Evaluation: Question 7

Evaluation: Question 6

Evaluation 6  Link: http://www.slideshare.net/hectormurray/evaluation-6-12224246

Evaluation: Questions 4 & 5

Evaluation 4 & 5

Link: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13235174/evaluation-4-5

Evaluation 5

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/hectormurray/evaluation-5-12223136

Evaluation: Question 3

Evaluation 3

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/hectormurray/evaluation-3-12182968

IPC Media Case Study
Cecil Harmsworth King founded the International Publication Corporation due a combination of rival companies; Newnes, Fleetway and Odhams Press by The Mirror Group in 1963. It is responsible for the publication of hundreds of consumer magazines as well as owning 60 media brands. These brands include; NME, Marie Claire and Nuts.
IPC has six divisions in the development department, they are:

• IPC Newspapers
• IPC Magazines
• IPC Trade & Technical
• IPC Books
• IPC Printing
• IPC New Products

These divisions are in charge of each brand, which falls under the specific category. The chairman of The Mirror Group runs all divisions.

As well as the above divisions, the Magazine Division is split into farther divisions which each focus on specific audience:

• Connect – mass market women
• SouthBank – upmarket women
• Inspire – men

Evaluation: Question 2

Evaluation 2

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/hectormurray/evaluation-2-12182919

Evaluation: Question 1

Evaluation 1

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/hectormurray/evaluation-1-12212923

Music Magazine Proposal

My music magazine is based on the genre of Hip-Hop music. This style of music originates from Black America, particularly in the urban streets. This music is also associated with other urban features such as street art and graffiti; I intend to use this in my magazine by portraying my image model in urban settings and possibly including some sort of graffiti in my main images.


This genre of music has a worldwide fan base; including the United Kingdom. In the UK, the main audience for Hip-Hop/Rap are those of a younger age group, late teens to mid-twenties, and so this age group is the target audience for my music magazine. The dominant ideologies of UK teens suggest that they are very urban and "street", something which is hugely linked to this specific genre of music.


I will use a consistent colour scheme throughout my product, blue and yellow. These colours are complimentary and are very bright. This would attract my intended readers as the colours would stand out and be more visual compared to other magazines. Bright colours also connote a loud vibe, relating to the dominant ideologies of UK teens (their loud and full of attitude); this will hopefully make my magazine more appealing and more noticeable to my target audience.


The font I will use for my text will vary depending on their use. I will use large, bold and visually noticeable fonts such as Bauhaus 93 or Copper Black on my headings and the masthead for my magazine. The boldness and unique appearance of these fonts will make them more eye catching towards my target audience. Puff/Plugs, which I intend to use on my magazine cover, will also need to include fonts that are more pronounced as they advertise important features within my magazine's pages.


The body text for my article and my descriptions of my pages, in the coverlines and on the contents page, will need to use fonts which are sans serif and normal. This is because they need to be readable as they are long pieces of writing at times; my main article on my double page. I will use fonts similar to Ariel and Verdana as these basic styles are easy to read and allow my audience to gain the information they wanted to know.


I intend to publish my product once every month, this is similar to other music magazines such as NME and Q. This allows my target audience to get the most recent and current news in the world of Hip-Hop to keep their interest in my product. An expansion of my music magazine would be the use of other medias like a website and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This is like the NME brand and would also introduce a wider audience to my media product due to easier access; online media is an easier approach than buying a magazine in a shop and is also free. The title of my magazine is "Cypher" this is hugely relevant to the music genre of my magazine (a cypher is when a group of Hip-Hop rappers freestyle together) and so would attract my target readers who would be aware of this genre-specific term.

Music Magazine Flatplans

Front Cover & Contents Page

Double Page Spread                                                                                   

My Front Cover

This is the final draft for the front cover of my magazine. As always, the bright blue and yellow colours are used to attract my audience; since the cover is what my audience will see when they are looking on the magazine shelves, it is important that I use my bright colour scheme to attract them to my product. Another way I attempt to attract my audience is through my main cover image. An important feature of my image is that my main model is making direct address to my audience; this would gain the attention of my target audience as my model would be a high profile and famous musician and their direct address would entice my audience to read about them. I have also included their name in the headline, in large bold writing, which is also seen when my audience look at my magazine cover; again this is used to attract my target readers.


I used a number of effects on the masthead for my magazine such as drop shadow and bevel to make it appear more unique and to stand out. The word "Cipher" is relevant to the genre of music in my magazine and so seeing it as a masthead for it would attract my specific audience to see what it is all about. I have also positioned my main model with his head overlapping my masthead, I had seen this feature used in numerous magazines and so I felt that to make my product appear more professional I would need to use this technique on my cover.


Additional features such as the coverlines, the puff/plug, magazine date/issue and the barcode were also seen in other magazine covers and so I used them on mine to give it a more professional appearance. The puff/plug, I feel, is an effective way to advertise particular content within my magazine; using phrases like "40 Best DJs Inside!" grabs my reader's attention in an attempt to get them to read my magazine. I have used a purple banner on the top of my cover, similar to that on my contents and double page, which i have used to further advertise my product. I wanted to let my readers see that the information in my magazine is "exclusive" in an attempt to get them to read it and continue to buy it. The coverlines are also used to show what else my magazine contains in order for my target audience to gain interest and read on.

My Contents Page

This is the final draft for the contents page for my magazine. I have used some features from magazine's such as NME and The Source to create the aesthetic for my page. I have used the font Urban Jungle, which I downloaded, as I felt it suited the style of my magazine and the music genre; hip-hop was created in the modern urban environment. As seen in my double page, I also used a banner across the top of the page as a trend which will be seen in all issue of my magazine (see My Double Page Spread post).


