Magazine Advert Reflection

For our advert design we each designed a poster that could represent the artist and therefore make her more appealing to the target audience. We wanted to convey the conventions of an indie artist and show her to be both rebellious and look iconic which we know would appeal to our target audience of young people aged between 13 - 25. We each created our own individual idea about how we can appeal to our target audience and sell the image of a grungy and indie artist to 13 to 22 year olds. This involved focuses on urban areas and taking inspiration from graffiti and grimy surroundings.

In order to appeal to a largely yet individual audience, I researched adverts from our chosen indie artist Nina Nesbitt as well as looking at female artists such as Florence and the machine who over the years although indie has appealed more and more to a mainstream audience. This assisted me in planning my magazine advert as I was able to take on key concepts of an indie artist which were to focus on interesting iconography which appears conventional to an indie artist. This iconography in a dramatic location appears on tour posters as well which again is a key selling point as many people interested in indie artists are also interested in seeing the artist live therefore gig posters have to follow conventions in order to make them as an artist more successful.

My idea was to portray the artist in provocative and unique individual clothing and have her stand with her guitar next to a brick wall with the album name appearing as posters next to her. This fits in with Goodwin's theory as the image of a female artist helps sell the artist to the public. Upon reflection with my groups ideas the image Georgia drew of the artist actually went very well with my concept of a grimy brick wall which sells the concept of a more alternative and grunge influenced artist yet still keeps the artist appearing unique and fashionable. This was defiantly a contender for my final subsidiary design.

My paper designed helped with putting my design onto photoshop as I was then able to have a clear idea of the conventions of both adverts and tour posters look like when portraying an indie artist and making them more of a success. The first magazine advert I created came from our own idea to use images from our filming to build a relationship between our video and our subsidiary product, however upon reflection there was certain elements I think we could improve on for our final one.

Draft for our Final Advert.

The design encompasses the indie genre in a variety of ways. The graffiti on the brick wall portrays the artist as edgy and unique, the 3D writing gives the artists name a greater impact on the audience which overall makes the advert more of a success.

My problems with this advert is although I was able to bring my idea of the brick wall into my digital version from the paper magazine advert, I feel although the images fit in with Goodwin's theory of building a relationship between the image of the artist and the subsidiary product I don't think the images are dynamic nor look professional enough for the final advert.

The advert appeals to the indie and pop genre as the artist appears a fashion icon which again is a key feature of dyers star theory. The clothes she wears look cool and she appears both rebellious yet enjoying being young which will appeal to our target audience.

I think the typography looks very dynamic and will also be a key feature for my final advert, although somewhat happy with my design I think we can include more ideas from our original paper designs and use the ideas of poster and add more aspects of grime and alternative music, such as displaying more text in the form of pasted posters which will play a bigger role in our final subsidiary, as well as featuring our artist in a larger yet just as iconic and dynamic light which will further appeal to the audience and will be conventional to both the pop and indie music genre.

JENNA'S ADVERT

 Jenna's advert shows a proficient use of adobe photoshop cs6 skills that have been used in order to create a advert conventional to the indie music genre. The layering tool has been used alongside the selection tool to place Georgia in front of a graffiti brick wall. This makes the advert appeal to the indie music genre as its purpose is to inspire, therefore by placing Georgia in this setting she is being advertised as a rebellious and iconic young artist making her appeal to our target audience.

The typography is used at the top of the bottom of the advert. This is effective as it gives the audience vital information about our artists album therefore making our artist more successful. The typography could be improved by using a more dynamic font which is more conventional to the indie style. The fact Jenna has decided to use the same font of similar size to advertise both the artist and information takes away the impact of the artist's name. This is not ideal as the purpose of the advert is to catch the readers attention whereas by using this font the name of our artist doesn't stand out enough.  The use of image showcases Georgia's unique style which is successful as the denim and tartan clothing is typical of the indie style and gives her star quality as a raw talent and an iconic artist.

Overall Jenna's advert was successful as it included key conventions of the indie music genre, however the editing style of the image of Georgia needs to be improved and shot in a higher definition camera to make it appear more professional. The typography is also a problem as it looses the advertising element needed to make our advert a successful as Georgians name appears lost in the mix of the other information included. More indie conventions could have also been including such as showcasing Georgia with a guitar which would portray her as a raw talent and appeal to the audience by following the conventions of indie.

GEORGIA'S ADVERT

Georgia's advert in itself was conventional to the indie genre. Key codes and conventions had been followed as the use of brick wall in a naturalistic setting makes the image more dynamic. This was used with the layering tool, and just makes the image look more convention and allows the graffiti style typography stand out more.

