Individual magazine advert - Miss Miller

We was given the task to create an individual magazine advert for our album. This task was so that we could effectively promote our album and ensure that it was appealing to our target audience. This task also enabled us to use the conventions of our genre to specifically target our audience. The individual magazine advert each member of our group has created will be combined into one overall magazine advert.

Colours:
I have chosen to use a black background in my magazine advert. I chose the colour black for my background as it keeps it plain and simple and also allows the other things in the foreground of my advert to stand out even more. I have also used the colour red in my magazine advert, this colour is most prominent surrounding my artist, for example his red baseball cap. I chose the colour red as I believe it is very eyecatching against the black background and it also connotes passion very well, which is something that may appeal to the target audience. Another colour that I have used in my magazine advert is blue. I used this colour for the volt of electricity that flows through the magazine advert. I feel this was a good colour to use as it is a primary colour and the illuminous blur surrounding the colour makes it very conventional to the genre as it looks similar to a strobe light.

Conventions of the genre:
I feel that my magazine advert is very conventional to the dance genre. I feel it is conventional to the genre in a variety of ways, one of these is the use of bright colours. The use of bright colours replicate the strobe lights that you would expect to see in a club environment. Through using these strobe light type colours the audience will be able to see that the album is from the dance genre, meaning it is more likely to attract its target audience. Furthermore I believe that the images included in my magazine advert make it conventional to the genre; the image I have used is of our artist looking directly down the camera wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. Both of these pieces of iconography are conventional to the dance genre as you often see DJ's wearing them whilst performing.

Images used:
I only used one image in my magazine advert and that was of our artist. I feel that using one image of our artist will mean that all the attention is focused on him, this is therefore more likely to attract the eye of the target audience. I feel that the image that I used is very effective as it is powerful. The artist is looking directly towards the camera, this means that the audience will feel some sort of relationship. Furthermore I believe that the edit I have used on the image makes it more effective. I used a cartoon type edit, making the artist seem surreal and diverse. The use of this edit also makes it fit into the dance genre. Finally the image I used showed the artist wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, this portrays him as being mysterious as his identity is hidden urging the target audience to find out more about who he is. Also the use of these pieces of iconography in this image makes it more conventional to the dance genre as DJ's are often seen wearing glasses and baseball caps as they are seen as 'cool'.

Layout and design:
The layout of my magazine advert was important as I didn't want to clutter it as I felt that could deter the target audience, so I decided to try to make it as bare as possible. I decided to therefore only include information about the name of the album, the release date and what songs will feature. I placed the information about the album in the centre of the magazine advert as I felt it would stand out most here and attract the target audience. Either side of the text was identical images of my artist. I placed two identical images either side as I wanted to keep the magazine advert symmetrical.

Typography:
I used two different fonts in my magazine advert. The first I used was for the name of the album. As you can see it is much larger than the other font as I wanted to make the name of the album stand out the most as the whole idea of the advert is to promote the album. I feel that the font used for the album name is appropriate as it is conventional to the dance genre as it looks edgy and stands out. The other font that I used was for the additional information about the album and as you can see it is very original and bold. I feel that this contrasts well with the diverse font used for the album name. Furthermore the bold font used for the additional information means that it will also stand out although it is in a smaller font.

Language:
The language used in a magazine advert is very important as it is one of the main devices in order to persuade the audience to purchase the product. It was even more important for me as I wanted to keep the amount of words on the advert as low as possible. Firstly I believe that the album name "Euphoria" is very effective and conventional as it connotes happiness and energy, which are both heavily related to the dance genre. I also used the term "number 1 album", this promotes the album well as it informs the audience how well the album did in the charts and is therefore more likely to persuade them to purchase the album.

Using photoshop:
I found using photoshop quite difficult at first especially cutting out the images to use in the magazine advert. I found this hard as the images I first planned on using were against a multi-coloured background, meaning it was harder to cut out. To overcome this I re-took the photos of my artist against a plain background, this made it much easier to cut out and made the image look more professional on the magazine advert. I also found it quite difficult to organise all of the layers in photoshop. I was unsure what layer was what and therefore could not move them round as easily. To overcome this I named all of the layers so I knew which one was which. I feel that the strength I had in photoshop was editing the images that I had taken. I found it easy as I just altered the brightness and other aspects of the image. This allowed me to create an image that was conventional to the genre and one that also stood out on the magazine advert. This strength helped me create a successful magazine advert as the image is the focal point of any advertisement as it is what catches the eye of the target audience. Also this allowed me to portray my artist effectively as diverse and surreal.

Conclusion:
Overall I feel that the magazine advert that I have created conforms very well to the conventions of the dance genre. The magazine advert achieves this through the bright and strobe light type colours that I have used. I also feel that the image I used makes my artist as well as the magazine advert appear to be related to the dance genre. This allows me to effectively target my target audience as they are aware that it is from the dance genre. I feel that this therefore means that it is very appealing to my target audience.
Creating individual magazine adverts will allow our group to collect all of our ideas together and we can then create a magazine advert that effectively achieves all of its goals in appealing to the target audience.