Friday, 4 March 2011

Magazine ad research.

Here are various magazine advertisements that I have found to look at towards the design of my own advertisement for my digipack/single, and what aspects I will be using in my own product.



The first magazine ad I will look at is for Gwen Stefani's album 'Love, Angel Music Baby'. This is a particularly good one to look at, as it takes direct references from the music video, firstly the large image that takes up the whole space of the page it is advertised on, giving instant attraction to the audience when viewing the page. It also uses this image on the actual CD cover itself, so is using the CD's album art to promote the magazine advert and the CD itself. Below the large artist's name in her iconic gold text is also the name of the album in the same font, followed below this with the various tracks found on the CD. To the bottom left is the production logo of the company that made the CD, and Gwen's website to look at, again using convergeance to promote the artist's music in all areas. I like the idea of promoting the artist's site on the advertisement, as by using this method of everything being up for grabs it is selling the artist as much as possible. I will also use the idea of the tracks in the album in the ad, as this will attract the audience to the product if they are aware of the song in the media, for example if they have seen the music video.

The next advertisement I am looking at is to promote Madonna's CD 'Celebration'. This is instantly eye-catching as a billboard design, as it contains a large picture covering its entireity with an image of her face in bright contrasting colours. This style refers to the Andy Warhol prints he created of Marilyn Monroe, creating a parody style creation of this work, showing she is comparing herself to the Hollywood star. The artist and album titles are in negative style print over the top of her head in the image, coloured in black and pink to represent a newspaper yet give a femenine feel to the design by using pink, again a big reference to Marilyn Monroe in the film 'Gentlemen prefer blondes'.

At the bottom of the design below her chin is the type of album being released ('The Ultimate Hits Collection'), followed underneath in matching colours as used in the image, by what is included in the package you will buy, including two CDs and two DVDs. Below this in simplistic black font are the titles of songs featured in the CD which the audience may recognise from other means of advertising such as television adverts. This attracts the audience as it has iconic value to them from this, meaning they are more likely to listen after recognising the advert or listening to one of the songs. At the very bottom right, like the Gwen Stefani poster, is Madonna's website, promoting the artist and the music ,again using convergence to grab the audience's attention in as many ways as possible. I like the idea of featuring the song titles in the advertisement, as it attracts the audience if they recognise it's iconic representation from other media. I also like the format that the title is structured in as in a newspaper,therefore I will experiment with this in my own designs.


The next design that I will look at is The Stone Roses 20th Anniversary CD. This is a unique advertisement for a band, as you would usually expect to see pictures of the band members themselves, or a reference or picture of the CD. However, this design contains prodominantly text, which is the main point of attraction. The text is mainly in red, white and blue, as a reference to the England flag, of which the members are from. This signifies that they support their country and are proud to be English. The central text is large and in a golden colour, with large bold and plain font stating their name, followed by the album title below, with a lemon replacing the zero, perhaps giving the impression that their music is 'sour', and not for the faint-hearted. Underneath the title is a brief summary of what the product is the audience are buying in plain white font. This gives the audience an honest overview to help them read the text better before they buy so they know exactly what they are getting. Surrounding the large central font is the red white and blue coloured quotes from other audiences and companies giving their opinion and star ratings of the album. This is a powerful selling technique, as good reviews tend to sway an audience to buy the CD in order to give the music a listen to see if their views are the same.

In the third quarter of the poster is a map of lots of towns and cities, perhaps showing where the band are from, although this is not made clear, followed by smaller white font below this stating the featured songs on the CD. Again this is for iconic recognition to the audience incase they know these songs, or have seen them previously advertised in another type of media. At the bottom left is the logo for the music store HMV, again using convergence to link the store with the CD so that more people will come to buy it from there. To the right is the music company's logo for more recognition to the audience, again using convergence, following what is included with the CD package in slightly larger gold font below. Overall, this way of advertising by using font only is successful as it is straight to the point and lets the audience know exactly what they are getting, however the use of atleast one image other than the street map may have been more useful as it could personalise the advertisement to the audience from the band by including pictures of them. However, I like the idea of having star ratings, as this tends to persuade the audience as a selling technique, therefore I will use it in my own design. I will also include a brand of a music store such as HMV as a way of using convergence to bring the audience in from the product.



