Logo Analysis

Logo Analysis

When deciding the logo for my hip-hop magazine, I would have to look at the existing logos of hip-hop magazines to see a common feature between them and see how it can be reflected in the one in which I will produce.

1. Hip Hop Connection:

Hip-hop connection was one of the first hip-hop magazines and so really was the first to produce a logo (still hasn't changed since the launch of the magazine in July 1988). Hip-hop connection takes a very bold approach, and has only one standard colour, but the colour changes from issue to issue depending on the look of that particular issue. I can also notice the use of the lower-case 'i' which stands out as every other character is in capitals, showing it to be quite unorthodox, which is what hip-hop as a genre is as far as genres go.

2. XXL

XXL is what is seen as the optimum hip-hop magazine on the market. This can somewhat be seen in the logo because if you compare it to that of 'Hip-Hop Connection' you will see that is much more advanced; it contains more colours, a bolder font, and would stand out much more on a page.

3. Vibe

Vibe was originally an R&B magazine, but has recently entered the genre of hip-hop, most likely because R&B is fading as a genre and hip-hop is slowly becoming the most popular. This logo, similarly to 'XXL', has only a little amount of characters, but selected a very large and bold font, which makes it easy to read for someone looking upon the cover, and it is much more fitting rather than a long name like 'Hip-Hop Connection'.

4. The Source

The Source is a very old magazine which started as a newsletter in 1988. It is also very bold and colourful logo like that of 'XXL'. What separates this from the others, and makes it my personal favourite is that it stretches and could take up the whole masthead and use all of the space, it is also 3D and would look very appealing to the target audience.