Group Magazine Advert (Miss Miller)

1. How did you agree on one magazine advert and work together to develop the advert further as group?

In order to decide fairly as a group we each opened our own magazine advert and then we each voted on which one we preferred to be the basis of our advert. After looking at them all and with the opinion of our fellow class members we decided on Sophie's magazine advert. We then revised each of our adverts to draw inspiration from parts we liked within each one to utilise and improve Sophie's image and so that the image was more representative of us as a group. 

Sophie's individual and our chosen magazine advert 

Our final group magazine advert 

2. Why have you decided to use/change/keep certain elements within your magazine advert and how it has made your poster appeal to your target audience whilst promoting your artist effectively?

Colours

In terms of colours we liked the dull washing out of the colour so decided the use of black and white for the image would be ideal as it added a classical look to the image which is conventional to the soul music genre style. As well as this the use of the black and white suggested how the artist was down and depressed and sees the world without colour an association with happiness. This sad monotonous tone is conventional of the music genre as the music often represents heartache and difficult periods of time. Through connoting this emotion the artist should therefore appeal to the target audience as they can relate to a time similar within their lives allowing them to create a relationship build upon foundations of a simialar emotion. However in adaptation of the image we decided to keep our artist in colour. We intentionally done this as the face of our artist cannot fully be seen so by keeping her in colour it draws attention the the artist as otherwise she merged into the background but in order to promote the artist and appeal to our target audience she needed to be eye caching which was achieved by the contrasting use of colour. In terms of font colours we decided to change from the red to the pink. Although red connoted ideas of love more effectively the pink, which mimics that of the jacket gives the advert a more wholesome, consistent feel ultimately making the magazine look more fluid and therefore professional. 

Images used

As a group we liked the brick wall image as we felt the styling and setting of the video was conventional to our genre and allowed personality to the image. However the original image didn't show the artists face at all so we decided to change the image to the one used by Devon within her advert. This is as even though the artist cannot be properly seen so the artist is not promoted it still allows a glimpse to the audience of her image and look which would be appreciated by our target audience as the image shows her as mysterious enticing them to learn more about her and her music whilst the relatable location makes her seem ordinary and relatable which is comforting and intriguing to audience members as they feel they could be friends helping them to create a relationship. We also chose to adapt the image by cropping out the tunnel and just showing the wall as we felt the tunnel drew attention from the artist and we wanted her to be the centre focal point and ensure audience members are looking at her. 

Layout and design

Through adapting the layout and design of the image the artist is now central to the image highlighting her importance and helping the to draw more attention to the artist. This is important as in coherance with promoting the song the magazine advert should too promote the artist so the central positioning of the characters suggests her importance whilst body language sidewards and not looking directly in to the camera suggests she is shy and scorned by love which connotes the ideas and themes we tried to portray through the video in order to reflect the lyrics of the featured song 'Only Love Can Hurt Like This'.

Typography

On the advert the main font type is bold and written in print form writing with capital letters. This makes the writing clear and therefore easily read which is important as the adverts sole purpose is to promote simultaneously both the name of the album and the artist. We chose to use a large font size with the main writing in order to draw attention and focus away from other writing to dictate what the reader is drawn to on the advert. All writing however supports a hierarchy scheme of which they are important, the name of the artist is seperated from the rest of the typography on the top of the advert to introduce and promote the artist first as well as creating a clear contextual link between the image and the text. The title of the album is situated just below and is drawn between two lines to seperate it and make it appear more clear on the screen. Whilst the date in a slightly deeper shade of pink reinforces the release date but in a subtle undertoned manner. The fluid colour scheme involving pink helps connotate the love within the song whilst the simialar text types and colours utalised; black, white and pink presents the advert and album as interlinking. This helps to then suggest to the audience that the songs within the album link or share a consistant theme. As well as this when in reference to the song the style of typography used is bold lettering which is eye catching and helps to promote the song as it helps to balance of the small choice of font.

Language

The use of colloquial language within the introduction of the song 'Hit' has connections with the success and 
The language used on the digipak I deliberately made simple, to the point and in a colloquial style in order to be easily read and effective for people passing by the digipak but also to link to the cd itself which effectively portrays a story and emotion so the digipak needs to interpret and portray the artist in the same manner.

