My targets to improve my contents page are:
Below is the second draft of my double page spread:
The changes I made from the first rendition were:
The intent of these changes were to give the DPS a more authentic feel and have it look full but not to feel too crowded, hence why I enlarged Jake with his foot up and added a picture of Sam and another of Jake. For my final draft, I intend on adding some graphic design features to anchor the text and choosing more suitable images that will work well with the article.
Below is my new feature article after taking into consideration the feedback given from my teacher
The changes I made were:
From these changes, I hope my article has become more interesting to the reader to make them want to understand it better and read further into my artist, potentially expanding his fan base.
Peer feedback on my first DPS draft was:
From my peers feedback, I am going to change:
I am hoping that these changes will help me to redesign my magazine to help it look more authentic and presentable.
Below is my first draft of my double page spread. A good DPS should include an introduction to the artist being written about, whether it be a biography or an interview, called a stand first. At the beginning of the main feature article, the first letter of the first word should be a drop capital, which is essentially a larger letter which shows where the article starts. Should also include more obvious features such as a page number, the by line – stating who the article was written by, columns – around 2-4 – for text, a headline – e.g a quote or story title and an image of the subject of the article – in my case, my model.
Conventions for hip hop DPS’ include:
My magazine DPS doesn’t include all these conventions, which is why this is another draft and not my final product. I intend on darkening the background or adding darker features to it, include an argument between my artist and another artists to liven up m main article and give my artist character.
Here are the contact sheets from my off-site photo shoot at St. James:
In my opinion, I thought that this photo shoot went very well overall, and I think my pictures presented my idea and mission statement in the way I wanted them to – to portray unique ideas and styles in the Hip Hop world. One my favourite images was img_0146 because it shows his bright clothes in a subtle way while he has a big grin playing the organ. This could be seen to present the idea that even off the stage and at a photo shoot, the artist enjoys their lifestyle and has genuine enjoyment and fun in the workplace. Overall the photo shoot was really successful and presented the mission statement really well in my opinion. It allowed my to stick with standard conventions of hip hop such as gun finger poses and using the mic, but also challenge them by having Jake dress up in bright colours, flowing against standard hip hop dress, black, big brands, hats.
Below is my first draft of my double page spread article. I had decided to stick with the biography layout mixed with some interview questions. I thought that this would be an effective way to tell the story and also have my artist tell his story as well. This binding of the two layouts allowed me to mix perspectives and opinions, both in favour of the artist, it allowed me to present him opening up to the audience about his past experiences both in and around his career. I decided that to liven the story up an extra little bit, so I included a feud between S.M Logic and a mumble rapper, Lil Pump. I thought that this would bring the story to life and give my artist some character depending on his response to the feud between himself and Lil Pump
My targets for development are:
For my main article, I was thinking of an interview type scenario, interviewing my front cover artist ‘S.M Logic’. I want to interview him on how he became an iconic upcoming artist in the youth, lyrical rap world. I want a story based around his past musical experience and any work he has done in or out of the industry. I drafted, in detail, what my article would sound like and how the interview would be compact but flow smoothly, my draft article below. 
The interview I planned out followed his previous experienced as a ghost writer for many rappers in the ‘mumble rap’ genre who get other people to write their songs, of which they sing, take all the credit or a lot of it and don’t acknowledge who wrote their song.
For the second shoot, my targets are to present the rap genre in a bold and unique way, and I will do this by using bright and bold colours for my stars clothing.
From the previous photo shoot, I learnt a few things that could help me improve my photography skills by implementing them into my camera usage and mise-en-scene:
From designing my front cover of my magazine, I learnt some key features and designing techniques that helped make my magazine look well-made and authentic.
One design feature that helped improve the looks of the front cover was the quick selection tool. This tool allowed me to cut my star out from the background with precision and accuracy. Below on the left is the original picture with the background and on the right is the edited picture with the quick selection tool labelled
This allowed me to remove the background and keep the parts of the image that I wanted/needed for the cover of my magazine.
Another feature that helped improve my front cover picture and help it look professional was the spot healing brush tool. This tool allows unwanted marks and parts of the image to be removed and cover over, it essentially airbrushed the image, which was helpful when removing the first line of writing on the jumper as it allowed for more space on the front cover for the artists name and information such as free content that I wanted to add to draw in a reader.
My personal targets to improve these skills would be to zoom in on what I am editing. Firstly, because it allows me to see every little detail so I can remove blemishes accurately, this will also help speed up the process of editing.
On indesign, one feature I found useful when designing was the W key shortcut. Pressing this key allowed me to see the design view and the print view structure of my front cover. This allowed me to get a more accurate view of how and where I can move aspects of the front page to make it look more authentic. Below is what indesign looks like before I press W and below the first picture is what it looks like after I press W:
As seen in the first picture, all of the text boxes, shapes, place holder and borders are present, allowing me to see where everything is and where and what I need to press to move it. In comparison, below is the print view, allowing me to see what the page would look like finished and printed in hand.