Conventions of a magazine

front cover
Aidan
Images
The image is expected for a rap genre as it portrays a
young person in urban clothes in, what appears to be,
an urban setting. However I have moved from the
implicit where the characters could be dressed to
imply that they are drug dealers and gone to the
explicit by dehumanizing the character so he is not
recognizable and weaponizing the character giving
him objects that associate with crime and death. The
colours are very conventional as they are dark and
plain giving it a serious feeling to suggest that this is
not just a teenager pretending to look dangerous. The
lighting is used well to cover the characters face and
further dehumanize him.
Layout and form
My layout follows the usual format of a print
magazine design, I did this by using a template of
another rap magazine and copying the style. The
colours used are very conventional being black, red
and white. The masthead is also placed on the
centre at the top which is very common. The
coverlines across the top is where they are typically
placed and I used the guidelines to make sure it is
spaced out correct. There are also small
advertisements at the bottom of the page and I stole
the layout for these to follow the magazine
conventions.
House style
I have used very conventional fonts to Here I have used
make the cover look authentic. It also shapes to copy the
makes sure the necessary original magazine
information can stand out such as the design. The red
main headings. signifies danger.
The black, white and red is also a very
commonly used choice of colours. It I have made my
puts emphasis on the red coloured masthead huge and
text but does not overload the red to portray danger
magazine with a variety of bright and warning as soon
colours, keeping it formality. as you see the
magazine.
Representation
Here I am representing a teenager who is of an Asian decent.
This is very conventional to represent a teenager by showing
them wearing dark clothes that give slight inferences of being
gang related. However, this represents dark skinned people in a
bad way as the character looks very dangerous and could be
identified as a drug dealer or gang member, therefore it further
enhances the stereotype. The props used weaponize the
character and give bad connotations that teenagers are carrying
knives and making it look normal. To add to this the character
has been humanized which connotates that the character does
not want his identity to be seen which could infer he is a
criminal. The background is also very urban which is
conventional for a young adult to be seen standing in as it
shows they prefer to be in grimy and dangerous looking areas.
This could negatively represent rap as people may conclude
that all teenagers that listen to rap will be in gangs with knives.
Issues
There are many issues with the way I have represented this
teenager as it could give an audience the idea that all teenagers
use knives and join gangs. This could also promote the idea of
being in a gang, selling drugs and carrying knives due to the foul
language they hear in rap music. Therefore, this could create
awareness for young adults so this does not happen and also
create awareness for older adults to help them prevent their
children from doing this, but at the same time put fear in young
adults who could be venerable to these gang related teenagers.
However, this is a representation of a minority group (Asian) in
a magazine which is not conventional for a magazine. This does
promote the idea that only young adults are suitable for
rapping and being on the cover of a rap magazine which
excludes the older generation.