planning individual magazine advert

The prime importance of a magazine advert for a music artist is simply to promote themselves and their music as much as they possibly can. Adverts are displayed all around places such as bus stops, tube and train stations, and billboards. Therefore, a large and wide range of people would be constantly viewing the advert and therefore it is more likely they will search up the artist's upcoming album and share it round with their friends; this helps promote the artist further and they will make more sales. In addition, this method of advertizing helps the artist to reach a larger number of their target audience; for example, for Gabrielle Aplin, she would want 15-25 year olds who enjoy the indie genre to notice the advert. Magazine adverts also creates synergy between the artist and another company as the latter will help advertize and promote the artist and their music; if the artist is featured on a magazine, there will most probably be an interview to coincide with the feature and therefore the audience can go learn more about the artist. I myself will be creating a magazine advert for my artist, Gabrielle Aplin. As I am producing a indie genre music video, my magazine's codes and conventions must be a reflection of this. To make the advert, I first needed to plan out the design I will choose and what will be featured. Planning is crucial as it provides a clear basis for laying out initial ideas which you can later on adapt or remove if appropriate. The plan version of my advert will act as a guide to what I will later create and allow me to put down as many different ideas all on one paper and then see what works best.

My magazine advert has been made for Gabrielle Aplin's album "English Rain", which my group and I have changed to "Desolation" and used the artist name "Amy-Michaela". However, there are still various elements I have kept similar to Gabrielle Aplin's style. For example, the typography I have opted for is the same as the one Gabrielle Aplin uses in her album. In my actual magazine advert I will be using the artist name "Amy-Michaela", however in my plan I forgot to change her name. I have decided to use the same typography as it is simple yet still interesting. However, when I make the real magazine I will slightly alter it so that I do not completely copy the original idea. It is conventional of the indie genre to not be elaborate in their design as the music itself is simplistic and therefore it is a reflection of the artist's authenticity. This is more appealing for the target audience as they will subliminally expect to see certain aspects within the magazine advert; if they see an extremely extravagant design and font used then they would not appeal to the advert as much as it does not conform to the indie conventions; therefore they would be be less likely to buy the album. Furthermore, using a simple font means that the audience can aspire and relate to the audience more easily which is a more appealing for them. However, it is also beneficial in representing the artist as being quite deep in the aspect that there is a plain and simple surface portrayal of the artist yet underneath the front cover, within the music, there is much more to the artist than meets the eye. I have also kept the typography of the album title the same as Gabrielle Aplin's in my draft; however, I again will alter it slightly when producing the real magazine advert to fit more with the main image and theme of my magazine. I have also chosen to keep the language I have used in the magazine simplistic to again reflect the simple nature of the music and genre. Having more information on the magazine advert would give it an unconventional cluttered effect which would not appeal to the audience. Furthermore, a lot of people who read magazines would scan the front page first before purchasing it as they first want to see if they find it interesting. If there was a lot of information on it then the audience would not be particularly interested in buying it as they only care for the succinct main information and nothing more. Therefore, in my own magazine advert I have only included three of the singles included in the album which would be more well-known to the public and therefore attract them into purchasing the album. I have also given a list of the platforms in which the audience can listen to the album which would be useful if they want to quickly find the type of album they are looking for. My target audience consists of 15-25 year olds; this age group in specific certainly do not want to be reading complex and long language as they will quickly become bored; my magazine advert needs to consistently adhere to the needs of my target audience. The actual choice of words I have opted for are also extremely crucial; words such as "acclaimed" to describe the singles included in the album help to portray a positive and successful image of the album and encourage the audience to buy the album. It is more effective to use short snappy sentences with positive words to grab the audience's attention, rather than long, figurative language that bores the audience by not quickly getting to the point. The language used is also beneficial in presenting the actual music itself; the artist's music is shown to be more focused on the quality of the music rather than the quantity or anything else. The target audience would evidently appeal to this idea as they themselves would thoroughly enjoy the indie genre who uphold the convention of focusing on the substance rather than image. 

In addition, I have also thought about the layout and design of the magazine as this is exceedingly important in shaping the whole magazine for the eyes of the audience. I have focused upon the alignment of everything in the advert; the album title and the artist's name has been copied from Gabrielle Aplin's album as I liked how due to its central positioning, it drew the eye directly to it. Furthermore, as it is at the top of the page, the audience can quickly and coherently read it to know who the advert is about and aimed at. This also means that there is a lot more room to include anything else needed as the titles are out of the way. Therefore, as I had three-quarters of page room to use, I decided to have the main image fill up nearly the entire page. This is effective as it means that it is completely clear for the audience to look at. The actual image features a girl on the road, with her back to the camera yet looking directly at it. I purposely chose to use every one of these elements as I wanted to create deeper meanings and connotations. The use of the girl on a road creates enigma codes within the advert as the audience are left wondering who she is and why she is all alone on a road, at night time. I chose to use a road as it has a deeper meaning of the journey that the artist is going on. Having the artist with their back to the camera except their face will suggest that she is quite mysterious yet is inviting the audience into knowing more about her. In addition, I have chosen to use an image of the artist during the night as the dark natural lighting accentuates the theme of mystery and invites the audience in from curiosity to know more about the artist. The image will help to attract the audience as it closely follows the indie genre conventions; indie artists tend to not use close up images of their face as they do not focus on themselves but rather their music and creating meanings. I have also included the Parlophone company name and logo on the top left hand corner; despite it being small, I wanted to include it to establish where the artist is signed to as it is part of her and her music. It also helps to promote her as if the audience want to find out more about her, they can go to Parlophone's website and find out more. In addition, I put it in Amy-Michaela's website on the bottom right hand corner; again, I put it in small print again as it is important but merely an afterthought of importance compared to the rest of the text. Including the website means that the audience have a platform where they can find out more about the audience and therefore engage with them more. Therefore, the audience can be promoted further this way as it establishes them as being quite successful as they have their own website.

