creating individual magazine advert

Magazine adverts are extremely crucial for a music artist as they promote the artist and their music even more. As adverts are positioned in all different places, such as bus stops, tubes and train stations, as well as billboards, a wide range of people would see the advert. 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. To create my magazine advert I took my own pictures and then used Photoshop, a photo editing software, to edit the pictures and add in the rest of the components of the advert. The reason for using Photoshop CS6 is simply as it is the easiest software to edit pictures to a high quality standard. Through my research and planning I gathered various inspirations to use when creating my own magazine advert. For example, I did some research into Gabrielle Aplin's magazine advert for her debut album "English Rain", which gave me the idea to go beyond using purely white as a color; instead, I have mixed white and blue together as well as used hints of grey colors. I also had the idea to use more than one color for the text from Gabrielle Aplin's advert; the use of a color gradually increasing or decreasing was extremely appealing. I also used inspiration from Bastille's album "Bad Blood", as his image is featured on a road at night, which I thought would be more unique than your stereotypical use of photographing the artist in high-key or bright natural lighting.

This is a screenshot of my finished magazine advert. There are various elements of it which I have kept the same as the draft I made for the advert earlier, and other elements that for a specific reason I have changed. For example, in my draft I planned to use an image of a road as it has the white lane markers on them. However, as there was not a nearby road that had a lot of vegetation around it, I had to use an alleyway that I found. Nonetheless, this did not cause to be too much of an issue as I merely worked around this change. However, I did have to make another change: I originally planned to make Amy's face quite bright in comparison to the rest of the image; however when I did increase the brightness on just her face, it created an effect of making her look exceedingly photoshopped into the image. Therefore, I decided it would be better to make her face match the low-key lighting I created, and instead make other aspects of the photo brighter. The actual image itself was taken during day-time. However, as I stated earlier, I was inspired by Bastille's "Bad Blood" album to actually make the advert be set during night-time. In order to do this I had to use a black and white filter on the image and then place a solid fill color of royal blue on top; this created the dark cool tones that look like a night-time image.

The reason I chose a night-time look is 
simply because I wanted to create a particular representation of my artist: instead of conforming to the stereotype of indie female artists being innocent and even angelic, with the use of high-key or bright natural lighting, I wanted the audience to perceive the artist as more than just that. This way, the artist is represented as quite ambiguous and frankly, an enigma. With the juxtaposition of the use of white and related colors and the darkness of the background, the audience do not have a simple idea of who the artist is, which is actually more appealing for them as it engages them with the artist's music so they can find out more about them. I also deliberately chose to leave the five star rating of the music magazines in the shown yellow-gold color, instead of changing them to a dull color, e.g. black, as I did with the logo of the two music magazines I used. This was simply to add to the contrast of the colors used. The actual colors I used for the text were significant in shaping the overall look of the advert. When I first inserted the title of the artist into the advert, I put it in white. However, after doing so, I realized that the color of white actually made the advert look tacky and not genuine. Therefore, I played around with the colors, experimenting with colors of a consistency of white and blue mixed together. This led me to choose a subtle white-blue color, which blended well with the cool blue tones of the image. However, for the title of my album, I actually chose to use the color white instead, as on a this title, I played around with some effects and placed an "outer glow" effect on it. This gave the title a yellow-colored glow around it, as if there was lighting luminating from it. As this helped with the ambiguous representation of the artist, I kept it in. Furthermore, the use of both light and dark aspects to the advert help to connote the two varying aspects of the music video I also made: the happiness of the couple when they are together and the sadness of when the male character dies at war. Therefore, when choosing all the colors to use for the advert, I have ensured to remember both the genre of my artist and the elements I have included in the music video, so continuity is upheld. As I mentioned earlier, I was also inspired by Gabrielle Aplin, as in her own magazine advert the colors she used for her text gradually increased or decreased in shades of color. The reason I appealed to this is simply as when I put my own text in one shade, it did not actually look particularly innovative or exciting. In addition, the use of more than one color matches the idea that there is much more to the artist and there are varying emotions throughout the album. This is actually more appealing for the audience as they will most likely be prominent indie fans and therefore would want to see that an artist's album is packed with emotions, unlike other genres such as pop. 

