture as I decided to make it in black and white and it looked much better. Another big change made was added issue number and a qr code next to the barcode, which took up the free space and made my magazine look even more professional. I also edited the masthead, I made it bigger and added "New" on it so the reader can understand that this is a new magazine and also added the price which was £3.50 as I planned before. This is my final draft and hopefully there won't be any changes.

Final choice of layout design

By using comments of my followers, I have picked final choice of my designs for my front page,contents page and my double page spread. I have posted them bellow:

Layout Design

As it is very important how music magazine appeals I have been working very hard on design of its layout. In order to make my choice wider and more professional I've created 3 different choices of layouts for each page (front cover, contents and double page spread). Please comment bellow with designs you like the most and it will help me a lot with picking the final design.
Front Cover
1.

 2.

 3.

Contents page
1.

 2.

 3.

Double Page Spread
1.

 2.

 3.

Font design of the masthead

Today I have been working on font of my music magazine and I was picking out of 12 different choices...The choices were:

I' ve asked some of my classmates and my friends to circle fonts they liked the most and I collected the results afterwards.. An example of the sheet answered by my friend is :

After adding up all the result I've collected and thinking about it by myself I have a problem picking the final font out of two and they are :

The font on the left is more of a hip hop/rap genre font as it has some kind of "gangster"/ "graffity" styled font it self and some houses at the bottom of the font, which really would shout out it is a hip hop magazine. However, the font on the right handside is more likely to be a "show off" font which is very flashy and would stand out if I make it colorful.. As I can't pick which one of them is better I will be making my first drafts with both of the font and after I will see which one looks better with my music magazine...

The name of the magazine

Please comment on this post with the name/names you liked the most:

1) Lil Hop
2) Yohop
3)Lemmerap
4) MMW (my music world)
5) the Decibel
6) Bleep
7) Buzz
8) Rap Roll
9) Quack
10) Whiz

The Treatment

The magazine : Whiz

Target readership: Whiz is a new music magazine aimed at female and male teens who enjoy listening to hip hop music. Reader is aimed to be a teenager between 15-19, however, it could be anyone else as my magazine covers a lot about hip hop. Readers or their parents (depends on who's going to be buying the magazine) will fall into C1/C2 socioeconomic group as my magazine will cost £3.50. The reader of the magazine is going to expect to see a hip hop superstar on the front cover and a lot of show off. My reader will have a strong sense of fashion and always desire the latest music, clothes and gadgets. The reader must be interested in all kind of music awards and other achievements as well as hip hop stars' lifes which is going to be one of the main parts of my magazine.

Form and style: Whiz is a full color magazine which contains hip hop celebrities interviews, fashion, news and reviews of new albums. Front covers are going to include young hip hop stars which have a very perspective future and very famous in hip hop world. Cover lines will contain some very interesting news or quotes which the reader would be interested in. Graphics which will be used are going to be bold and catchy , also the front cover will be glossed in order to show that this magazine is a good value for money. As I said before the price will be £3.50, which is enough to make a good looking magazine and be afforded by teenagers.

Themes and typical features: Whiz will have a lot of regular features typical to a hip hop magazine. Every issue of my magazine will include an interview with a different star, reviews of new albums and some fashion updates. There will be a strong focus on superstars such as Lil Wayne, Jay z or Birdman; as these people have a good sense of fashion, brilliant songs and they are nice and wouldn't mind to be interviewed. Last pages of the magazine will include some reviews of coming up artists so the reader can develop his/her hip hop knowledge wider and wider as he/she reads Whiz. The writers will use language familiar to the target audience's so it will magazine as interesting as it is possible.

Potential adverties: Whiz will include some adverts in it but not as much a typical music magazine has as it is annoys the reader. However, there are some exceptions such as a specific music album or artist's clothe shop which covers up our topics (Fashion, Album reviews and etc) Clothe shops we might advertise in our magazine are: ozzys, yukka, sturbanclothing and sojones... We also will advertise iTunes albums so it is easier for the audience to download music they might need.

Editorial team: The editorial team will be made up of experienced and talanted writers who might have worked or been taught by people who worked in a famous/leading hip hop magazine. Mostly, writers must be very creative and have a good imagination and know how to attract the target audience.

The name of the magazine

In my opinion 7 replies were enough to pick a name. So my fanial decision is "Whiz", which is related to music and at the same time sounds good.