Shaun's individual magazine advert 

Devon's individual magazine advert 

My individual magazine advert 

·   3. What elements have you taken from each group member and why did you chose incorporated them? From Shaun's image we liked the use of the black and white background so decided to incorporate that into our magazine. We felt this gave our magazine advert a classical simple look which was approachable yet eye catching whilst the simple colour scheme contrasted well with the writing and colour we chose to use on the final magazine advert. From Devon's we like her actual choice of image as the image showed part of our artists face unlike the original image used within Sophie's magazine advert. We therefore chose to use this as by seeing the artist it connects her more to the advert, album and song making her more apparent within the work and making it seem more personal. The visual aspect of her allows the audience to build a relationship with the artist and therefore her song helping to promote the success of the song and album. From my advert we like the utalisation of a sole colour to connect both the image and text upon the image as together they are complimenting make the advert seem more polished and professional. This too was the main draw within Sophie's advert who too chose to pick out a sole colour to include within the image.  

    4. What were the weakness and strengths of each group members advert? Why?

Overall I feel looking at the magazine we each had different strengths and weaknesses. For instance on Shaun's advert his main strength was his use of font and the effect he used to create the shadow like effect which enhanced and complimented the title 'A true reflection'. On the other hand his main weakness was the theme of his advert as his decision to use an enchanted forrest as the background did not conform to the conventions of our chosen music genre instead making it look like the advert for a haunted thriller film as opposed to appropriately showcasing the theme of love within the artists song. 

Devon's main strength on the other hand was her choice of image as she was able to appropriately select an image which appeared both ordinary enough to appeal to our target audience yet showcase the artist in a desirable manner both needed in order for the audience to build a relationship with the artist. In contrast to this Devon's main weakness was her use of colours and fonts. This was as the reflection ontop of the image was unclear so would not be eye catching and memorable for audiences viewing the advert concequently meaning the album would not be successfully advertise defeating the sole purpose of the advert. This was apartly fault of the font which seemed clutered on the page but also due to the colours which did not contrast with the image instead picking out the vibrant green of the grass to compliment the image allowing the title to blend in with the background.

When analysing my own advert I found my main strength was my colour scheme. As a group we liked my decision to pick out accent colours and feature them with the writing to compliment the image without taking over. For instance the image's background is cream so the use of the red lipstick, red towel used as iconography within the image was accentuated due to my similar colour choice of font enabling the image to seem more complete and polished as a whole and confirming the connotations of the album and music genre which supports the theme of love. On the other hand my main weakness was my choice of image. All other group members chose to utalise the image with the brick wall and when comparing the images the brick wall is more approachable and is more representative of the artist. My chosen image, through being intimate and personal did not seem as approachable or dinamtic as a magazine advert.

5. Does your final group advert adhere to the conventions of your chosen music genre?
I believe the use of our image within our final magazine advert correctly conforms to the soul genre as the micro elements utalised highlight the conventional traits of stereotypical adverts. For instance, the body language element within our advert shows the artist coward over and timid which reflects the conventional themes of songs which reflect pain and hurting. As well as this, the colours used throughout the advert suggest either the sad lonely emotions of a relationship collapse reflecting the depression and bleekness which is relatable to the target audience who many would have too experienece painful relationship collapses whilst the pink conotes themes of love. This is conventional to the soul genre also as the music written and perform by soul artist is usually more personal and relateable so the concept of relationships appeals to the mass of the artists target audience.

6. How did you find working as a group to create one final advert for your artist?
As a group I found that we worked extremely well together as both encouragers and also with our comfortability in being critical and picky. Our comfortable nature around one another meant each memeber felt confident speaking up and voicing their opinion which made each member feel valued and important which then benefitted the group as the more imput meant the best of our abilities were combined leaving us with an advert which shows off our skills on photoshop. I am therefore very happy with our final magazine advert as overall combining our ideas we have created something creative and conventional and therefore should be appealing to our target audience. 

Individual Digipak (Miss Miller)

1. Explain why you have created an individual digipak?

I have created an individual digipak as a view of how I feel the images we took of our artist when filming the music video would be best utalised. Through working solo I had the creative freedom to interpret the image I believe our artists should present through effects and enhancements on the photoshop tool. As each member of my group too created their own digipak it will help with the overall digipak we create as we can draw inspirations and ideas from each other so the final digipak not only represents the artist correctly but also our group as a whole. 

·   2. Explain why you have decided to use certain elements within your digipak and how it has made your poster appeal to your target audience as well as promote your artist effectively

o   Colours
Although each image was different and portrayed a different side or personality to the artist to appeal to a variety of audience members my decision to choose romantic, feminine colours throughout such as red, pink and purple ensured that the theme of love was carried throughout, even if subtly which helped combine and link all the images to each other. 

o   Images used
In total to make up the digipak I used 6 different images. Each were heavily linked within the video as they could be seen or featured within a part of the video themselves so it gave an accurate representation of the song. Out of the images 5 of them featured the artist in order to heavily promote the artist as well as her music to appeal to fans who would purchase the digipak. 

