Magazine Advert - Miss Miller

The purpose of a magazine advert is a platform which can help promote the artist and their album. Audiences are able to see the artists more the more they are being advertised. They are being recognised more as they are being shown on different platforms such as magazines, rather than just video platforms such as Youtube. To complete my magazine advert, I used the software Photoshop CS6 as it is the most effective way to edit pictures. You are able to add text into the picture with a variety of different fonts, colours and sizes. You are also able to play around with the editing on the picture. It is more efficient than using an internet software as it is easier to save onto your computer as it is already downloaded onto your computer. I came up with my idea for my magazine advert from planning it out through drawing how I wanted it to visually look. Me and my group had already planned all of our scenes and started shooting for parts of our music video. I wanted to show her nicely dressed in things such as a dress and makeup done nicely. This criteria fit most with the performance scene, as that is when she is most attractive. I wanted to show her to have little expression on her face. I wanted her to look this way from inspiration from successful artists magazine adverts such as adele. 

I think the image used for this magazine advert is effective. The audience are immediately able to tell the artist is in a performance type setting, shown through use of props like microphone, stand and curtains behind the artist, showing she is on a stage. The artist is shown to have a very straight face whilst she performing, which can covey to the audience that the song she is singing is very serious to her. This can appeal to the target audience (15-25) as they can feel intruiged to know what kind of emotion the artist is going through. They then want to purchase the album to know more about her personal life or want to hear songs which can also be personally and relatable to them.  I only wanted to use an image with only the artist in, to represent her as a solo and independent artist, and also showing the importance of her towards the album. This image helps to promote the artist as she is shown as attractive and motivated, due to her performing on stage whilst also using makeup and clothing to make her look pretty. I like how the edit enphasises her face shape such as defined cheek bones, which is seen to be an atrractive. This helps to promote the artist as girl audiences are able to idolise her and aspire to be like her by copying clothing trends etc. Male audiences help to promote the album as they can look at the artist in a sexual manner, making them want to purchase the album. 

The layout and design is effective as it relates towards the genre of soul, due to the black and white colour. As you can see I used different fonts and sizes for the information. I intetentionally done this to make the audience firstly look at the artist name and album name first before then reading more information upon it. I wanted to include minimal information as possible to ensure the advert is not so overwhelming and taking away the intruigment the audience want due to curious item rather than already learning all there is to know about the album. I decided to position the photo more towards the right of the magazine advert to allow room for the text and so that the artist and information were not over lapping themselves over each other which would've made it look messy. The positioning was effective in my opinion as the artist looks as if she is looking at the album name 'Your Girl,' which then immediately interprets to the audience that she is performing to one of the album songs, which gives the audience a glimpse towards the mood the songs are going to present. The typography also differed as I wanted some to stand out more than others. The artists name I wanted to be more like block font with it also being bold to grab the audiences attention first, as that it the most important as it is their album. It then leads onto the album name 'Your Girl,' with a differed font style. This font is less blocked and more joint, which then led onto the same font for examples of popular songs but just a smaller size. I wanted to use this font as it came across more girly which can be a good way of representing the character, as it is another way of showing her girly side rather than just through use of clothing and makeup. The rest of the writing is small for audiences who want to know more but not so much that you are unable to read and is too much of a difference between the bigger fonts. The use of language help to promote the artist as it is giving information such as the their name, their albums name and the release date. The audience are then able to take this into consideration and can remember these facts when actually purchasing the album. The language can be appealing to the target audience of 15-25 year olds as their is limited information provided, where they do not have to read lots of information to get the message across, as teenagers are stereotypically known to not pay attention when things become too boring or complicated. 

The colours within this advert are conventional towards the genre to soul. I edited to a black and white tone. I wanted to do this as these two colours show a sense of mystery. This can then intrigue the audience into purchasing the album as they wish to see what the album involves. A lot of magazine adverts which range in the soul genre use a black and white tone to set a mood of the album. As these two colours and very dull and either very light or dark, then show the artists emotions in a physical portrayal such as sad and depressed. This was effective colours to use as opposed to using colours such as neon which convey fun and dance, which would relate more to the dance and pop genre. After I had added on this monochrome effect, I thought it would be effective to use the eraser tool over the artists lips. This tool then erased the black and white effect and left the normal colour from the original photo of red lipstick. I liked this addition as it showed a hint of danger towards the artist, as red is the colour which is usually referred to in death and blood. The fact that she is voluntarily wearing this as a makeup lip shade colour can also then reveal to the audience that she is aware of her reckless and rebellious behaviour, and almost wants people to instantly know this about her. This then shows her openly character, which is shown through subtle hints within the magazine advert and also shown throughout her album. I chose two use the colours of black, white and red as that is what I originally planned. The black and white helped to set a mood for the overall album and the red helped to show her rebellious character in a provactive manner.  I originally planned to use a red dress for this advert, but I thought black dress which was shown as more sofidticated for a jazz scene and was less subtle to use for the lips. This use of colour helped to appeal to my target audience of 15-25 year olds as it monochrome can be seen as a popular editing style for peoples pictures for their social media. This makes them feel like the artist is more like them and can then build an easier relationship and bond with each other. I decided to use white as the font colour for the writing as I felt it would stand out more to the audience. My choices were either black or white to fit with the monochrome effect and also not taking all the attention away from the representation of artist. If I was to use the black, it would have made ur hard to read as it would have blended in with the shadows of the curtains.

