Magazine Advert Analysis

 Below are some annotated magazine adverts, I found the images of the adverts from google images and annotated them myself.
While annotating I was looking for the use of house styles, connotations, fonts, colour and common features of magazine adverts such as logos, social media/record label information and the structure and layout of the overall advert.

 I have taken most inspiration for my magazine advert from this Lana Del Rey advert, the focal image is the artist and her position to the camera gives her 'authority' which remains with the strong, independent female image I am trying to achieve with the images for my auxiliary products. 

First Proof - Magazine Advert

This is the first proof of my magazine advert, I like the style and think it is nearly completed. However I have not had any audience feedback for other peoples opinions and constructive criticism, which is something I plan to hold soon so I can make final adjustments. 

Magazine research

I did a search on Google looking for inspiration and ideas for my magazine advert.

The following are what I found which inspired me - some images are scans but others do not belong to me.

This advert from the band The View caught my eye by the contrasting colours. The background is pure white and with the bright pink,green and black text and images, the information they are trying to portray really stands out. 

Having a white background creates a sense of space and the advert is very clear which is a key feature to have in an advert -  this is something I will take and use in my advert because the majority of my images have been taking in a studio with a clear white background and so this is something I could use. However, the only images included in this advert are doodles and drawings and no real life images of a model or of the artist. This is an unusual take on an advert as most of the time you would want to promote the artist and their look but this is common with rock bands or acoustic music where it is more the music which they want to make an impact rather than what they are wearing or their style and this could've been why The View have chosen to do this.

My genre being electro pop, I think it would be appropriate to include images of the actual singer(my model in this case) as her style and make up is an important part of her image, especially because she is a solo artist. 

Another aspect I like about this advert is the font, they haven't chosen anything too fancy or aesthetic. They stuck to a simple font - very similar to my house font of Century Gothic. It keeps with the minimalistic theme and works well against the plain background, but in places where it is overlaps onto the image it works too. 

This is what I aimed to do with the font I am using throughout my video,advert and digi pak. I wanted to create a very minimalistic and modern feel to my house style and chose to use a default font instead of creating my own unique font. 

A lot of information is presented in the advert and the position is key to make sure it doesnt look over crowded and messy. The position of the band name and album title are right at the top and are larger than the other text. This is a simple way of getting the readers attention and informing them of the basic album information.  The rest of the information is centred at the bottom and is slightly smaller, this keeps it looking important but our attention is drawn to the title and key band information

Magazine adverts need to be simple, they include key information but can't be overcrowded or the message wont be conveyed to the reader. 

This is one of my favourite magazine adverts, the image matches the actual album cover, and the house style is consistent.

The image has a vintage style, especially by the font and slight marks on the background, There is little information on the advert and is similar style to my plan for my advert, especially with font size-as LUNGS is the largest piece of text - which is an aspect I will use on my advert.

The image blends in well with the background and the font and also although it contains some colour, there is nothing overly complicated and the style is very simplistic and vintage style.

There is only one image on the advert, and this is something that I will be using too, especially because the image is of the artist.

The advert also contains the date the album will be released, in my case this will be a single, what type of format you can access the album on (vinyl or digital)

The advert also contains contact information for the artist such as their website - this may be a useful idea for my own advert as I wouldn't need to include the logos of certain social networking sites, however most people keep in contact with artists by twitter and facebook and less commonly by their website - this is something I will need to decide on and address. 

Magazine Advert Planning

It is common to only use one image in an advert and this is what I will be doing for mine.
This is the image I will be using.

In the original advert I have positioned it more to the right and so you can only see half of her features, I will be using the remaining space of the white wall as the background for my text. My aim is to keep to a minimal and simplistic theme with only the natural colours in the image and of my house style of pink and white.

This is the sketch plan of my advert. 
None of the things which have been outlined or put in a box will have lines around them on the real copy, this is just to highlight what I am talking about.

1) The song name 

I made the song name (Pop Up) the central feature of my advert. Here you can see I wrote it in a large serif font and would be a basic colour such as white to fit with my house style of pink and white. My background is an off grey and so the white colour would show up. I want it to be the largest thing on the page - other than the image -  to catch the readers eye and draw attention to the song.

2) 'A Debut Single From...'

I wanted to make this sentence  lot smaller than the song name as it is not as important. It will be in the same font and colour but not in capital letters and may be in italics. 

3) Artists Name

Again this is a key piece of information to the advert, we need to know who wrote the song so we can find it in shops or online to buy it. I chose to design it slightly smaller than 'Pop Up' because I want the song title to be the most important thing on the advert, and if this were to be used in a real magazine, I presume some of the readers would already know who the artist is by the image. 
The font and colour will be exactly the same but the artists name just wont be as bold as 'Pop Up'

4) The image of the artist

The image I will be using is shown above, and will be positioned to the right. I have done this to only show one side of her face and her features. I think this creates a very interesting yet contemporary theme to the advert and more space for the content. 
I want an emphasis on the make up/ hair style of the artist - she will be wearing simple eye makeup and her dark hair will contrast with the white background, creating a eye catching and very strong image.

5) Social Media

To keep with the contemporary theme, I chose to designate a section to social media. With the increase in new media and access to the internet, it is the best way to contact an artist.
I will include a twitter account,facebook and tumblr account, which personally I find, are the most used social networking sites. They are not the real account of the artist - as I do not know what these are. 
I will include the actual logo, however this may ruin the house style as the colours will not match. This is something I will need to experiment with. 

6) Release Date

I have chosen to put the date at the bottom of the page as it will be on top of a black item of clothing and with a white font, will stand out. It should also be where the reader turns the page and can catch attention.
The problem with having the release date so small is that some people may miss it, which would cause a problem. The alternative would be to put it higher on the page.