PHRESH MAGAZINE FRONT COVER LAYOUTS

The following layouts are all different and contain key features that a magazine front cover should have. I think the 3rd one is the most aesthetically pleasing to to the eye. This is because the headline flows though the cover lines on the right, the image on the cover would be left dominant, so the visual syntax would flow more as the readers eye would follow the cover down. 

REPRESENTATIONS

Hip hop is a music genre and a cultural movement that began in the 70’s among African Americans in Newa York and has since spread around the world. It began as a creative and activist expression of graffiti, writing, DJing, break dancing and rap music of predominantly Black youths in south Bronx. It is a cultural movement that is expressed through fashion, attitude and language. Hip Hop is a form of expression, a way of life. Hip Hop has grown to encompass an entire lifestyle that consistently incorporates diverse elements of ethnicity, technology, art and life. During the era of old school Hip Hop people influenced the music, but now with the emergence of mainstream Hip Hop has made music influence the people.

R & B stretches across racial demographics as well, that is not only loved, but sang by a more diverse group of people. Artists like Robin Thicke, a popular Caucasian R&B singer and Keke Palmer, a teenage R&B singer, represent the diversity that this new genre has reached. With more people able to relate to the music, and with the music more accessible, more people are able to listen to it and the music is also able to cater more heavily to the constant changing demographics of the listeners.

Older R&B experimented with the use of different instruments, tones and pitches, and mixing of smooth jazz and classic blues. These aspects added depth to this classic R&B and it also introduced jazz to a demographic that would have otherwise not have ventured into. This R&B also acted as a stepping stone for the current R&B to grow. This innovation has changed the face of the genre, and it is evident when a listener compares older R&B and current R&B.

MY MAGAZINES REPRESENTATIONS 

I am creating a upcoming Hip Hop R&B magazine called PHRESH. I will be representing Hip-Hop in a number of ways. Gender representation would be predominantly male, as men tend to fit the Young urban rapper stereotype, being loud, fearless and powerful. 

Young girls and boys, usually under the age of 17- 25, It’s rarely seen to be adults listening to Hip Hop as it’s a vibrant, energetic genre.  Predominantly of black origin as Hip Hop was generated in America. However artists like Eminem and Fat Joe and Dpyrde challenge the stereotyped 'expectations' of Successful rappers in Hip Hop.

Women dressed in over sized t-shirts, messy hair, trainers, accessorised heavily.  

Men in hip hop usually perceived to be aggressive and thug like. Dress in tracksuits and trainers mostly.  Perceived to be ‘street smart’ and laid back.

Women – less feminine, the body language is promiscuous, a certain attitude is portrayed of wanted to be a 'female boss' 

I will Represent my magazine through the use of color; black and white - binary opposites used to make a contrast, usually youths are perceived to be negative. I think I will used black and white with another color to create my house style which will appeal to the audience.

Young people who live in the city are more likely to fit my audience, than those living in villages , 


 finding my audience is important in order to find out who will be buying and reading my magazine, if I don't do this I won't have an idea on who to attract and what they like. 

It's highly unlikely to see a 75 year old white women living in the countryside listening to Heavy metal  and knowing who the artist being featured on the cover of Karrang magazine are, because they’re not the expected audience. 






If these images were on the front cover of a rock magazine, no-one would believe it!

 Representation is key in order to create a relationship with the reader.

PHRESH MAGAZINE BRAND IDENTITY

Why did I choose PHRESH as my magazine name?

I target researched what name was perfered;

I had a hard choice between HAZE and PHRESH...

My inspiration for HAZE came simply from listening to music, headphones you invest your mind to the beat and lyrics everything else falls hazy...Hence Haze. 

For PHRESH got the inspiration from the representation of the industry, in the genre every Hip - Hop artist aspires to be new and fresh... choosing to spell 'FRESH' the unusual 'street' way of 'PHRESH' for emphasis and also the extra H, the two standing out representing the two h's in  Hip - Hop. 

My brand identity:

PHRESH MAGAZINE - Having an original, dynamic and fresh take on urban music, events and fashion. All about bringing new music to the people. 

I will aim to make my magazine look and feel fresh to the audience, having a house style of black, white and red, keeping simple, clear and bold fonts. Honoring the Urban stereotype of being fearless and direct with imagery e.g Artist looking straight into the camera in a close up shot.  