Within the image, I have focused on limiting the amount of color I will use in my magazine advert. It is conventional of the indie genre to not use a lot of color, particularly bright colors; they tend to use more neutral colors. I have focused on greens and browns, with the addition of shades of blacks/greys. Greens and browns are more earthly colors and reflect the convention of indie music to use countryside locations within their music videos. This helps to maintain the authenticity of the artist and their music. Using blacks and greys is helpful in creating the enigmatic aspect to the magazine advert. In addition, I have purposely eluded using whites or creams, a convention of the indie genre. I want to subvert the conventions of representing the artist as innocent as possible as the color white connotes purity and innocence, whereas black is the opposite. However, to not go too against the indie conventions, I plan to have the artist wearing a costume of more beige or cream colors to juxtapose with the dark natural lighting in order to maintain the idea of the artist being quite an ambiguous and complex character. This is more appealing for the audience as it allows them to become an active audience and actually try to interpret the artist in their own way and truly engage with them, instead of just accepting everything given to them. The indie genre conventionally rejects escapism which audiences in the other genres, e.g. pop, focus more on as the audience and artist are placed on similar levels to each other. Although I have laid out a specific color scheme, I do not wish to use filters within my magazine; if I do, they will extremely subtle. This is simply due to the desire to conforming to the indie convention of keeping everything as genuine as possible; heavily filtering the image will add in a strong degree of artificiality.

From previously analyzing a magazine advert for Gabrielle Aplin, I had more awareness of what to include in the planning of this magazine advert. Gabrielle Aplin's magazine advert gave me inspirations as I wanted to create something unique yet simplistic, like her's.  I also took the idea of using greys and blacks as it gives a more powerful deeper meaning than simply using a plain color such as just white. I liked the idea of there being a juxtaposition between dull and miserable colors, with brighter colors. I will incorporate this inspiration into my own magazine as I will use greys and blacks for the background with dark natural lighting and increase the saturation on the trees. However, looking at Gabrielle Aplin's magazine advert also gave me an inspirations due to lack of what she has not included. For example, I included in the use of ratings from two music magazines - NME and Billboard - as this would help promote the artist even further by demonstrating that although this is her debut album, she is extremely successful. Therefore, the audience will find the magazine more appealing and be more inclined to read it and buy the artist's music as they know highly placed companies have rated it extremely well. 

From doing extensive research into other indie magazine adverts, I have been able to create a more successful advert of my own, as I am aware of the indie codes and conventions that the target audience appeal to. This way, my magazine focuses on what the audience want to see and will appreciate, allowing a more personal relationship between the artist and audience to form as the artist has taken the audience's needs into consideration. For example, choosing an indie location is extremely crucial when promoting the artist and their album and helps to engage the audience as they are automatically aware of the genre of music they are seeing. Furthermore, I had to ensure to take the layout of the magazine into deep consideration, as from looking at other magazine adverts, from both the indie genre and other genres, I can see what sets the indie genre apart: the image of the artist should not take up the most room nor be right in your face. Gabrielle Aplin's magazine advert inspired me to make the artist prominent in the magazine but not the sole focus. Instead, I have focused on how the different elements, such as the color, can say more about the artist an their music than an image of the artist themselves. For example, the use of a night-time image with the artist's face more illuminated creates deeper connotations about the artist's emotions and what the content of the music could be like; I think this has made my magazine more successful. In addition, a better relationship between the artist and audience can be formed as the audience can see that a lot of thought has gone into the construction of the layout. Furthermore, as the magazine advert is quite different to what the audience may usually see, in regards to the use of a night-time setting, they may find it more refreshing as it is unique, and thus be more appealed to the artist and their music.

In relation to taking pictures for my advert and preparing for the use of Photoshop, I found this research quite useful. The research has aided me in coming up with an extremely successful and relevant image that matches my music video; I had a range of ideas and picked the one which I thought held the most meaning and uniqueness to it. Knowing what image I will use and the colors I will include will help with preparing me for using Photoshop as I will focus on the most important elements I need in the software. Planning the magazine advert has advocated in awareness of pictures needed as when I am filming with the characters in the music video, I will know what pictures I want to take with them right there. I will know what I want the characters to wear or how to stand and what facial expressions they will be wearing, etcetera. Therefore, now that I have planned out my magazine advert I now feel more prepared to create it and to ensure I will conform to and subvert particular indie genre conventions that I would like to.