OUGD505 - SB2 - Design Decisions - Front Cover

Now that the decision had been made instead to brand the publication as the first in the series of a range of zines by the name of 'ORIGINS' it meant that the job of designing the front cover much easier as it allowed me to harness the power and personality conveyed through Hip-Hop photography iconic with magazines, and have the feature of my front cover as an image, with simple added information and the name of the series.

The decision was made to use an image of Afrika Baambaata for the front cover of the magazine, as he was a pioneer of the genre of Hip-Hop and therefore one of the icons for all fans of the genre and secondly because of the fact that the photography possessed the raw emotion and power Hip-Hop photography is iconic for.

After some chopping and changing within the graffiti lettering that had been created in the stage earlier I have made a number of variations of the branding name that would take centre stage on the cover of the publication. Due to the fact that they were all just different variation of each other there was nothing substantial setting them apart from each other to help me decide and so a feedback session was arranged to gauge my peers' thoughts on the different variations, suggesting which they prefer as feedback...

Their decisions were based solely on aesthetics as no one variation fitted the concept bette than the others and the vast majority of answers all pointer to the same variation and here it is below, this is the variation that was taken in to the final stage of the design process. They said that overall it was just the variation that stood out to them most, due to the fact that out of them all it is probably most legible while still encapsulating graffiti aesthetics.

The design for the front cover of the book was finalised by adding the new found branding for the publication to to the front cover and accompanying it with other necessary information such as the issue number and the cost of the publication.