During my christmas half term holiday I was assigned to research a music magazine of my choice and the music magazine I chose was Vibe. The reason why I chose Vibe is because Vibe is a magazine which I can relate and it has a wide fan base especially people in their late teens and early 20's.
Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine founded by Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down production in Summer 2009, Vibe was purchased by the private equity investment fund InterMedia Partners and is now issued quarterly with double covers, with a larger online presence, aided by the Vibe LifeStyle Network, a group of entertainment/music websites under the Vibe brand. The magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture. The magazine owed its success to featuring a broader range of interests than its closest competitors The Source and XXL which focus more narrowly on rap music, or the rock & pop-centric Rolling Stone and Spin.
The cover above is a Vibe front cover and a you can see it focuses on Kanye West and his career. We know the cover is focusing on the truth and his career and this is emphasised by the sub heading on the left hand side of the cover and also he colours used. The use of the various colours also symbolise Kanye's career as he has not onl been a rapper but he as sung some songs and the colours emphasise how he has explored the music world. Just like any other magazine the front cover doesnt just focus on on issues, the other issues are on the right hand side of the page. The reason why i think Vibe used a close up portrait was to portray the message behind the focus of the cover and its message as it was about Kanye West, the truth and his career, the colours symbolises his career and the image symbolises the truth and the masthead symbolised who and what Kanye currently is and this matches with the collar on his jacket.
This is the contents page for Vibe magazine, as can be seen the small masthead is ‘contents’ and it’s designed in a way that would make the readers think this magazine is unique, and it’s positioned at the far left of the page the font which is used is bold black San Serif which shows it’s modernized and sticking to the house style as the rest of the contents page is also in black and grey with a hint of red in the main image. There are two sub-headings sharing the feautres of the contents page, these two sub-headings are ‘Features and Fashion’. This almost turns the contents page into a list, so it’s easier for the reader to navigate around and the page numbers are just said as numbers. The sub-headings however are in the font of Sans, which shows that it’s more tradditional but also adds the aspect of elegance and softness to the contents page.
The main part of the contents is the feature part because it’s highlighting all the articles that will be shown in the magazine and there is also additional information underneath the sub-headings to drip feed to the reader what it’s going to be about and to intrigue them. The main part of the contents page would be the image which is Kanye West a good choice because he is known world wide and popular also, the image is set on a background of a big ‘V’ which is a good, elegant way to keep reinforcing to the reader that they are reading vibe magazine. Once again the image is ineracting with the reader as he’s looking towards the camera. Also the outfit that Kanye is wearing shows that he’s smart and represents his take on Hip-hop, his outfit and it’s colours are kept the the house style, so it’s all smooth and fits well together. The use of red is shown by the heart that is in the hand of the arm that’s reaching out. The image is also captioned to show whose photographed it, and to give full rights to the photographers.
My research has given me a heads up on a couple of things about designing magazine front covers and contets page. From my research i now know how to keep a consistent house style and mantain that for which ever project I am doing. I also got some photography tips and masthead designing tips because from watching this good work i have developed my skills as this great work has influeneced me.
Based on my research I have decided to design a magazine and contents page for a hip hop and rnb magazine. I got the idea from Vibe magazine and also because based my research on Vibe and i think my cover will go well as i know quite a lot of information hip hop and rnb. My knowledge on hip hop and rnb will not only help me on designing a great cover,but also how to make it appeal to the target audience.
The purpose of this magazine is updating the public onthe latest hip hop and rnb news, gossip etc. Research shows that most magazine readers buy magazine with exciting news, big headlines and gossip and i think that will also make my cover succesful.
Research shows that most hip hop and rnb fans are middle class teenagers and people in their early 20's. Just like hip hop and rnb, my magazine will have the same target audience and will target hip hop fans in their teens and early 20's. This will affect how i design thia cover because i want something eyecatching, something that will attract the target audience. Research shows that my target audience are attracted by colours that have a consistent house style, bright colours, mid shot camera shots and also like covers with a bit of nude as this is in some hip hop and rnb music videos.
Title ideas
After doing some reseach i had to come up with a title for my magazine and i decided to call it Bounce. Above is an image of the ideas i came up with for the magazine title. The three titles which i liked the most were Bounce, Trend and Flava. I got these ideas by looking at hip hop and rnb quotes, evidence is below.
