Rationale
Story Choice
For this project, I went through a long process in my decision to do a feature on Lil Wayne. I began by looking through magazines to get an idea of different kinds of articles. I wanted to choose a story that would interest me, because I knew that would make the project more enjoyable to create. I went through a variety of stories before I chose Lil Wayne, but I eventually settled on this story for a variety of reasons. I have always felt that Lil Wayne is a unique star in the rising, as he has a complex story regarding his past and has really made a name for himself. Because of this, I thought that an article focused on him would be interesting to use. In addition, I thought that he provided a good basis for visual appeal. As a person, Lil Wayne emphasizes his appearance, and he is decorated with tattoos and jewelry. I thought that this would make for good magazine material, because he is interesting to look at. This is evident through my cover, which focuses on his tattooed chest. I think that even those who are not fans of his music would be fascinated by his story.
Typefaces
For my project, I chose to use typefaces that I thought portrayed Lil Wayne’s personality in an interesting but noncomplex way. I chose Bauhaus because it had a lot of character, like Lil Wayne as an artist. I then chose simpler typefaces for the rest of my magazine, like Garamond and ITC Stone Serif, with easy readability. I wanted to maintain consistency throughout my design, so I tried to tie the different pages and spreads together by using the same fonts.
Color
I tried to keep my magazine simple by using only one or two main colors, and I think this really added to the overall look of the magazine. The combination of red and black was familiar to me because I incorporated it into my logo, and I feel it really conveys the message of my feature in a bold and attention-grabbing way. Besides the red, I did not use much other color. I pulled the colors from the images for my shades of red, and then used black as the background.