The actual language of the text itself has been kept quite minimalistic; I have only included the essential information needed. Alongside the artist's name and the title of the album, I have included the release date (the album is "out now") as this is crucial for the audience so that if they do want to buy it they will not have to spend time doing extra research as to when to purchase it; this will be more likely to put them off buying it if they do not have the time to look it up. I have also included what format the audience will be able to buy the album on: the album comes in both an ordinary CD format and a deluxe CD format, in case more avid members of the audience want something more. I have also stated that the album comes in a vinyl format as there will definitely be some members of the audience that own a vinyl player and perhaps prefer to collect vinyls than CDs. This gives the audience a range to choose from, catering to a wider audience. Actually ensuring to include the different formats on the magazine cover is essential as it means that, say for example, a member of the audience only listen to music on vinyl players, they will be confident in the knowledge that they can actually purchase the album; some albums do not have the option of coming in the format of a vinyl. I have also included the name of the artist's website as this is both a promotional tool for the artist but also something to give to the audience to find out more about the artist and their music. Including a website demonstrates to the audience that the artist is actually quite successful as having your own website must mean that you are quite established. This is more appealing to the audience as it subliminally sends a message that the artist's music must be quite good. I have kept the name of the artist's website the same as the artist's name for continuity and professionalism. The actual name of the artist was picked by my group and I, as the actual name of the person we chose to use as our artist is Amy-Michaela. We thought the use of a double-barreled first name would make our artist seem more authentic and successful, rather than having her first and surname; a lot of well-established artists only use their first name: e.g. "Beyonce" or "Adele". Another piece of information I included was the use of a few of the singles that would be included in the album; I chose specific language to write this: "includes the acclaimed singles". The use of the word "acclaimed" is important as it subliminally tells the audience that this is an extremely successful artist, as the word is typically used on magazines or adverts to describe things that are award-winning. I have ensured that the language I use on the advert is minimalistic but includes everything necessary to make a magazine advert as successful as possible. The final piece of information I included in the magazine advert was the use of a rating from two famous music magazines. This again, if a device to attract the audience's attention and persuade them into buying the album, as well as promoting the artist as being so successful that two highly reputable magazines are giving the album five stars. Another reason I included in a rating was simply as it lifted my magazine advert to look more like a genuine magazine advert, as from research I discovered this was a convention.
The typography I used for the advert also contributed to any impressions or connotations made by the audience. All the fonts I used, which was only two different types, came from dafont.com as the website had a large selection of different types of fonts, including a "handwriting" style font. As I really appealed to Gabrielle Aplin's choice of typography, I wanted to find something slightly similar for my advert. Therefore, for the artist's name, I wanted something more blocky and bold, rather than swirly. This is simply as the artist's name should be the first thing the audience read and therefore should stand out the most. The name of the album is evidently important, but the artist's name must be more establishing and easier to read. As the font was so clear to read and also looked extremely nice, fitting in well with the rest of my advert, I decided to use it as the base font; that is why all the other pieces of text are also written in the same font. However, as the title of the album also needed to stand out in its own way, as this is what the advert is promoting, I decided to put it in a different font. The swirly and more elaborate font I picked for the album title was deliberately chosen as it actually slightly contrasts with the other font, as it is more girly and actually seems like the artist herself wrote it.

I do think that my magazine advert is indie; however it does slightly subvert the conventions of the genre. It is a lot more conventional to see a magazine advert for the indie genre with the artist photographed during daylight, typically on a field. However, I wanted to make my own magazine advert as unique as possible, and ensure that it was not your stereotypical, almost girly, advert. Having the image set during night-time brings about representations of the artist that you would not normally associate with the indie genre, such as the artist being an enigma. However, the image still reflects the genre as a lot of indie music is quite sad, and therefore the darkness of the image both conforms to the indie conventions, as well as foreshadows the music that will be in the album. From my research, I discovered that a lot of indie magazine adverts portray the artist being quite rustic; for example, the artist may be carrying or playing a music instrument in an indie location. I also discovered that a lot of the images taken have made use of natural lighting to explicitly illuminate on the artist's face so that you cannot clearly see the artist. Despite not using a musical instrument for my advert - simply as in my group and I's music video, we used a piano, which is not something portable - I chose to capture the image of the artist in quite an indie location, as shown by the surrounding trees. I also picked up on the use of obscuring the artist's face as close-up images are not conventional of the indie genre; this is why I deliberately photographed Amy at quite a far away position.

From looking at all aspects of my magazine advert, I can see that there are various parts of it that are different from what I intentionally planned out in my draft. For example, I originally panned out to take the photo of Amy on a road, not an alley-way. However, I had to change this as there was not a nearby road that had a lot of vegetation surrounding it. It is slightly disappointing that I did not take the shot I initially intended to as my originally plan was to make certain aspects of the road a lot brighter than the rest of the image, such as the white lane markers on the road. Another thing that is different between the draft and real thing is the use of a shadow around the image of Amy. When I was editing the image of just Amy, I was playing around with some of the tools and came across this shadow effect; when I put it on, I really liked the look of it as it actually looked like a second Amy was coming out of the original Amy. This linked with my continuous theme of creating an enigmatic artist and therefore I decided to keep it in. Despite these changes made, I do not think they impacted upon my advert too much as everything else in my advert has stayed the same. I ensured to stick to the rest of what I intended to do, with the exception that I did actually anticipate to take the picture of Amy during night-time, instead of using Photoshop to drastically change the lighting of the image. I have also ensured to keep the layout and design of the magazine advert the same as I did in my draft. As I wanted the image to be a centre of focus for the audience, as Amy is nearly in exactly the middle of the picture, I positioned everything else, i.e. the text, at either the top of the advert or the bottom of the advert; anything in the middle of the advert would have looked highly unprofessional. During the creation of my advert, I kept this layout plan exactly the same.

