Magazine Advert Reflection

I had to design a magazine advert promoting our artist Mike Smith using some typical conventions of the dance genre. Adverts promoting artists of the dance genre usually include bright colours, the artists image and their name printed in a larger font than the rest of the text. Also, some dance genre adverts can have pictures of girls or a close up of a girls face on it instead of the artists face, as the dance genre can sometimes focus on girls and revealing clothing whilst they are dancing to the music.
I made the text of Mike Smiths name larger than the rest of the text on the advert in order for it to stand out more than the other text on the dark background and also to catch the readers attention whilst they are flicking through the magazine. I also put the writing in a light font in order for it to contrast with the dark background and stand out on the page, this would also help draw the readers attention to his name and persuade them to continue reading the advertisement.

The advert above was my first attempt at a magazine advert, I chose to use the dark blue background as it is the same colour I used on my albums digipak, so I wanted my digipak and advert to be similar in order for people to recognise instantly that it is a magazine advert advertising Mike Smith. Most artists do this in order for their promotional adverts and album covers to look similar and match each other.
I made sure I included the Data Records logo in my poster in order to allow people to know who the artist is signed to, and this is a typical convention of any artists advertisement.
In a slightly darker and smaller font than the artists name I wrote the albums name 'Stay Awake', I made it darker and smaller as it is the second most important piece of information that the reader will want to know. I placed the album name directly under the artists name in order for the reader to be able to clearly see what the advert is advertising and to make it easier and quicker to read.
I then gave the reader some extra information in a smaller font in order to try and persuade them to buy Mike Smiths new album, Stay Awake. This extra piece of information included some of my artists hit singles which the reader is likely to have heard on the radio, so this will allow them to know who the artist is if they didn't already know.

This was my second attempt at a magazine advert for my artist, I feel that this advert is much more conventional and professional looking than my previous attempt. I kept the same dark blue background in order for it to correspond with the colour scheme on my didgipak, but I changed the colour and sizing of the text and chose a different image of our artist. I decided to make the colour of the main text, 'MIKE SMITH' and 'STAY AWAKE' white as it contrast even more with the edark background than the light blue colour did in my first advert attempt. I also put these two pieces of text in capital letters as they are the most important piece of information that we want the magazine reader to see, and the capital letters make the text stand out further on the advert. I then made the gradient of the text get darker, as the writing at the top of the page is bright white whilst the witing at the bottom of the page is a darker shade of white and blue.  

As well as changing the way the text looks, I also added some more information to the advert, whilst still making sure it was only a small piece of information that the reader would be able to quickly read whilst flicking through the magazine. The information I added was 'OUT NOW', 'Including No1 Single', and the website. By adding the 'OUT NOW' i hoped that it would make the reader see the urgency of the advert and force them to understand what the advert is advertising and possibly persuade them to buy teh album. By writing 'Including No 1 Single' I hoped that this would excite some of the readers and possibly make them realise who the artist is if they haven't already as they may have heard the songs name before and by knowing the artist has had a number 1 single they will know the artist is good and popular.

I would expect that only the readers that are truly interested in our artist, Mike Smiths, music would read to the very bottom of the advert, and this is why I put the most important information in a large font at the top of the advert and then put the less important information at the bottom. This is why I moved Data Records logo to the bottom of the advert and also why I put our artists 'web page' www.mikesmith.com at the bottom of the page as only the readers that want to find out more information about our artist will want to know this information.

I chose this particular image of our artist as it is a mid shot which allows the audience to see what Mike Smiths image is and what he looks like. I also decided the artists pose would be good for my magazine advert, because the angle of his head makes it appear as though he is looking straight at the text.

 

I would expect to see my magazine advert in magazines that focuses on the dance genre, such as Big Shot magazine and Billboard magazine, this is because it is likely that the readers of these magazines will enjoy our artists music and therefore be more willing to listen to his music and buy his album. So by putting this magazien advert in a magazine that orientates to the music genre will mean that my advert is targeted at the corect target audience which will help get Mike Smith known as an established artist faster as the majority of people that see the advert will already like the dance music genre.

 

Whilst creating these magazine adverts I learnt some new skills by using the software Photoshop. I had never used Photoshop before so I had to learn how to use the programme quickly. It was very useful in helping to create some effects on the artists image in order to make it look more proffesional and blend in to the background more. I managed to make the iamge belnd into the background more by using the brush tool, I then discovered how to make the text stand out more by using the inner glow and shadow tool, this was very useful as it made my large font stand out even more on the page.