The colour scheme is the same as always; blue and yellow to be attractive to my audience and connote a fun and entertaining vibe in my magazine. I have added some red, another bright colour, to my page to separate the articles. Once again, this colour was used to stand out and be noticed by my readers as it is not associated with the scheme of my magazine; I wanted to show some diversity as my audience may get bored of the consistent colour use.


The image I have used takes up the entire background of my page and is a picture of my main model; relating to my main article. I used this to assure that my main article is advertised throughout the magazine pages so that my readers will read it. I copied and pasted the main image and made the copy more transparent; this is where my article titles and features are written. This is so it is easier for my audience to read as the bright colours stand out more on a lighter background.

Other Photos

These are some new photos I took which I will use in my magazine. They will be used on my contents page and my double page spread as either part of my main article or to show what would be in the other pages of my magazine.

My Double Page Spread

This is the double page spread of my music magazine. It includes the same model as my front cover as he is the main feature of this particular issue of my magazine.

The layout and style is the same as my original ideas which is why there is no previous posts on drafts and such. I wanted to use an image which would take up the whole of both pages; I didn't want to use a standard background colour as I wanted my image to not seem as if it was placed onto the page but that it was a part of it. An example of my layout can be seen in my NME case study post where the model(s) are on the side of the page with the article written beside them. The continuing colour scheme of my magazine is blue and yellow, these colours mix well together and are attractive which gains interest from my readers. The colours are also similar to the uniforms of the huge American Basketball team the LA Lakers (purple and yellow), who have a big link to the rap and hip-hop scene; my magazine's genre.  

I placed a blue/yellow banner across the top of my pages; this is a reoccurring feature of my magazine (used on my Contents page). I did not see this used in any of the magazines I analysed, it is an original idea, but I wanted to use it to add more colour to my page and for my audience to see it as a trend in all issues; it is something they will recognise with my magazine style. The font used for the "Mr Nice" part of my headline was a downloaded font (see previous posts). It is an example of graffiti artwork, a very notable and key feature of the hip-hop genre. I used this style to create more relevance between my article and the genre of music my magazine incorporated.

The use of other features such as Twitter tags (@ciphermag), "Exclusive freestyle online" and the "Preview" puff/plug links the magazine to other medias online. This idea came, again, from my NME case study where articles in their magazines were linked to their website allowing their audience to broaden. My use of these features would be to allow my target audience to grow and diverse online due to ease of access compared to the magazine itself.

Masthead Effects

I wanted my masthead to be unique so firstly I downloaded a font from dafonts.com (see other post). I then added some effects using the "Effects" option from the "Object" menu. I added a drop shadow, inner shadow and a bevel and emboss to make my masthead more visually attractive to my audience. 

Cover Image Over Masthead

I decided that I wanted the head of my model to overlap the masthead. I had seen this used in several magazines such as Vibe and The Source who share my target audience.


Firstly, using the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop, I copied the outline of my model onto a transparent canvas. I added my original image onto an InDesign page and added the title. Once I did this, I placed my Photoshopped image over the original image. This made it seem like it was a single image where the masthead is sandwiched between my model's head and the background.

Downloaded Fonts

Using the website www.dafont.com, I downloaded several unique font designs. I wanted my magazine to have an "urban" feel due to it's genre, hip-hop/rap, being originated from the urban environment. I felt there were not enough sufficient choices within InDesign so, using the search bar, I found a few fonts that fit the genre of my magazine. Once I downloaded them, I installed them into my Font Book (pictured above) which allows me to incorporate them into my magazine.

Clipping Path

Part of my main image overlaps into the next page; which is intentional. I wanted the text from my article to wrap around my model's left shoulder to give a nice presentation. To do this I used the "Clipping Path" tool.
I selected my image and went onto the "Object" menu, here I selected "Clipping Path" then "Options". A box appeared, shown in the above screen shot, which detected the edges of my model within the image itself. It then allowed me to alter the length of the gap between the edge and the text; I will show my text in my final draft of my double page spread.

Photoshop Background

When I first took the pictures, I tried to have a simple background which I could easily alter in Photoshop if I needed to. I intended to use my original image without alterations but soon decided that a normal white background would give my double page spread a more professional vibe.


I opened my original image in Photoshop and used the Magic Wand Tool to highlight the background without cutting through my model. Once it was highlighted, I used the Paint Bucket Tool to add the white. This will make it easier to keep a consistent colour scheme in my double page spread.

First Images

These are the first images I have gathered for the potential cover and double spread of my magazine. In all of them, my model is facing the camera, this is making direct address with my intended readers on the cover and will make my magazine more appealing to my audience. 

My intention for my double page spread was to gather images that could take up the whole of one page; with the article all on the other page. This is a potential layout I am thinking about incorporating in my magazine.

Double Page Spread Example

Above is the first screen shot of the example for the double page spread of my music magazine. The first thing I did was alter the margins so that the bottom and outside margins were larger than the top and inside ones. I then added three columns on each page to fit my writing. After, I placed an image which took up the entire left page; this layout had been incorporated in other music magazines and so I used it. Once my image was placed I created an appropriate headline on the top of the right page which took up around a third of it; I made sure my title and font was related to my image in someway. After adding text under my title, page numbers in the corners and text boxes in the columns, I added "Placeholder Text" from the "Type" menu so I could see how the text would be arranged.

I then placed a second image into an ellipse frame tool and placed it within my text.  Using the "Text Wrap" from the "Window" menu, I arranged the text so that it wrapped around the shape of my image. I did this to make the layout and presentation more attractive.

Looking at my finished page I am happy with the turnout. When I start my actual spread, I will try and use tools such as the "Eyedropper Tool" to keep a consistency in the colour scheme.