This is an advertisement for Ellie Goulding to promote her as an artist. The advert includes a large image of her and her name as the artist, features awards she has won and her concerts and their success, aswell as her hit tracks.
This poster has a predominantly black background which has outdoor looking scenery placed infront of it to make it look like a spring day, shown by the healthy looking bright green grass and the light over her face in the large central image placed over this so that the audience know it is her the advertisement is promoting. Ellie is wearing a bright coloured blue top to blend with the bright colour scheme and is shown looking with her head facing upwards to the sky, her mouth pouting as though she is singing. This could be a potential clip of a video she is in, therefore linking the advertisment to her video in that aspect and drawing attention from the audience as soon as they see the image. At the very top of the page is her name in her iconic text which the audience will recognise on her albums and various other promotional advertisements. This is coloured white to contrast with the black background and to make it easier for the audience to understand. Below this in smaller white text in a softer looking format are references about her songs from other people. This is great promotion as the audience will read this as the first text after the title that they see, and will be persuaded by these good critics to listen to her music and buy her album, or even go to see her in concert. In the middle and lower third covering the bottom half of the medium close-up image of her are white text boxes containing features of things that she has won, such as a BBC Sound of 2010 award, and stating information about her sold-out shows. This is all great promotion again and draws the audience in even more, as awards represent professionalism and the creator was aware of this when designing this advertisment, as the audience begin to trust people that appear to be professional and experienced. Below these boxes in smaller text are more good critics about Ellie's music, before more promotion on her hit 'Lights' at the bottom of the page, followed by music trademarks and icons for recognition to the audience when buying her CD. Overall, I like the way that the advertisement makes you feel, as it is a positive contrast to the previous research I have studied, even with the use of the black background and white text, as there is more colour collaborated with this to give an exciting and fresh feeling, also represented by Ellie's posture in the ad. I like the idea of the critic quotes about her album, and will include this in my own design. I also like the posture that she is doing, so will try to have photographs using this or a similar stance to reference this in my own advertisement.



Here is an advertisement on the front cover of the magazine 'Billboard', promoting Lady Gaga and her new hit 'Born this way'. The background and image are the first things noticed when looking at the design as they are both in greyscale, however a very light shade to represent a star of the silverscreen such as Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, giving the idea this is how Lady Gaga compares herself. This light also gives off a very feminine approach, and shadows the right part of the face and cheekbones to give a very delicate and defined effect. The next thing we see is the large title of the magazine in bold white font with bright colours on the inside of the 'O' shaped letters to attract the audience to the cover and give the title of the magazine iconic representation to an audience when on a shelf. Above this in smaller yet longer white lettering, representing a film title from the early 19th century, which states that Lady Gaga's hit new track 'Born this way' is their 1000th No.1, perhaps suggesting she is the 1000th number 1 artist to be on the cover. This then ties the magazine company in with the artist, giving them more publicity to a likely attracted audience. The central image shows Lady Gaga in a tilted position, instantly warping our perception from the usual conventional pose celebrities use, showing that she is different to anyone else. She is also shown to have four legs, representing an insect, again giving her a unique status and showing she is not the same as other celebrities, or even humans on the earth. Her feather coming from her hat is placed over the magazine text, suggesting that the image of her is more important, and her clothes are black to emphasise the black and white convention of the design.
The next thing that we see is the large artist name, spelling out 'GAGA' in capital letters and a bold style yet curvy and fashionable font. This text looks classy in white, as the shape again represents a delicate female, yet this is contrasted by her actually grabbing onto the font as she stands. This almost breaks the fourth wall to the audience, as they are used to the standard editing in a magazine with the image untouched in the centre and the text also alone beside it. This use of combining text and imagery together in a visual way shows a postmodern feature that attracts an audience from this technique, as it is unusual to the conventional media we are used to reading. The word 'Lady' is also included in a smaller white font inside the 'G' of the word 'Gaga', again referencing a title sequence from the 19th century, with smaller text placed inside or besides larger more important fonts. Overall, I think that this use of postmodern collaboration visually of text and image is very eyecatching as it is so unsual to an audience, so I will try to experiment if possible with that in my own design. I also like the way that the grey and white colours are delicate and light, representing the silver screen era and giving class to the advertisement and therefore the artist. Finally, I like the combination of colour and black and white, as this helps the magazine to stand out when it is on the shelf, something else I will bear in mind when designing my magazine advertisement.

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