PHRESH MAGAZINE

I have chosen to base my music magazine on Urban and Hip-Hop this is because the majority of music I listen to is within this genre; I follow the artists, read about them and enjoy what they produce. I am familiar with the genre and feel like I could produce a magazine of a higher quality as I embrace it more. 

Although it’s can be see as having both a mainstream and niche audience I think the magazine would still be heavily read. 

My magazine may feature the same artists that appear in VIBE however it will be different, by having a different approach on presentation and content. With a Fresh and original look.

After choosing between the two with help from my questionnaire response I decided to go with PHRESH. 

The core reader I've chosen my magazine will appear to would be young people 17- 25. Who like artist such as;

• Childish Gambino
• Chance the Rapper
• Eminem 
• Kendrick Lamar
• Jay Z
• Kanye West
• Nicki Minaj 
• Iggy Azeala 

• Azelia Banks 
• Macklemore
• Chiddy Bang
• Usher
• Miley Cyrus 

The 16-23 audience that I am focusing on enjoy Hip-Hop, the reason that my magazine audience goes higher than teenage years is because Hip-hop is a genre that has been around longer, slightly older generations have grown up with the genre. 

I want my magazine to shine light on upcoming new artists as-well has including features of old artists.

My selected audience shop in shops like Urban Outfitter, Foot Asylum, New Era, and Size. Dress in fitted street wear, tracksuits, baseball tops, Jordan’s, skinny jeans, air max’s all the current trends, these will be advertised in the magazine as that will a good market to approach. Aspiring to have items such as Beats by Dre, and I phones and speakers - new technology items, so if the magazines featured certain apps or items that can only be had on a certain product, they would get it i.e. bbm being exclusive to blackberry.  

A gender mix of boys and girls, as the content will appeal to both however the audience may have a slight lean to the male audience as men are perceived to embrace it more than woman do.  

My audience would be people who spend their time on social networking sites, who are up to date with current media topics and latest trends, who are able to spread the word of the magazine, people who socialize and enjoy good music.

Similar Products...XXL & VIBE Brand Identities. NME Prezi

NME is one of the most popular music magazines around, I have chosen to analyse one of the October issues and pick out the various techniques it uses in order to be pleasing to the audience. I have used the program prezi to do so because it is a handy tool which is more efficient than PowerPoint. 

  

Showing these two similar products to my target audience the types of things they picked upon and liked were the boldness of the mastheads and the close up shots of the artists, they felt it is necessary for that dominant, powerful look as it portrays  the genre. For my magazine I too would like to have the dominant look too with a freshness to it, having contrast of bold colors in order for the different features to stand out . 

XXL's brand identity is strong. The dominance of imagery is portrayed with mostly close up shots, usually displayed over the masthead creating a visual syntax that the readers eye follows downward to read the rest of the features. Tradition colour scheme is used in XXL black, red and white. XXL uses the colour well, text is readable, stands out and represents the intended audience. It would be unlikely for XXL to use pastel colours as they would be more associated to the pop genre.

Vibe also has a strong use of dominance through imagery however it uses a range of color instead of just sticking to a set scheme it varies each issue. the masthead big and stands out, the boldness of the lettering draws the audience. The features are readable, the use of visual syntax makes the readers eye follow the cover down seeing each feature in its own right. 

Brand Identity Masthead Ideas

These mastheads i created with fonts found on word, you can see that they are bland and don't particularly stand out which is the opposite of what I want my masthead to be like.

These fonts however are from 1001 fonts as you can see they stand out more and show more presence than the fonts from word.

Print screening from the sample text fonts on the internet, then editing in fireworks, cropping, using the magic tool allowing me to select, delete, fill, color and re-size the text differently to get a range of masthead ideas. 

Ideas for Magazine Names

I have brainstormed the following names to call my music magazine as part of identifying my brand, the following names I feel relate to the genre I have chosen which is Hip Hop and also are short and simple which I think a title should be, in order to be remembered and shared. Mostly power words, that make the consumer think and be drawn in.

• Clique 
• Project
• Phresh
• Prone
• Portal
• Faded
• Latch 
• Haze
• Flow