The image used was of a much higher quality, and by showcasing the artist with a guitar the conventions of live music that is popular within the indie music genre were followed. This also adds to the purpose of indie music which is to inspire, and display the artist as a young raw talent which will influence and appeal to our target audience.

The clothes within the advert are conventional to the indie genre, and also appeal to the audience as the artist looks iconic and interesting. This helps to package the artist as a style icon, and with the moody facial expresses, looks typical of the indie music genre.

The information on the advert appeals to the audience and follows all the necessary elements needed within a magazine advert. However I believe some constructive criticism of this advert is that the font of the artist appears to similar to the information and review of the artist. Although the font has been designed to be contrasting with the background, it appears lost therefore isn't advertising the artist and impacted the audience effectively enough.

RHIANNA'S ADVERT

The advert created by Rhianna follows minimal conventions of the indie music genre. The skills used to create this advert appear messy and unprofessional with next to no information adversing the artist. The dynamic clothing used portays the artist as a style icon and also following conventions of the indie music genre. This appeals to a wide audience, and also matches with the colour used for the typography in order to appeal to the audience.

The typography needs some kind of border in order to make the font stand out more. The background is conventional to the grime and edgy element seen within many music videos.

However the advert needs a lot of changes before it could be made into the final piece.

As a group we all designed a magazine advert on paper, this came before any work was done on Photoshop. For the final magazine advert we decided to go with a combination of my work and Georgia. We felt these would include the most amount of elements from the indie genre which was needed in order to achieve the most marks. the positioning of Georgia's piece was more uniformed then mine, yet my idea of the brick wall was seen to be interesting and typical of the indie genre. The paper designs allowed us to look in depth at the image of our artist being created, and we chose myself and Georgia's images as they included the use of the guitar as iconography which is a strong convention of an indie artist and would make her more of a success if the article was seen in a magazine by our target audience. We took elements from all Ideas and I was given the task to design our final advert in order to appeal to the maximum amount of conventions. I was chosen as i had a higher level of skill on photoshop and had a wide range of of ideas that appealed to the indie music genre.

Combination of myself and Georgia's ideas.

FINAL MAGAZINE ADVERT  


I took my design and decided that I wanted to completely change the images yet still keep some basic concepts taken from the first draft. Conventions of the brick wall and the industrial location worked well and contrasted with our image of an attractive young female, therefore I wanted to show this even more so in the final magazine advert which my group decided to go with.

 

The advert I am extremely happy with, after investing a great amount of time editing and collecting various images I managed to put together something which I feel looks pretty professional and authentic of any small time indie artist. I also was happy with the chosen typography which appears big and bold, bright and also mysterious which is a typical convention of the indie genre. Adding in Georgia guitar also makes the image more of a success as the advert is able to appeal to the indie genre and the target audiences love for live music. Music reviews i feel also adds to the feel of the indie genre, which chosen indie magazines used to say positive comments about our artist which again will gain interest from our audience and also  make the artist more successful.

My previous experience with Photoshop meant I knew a substantial amount of techniques regarding layers and professional looking blending. I wanted to convey further to the indie music genre by making a piece that looks artistic, I achieved this by making the advert look bright and artistic which will give the piece more of an impact if it was displayed in a magazine or on a wall of the London Underground. I think the colours of the advert further appeal to the conventions of the indie music genre, dark colours appear in the corners, which makes the advert mysterious yet the pops of bright colours in the background also give the advert a fun feel and make the artist appeal to a more mainstream audience. I used images of newspaper and logos of indie vintage bands to also give the audience something more visually pleasing, and they may take from these images certain ideas about how Georgia may sound and become even more interested in her record and wish to check our other songs on her album 'Gypsy Nights'.

The large typography of Georgia Ray also makes the advert stand out more, with the ombre colours being very in fashion at the minute the writing appeals to a mainstream audience and is on first glance not necessarily typical of the indie genre. This will draw in other audiences and make her more of a success, as this typography becomes a signature piece that appears on her Digi pak. This was done because it allows the audience to build a better relationship between both artist and ancillary products.

Overall I am extremely pleased with everyone's efforts for our magazine advert, the final one was chosen as it conveyed most to the genre of indie and would give the maximum impact on our target audience. I think the fact we chose to link in signature fonts will also make our digi pak and Magazine advert relate more, and the indie conventions we followed will also get us more attention from a wide spectrum of the public.