How I made my DPS

DPS COMMENTARY

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION. For my DPS I decided to do two double pages, one an introduction page and the second containing an article. This is a style used often if the concerned artist is deemed large enough to warrant more than one spread. As I was trying to create the sense that my mock artists is one of the biggest hits on the global rap scene I felt it appropriate that she have a larger feature in the magazine. I wanted the image on the introduction page to be a large close up and the actually DPS to have a further away shot with more presence.

DPS ARTICLE I want the image and style of this DPS to mirror that of the front cover I made. The image should be a mid shot, taken from below the model’s eyeline to give the sense of presence that was attained on the front cover. I want to carry on the red and black colour scheme into this spread. The article itself will feature a summarized album review but will center around a classic ‘article’ format. I want a sidebar to feature in the layout, quite possibly with a timeline or history of my artists rise to fruition.

DPS INTRO PAGE The DPS into page must be simple, I want it simply to set up the character of the artist and set up the content of the article. I also do want to show a more human side of the artist, because I have often shown the persona side of Rap I also want to show that my artist is a real, so I’d like to have a shot perhaps without her glasses. The most important thing about this page is the artist logo. Often artists have their own graphical logos which are used to identify them. For example on the NME front cover Jay-Z’s logo is featured and the rest of the text matches it. So for this I wanted to design a logo for this artist that can be used on this page.

THE LOGO JAY- Z The Jay-Z logo features a heavily serif font, which is also very blocked. It’s neo-classic style means it is very easily recognizable.

KANYE WEST BEAR Kanye West doesn’t have a specific logo however he has the running caricature of this cartoon bear. This bear features on all of his albums and has become a staple of all of his work. This is iconic and it represents him.

LIL WAYNE Lil Wayne’s logo is the most modern of the three. It is a slanting font, and I think it is nice in the sense it is very graphical to look at. The font is very blocky and irregular but this means it stands out more from other logos.

MY LOGO

For the logo I designed I felt it was important that it stood out from the background as much as possible. I wanted it to be a unified logo and for it to be eye-catching and recognizable. My main inspiration was a Heartbeat. I wanted the logo to look as much like a hear-rate monitor as possible, hence the flicks on the ‘N’. It was important that the logo was very angular and sharp because I wanted it to represent how cutting edge this new artist is. The logo will be used on the introduction DPS to set up the artist. I like the symmetry of the flicks and how it looks as though it would be similar if the whole text was flipped.

PHOTOSHOOT PLAN (ARTICLE)

Shot 1 This shot is a basic arms folded shot. I want the model to face left so their eyes will lead to the other page. My only concern is that this will be too similar to the front cover. But it has the hip hop persona.

Shot 2 This pose is with pointing fingers. Again this moves the eye along to the next door page. The snapback is to keep this persona. The pose itself it incredibly synonymous with the genre and will be a powerful image.

Shot 3 This is a more friendly alternative. I will have the model smirking because I want to create a flamboyant funny character to my artist. Though it will still have the snapback, a genre specific accessory.

PHOTOSHOOT IMAGES

This is the image I have chosen to use as the image on my initial DPS page. The lighting on the models face is perfect and really contrasts to the dark surroundings. The dark brickworks allows the text that will be placed next to the model to really stand out. I particularly like the difference in contrast between the model and the lighting on her face, and the dark brickwork behind. The eye line also directs the user’s eye flow to the right hand page, whereby the body of text will be. The main thought behind this image was to show reality to this fictitious rapper I am creating. Though rappers do enforce flamboyant personas they often do show their reality in some pictures. For example in the Jay-Z issue of NME he is smiling and wearing a flannel shirt. This is contrary to his usual outfits and shows perhaps a human side to him. Therefore I felt it important to have a picture without the snapback hat and black glasses.

ARTICLE IMAGES I like this image because it is a different pose from the front cover. The outfit resorts to the larger than life outlandish hip hop attire, after briefly showing the more real shot on the previous page. I like this pose because it could stretch across both pages. However the hands are slightly blurred and it consumes almost too much. Because there isn’t enough room in the shot for the lower torso this picture become hard to use. In order for it to be useful it would need more underneath. I do like the white background because that allows me to put her onto a different scene. However the pose goes from right to left. As we predominantly read from right page first in magazines it is unconventional to have the image in that side. However the nature of the pose leads the eye onto the other side of the page.

This picture has the persona of the hip hop genre however it has a more friendly human side. The character I want to create for my article is that of a happy-go-lucky rapper, who has got far through work and her own humor. So it is perhaps important to have a less serious picture to reflect this. This pose also fits nicely on the left hand page and the eye line draws you to the text on the parallel page. The pose means the article can be indented easily to surround the model. This gives an aesthetic quality as well as meaning a more flowing read.

FIRST DRAFT

FEEDBACK •  The sidebar needs to be finished, with some content.

•  Sidebar comes out too far into the page

•  Article is in 3 sections which is hard to read, make it two columns

•  Fix any grammatical errors

FINAL

INTRO DPS

FINAL WORD

The main thing I wanted with my DPS was for it to match my Front cover as best as possible. I used a similar back drop and featured a gun collage graphic. The image, however, is quite friendly and even though the model is wearing genre specific clothing I still want them to seem friendly and happy. This is because I need the picture to match the persona I was creating in the article. The title spreads across both pages because I want it to act as a bridge between the two different bits of text. There are quite a lot of boxes at the side of the page. Which is quite unconventional, but works with my House style. I decided to change the artist profile to a timeline of events. As the artist is London based I decided to have it styled like a tube line.