Group Magazine Advert-Miss Miller

Group Magazine Advert
17/12/14
Vasil Nikolov

In order to achieve a fully professional magazine advert, my group colleagues and I had a meeting where we portrayed our individual magazine adverts and started to develop our personal one using ideas from each of our individual magazine adverts. This allowed us to produce a final magazine advert that was conventional to the indie genre and could link with our digipak as well. We crafted our group magazine advert using Photoshop, which allowed us to use several tools that are usually unavailable on paint. This way it allowed us to produce a final magazine advert that we were all pleased with.

My Magazine Advertisement Proposal

For my group magazine Advertisement, the group decided that the choice for the artist`s position was too bold...This quickly resulted in the drop of the overall design as we agreed that the artist would take too little space due to the size of the tree. Furthermore, the way in which the artist`s face was put on the moon was too clunky as even with the use of the blur tool did not hide the edges of her neck. A part from that, the group did like the colours that were used as they were warmer than the colours of the other choices. Another feature that the group liked was the writing techniques that I had applied as it made the writing more personal for the fan base and the font colour was a lot more readable than some of the versions. Nevertheless, the group also commented that the amount that was written was too enigmatic, which would confuse or annoy the audience. This is why we decided to use the white colour from this design as well as the theme font for some of the writing as it complied with some of the indie conventions (Such as making the writing more personal in order for the artist to make a bond with his audience and make them feel as if they have known each other from a distant period). 

Lilly`s Group Magazine Advertisement Proposal

From Lilly`s Group Magazine Advert we took the style of writing, layout, background, Artist clothing and the extra information that she had written. We found the advertisement to by far superior to my creation as the audience could clearly see the artist as well as develop a personal bond as she is looking at them on an equal eye level. The cinematography used in the magazine advert was more conventional for the indie genre as it allows the artist to show himself and what he likes to wear to his audience. This is why we decided to use her cinematography. We also had a slight criticism which was the added filter to the picture as it made the otherwise bright colours very gloomy. The layout was far easier to understand as it showed to the audience the artist with all of his traits and negative habits. This was far more conventional for the indie genre than my one as it is was easier for the artist to build a relationship. Furthermore, the clothing that was senn in the advert complied with the artist representation. Another criticism that we had was that the colour of the font (which was mainly black) was too unreadable. This resulted in the writing being more unreadable due to the natural black spots in the background, caused by the shadows casted from the tree or the artist. This is why we agreed to modify the text by making it white which increases the readibility.

Our Group Magazine Advertisement

In the beginning we had decided to keep Lilly`s mid shot as the shot was portraying our artist in the indie conventional genre that also conforms to how Lana advertises herself on her Albums. However, we wanted to experiment with the black and white filter and make only Autumn be in a black and white colour. This way, we could make the artist more viewable for the audience. Nevertheless, we did experience technical difficulties with the hand tool as it affected the entire picture rather than Autumn herself. Following a 23 minute haggle, we deiced to abandon that idea and add a different picture...The one of Autumn resting on a tree. This way, the audience could see Autumn in full and this way both attract more of the male audience as she is a spiffing gal and show the clothing that she wears in order to promote her fashion to the fans that want to follow her footsteps. This is how, we ended up with a long shot of the artist resting on a tree. An extra feature was that we kept the idea of nature surrounding the artist which falls under the conventions for an indie artist as she would use a cheap background leaving the audience to concentrate mainly on her. Also the use of the tree, gave us space for our writing to be in white as the bark is a darker colour and the use of white would be easier to read and portray her mostly innocent to the audience. Furthermore it would be better for the music labels as they would not need to give too much money for the photography and creation of advertisement. Meanwhile, the use of CGI or other special effects are more costly and might lead to less attention being given by the audience to the artist.

We kept the artist dressed in the same vintage shirt and floral head crown as it maintained the 50s style we were searching for. This causes the artist to be seen more important however, the effortless look causes her to become ratable to her audience. This therefore still conforms to the indie genre as the artist looks less mainstream and more memorable which is a feature that many indie artists aim for.

Even though we changed the picture, we did want to keep the artist holding a cigarette in order to portray her personality that is rebellious and thus still conforming to a typical feminine image as she shows her negative habits that are typically portrayed within the indie genre as she appears to be earthly and poses human weaknesses such as the need to satisfy her urge of nicotine.

We also kept Lilly`s layout as it was not complicated, and was more powerful to our audience. It can be argued that this way it links to the indie genre as the idea of simplicity can be seen being used by other indie artists such as Ellie Goulding. As previously mentioned the picture contains the element of nature as the artist is surrounded by trees and is wearing flowers in her hair. This is conventional of the indie genre as it contains a naturalistic scenery, which acknowledges the importance of the artist and makes her stand out to her audience. This results in a positive promotion tool as the audience concentrates mainly on her. 

Once again we conformed to the indie conventions as we made sure to keep the lexicon as colloquial as possible. This way, the language doesn't take away attention from other key features such as the artist and allows a lot of people to be able to read what is written. This results in better promotion of the artist as she would have a greater audience. We have kept all of the information that Lilly had implemented in her magazine advert  thus keeping the shortened date (which is memorable) and the use of the phrase 'includes hit' points out that the album will have all of her popular songs as well as some new songs. IT links to previous successes and further highlights her importance.

The target audience of the indie genre would appreciate the magazine advert as many of the conventions we had incorporated in the advert were mainly following the indie genre. However, It should not be fully disappointing for the house genres as we have used conventions that follow the house genre. Conventions such as the use of brighter colours do follow the house genre as they provide the audience with more bright full and more eye-catching balance. Compared to these types of colour, the indie genre uses more simple and sometimes darker colours. Meanwhile, the indie genre fans, have received a layout that is more known to the indie genre. This is due to the simplicity of the layout and the fact that this way, the cost would be far lower than a house genre would cost. The target audience is from both music genres, so we had decided to make sure that our magazine advert contains the basic conventions from both genres that can be mixed between the two genres. I should say, that we had successfully managed to incorporate some of them. This way, we should be able to have a high target audience from the two different cultures 

In Conclusion, I believe that our group did yield a very professional magazine advert that conforms to the indie genre conventions. It uses the correct mise-en-scene for example, the vintage clothes and make-up and naturalistic setting to typically make them stand out from the other performers. The advert appeals to my chosen target audience as every aspect was chosen in great detail  and any decision had to be agreed on by all three of us. The techniques used to make the audience bond with the artist (for example the cinematography as the artist looks down at the audience) creating a personal connection and involving them into what she is doing. Working in a group made the work far less stressful as it means that we would always have a supply of ideas in case the original backfires. Furthermore, not all of us are good with Photoshop, which is good in group work as it means that we would have a member that can do the work in the most professional way, while the other can aid with the design.