Rough Draft of my Front Cover (Images and Layout)

 Using my Questionnaire Results, my age range is between 16-21, So I need to ensure that the artist used; in consideration of their facial expressions, clothing – It would require to meet the correct audience’s needs. On the front cover, I identified that my audience preferred that the images, colour and freebies was the most appealing feature. This allows me to ensure what type of content I would put onto my front cover. Furthermore, Music News, Interviews, Gossip, and Photos are included within my magazine, evidently suggesting I should include puffs and so on, on the front cover of my magazine stating that these elements and contents are in my magazine. A Promotional area on my front cover to attract my audience. Also from my questionnaire results, Jay Z, Kanye West and Drake were the 3 most popular artists within my audience research, again allowing me to acknowledge that these artists should be prominently represented on my front cover.

All 3 drafts have the same style of font for the Masthead but have a different style around it to make it equally acknowledgeable. The main image on all 3 paper drafts is in the middle consisting of medium close so the attention of the audience can be directly visualised of the main image. The masthead is located at the top to ensure the natural viewing position of the masthead is the same meeting the expectations of my audience. All 3 of my ideas are evidently consisting of a male rap artist and a female hip hop artist to challenge the overall stereotypes of each gender. Draft 1: The facial expressions of both genders and hand gestures are the same to show equality for both genders and express the fact that both genres are similar. Both are consisted of a Medium Close. A clear representation of the rap artist wearing a chain to symbolise his bling and status of wealth. A general companionship of rap artists.  Draft 2: The rap artist is facing towards the viewer and the female artist is facing away from the audience. The may be taken in the wrong way from some males and seen as a male gaze. The hand gestures of the male artist showing a strong explicit sign of language; A general stereotype of a Rap Artist. Draft 3: The rap artist in this draft is again staring at the viewer of the front cover. He is holding two middle fingers up, again not meeting the audience of 18 and below due to this image being quite explicit, I will test this image out to see how my audience responds. The female artist is shown as less powerful as she has her hands in her pockets.

All 3 of my drafts consist of having straplines, anchorages, puffs and cover lines around my hotspot image of the two artists. These cover lines will empathise the needs of the audience of their favourite artists, gossip, interview/music/freebie promotions. All the content presented through cover lines will have relevance towards the Rap and Hip Hop genre. Lastly, following on – above each of the images will have a symbol or signature of each one of the artists presented to allow new comers to easily identified whom is who and my existing audience acknowledge the names easily.