Magazine advert reflection

Before creating my own magazine advert I decided two research two existing magazine advert for artists who also produced music for the dance genre. The first advert I analysed was Avicii’s which was promoting an upcoming concert and the second was Calvin Harris’s which was also promoting a concert. Both magazine developed conventions of dance, however they both took two different approaches. From analysing these 2 magazines I was able to gain ideas and inspirations from my own and transform them into a paper design.

Avicii’s magazine advert showed an image of him entertaining the crowd which is conventional as dance music is often played to large crowds for example at festivals in the summer. This idea inspired me to use an image of the crowd at the party I had shown in my music video as I felt that like Avicii’s, it would work well in following the conventions and portray to the audience viewing the magazine that Jake and George are able to entertain a crowd, hopefully leading to them anticipate their album release and what to listen to their music. Although I gained inspiration from this advert, there were some things I did not like. In Avicii’s magazine advert his back is facing the crowd which means the audience viewing the magazine advert cannot see his face. I feel it is important for the audience to see the artists face in order for them to recognise the artist and want to build up a relationship with them through listening to their music. Therefor I decided to show Jake and George facing the audience who would be viewing the magazine advert in order for them to do this like Calvin Harris does in his magazine advert. I also did not like the natural lighting of Avicii’s magazine advert as I feel it took away the vibe which is created in a club or party where dance music is played. This is where I favoured and took inspiration from Calvin Harris’ advert as he used low key lighting and contrasted this with laser effect bright lights going across the magazine advert. Both adverts however inspired me to use simply bold text which stood out from the background which made it easier for the audience to gain vital information which is essential as the purpose of the magazine advert is to promote certain dates/tours/concerts or albums. 

Paper design

As you can see in my paper design, I have followed the inspirations I gained through my research as I have drawn a crowd in the background with Jake and George in front implying that the crowd are having fun because of them. However made them facing the front to build a connection with the audience and promote themselves as artists. The background will be dark so that the lights I have drawn on the paper design will contrast the low key lighting and also there will be big bold text at the bottom of the magazine advert which will give the audience vital information they need to know. I will also try and include an infinity sign on my magazine poster as it appears frequently throughout my music video and will work toward creating a brand for the artists as infinity. 

After creating my paper design, I worked towards making my ideas into a real product through Photoshop as it allowed me to edit images together and use other tools to enhance the images thus making them more appealing. This was my first draft. 

First photoshop draft

Although this draft is not completed, whilst creating it I decided I did not really like where it was going. I felt that it only portrayed the most basic editing skills, and by this point I had gained much more knowledge on how to use the software. For this reason I decided to scrap this idea and start my magazine advert again, this time taking a different approach.

When creating my magazine advert this time round I thought about what was really important to portray. This time I decided to try and show a deeper meaning within the poster through trying to portray the boys as artists who put a lot of effort into their music, I also tried to portray the concept of my music video through the poster in order to make it more meaningful instead of just trying to develop the conventions of dance on a visual level only and trying to make it exactly like my music video.

Although this draft is not completed, whilst creating it I decided I did not really like where it was going. I felt that it only portrayed the most basic editing skills, and by this point I had gained much more knowledge on how to use the software. For this reason I decided to scrap this idea and start my magazine advert again, this time taking a different approach.

When creating my magazine advert this time round I thought about what was really important to portray. This time I decided to try and show a deeper meaning within the poster through trying to portray the boys as artists who put a lot of effort into their music, I also tried to portray the concept of my music video through the poster in order to make it more meaningful instead of just trying to develop the conventions of dance on a visual level only and trying to make it exactly like my music video.

Final Magazine Advert 

I felt that although using a crowd developed the conventions of dance and connoted people having fun, it did not really show any meaning and portray the actual artists. I also felt that the image quality was too poor to use for an A4 image, so although it related well to my music video and genre I decided to use is somewhere else where is may be more effective, like my CD design where the genre and music would really need to be portrayed. I chose to use the same images of Jake and George however place them so that the audience viewing my magazine would be able to see their whole face rather than just half of it, this is because I felt their facial expressions would really draw an audience in as they are looking directly forward, also I feel the emotions in the boys face portray slight happiness which is conventional to dace however also portray deep emotion which I used to connote the emotion that went into writing their album. This would cause the music industry to take the artists seriously as they look serious and not like they are just messing around with some beats, but actually creating something they love. Another image I used to portray the emotions the boys felt and put into the album was an image of lots of laser looking lights forming the shape of a ball. This again portrayed the emotions of the boys. Although the dance genre is not typically seen as emotional and usually just portrays positive vibes, music is used to get across emotions and there are many successful dance artists that use music for the same purpose such as Avicii and the meaning he portrays through his music videos. The location this time was also very different, rather than the boys being in with a crowd I decided to use Calvin Harris magazine advert as inspiration and went for a dark setting. I chose to show George and Jake in a tunnel as I felt it would connote the meaning of their song ‘Wake Me Up’ which was being lost and finding yourself, a tunnel being the place in which they were lost and begun to find themselves. The tunnel also relates to the London setting in the music video where they were finding themselves as it looked like something you would find in the back streets of London. 

Although so far the connotations of my advert are not highly conventional to my genre as they are not giving of extremely positive vibes. I feel that my magazine still develops the conventions of dance as the low key lighting is contrasted with high key artificial lighting. Also I feel the gradient colour overlay of pink and green transforms the advert and makes it come across as more positive as these colours are seen frequently in the dance scene and my music video. These very positive and bright colours become distinct from any low key lighting or the level of emotion I have incorporated into my magazine, making it a conventional and effective magazine cover which works alongside my music video to portray my artists and develop the dance genre conventions. 
I feel that this time round I have made it easy for the audience to relate and form a relationship with my artists. Firstly I feel that the audience will now be drawn in to the poster as it look professional and develops the conventions of dance which will appeal to them as my products are targeted toward people who enjoy dance who ages range from the ages of 16-25 of any gender. I feel that the audience can now tell that the boys are young and quite ordinary which follows Dyers theory of being ordinary and having characteristics such as being youthful and famous against the odds. I feel that this will help the audience relate to the boys as they feel like they are the same as them. Also I feel the images I have used are strong enough to draw in the attention of any audience as Jake is looking directly at the audience with a rather deep mysterious look on his face which would make them want to find out more about the emotions he is feeling whereas George is looking directly as the audience but has a friendly smirk on his face which would invite the audience in to get to the boys better as dance artists.  
The only thing I would change about my magazine advert now is the layout of my text. I feel that the text is great and really simply which is beneficial to the audience as they can read it quickly and easily however I feel that the album title and group name are most important and therefore should be on a much larger scale than the production company. I also feel like i should have entered a release date for the album to make it more dramatic and lead the audience to anticipate the release rather than just saying it is being presented by JAGA productions.