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.