Group Magazine Advert - Miss Miller

In my group of, me, Devon, Sophie and Lucy we all created our own individual magazine advert, we then looked at each others and merged together our ideas to create a group magazine advert which included elements from each of our individual attempts. We chose the most conventional and appealing elements and used them towards making our group magazine advert in order to develop it successfully so it would appeal strongly to our target audience.

·         Explain why you have decided to use/change/keep the same, certain elements within your magazine advert and how it has made your poster appeal to your target audience as well as promote your artist effectively

     The colours I used in our magazine advert are very contrasting, we used black, white and pink. The pink of the artist's coat is bright and stands out from the black and white background making her the centre of attention and attracting the audience to the advert, also some of the writing matches the pink which creates a bold, eye-catching effect for the album name and the date of release. This important information being in a such a bright colour emphasises the importance of the album and the success of the artist Sophie Mae. Also the bright and the dull colours represent the conventions of the soul music genre, the bright pink reflects happiness and joy whilst the black and white creates an upsetting, heartbroken feel, this is represented through the song of our video 'only love can hurt like this' showing that love can be happy and joyful but can hurt which is portrayed through the colours used in our group magazine advert.

     

     In our group magazine advert we conformed to the conventions of the soul music genre firstly through the colours used, the black and white theme portrays the artist's loneliness and that she is in a dark place without her partner, this is also shown through the song name ' only love can hurt like this'. This represents her sad emotions which she conveys through the song, this will attract the audience as the emotional side of the artist is seen by the audience which in conventional to the genre as it allows the audience to build a relationship with the artist as they may be in the same situation ans share the same emotions. The artists name is also in the largest font as it represents her character as the most important piece of information within the advert which portrays her as bold and important just like the font.

The image used in our magazine album advert shows our artist Sophie in a classy conventional outfit, this gives the audience an insight into the artist life and her personality. This outfit is conventional as it covers the artist and doesn't have any provocative or flirtatious effect, which keeps a classy professional look about our artist. The background image used is dull and maybe abit boring, but it also looks very lonely which is relatable as most soul music involves artists speaking about relationships and break ups, this is especially relatable in our song "only love can hurt like this" as our artist is singing about a break and that she is now alone which fits in with the empty background as that is how she is feeling. Also the dark background adds a contrasting effect to the text which is bright pink, this will catch the eye of the audience and allow them to recognise the artist name or album name, increasing the publicity for our magazine advert.

The layout of my album advert shows the artist name in big writing which immediately catches the eye of the audience and also makes our artist seem like a star because her name is the biggest thing on the advert. The album name is written smaller underneath which has a reflection effect due to the name "a true reflection", this makes the audience see the album as professional as the editing and effects used match the album name and show that the artist is classy and professional. A picture of the artist is placed on the side of the screen and takes up quite a lot of room on the advert which highlights her importance yet again, this makes the audience see her as a big artist and want to listen to her music if they are part of a new audience, and for the original audience it may excite them to see her if they are really big fans of Sophie.

The layout of our album advert shows the artist name in big writing which immediately catches the eye of the audience and also makes our artist seem like a star because her name is the biggest thing on the advert. A picture of the artist is placed in the centre of the screen and takes up quite a lot of room on the advert which highlights her importance yet again, this makes the audience see her as a big artist and want to listen to her music if they are part of a new audience, and for the original audience it may excite them to see her if they are really big fans of Sophie Mae. Also the album name has a line either side almost as if to physically highlight the name of it to appeal to the audience and make them want to buy the album.

The language used is very simple and straight to the point, the only text shown is the artist name and the album name, this allowed me to make the writing bold and simple as it is the only writing on the advert, this appeals more to the audience as they can see straight away who the album belongs to. Also the lack of words used makes the advert not boring where as if it had an abundance of writing the magazine readers could get bored and not want to read on and purchase the album. The date of the album release is in a darker pink and has a bold effect to make the album seem like a big thing and make people want to buy it and listen to the artist's music. 

These are our individual magazine adverts.

