First Draft Magazine Advert

The use of image on this first draft of the magazine advert is important as it gives direct links to what it is trying to advertise. The picture used is that of the album cover and therefore gives strong ties to it. This is important in advertisement as the target audience can relate between the two. 

I tried using just the man sitting down but I discovered that this didn't work as well as I'd have liked. The image could not be manipulated in the correct way, in a way that I feel looks professional. I also felt that the full image, such as the one used here, gave a better impression of the band, their genre and at the same time their creativity. In advertisement this is vital as it directly targets the bands target audience as it advertises via the genre of the music. I feel the full image also aids the layout of the whole advert. It has an effective parallel which I feel I have captured and this aided me in the positioning of the band's name and the album's name. These are two things which I feel work particularly well.

In terms of layout I felt that trying to keep the design simply would be the easiest and most effective. The effect I feel the band name, album name, the new album and out now pieces of information give is one of a mirror. Through the use of colour I feel there is a feeling of reflection between these and that this helps give the advert a feel of professionalism. 

The two websites given, one for the band and the second for the recording studio help layer the advert split the writing in two. These effectively give an axis for the pieces of information to be mirrored over. 

As well as how they seem to mirror each other, I also spent time on trying to make them fit perfectly in the centre of the screen by using the ruler guides on Photoshop. Having achieved this, space was left for the NME and Q reviews which fitted well and looked professional.

For the present, considering it is a first draft, I feel I achieved my desired layout and I happy with how it has worked.

Colour was something that was deliberated over. In the beginning the general pieces of information, such as Q or NME were green which suited the black background well but created a feel of there being to many colours. Also, there is no green present on there album and I felt there should be a consistency that run through both the products. Having consulted the mock ups, this was duly changed and I decided upon colours that are present on the digipack and also work well. Again, there is an ambience of simplicity, this was my desired effect and I feel it has been achieved.

Although strictly not falling under the heading of 'colour' I would say that creating an inner shadow on the band's name and the album's name has helped bring out these two pieces of information in a way that was not present on my mock ups. The names now seem obvious and are given clarity and definition by this effect and the colour used. 

The use of fonts was although something I was keen to take my time over creating. The bands name and albums name both needed to stand out and thus I used a downloaded font to help these sat and out. To help create consistency between the products I ensured it was the same font that was employed on my digipack.

The second font used for general information was the standard font given on Photoshop text tool. I chose this because I had noticed from my magazine analysis how many adverts seemed to have a standard font for general information. Seeing as this is the norm and I have copied this technique, I hope it has gone some distance to develop professionalism within my work.

Overall I am pleased with this product. It was a combination of all my mock ups mixed in to one. The album name from one and the image and layout from the other and from both I took simplicity which I hope is obvious and  helps create a professional piece of work.