o   Layout/design

o   Typography
One form of typography used was an edwardian font as it was old fashioned and fancy which complimented the image; featuring the old fashioned bath, as well as the image and mood the artist expresses within the image. Whilst the artists name is written with a mixture of small and capital letters the title of the album is all in capital letters as it features a smaller font so draws attention and focus bu other means. The writing is positioned on the left hand side of the screen whilst the artists face is on the right hand side reflecting both the artist and her name to make the advert symmetrical running with the reflective theme shown within the image. 

o   Language
The language used within the digipak is colloquial and relaxed. As well as using onomatopoeia words such as smash to represent the success of the song within the personal message to the audience I ensured the words used were easy to read and understandabke and the artists target audience diverges through all different age ranges and social classes so the use of standard words made it accessible and not intimaidating to any of her audiences. Again, this helps with securing the dyers star theory element that an artist should be both ordinary and extraordianry as although what the artist talks about; world tours, unlimited world wide record success, she approaches the subject in a manner which presents her as not big headed and still relateable suggesting that fame has not got to her head which would be comfortable for audiences to see as it confirms her a a role model to generations. 

3. Talk about your weaknesses with using Photoshop – what tools did you struggle with? How did you overcome this?
One tool I struggled with was the cropping out tool. Often I wanted to crop out an image of our artist and place her on the same background, which sported different effects. The lining up and carefully cutting her out was difficult when relaying them together again. This is as it was hard to get them to perfectly line up. To over come this I tried to place the images together as best as possible and then use the blur tool to merge the background and image together making them seem more seem free. 

4. Talk about your strengths with Photoshop – what tools did you use? Do you think this helped you create a successful advert? Why?
One strength of photoshop was my use of filters and lighting. I was able to select appropriate background themes for each of my images that appeal to the style they were. My decision to twek the lighting of the pictures allowed my to highlight and subtly draw more focus and attention to the artist rather than the background helping to ensure she is promoted and identified and not blended in with the scene and locations we chose. This should ensure a successful advert as the artist is well represented so would appeal to fans and audience members. 

5. How do you think creating an individual digipak will help ensure your group produces a successful final digipak?
This was interesting as through using the same images each member of the group was able to create something different and are now able to utilise the best bits of each picture to create the best images and most professional images possible. 

Individual Magazine Advert (Miss Miller)

1.  Explain why you have created an individual magazine advert?

I have created a magazine advert to promote and highlight my artist and her song. However, I created this individually as it allowed me personal creative freedom and to portray the vision I had for my magazine advert so then when we created a group advert we could utilise the strengths of each persons magazine advert to create the best one possible which is an accurate representation of our artist, her song, and our ideas as a group. 

2. Explain why you have decided to use certain elements within your poster and how it has made your poster appeal to your target audience as well as promote your artist effectively?

o   Colours

The colours I chose to use were all neutral colours which complimented the intimate natural image whilst creating a vintage look and theme within the advert which relates heavily to my artists image as well as the soul genre. However for the text I chose to use a red text in order to grab the readers attention and to draw focus to the artists name and album name to promote it successfully. I decided to choose red as it connotes both ideas and themes of love, passion and the juxtaposing ideas of bloodshed and pain both themes within the song. In order to remain focused on the vintage theme however I chose a darker red as I felt it complimented the image more whilst still standing out. 

o   Images used

The image I chose to use was of the artist in the bath. Although a voyestic, intimate image I decided to chose it as the public image of the magazine advert as I felt it would relate to the target audience of females as she is promoting a womans body and figure whilst her allowance for audiences to see her in this way suggests that the album would reflect this and show a 'true reflection' of the artist as the album is a clearer more accurate representation of herself. 

o   Layout/design

The layout I decided to adopt was to crop the image and then reflect it directly underneath the first image in order to reinforce and foreshadow the title 'A True Reflection'. The pictures merged seamlessly together suggesting that the songs on the album link and relate as well as generally presenting the artist and the album as well put together and polished. The angle at which the bath is joined could be shown to be a sidewards heart which gradually and subtly introduces the theme of love to the audience. The text of the magazine advert was made specifically large in order to draw the readers attention whilst position on the line of reflection of the picture with the name of the artist written bolder above to help promote the artist as she would be more inclined to draw fans and persuade them to buy the album if they are part of the existing fan base.

o   Typography

The typography used was an edwardian font as it was old fashioned and fancy which complimented the image; featuring the old fashioned bath, as well as the image and mood the artist expresses within the image. Whilst the artists name is written with a mixture of small and capital letters the title of the album is all in capital letters as it features a smaller font so draws attention and focus bu other means. The writing is positioned on the left hand side of the screen whilst the artists face is on the right hand side reflecting both the artist and her name to make the advert symmetrical running with the reflective theme shown within the image.