Each of our individual magazine adverts were very different as you can see, this made if difficult to incorporate elements from every single one of our adverts, mine and Lucy's were extremely different from Devon and Sophie's so we decided to stick to one theme which was the dark background with bright writing. We used the same text from their adverts but changed the colour in order to make the advert appeal more to the audience, also we took the image from Devon's advert as it portrays the artist as lonely and emotional due to her looking down at the floor. This is conventional to the soul music genre as it creates an emotional effect towards the audience and allows them to build a relationship with the artist as they can sere her emotions though the image and through the song and video.

This is our final group magazine advert.

Individual digipak - Miss Miller

Within our group of me Sophie, Devon and Lucy, all made an individual digipak for our artist and her album. We done this in order to test our photoshop skills and to take certain elements from our individual digipaks and put them together to create a successful group digipak.

In my individual digipak I used red throughout, this portrays conventions of our chosen genre; soul. The use of the colour red is used to connote passion and love, this gives the audience an insight to the personality of our artist and shows that she makes passionate soul music. The colour red is very prominent throughout my digipak which can appeal to the audience as red is a bright, attractive colour. Also the use of white writing is used to stand out as it is the artist's words, this makes her seem like a star as what she is saying is important and has to stand out form the rest of the text on the digipak, the pink writing on the front cover matches the coat of Sophie's, this makes the digipak look professional as the colours match and go with each other, also pink is very feminine which gives the audience an insight to the artist as conventional as most female soul genres are very feminine.

Some of the elements from my individual digipak conform to the soul music genre and some subvert, for example the vintage colours, the dark red used typically signifies love and relationships, this conforms to the soul genre as soul music artists usually sing about relationships and love, this gives the audience an insight to Sophie's music as the connotation of the colour red used in my digipak, reflects the artist's music. Also the use of a pink coat on the artist shows her femininity, this is conventional of the soul music genre as most female soul artist's are very feminine to attract the male audience.

The images used in my individual digipak are chosen specifically to portray our artist in a certain way. For example the image on the front cover shows the artist in a rose garden, this reflects happiness and joy, this subverts from the soul music genre and more specifically the music video as the song is called 'only love can hurt like this' and the video shows her going through a break up, this subverting of the genre could excite the audience as she will stand out from the other stereotypical soul music artists. Also the use of a rose makes the digipak have a red tone, this presents the love and passion of the song which the artist sings, also a rose has thorns on them which shows that something beautiful can hurt you, this specifically relates to our song and video as it is called 'only love can hurt like this'. Also the background of the track list shows a lonely, empty forest, this presents the artist as alone, this is conventional to the soul music genre as soul artist sing about being alone after breaking up with a partner. This also gives the audience an insight into the artist's life which is what a digipak is all about as it creates a more personal feel.

The layout and design of the digipak typically has the text and artist images standing out the most, this is to successfully promote the artist and her album, also the images of the artist will appeal more to fans are the digipak will help them create a relationship as they feel they will know more about the artist. Also the text written by the artist is bold and bright which shows that her words are important which portrays her as a star, this will appeal strongly to the fans who buy the digipak as it is a personal message from Sophie to her fans.

The typography used in the digipak is chosen carefully to create a personal feel for the audience, lexis such as 'guys' makes the audience feel like they are on personal terms with the artist which will make the digipak appeal to them more. Also the front cover contains 'Sophie Mae' and 'A true reflection', this beinf the only words on the front cover makes them stand out more and appeal to the audience, this will promote the album more and make artist seem like a star as her name is in bold, the track list also contains nothing but the song names to make them stand out more to the audience ans stop them possibly getting bored of reading pointless text.

Using photoshop to create my digipak was hard at first as I struggled with some of the tools, for example removing the background from an image was tricky as I had to select the correct tool to do so. After some practising and attempting to do this with different tools I eventually found out how to confidently use the magic wand tool and the magnetic lasso tool to remove the background from an image to add to my digipak. Also editing the texts I used was difficult as I did not know how to make an outline or a shadow effect, after trying different effects with the text I eventually found out how to do this and furthermore found out how to make a reflection effect which is shown in my digipak.

