Individual Magazine Advert - Miss Miller

Within our group each member created they're own magazine advert which would promote our chosen artist and their album which contains our chosen song. We decided to create our own individual magazine advert as this means that we would be able to combine all good elements from each individual advert to create our final group magazine advert, which would be the best possible from within our group as the strengths and weaknesses of each individual advert could compliment each other to create a advert that contains ideas from each individual. The purpose of creating a magazine advert is to promote our artist and a album which they have just released which contains our chosen song for our music video. Advertising our artist within our magazine advert will mean that we are successfully able to target this advert towards our specific target audience who are the most likely to be interested in the advert. A magazine advert also allowed us to include some conventional elements of our genre to allow the audience to recognise the genre as well as giving the audience a little more of an insight to what both the artist and album is like.

The background colour of my individual magazine advert is plain black, i chose this as the background colour because it allows for a sharp contrast between this very dark colour and the bright bold colours which are in the foreground of my advert. This means that the bold colours which we use have as much of a impact on the audience as possible and they are able to have the desired effect which i intended as the plain background makes them the most prominent element within our advert. To contrast this i placed a colourful image on this plain background image, this image starts off as a bright pink and the changes into a bright blue in the middle of the image. I have chosen to include these two very bright colours as bright colours is a convention of the dance genre which then allows the audience to recognise immediately that the advert belongs to the dance genre. The fact that half of it is blue and half of it is pink also suggest to the audience that the album is for both male and females as the blue is a masculine colour and the pink is a contrasting feminine colour and therefore appeals to both genders. These bright colours also are very eye catching to the audience as the bright colours will immediately grab their attention and prompt them to continue to look at it rather than change the page. Our artist name will be written in the same blue as the image, this again connotes masculinity to the audience which is a representation of the artist. It also links in to the rest of the advert which makes it more visually appealing. Again this colour contrasts the background which will make it stand out which will make it more memorable to the audience which means they are more likely to remember the artists name. For reasons similar to this we will write the album name in white, this again means it directly contrasts the background colour and is very prominent which makes it memorable to the audience. We chose to use white for the album name as it means that the blue doesn't overpower the advert and makes it slightly different to the rest of the advert making it more unforgettable. Over the top of the colourful pink and blue pattern is a picture of the artist which will be in black and white, i have chosen to present this image in black and white because it again means it contrast the image behind making it stand out more so the audience recognise the artist. Despite this the black and white colour is plain which suggests to the audience that the artists doesn't enjoy the limelight to much and instead would rather remain reserved, which is like most artists within the dance genre. The use of colours within our magazine advert is very conventional to the dance genre as one of the most recognised conventions of the dance genre is the bright colours, which are frequently seen within both the video and adverts, and because of this i chose to include as much bright colours as possible and use a black background to ensure that it stands out and conforms to the conventions of the genre.

The most notable image used within our magazine advert is a picture of just the artists head and shoulders who can be seen wearing a red baseball cap, black sunglasses and a plain black t-shirt. I have chosen to use this specific image because it is striking and bold as the artist isn't pictured as small and in the background instead it is a large bold picture. This means that the audience will straight away be drawn towards this image of the artist and are therefore more likely to remember what he looks like. This image also successfully shows the conventional costume of the artist which demonstrates the genre as well as being a representation of the artist and suggesting to the audience that he is a young and cool character. This use of imagery is conventional to the dance genre as within magazine adverts for artists in the dance genre a image is used which frequently only shows the face of the artist who is looking directly at the camera to create a image which both shows the artist and allows for other elements within the advert to have more of a impact on the audience.

The layout of my magazine advert is very basic as it consists of the artists name in very large font at the top of the advert "DJ Sonic", then underneath this is then is the album name "Euphoria" which is followed by information on the album and then at the bottom of the page is the bright colouring and the image of the artist which are very large and domineering. I chose to use this specific layout because it is rather basic and plain, this means that the audience are able to take in each individual element as there is not to much going on to distract them. I chose to position the artists name at the top of the advert in very large font, i chose to position it here because this is where people start reading and therefore they will notice the artists name and acknowledge that it is his album. Positioning the album name directly underneath this again in large font has a similar effect and means that they notice that these are the two most important pieces of information and understand that this is what is being promoted. I then list information below this such as 'album out now' and 'includes the single Turn Back Time' this is used to entice the audience but as it is of less importance than the album and artist name i positioned it lower down the page and in a smaller font. The finally at the bottom of the page is the bright pink and blue pattern with the artists image on top, this section dominates the magazine advert as it very large and colourful. I decided to make this the most prominent element within my magazine advert as it includes the conventional appealing colouring as well as the image of the artist which means that the audience are immediately drawn to the advert, due to the bright colours, and then the audience will identify both the dance genre and the artist of the album. The majority of the layout of my magazine advert is unconventional to the dance genre because stereotypically within a magazine advert from the dance genre there would be a lot going on with loads of images and colours which would represent the chaos and excitement within the genre whereas the majority of my magazine advert is plain and basic apart from the contrasting bottom half of the advert which is conventional to the dance genre because of the layering of images and the variety of colours.

TYPOGRAPHY AND LANGUAGE

Within the process of creating my magazine advert on Photoshop i had to learn how to use many different tools in order to create exactly what i had planned. Because of this vast variety of tools i found myself struggling with some specific tools and had to research how to use these tools or find another way of creating the same affect. One of these tools in which i struggled to use was the black and white tool, because i wished to make my image black and white i had to find a specific way of making my image go from coloured to black and white and to discover how to do this i had to do some research on the internet to show me how to easily make the whole image black and white. On the other hand i believe i had numerous strengths when using the Photoshop software, one of the tools which i frequently used and believed was sufficient at was the layer effects, within this i was able to manipulate numerous elements such as outer glow. I believe this allowed me to create exactly what i planned to create and therefore enabled me to create a successful magazine advert as i was able to create what ever i wanted to a adequate standard. 

To conclude i believe that my individual magazine advert does conform to dance genre codes and conventions because, although the layout may be slightly unconventional, the majority of the other elements within the advert are conventional to the dance genre, in particular the colours used within my advert are extremely conventional to the dance genre as they are very bright and eye catching and make it evident to the audience that the genre is dance. I also believe that my magazine advert does appeal to our specific target audience as the fact that it conforms to the genres conventions means that the target audience will recognise the genre and therefore be interested in it. The fact that each member of our group created their own individual magazine advert will ensure that my group produces a successful final magazine advert because we will be able to take elements from each advert and combine them to make a final advert which will have the best ideas from each individual to create the best possible final advert. Creating a individual advert also allowed us to figure out how to create each element within the advert and therefore will give us the knowledge on how to create each specific element easily.