the right front cover

MY SELF EVALUATION

What I think I have done well is, adding in the main features of what a magazine should have. For an example masthead, barcode etc. However, not everything is perfect therefore, there is still a lot of improvements meant to be made. Firstly, starting off with the sub lines, I think the placing is right, however it doesn't have much content and doesn't really dive in to what the articles might actually be about. Another possible improvement could be the font and colour choice. But I have attempted to keep the colour choice from my logo into my magazine.

I decided to take a picture of the student in a way that it gave space for the sublines by the sides and for additional stuff and not look messy. However, as said before I agree and believe the mid-shot should be bigger.

In addition, I have also added a logo with the same colours as the actual LSC logo. But I have changed it a bit but as was said before to make it bigger as well which I can see that as an improvement as it would make it look better.

Furthermore, the rest of the things including sublines and flash made it and coloured according to my logo which is that dark blue and dark yellow. But font should be different and probably going to make the main title stand out more.

my MAGAZINE CONTENTS PAGE

college magazine contents page plan

college magazine plan

My own XXL MAGAZINE

I have learnt today how to make and replicate a popular magazines. I have also learnt that there are many ways to do same things. As well as that black backgrounds look bad.

xxl magazine double page spread analysis

Firstly there was a lot of double page spreads, so it wasn't clear which one was the most important. But I chose this one as it could allow me to express myself more about the magazine. First starting off the colours, black, white and red are definitely the main colours. However on this page blue was used which could be argued that it shouldn't have been used as it didn't look as good, and should've has used the same colours as Nas even though they are different artists. But it actually shows that XXL bases the colour depending on what the artist is wearing. As reading the page we can tell about the relaxed language. Even the headline titled "4dafam" instead of saying for the family which to us they believe and comfortable with releasing issues using language like this and doesn't believe it should be a reason for the reader to complain. Also since it is company who have been making magazines for a while they expect their customers to be able to read and understand their language. On these two pages it clearly separates what's more important, this can be decided by the size colour and how much is written. Therefore this in important for the reader as sometimes when they don't have time to read a lot of things they can narrow down what they can read in that period. Due to selection, the magazine has weird structures within the magazine and is never the same, with different font sizes and columns not the same size and such. Which in my opinion I like it because it gives a natural look rather than a mechanical look. They also separate them by their background so even though it has a complicated look, it is quite simple and smart.

xxl magazine contents page

Image
There is a mid shot of Nas who
is the rapper who was featured
on the main cover. It has the
atmosphere is the same; it is the
dark and gloomy style. However,
he is wearing different clothes but
still keeping that "bad boy" style
as well as he has a slightly different
pose but it is very similar. The
background looks like a car park,
mechanic's or an abandoned place,
this all adds to the theme.

Page Layout
The page layout is simple. It is just
the picture of him, and columns on
two separate pages. The columns
only contain the contents of all  editorial content pages and also stays true to the three colours scheme as the background, is quite dark and the letters are red and white.

Language
The language is straight forward but it's not too formal, in other words it's written in a quite relaxed manner. Which can either be loved or hated but it matches it's target market. Furthermore, it showcases rappers and artists in which their songs are composed using informal words and slang.

Genre
The genre is hip-hop without a doubt. And in this magazine it portrays that in many ways. Firstly, Hip-hop was predominantly music that came from poorer areas, so it came from those who had been through a lot and had done bad things because they didn't know better and needed to survive so it's quite dark. Just like most of the magazine as well as the red, which could possibly signify danger, blood and risk so it is definitely a good choice for a colours. Also the language which is quite relaxed compared to another and more formal magazine.

xxl magazine front cover analysis

The mast head is slightly blocked by Nas which gives him superiority over the magazine. But that is common within the XXL company. In addition the three colors are also quite similar throughout their issues. And it's usually, black, white and red, which reflects and matches it's logo. Without a doubt the image is quite dark and gives an impression of a 'bad boy' which matches the cover line "only the strong survive". It matches due to the fact that it means that you've been through a lot to get where you at. Another connotation that I thought is the cross on his necklace which could be inferred that he had to have a lot of belief and faith. There's a barcode and price. Like every magazine has. It has around two types of fonts and they are all sans-serif.