Hiphop.com magazine identity refreshed by Vincent

Vincent Design has refreshed the identity of online magazine www.hiphop.com.

Appointed directly in September 2008, Nick Vincent of Vincent Design was asked to create a ‘clear and simple’ design that would differentiate the magazine from its competitors and align with a readership that Paul Hampartsoumian, the title’s owner and founder, describes as ‘older and more authoritative’.

Hampartsoumian adds, ‘There are a lot of sites which concentrate on who has been arrested and who has been shot, and we asked [Vincent] to steer as far away from that as possible.’

Vincent wrote a creative brief and established a tone of voice, before creating what he describes as ‘a bold, simple logotype that’s earthy, honest and woodblocky’. It features two turntables in the marque, as requested by the client in the original brief. Hampartsoumian explains, ‘He [Vincent] has adapted our old-school style, which was a bit static, and tweaked it slightly.’ The tagline, ‘A hip hop state of mind’, is retained from the original logo.

The newly designed site, due to go live in the first week of February, now features five defined sections: home, features, reviews, playlists and foundations.

Vincent describes them as ‘content heavy’ and Hampartsoumian says they reflect the elemental parts of hip hop – ‘DJ, MC, B-boy and Graffiti’.

The launch marks the completion of phase one of the brief.

Vincent expects to be involved in further work on the site as more functionality is added.