When I actually came to making my magazine advert, there were many strong and weak points I had during the use of Photoshop. The weak points included that when it came to actually changing my image from day-time to night-time, I struggled to make it look genuine and not photoshopped. I actually had to look up a tutorial in how to make the change and then consult with external help as it was not an easy process. However, I did eventually overcome this issue and was able to move on. At first, I experimented with the different available filters on Photoshop to get the desired night-time look. For example, I tried using black and white, and changing the brightness, contrast and saturation; however, the image ended up looking too much like the soul genre. I eventually found the correct tool to use, which was to create a new "adjustment layer"; I created a solid fill of a navy blue color which when I layered with the black and white filter, on top of the actual image I was editing, created that needed night-time look. I then simply played around with the brightness, and contrast, to perfect the image. Another thing I struggled with was becoming accustomed to using the layers in Photoshop; on more than one occasion, I struggled with trying to change the brightness or contrast of one layer, as all the layers seemed to be affected. I did not actually resolve this issue quickly, and spent a lot of time trying to fix this issue. As it was the image I had cut out of Amy, I ended up copying this layer into a new Photoshop file and editing it separately, and then copying back onto the original file. However, I did have some strong points when it came to using Photoshop. I was quite good at using all the tools and actually had to use quite a few; I ended up using the lasso or magic wand tool quite a lot, alongside the eraser and blur tool. As these tools were necessary for editing my advert to the fine detail, it was good that I was able to quickly use them. The reason for using tools such as the lasso/magic wand or blur tool is, for example, I used the magic wand tool to select the image of Amy out of the entire image so I could cut her out onto a new layer. This way, I could edit her separately from the rest of the image. However, when I put her back into the main image, the outer lines of her image where jagged and therefore I had to use the blur tool to smooth out the edges so you could not tell Amy had been cut out. This helped to maintain a professional look of the advert and allow me to edit the images to make the advert look even better.

From looking at all the various elements I have used in my magazine adverts, I can see that it would appeal to my target audience for a number of reasons. Firstly, I have ensured to be very careful and precise in the layout of the advert; I have tried to make sure everything is somewhat symmetrical so that the audience can see that the artist actually cares about giving good quality to their fans. For example, in the music magazine ratings, I was initially only going to use one magazine, however, it would have looked odd, so I placed two either side of the five gold stars, to maintain precision. Another way the magazine appeals to the target audience is though the use of indie-looking text. I made sure that the text I used would automatically shout out that this is an indie magazine; this appeals to the audience as when they see a magazine advert, they do not want to have to read the content inside to know what genre they are looking at, as if they do not even like that genre, they would not want to pick up the magazine. The use of an indie location in addition to the indie text is also helpful in appealing to the audience's expectations; the countryside location gives it a rustic feel and overall helps to promote the artist as being an authentic indie artist. I think all the elements I have used in my advert help to promote the artist and their reputation very successfully, as I have maintained a lot of the indie codes and conventions, such as rejecting close up images of the artist's face and the costume, makeup and location used. In addition, the image of the artist I did use still allows the audience to see the artist's face and she is shown looking directly at the camera, with a neutral facial expression, connoting confidence; this is both appealing to the audience, as well as successful in promoting the artist to be an engaging character. This is due to the fact that the target audience are predominantly female around the ages of 15-25 and would appeal to the notion of strong independent femininity; therefore, if the artist is standing alone, looking confident, it engages the audience more and establishes a respectable reputation for the artist.

Overall, I think that my magazine advert both conforms and subverts the genre conventions. There are various aspects to it, such as the use of night-time and the location being set on a road instead of on a field, that subvert the genre conventions that I researched. However, there are also elements that I have kept similar to other indie adverts that I have seen in my research; the use of a long shot as opposed to a close up shot of the artist is a prime example. I think my magazine advert is successful as it does not completely conform to genre conventions; it is of course mandatory to have conventions included as the audience will expect it, but as I have not made your stereotypical advert, it makes it more unique, which I personally think makes an overall more successful advert as it attracts the audience more. If the audience recognize the artist's name, they will know that they belong to the indie genre, yet if they see this magazine advert they may become curious as they would perhaps expect to see something else, not an image taken during the night. Therefore, I do think that my advert appeals to my target audience, as 15-25 year olds appeal to creativity and being unique, rather than rigidly sticking to what is expected, like an elder audience would prefer. Also, the use of contrasts and opposites within my advert, e.g. light verses dark, would appeal to my target audience as they look beyond the surface and actually take the time to think about deeper meanings of the advert. Therefore, they would be more likely to recognize that the contrasts within the advert represent varying emotions of the artist within the music. As well as attracting the audience, creating this magazine advert helps to promote my artist's album and specifically the music video I created, as it creates synergy. Synergy is used by media institutions to use various platforms to sell an overall product. In this case, the magazine advert is a tool used to promote and sell the artist's album. Using synergy in this circumstance means that more people will be likely to purchase the album as more people will see the magazine advert as it is on a different platform to say, a TV advert; magazine adverts are displayed all around outdoor places, such as tube, train and bus stations as well as billboards. However, less people will be likely to sit down and watch TV to see an advert. If someone has watched the music video or seen something else relating to the album, they will recognize it in the magazine advert, or vice-versa, which upholds continuity.