There are a range of connotations within this image. One in particular includes from her reckless behaviour, which is shown through her red lipstick. The main message which is put across is that she is living for herself. Although she dresses provactively and wears a lot of makeup, I think she is a good role model for young girls within the target audience. She teaches them to live for themselves and not for men. This is a juxtaposition from the typical female soul artist as they are shown to be head over heels over a man who only to get their heart broken, leaving them sad and devasted. This shows the artists to be extraordinary and different. This can interest audience into purchasing album as she is shown to have different motives and messages than other soul magazine adverts, which can be refreshing for audiences. My artist is healthy and refreshing as she is shown to be up to date with the equal roles within genders of men and women. Women are becoming more independant and now do not want a man to make them happy, they want an education and career etc. My artist teaches young girls to do whatever makes themselves happy, and her careless behaviour conveys that she does not care what others have to say about her, as long as she is happy. I think the colour involved has a lot of meaning and connotation. It sets a mood of blandness and dullness, which is also shown through her facial expressions, as she is not shown to be smiling of having a sad face. This can lead to a range of interpretations, such as she wants to come across as such a strong, independant woman so much that when she does feel emotional she feels she has to hold it all in. This can then lead to why she comes across as very careless, as she has so much inner feelings to cope with that she cannot possibly take on anyone else's as she would have too much stress and weight upon her shoulders.

When creating my magazine advert on photoshop, I came across a variety of strengths and limitations when trying to complete it. An example of a weakness was the fact that I am not use to using the software,I wasn't sure where tools were which make it difficult to edit the image. However, I quickly learnt and overcame this by playing around with different tools at the start to see what everything was and where everything was placed. Another example of a Photoshop tool was layouring the image. I kept forgetting that there were different layours within the image I was making, such as the editing colour, different texts etc. I overcame this by deleting unnecessary layours which I no longer needed which would have only made it more confusing and time consuming, i then got the hang of it. Another thing I had difficulty with was the eraser tool. It was tricky to erase the black and white effect from the curves of the lips and still make it look effective. This took time to over come but just needed time and patience in order to complete, but ended being an effective and meaningful magazine advert. A strength which I had when using photoshop was the editing tool, I enjoyed playing around with the different effects until I was happy with the outcome. I then also found easy using things such as saturation to make the photo seem more appealing and effective. This helped me to make a successful magazine advert as it helped set a mood for the overall product,as the colouring was one of the most important things as it is going to be the first thing the audiences first see. First impressions are extremely important because if the audience are not immediately interested, they will not bother reading the rest.

As you can see from my plan of my magazine advert, my ideas have altered and changed. However, I wanted to keep the meaning the same. Ideas such as keeping is black and white to set a mood so sadness for the advert but also including a touch if red to show her dangerous character. This allows the audience to learn more about the artist and who they are just by looking at a picture of her. As you can see, my final view was to include a touch of red just on the artists lips rather than as her costume. I thought this would be less overwhelming and keeping more of the advert in black and white would be more conventional towards my genre, which is soul. In my planning, I drew her lying down with her hair gracefully put around her, however; I ended using her in a performance scene as I wanted to show her in more of a sofisicated way rather than in some scenes where she is shown very sloppy such as the party scenes and walk of shame scenes. The more covered up she is, the more conventional it is towards the genre as successful artists are usually covered up in things such as coats to set a mood of how cold and depressing it is, through the use of natural elements of the weather. I wanted to show when she is performing in a sort of jazz club, she is using her talent to become successful not using sexual preferences, even though she enjoys acting this way in her free time. In my final product, you are also able to see that I have included less information and positioned it on the background of the image and not the artist herself. I thought this looked less messy and more professional. It doesn't look like it's trying too hard which can be off putting for many audiences. I also eliminated some text such as the production company, as I thought it was unnecessary and only made it look too cramped. As you can see, I made a few changes however tried to keep the same outcome and portrayal. 

I think my magazine advert conforms to my genre conventions as I used a range of micro elements which would help the audience to straight away realise the genre of it and are then aware without any confusion. I think this as the advert is shown to be quite depressing, which is effective for the soul genre. I think this because I did not use certain images or colours which would make the audience feel energised such as someone running or dancing with bright colours alongside it. I think it did appeal to the target audience as much as I possibly could, as I tried to make it subtle which can intruige teenagers towards wanting to read on more, resulting to them purchasing the album. I also used a photo where the artist is looking very attractive which can intruige audiences as girls will want to copy her styles which will benefit them in a more physical way, and boys as they want to see more of the atrractive artist. Creating a magazine advert will help to promote my artists album and music video as it is giving more advertisement towards it. More people are able to be aware of the upcoming events, if they haven't already heard. Also, the more people are hearing about it and seeing it, the more likely they are to remember key terms such as the artists name, the album and the release date; which can tempt them into listening to the album as they are curious why they have remembered it. It is also benefitical as it is showing a wide spread of audiences more about the artist just in one page, such as the genre of soul, what she looks like, her name, the album name and popular hits from the album.