I was particularly good with editing the images in photoshop, for example using the filter gallery to give the image different effects, after experimenting with loads of different effects I ended up with the cartoon looking image which I used in my digipak above. Also the blur effect in the 'filter' options I was familiar with and knew how to make either a slightly blurry image or very blurry very well, I used a slight blur on my background image on my album advert to make the artist, artist name and album name stand out more and appeal more to the audience.

I feel like my digipak mostly conforms to the conventions of the soul music genre through specifically the colours and images used. The use of red portrays the artist as passionate and in love which is further presented in the song 'only love can hurt like this' this also gives the audience an insight into the artist as a person and that she may be passionate herself, this will allow the audience to feel more personal with the artist as they know more about her. Also the images show the artist in lonely places which makes them feel like they her with her, this again makes the digipak appeal to the audience as it will make the fans seem again, more personal with the artist and make them feel like they have got a connection through her music.

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I feel like my digipak does appeal to my target audience as it gives them what they want which is an insight to the artist's life and a more personal relationship between them. My digipak includes this through the use of a personal message and exclusive pictures, this will not only appeal to the audience, but promote the artist's album through this. Also the vintage colours present the artist as professional as the digipak is well made due to my knowledge on photoshop, this will appeal more to my target audience of 16-40 year olds as it doesn't look boring or tacky.

Creating an individual digipal instead of a group one straight away allows us as a group to look at each others adverts and take elements from each of our individual attempts in order to make the group digipak the best that it can be as some of our group members are better in different aspects of photoshop. For example I am the best at editing the images where as Lucy and Devon are very good at editing the typography, Sophie was very good and linking the images and text in order to create a professional digipak. After looking at each others individual digipaks we now know what we want to do for our group digipak, using elements from each of our individual attempts.

Individual magazine advert - Miss Miller

In our group; Me, Sophie, Lucy and Devon created our own individual magazine advert, this allows us to have 4 different adverts to choose different elements from to make the best magazine advert for our artist. Also the purpose of a magazine advert itself is to raise awareness of our artist's album, this means that it must be eye catching and appeal to the audience so that they are aware of the artist's album.

The colours I used in my magazine advert are very dull and boring, I used black, white and grey. These colours create a simplistic look for my album advert which could appeal to a wider audience as they don't fall into a specific genre. Also the simplistic look makes the advert seem more professional compared to a multi-coloured advert. on the other hand these colours could also be seen as boring and not eye-catching which would not be very appealing to the audience, I could improve this by possible making the artist's name a brighter colour to draw in the audience and possibly make my album advert more appealing and attract more readers from the magazine.

The use of simplistic colours and font is conventional to the soul music genre and most soul albums contain a bold font and simple, vintage colours. This is a positive aspect as it allows the audience to notice that the album is from an artist that belongs to the soul music genre, and therefore be attracted by the advert and want to buy it. On the other hand the forest background subverts the soul music genre as it seems like a horror film advert, this doesn't specifically make the audience not attracted to the advert but it could give them the wrong idea as they flick through the magazine, this will decrease the publicity of the advert and therefore the album itself. The picture of the artist shows her with a big hat covering some of her face, this is conventional to the soul music genre and the artist are usually presented and classy and professional unlike the pop genre where the artist is half dressed showing off their bodies, the hat makes Sophie seem like a professional artist in this image on my album advert.

The image used in my magazine album advert shows our artist Sophie in a classy conventional outfit, also the picture has an effect on it which makes her seem cartoon like, this subverts the conventions of the soul music genre but it could attract the audience as it is different and exciting. Also this could he used to attract a new audience as they could be attracted to the advert and want to listen to Sophie's music due to the different effect of her picture. The background image used is dull and maybe abit scary, it also looks very lonely which is relatable as most soul music involves artists speaking about relationships and break ups, this is especially relatable in our song "only love can hurt like this" as our artist is singing about a break and that she is now alone which fits in with the empty background as that is how she is feeling.

The layout of my album advert shows the artist name in big writing which immediately catches the eye of the audience and also makes our artist seem like a star because her name is the biggest thing on the advert. The album name is written smaller underneath which has a reflection effect due to the name "a true reflection", this makes the audience see the album as professional as the editing and effects used match the album name and show that the artist is classy and professional. A picture of the artist is placed on the side of the screen and takes up quite a lot of room on the advert which highlights her importance yet again, this makes the audience see her as a big artist and want to listen to her music if they are part of a new audience, and for the original audience it may excite them to see her if they are really big fans of Sophie.

