Group Magazine Advert

Some: will be able to comment on choices and decisions made by relating to the codes and conventions throughout and by reflecting on group decisions (Grade A)

When creating a group magazine advert, we followed the same process when creating our group digipak, in that each of us analysed each others work by noting the good and bad aspects of their design in order to efficiently create an overall design that we were all happy with. Below are each of our individual designs and the feedback that we each gave in regards to its impact on the final group design.

Daisy's design

What do you like about the magazine and  how is the magazine conventional to your music genre?

The image is effective as it shows the artist playing the guitar which is conventional to the genre and therefore will appeal to the target audience. They will be able to recognise that the artist is truly talented rather than constructed for consumption; a quality most favourable amongst such target audience. It also allows them to relate to the artist as they may share a similar interest/talent of instrument playing and therefore encourages them to relate to the artist thus building a relationship. Furthermore the artist's name is clearly visible for the target audience to recognise who she is and therefore be encouraged to remember her name, creating awareness of the artist. Such effect is important as the potential audience may read the advert, however not remember it through lack of interest and therefore the clear text of the artist's name encourages the audience to remember her and therefore listen to her music. Therefore when creating our final magazine advert, we shall ensure that the artist's name is clearly visible and appealing so that the audience are more likely to pay attention when coming across the advert.

How can the magazine be improved?

There is a lack of colour in regards to the design and therefore runs the risk of appearing boring to the target audience in which case they will not notice the advert, thus limiting awareness of the artist. Therefore colour will be included in the final design however, such input must not connote other genres such as Pop as bright colours are often associated with this genre. Therefore subtle colours such as browns and greens etc will be used as these colours connote nature; a convention often found in the representation of an indie artist. The variety of fonts creates an effect of incoherence; that the artist is not sure on which most effectively represents her and therefore, all of them have been included. The font of a text can be an effective method of representing an artist and genre and therefore the extensive variety of fonts means that the audience is unable to recognise the artist's image. Therefore when creating our group magazine advert, the fonts shall remain in coherence with each other on all of our ancillary products to create a complete artist image that the audience can recognise.

What do you like about the magazine and  how is the magazine conventional to your music genre?

Emma's design in conventional to the genre. The use of a brick wall as the background is commonly used within the indie genre as it portrays their simplistic and relatable qualities; attributes that the target audience look for in order to connect with the artist to further their relationship. By including a generic convention, the target audience will be able to recognise the artist as indie and therefore are more likely to read the advert, thus creating awareness of the artist to encourage the audience to listen to her. Furthermore, the image Emma has chosen is suitable to the genre as it shows the artist playing the guitar which is conventional therefore will appeal to the target audience. They will be able to recognise that the artist is truly talented rather than constructed for consumption; a quality most favourable amongst such target audience. It also allows them to relate to the artist as they may share a similar interest/talent of instrument playing and therefore encourages them to relate to the artist thus building a relationship. Therefore, when creating out final magazine advert, we will also include an image of the artist playing guitar for the reasons explained above.

How can the magazine be improved?

Emma's magazine design consists of a lot of text and therefore runs the risk of becoming too cluttered. This could led to the target audience becoming overwhelmed by too much information, rather than simply informed. Also, Indie conventions favour a simplistic style rather than a complex layout and therefore when creating our final group advert, we have decided to keep the layout minimalistic so that our target audience can both recognise and appreciate the advert as being Indie.

What do you like about the magazine and  how is the magazine conventional to your music genre?

MIllie's design is conventional to the indie genre in many different ways. She has included flowers in her design and therefore this creates a nature motif which is conventional to the indie genre as it represents the artist as down to earth. These qualities are favoured amongst the target audience as they find it easier to relate to the artist. This is because the audience feel more similar to the artist, rather than dissimilar and creates escapism much like Pop artists do. Furthermore, the advert is again conventional in the artist image that is represented. The artist is playing a guitar which is conventional of the genre to promote as this tells the audience that the artist is genuine in her talent rather than falsely constructed for consumption; a quality again favourable amongst the target audience, as they feel she is deserving in her fame due to her talent and uniqueness. Therefore when creating our own magazine advert, we shall include such representation as the audience will be able to relate to the artist thus sparking an interest in the artist for them to build a relationship upon. Once again, the artist representation is conventional of the genre, however this is due to the artist's style. She is wearing simple clothing that the audience could wear themselves. Indie artists often wear clothing that is considered unique or vintage rather than follow the mainstream style. Therefore the audience can relate to this as they can purchase similar clothing to the artist which makes them feel similar to them, thus building a relationship upon common interest/style. In consideration of this point, it is important that the audience can relate to the artist because this encourages them to listen to other songs of theirs. Therefore when creating our magazine advert we will include an image of the artist that shows her wearing simple clothing that the audience could possibly purchase themselves to build the relationship required to build a fan base.

How can the magazine be improved?

Similarly to Daisy's, there is a lack of colour in regards to the background and therefore runs the risk of appearing boring to the target audience in which case they will not notice the advert, thus limiting awareness of the artist. Therefore colour will be included in the final design. However as stated before, such input must not connote other genres such as Pop as bright colours are often associated with this genre. Therefore subtle colours such as browns and greens etc will be used as these colours connote nature; a convention often found in the representation of an indie artist. Also, the title of the song is not clear for the audience to recognise, nor does the advert address that this is a title of a song by the artist and therefore this may confuse the audience. When creating our final magazine advert, we shall include the track title, however make it more clear and state it is a song title so that the audience have an extension on the artist to build upon because by encouraging them to listen to one song, they may then listen to others.

REFLECTION

 Which magazine will you submit and why?

Considering the success of each magazine design in terms of its appeal, we chose as a group to use Emma's design for our final magazine advert. We chose this design because we thought it was the most visually appealing and complex in terms of skill used on photoshop. Th other designs lacked professionalism due to the minimal knowledge on photoshop which in turn effected the quality of the final outcome. Emma's was the most realistic in terms of the capability of using it; however we chose to develop the design so that we could improve it further. For example, on Emma's original design we felt that there was too much text which was risky in confusing the audience. This layout could be deemed unappealing for this reason and therefore the audience may not read to advert at all, leading to lack of awareness for the artist. Therefore we chose to remove the 'OUT NOW' as we felt this was unnecessary as it made the advert look too cluttered.  We also adjusted the contrast of the magazine so that it was coherent with the digipak. The original colours were slightly too bright and therefore could be conventional to the Pop genre and therefore the audience could become confused, unable to identify the artist's genre and therefore disengaged.