Magazine Project

For this project we were given the entire semester to create a magazine from scratch and it was an experience to say the least.

Beginning Stages

We started off by getting into groups of 2 and deciding on a genre that our magazines would cover and in the end, I chose something I am very passionate about, that being rap music. The overall purpose of this project was to continue on what we learned in the previous semester with a lot more demanding deadlines and more expected from us. The fun part about this project was that we got to do anything we wanted which is why I chose something that I was passionate about. So one of the first things that was required even before we started choosing typefaces and creating a logo was to create some mood boards showing a style that we would like to achieve in our magazine, which as you will see I really went heavy with my theme keeping it consistent from the cover to the last page. I did explore some other ideas, however but none of them really stuck out as I wanted them to and if you see some of my other designs I like for something to stick out and catch your eye right away. Overall, I am really glad we did this project as I learned a lot and actually found a hidden love for editorial.

Research

The research I did for this project was actually fairly simple. I looked up competitors for other rap related magazines and added some of the elements I liked from each and put them into a mood board. I also looked at how each magazine presented itself because people who like rap is the type of audience that will tell you whether or not they like something without thinking twice, but in a way that made it easier because I could tell right away what people liked about each magazine. I didn't really have any other ideas when it came to this project because I am also really passionate about rap music so I knew right away that once I came up with this idea that this is what I wanted to make for sure.

Trappers magazine

So now that I have built up the suspense with what I wanted to make let me show you.

So, this is what I came up with in the end. Overall, I am very happy with the finished product it really did end up being a passion project and I also discovered that I love editorial work more than I thought I did. This project also taught me how if you fall behind in an editorial it can be very hard to catch back up. I didn’t fall behind during this project, but I did see some people who did and how stressful it was when they did. But enough about stress let me tell you why I did what I did

The Design

As you can see right away with the cover I went with a lot of yellow complimented with a black and white photo. This is consistent throughout the whole magazine other than a couple color images at the end of of articles. This was the “theme” I was talking about earlier, which I discovered while looking for images for my Moodboards. Right away when I saw the image I knew what I wanted my theme to be. Black and yellow is also a very “rap” style as well just because of the song that was made a long time ago, but it still has influence with people who listen to rap, which is why I knew right away that this is what I wanted my theme to be. I also thought of this project as more of a passion project because of the articles I got to do. All the articles in this magazine are articles I wanted to read and put them in my magazine, which at that point it was just another night reading up on things in the rap scene and putting them all into a single product which I loved doing!

Why this works

Overall, my magazine works in my opinion because one of the biggest things you have to pay attention to when you're doing something like a magazine is to make sure people will want to read it. And I feel that for the audience, it was made for the people will read it. I really do hope one day I can revisit this project and make a second issue that will be even better!