Evaluation of Base Magazine

Whilst constructing my magazine, I ensured that it followed standard conventions of various magazines in similar genres. Firstly, the front cover photograph is a medium close up of the model, which is the way most images are displayed on the front of Hip-Hop magazines.
I decided to make the image mostly black with a white background, so that emphasis was put on the image, and this also is a standard convention, as to many colours may overwhelm the reader. The Masthead at the top of the image stands out from the rest of the text on the front, which again Hip-Hop magazines tend to do.
Before I made the magazine I decided to only use two colours (black and white), however I realised that this made the front cover look plain, so I therefore used the colour red to give the cover more character.
I got inspiration for my front cover and also for my feature article from an issue of a Hip-Hop magazine called The Source. This magazine also followed the codes and conventions, like medium close ups for example. Because I used a medium close up for the front cover image I feel it will look more like a genuine magazine. I manipulated all of my photos by using photoshop, for example I removed the background on my photos so that it was only the model in the image. This is all a standard convention of most magazines.
The image on my contents page is edited like this, which makes the page more believable as a Hip-Hop magazine contents page.


My magazine is representative of the current hip-hop culture and includes many features and topics of current issues relating to the target audience. As the model used in the images are within the age group that my magazine is targeted towards, it was appropriate to use him, as the readers can relate and understand him. They were also dressed in the typical fashion of young hip-hop fans, so yet again the target audience can relate to them. For example the model on my contents page was dressed exactly how a hip-hop artist would dress, this was the reason I used this particular model.
The facial expression of the model is expressionless; he is not smiling or showing any particular facial expressions. I felt that this type of emotion would be a good to use in the images for my magazine, because this is another convention of magazines in this genre.
The model on the front cover is also the subject of my feature article, as this is a standard convention of magazines in this genre. In my feature article I have used slang/street words as this is how many rappers talk, and therefore is a standard convention. The reason for doing this is to follow the style of other articles in magazine such as The Source. This portrays and reinforces the image and style of Hip-hop artists.

The target audience for my product are young people between the ages of 16-21. I have chosen this specific age group because a lot of teenagers read Hip-Hop magazines and other magazines which I have researched have a similar target audience of around these ages.

The ways in which my magazine would attract the audience that I am targeting, are through the different elements of my magazine. The images I used were of young people dressed in the ways of how people who listen to this specific kind of music genre dress. This therefore led my audience into reading my magazine. The language I used in my feature article consisted of a lot of slang and shortened words which are again another element of the Hip-Hop culture of today. I got the ideas of the layout of my magazine from an issue of Hip-Hop connection magazine, for example the layout of the feature article analysis is very similar the Hip-Hop connection magazine feature article layout.
During the process of making my product I used image manipulation technology (Photoshop) and Desktop Publishing technology (Indesign). For example, for my front cover image was cropped and the background removed in Photoshop, and then pasted into Indesign.
Looking back at my preliminary task and my main piece of work I feel that my skills have been improved in many ways both on Photoshop and Indesign. My front cover image has been enhanced, so the black is really dark; this is a new skill that I had learned to do after the preliminary task which I feel helped make my front cover image look more professional. My feature article layout consists of images and an article of writing, all of which are a result of the new skills that I have learned while making my magazine.