The typography used is very mysterious, the artist name has an effect that looks like the top of the text is being blown away by wind, this was done to avoid making the advert boring. This also makes the advert look like it was made professionally by experienced editors, this reflects the artist as professional and part of a professional team which could attract the audience as they would be more likely to purchase the album from a well made advert compared to a tacky, rushed one. The reflection effect on the album name "a true reflection" shows again that the album advert was made professionally and could again attract the audience for the same reasons. Also in our video a mirror scene is used so the word 'reflection' matches with some of the footage from our video which makes the video more enjoyable for the the audience, this will also increase the publicity for Sophie Mae's album as it seems well made and professional.

The language used is very simple and straight to the point, the only text shown is the artist name and the album name, this allowed me to make the writing bold and simple as it is the only writing on the advert, this appeals more to the audience as they can see straight away who the album belongs to. Also the lack of words used makes the advert not boring where as if it had an abundance of writing the magazine readers could get bored and not want to read on and purchase the album, which is why I have eliminated this element in my album advert for our artist.

Using photoshop to create my magazine advert was hard at first as I struggled with some of the tools, for example removing the background from an image was tricky as I had to select the correct tool to do so. After some practising and attempting to do this with different tools I eventually found out how to confidently use the magic wand tool and the magnetic lasso tool to remove the background from an image to add to my magazine album advert. Also editing the texts i used was difficult as I did not know how to make an outline or a shadow effect, after trying different effects with the text I eventually found out how to do this and furthermore found out how to make a reflection effect which is shown in my magazine advert.

I was particularly good with editing the images in photoshop, for example using the filter gallery to give the image different effects, after experimenting with loads of different effects I ended up with the cartoon looking image which I used in my magazine album advert above. Also the blur effect in the 'filter' options I was familiar with and knew how to make either a slightly blurry image or very blurry very well, I used a slight blur on my background image on my album advert to make the artist, artist name and album name stand out more and appeal more to the audience.

My advert has aspects that conform and adhere to the soul music genre, for example the image of the artist in a big black hat is conventional to the soul music genre as she is professionally dressed and sort of hiding herself, this is conventional as soul music artist seem to be less flirtatious and provocative compared to artists that belong to other genres such as pop or dance. On the other hand the effect used on the artist name subverts s=the soul music genre as it adds a mysterious, horror effect, this isn't conventional but it could draw in the audience as it stops the advert looking boring and simple. The picture of an empty forest as the background is conventional to the soul music genre as it makes the artist look alone, this conforms to the soul music genre as artists who belong to this genre typically talk about being left by a partner or a loved one. Also, the lack of colour can be seen as conforming and subverting the soul music genre because the lack of colour creates a simple, bold, vintage effect which is usually used within the soul music genre to create a classy, professional look, but also this can be seen as boring and not attractive by people who read the magazine, this way they will skip past it and not bother to read it and find out about the artist and her new album, decreasing the popularity for Sophie's album.

I think this album advert appeals to our target audience of 16-40 year olds as it is simple and bold, because of the wide target audience the simple elements of the advert will appeal to all ages where as if I specifically used colourful text and images it may only appeal to younger audience and the older audience may feel that the album doesn't suit them as they are too old. Also the image of Sophie shoes her fully clothed which can appeal to both male and females, this will increase publicity where as if she was half dressed it would create a provocative effect and appeal to only the male audience and not the women.

Creating an individual magazine advert instead of a group one straight away allows us as a group to look at each others adverts and take elements from each of our individual attempts in order to make the group magazine advert the best that it can be as some of our group members are better in different aspects of photoshop. For example I am the best at editing the images where as Lucy and Devon are very good at editing the typography, Sophie was very good and linking the images and text in order to create a professional magazine advert. After looking at each others magazine album adverts we now know what we want to do for our group magazine advert, using elements from each of our individual magazine adverts.