Individual magazine advert analysis

Individual magazine advert analysis 

For the creation of my music video, I made a individual magazine advert for our own artist that was designed to be published in a music magazine related to our chosen genre and style of our artist. We created this magazine advert in order to increase our artists portfolio and as a way of advertising and marketing the artist to the public and our intended audiences. We also created it for the purposes of our own understanding of our chosen music genre, in my case Indie, and what needs to go into a indie magazine advert to make it conventional and successful. To help us with this I took inspiration from other magazine adverts such as artists like Ed Sheeran, Birdy and Gabrille Aplin and this allowed me to gather an understanding as to what codes and conventions I could include, what colours and other micro elements in order to create a particular image and representation of my artist. Creating a magazine advert was also a good form of promotion for my artist as magazines are popular amongst music fans and my intended audience and there are lots of examples to choose from such as Q, the rolling stones and billboard which are good platforms for both mainstream and independent artists to sell and promote their work through advertisements. Advertising a music video or album through an advertisement in a magazine is also seen as a form of cross media. This is a way of promoting our video and artist on a different media platform and therefore expanding our artists popularity and reputation amongst audiences who will read the magazine advert and taking a interest and liking into my artist. 

There are many elements I had to take into mind when planning my magazine advert and make them look realistic and conventional to the indie genre and thew representation of my artist I wanted to create. These included the codes and conventions of the magazine advert, the colours, images used, layout/design, typography and language, as well as looking at the connotations that come with each of these. The main colours I have used for this magazine advert are blue and white for my backgrounds with a grainy, dark effect on them so they appear more grey. I have used this as the colours for my background as the clouds are a good representation of the indie genre and a common theme which show purity and this is also the same representation of the colours as blue and white are connotations of innocence and purity. However, the grey, grainy effect is also conventional as it shows a darker and more deep meaningful side to the artist and video and what they album and video is going to be about. It also supports the dark, grainy effect of the picture of my artist which shows her as mysterious and she has a lot of emotions attached to her. These colours are also conventional to the indie genre as the colour grey is a connotation of a strength of character and maturity which indie artists are often portrayed as. The conventions of the indie genre I have included in my advert are the heartbeats which turn into love-hearts across the bottom of the advert and top, surrounding the artists surname 'Boyne'. The purpose of this is that it is a connotation of the artists heartbeat of how her relationships is having ups and downs and she is all over the place with her emotions and  can't control her love. It is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists often portray a lot of emotions and ups and downs with love. The audience will also be able to relate to this as they can see the clears concept of the advert and the representations of the artist that come with it. The image I have used is a still shot of Kerry. This picture is conventional to the indie genre as it helps to highlight the innocence and purity of the artist, as well as her simple clothing and necklace is a connotation of her quirky style and the colour of the jumper is one of the main colours of my digipak and fonts so it therefore is similar and relevant to the other main features of my digipak. This is conventional as indie artists work is often very organised and precise and is kept fairly simple to help deliver a clearer message about themselves or the purpose of their work. What I like about this image is the leaves in the background as they help to add a connotation of innocence and purity. I also feel that the audience are able to relate to this image as they see the artist as her usual and simple self giving them a clear idea of her character. The typography and language of my magazine advert shows that I have included the name of my artist, the name of my record label followed by 'presents', the name of my album and the name of the hit song of the album and the release date. This gives my audience a clear understanding of the information about the album I am promoting and an insight into my artist. 

My weaknesses when using photoshop was that I did not anticipate how hard it would be to crop out images that we have already taken and place them onto other backgrounds whilst still making it look realistic and professional. Another weakness of mine when using photoshop was that I opted to use a different structure, fonts and background to the magazine advert I originally planned to create and therefore had to make changes when creating my real one whilst still making it look conventional. This included picking a suitable font which I struggled to download and use due to complications with photoshop and also changing the colours and gradient of my main image of my artist and the background. However, I overcome these problems and weaknesses as i become more familiar and experienced with photoshop and learnt how to use each tool correctly. I also spent extra time and was more careful with my image which I had to make look smooth around the edges and realistic by using the rubber tool rather then crop it out. My strengths when using photoshop were that I was to find conventional background images and fonts and structure them in a way that many magazine adverts are structured and it was similar to the adverts I took inspiration from. This is because I felt familiar with photoshop and the layering of my content, as well as changing the colours of everything to make it look more conventional. I feel this helped me to create a successful magazine advert as it gives a clear artist representation and the magazine advert looks realistic and has many codes and conventions of the indie genre. 

In conclusion, I feel that my magazine advert conforms to the indie genre as I followed a clear structure when creating my magazine advert that looked similar to magazine adverts I took inspiration from, from other indie artists. These included using colour schemes, codes and conventions and many other micro elements that go towards making a conventional indie magazine advert. For example, one particular inspiration I took which I already knew was conventional to the indie genre was the same font as the Lana Del Ray magazine advert, therefore making mine on a similar level and having a good convention in my own work. I also feel the audience will be able to relate to my magazine advert and feel drawn in by it as it has a lot of artist representation in it. For example, the image of the artist highlights her emotions and leaves the audience curious as to why she is looking and feeling this way and engaging them to take notice of the information of the advert. This is also done with my background and other micro elements which are suited and designed to specific audiences and magazines so therefore the people witnessing the magazine advert will be immediately drawn into it and will take further notice, as well as who my artist is and what she is all about in terms of her music and representation.