Group magazine advert - Miss Miller

Group magazine advert

After creating magazine adverts as individuals, we reflected upon our design decisions and discussed elements of each others work which we believe to be conventional therefore appealing to our target audience. By evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each others individual work, it allowed us to combine the stronger elements into one final group magazine advert. We came together as a group and chose everyones best aspects of their individual magazine advert and decided to combine our ideas together to make our group magazine advert. 

From my own magazine advert we decided to use the idea of the black and white image, we thought this was a good idea as it portrays the artist as being mysterious and it isn't very conventional to the soul genre which also promotes the artist as being unique and individual. This is a positive representation as it emphasises the artists image of being unique and quirky. The colours used in my magazine advert were good as i used the colour red as the writing, we decided not to use this writing as you cannot read the writing very clearly which would make our magazine advert ineffective as audiences wouldn't be able to read the text. Also from my advert we decided to use the same layout of having the artist as the main image on the page and the layout of the writing where the title of the album is at the bottom with extra writing underneath and the artists name at the top of the page. We decided to use this format as it promotes the artist as important as she is the only image on the page. This appeals to the target audience as they will clearly be able to see the album title and artist name which will grab their attention. The typography used in my magazine advert was effective as it stands out from the background and is clear, this is why we decided to use this font in our group magazine advert but change the colours to make them appeal to audiences more. We changed the colour from red to light pink to match the colour of the artists coat. This appeals to the target audience as it makes the advert all the same colour scheme and stands out from the image, where as the colour red didn't stand out as much which wouldn't have appealed to the target audience making it less successful. Overall my strengths of my magazine advert was the font and the image as we decided to use both of these in our group advert making them vital pieces of the advert. These were my strengths as they appeal to the target audience as the font is big and clear making it easy to read and the image clearly shows the artist which would appeal to the target audience as they can see the image. The weaknesses of my magazine advert would be the colours and i used the colour red as the font which doesn't stand out from the image which means that it wouldn't grab the audiences attention.

We then looked at Shaun's magazine advert which was in black and white so had a very different feel to the other adverts. From Shaun's advert we got inspiration from the black and white background as it portrays the artists as being mysterious and unique. Therefore we decided to use this idea as it promotes the artist positively. Shaun's advert isn't very conventional to the soul genre which we thought wasn't an effective idea as it wouldn't appeal to our target audience and would portray our artist in a different genre. The layout of Shaun's advert was effective as it had the artist on the right hand side of the page and the artists name and album title in the middle, although we didn't use this layout we thought it was effective and decided we would use this in our group digipak. The images used in Shaun's advert was the artist looking of centre and the background being a dark forest. We decided we were going to use the image of the artist but have her in colour rather than black and white so she would stand out and grab the audiences attention. We weren't going to use the background of the forest as it isn't very conventional to the soul genre therefore meaning it wouldn't appeal to our target audience. The typography and language used in Shaun's digipak is again not conventional to the soul genre so we decided not to include these in our group digipak as they don't portray the artist in a unique quirky way. Overall Shaun's weaknesses of his advert is that it isn't conventional to the soul genre which is a disadvantage as it means it doesn't appeal to the target audience making it less likely to be successful. Although Shaun's strength of his digipak is the layout as it effectively promotes the artist clearly as the text is in the centre of the page, grabbing the audiences attention.

We then looked at Lucy's magazine advert and analysed her strengths and weaknesses and what we were going to take from it for our group digipak. Firstly, Lucy's advert is very conventional to the soul genre which is her strength as it appeals to the target audience making it an effective advert. Also the colours Lucy has used within her digipak are conventional to the soul genre as the colour red has been used on the font and the artist is seen to be wearing red lipstick. This is effective as it promotes the concept of love, relationships and emotion making the advert very conventional, although we decided not to use the red font in our group advert as it the colour doesn't stand out from any of the images we tried meaning it wouldn't grab the audiences attention. The layout and design of Lucy's advert is conventional as she has mirrored the image of the artist to make it look like a heart, this is conventional as it promotes the theme of love and relationships which would appeal to the target audience as they would be gaining an insight into the artists life. This image promotes the artist as being hurt and emotional as it shows it is all she is thinking about. We decided not to use this image as it was a bit too complicated for our advert as there wouldn't be much room for any text as it wouldn't stand out from the rest of the image. Lucy's strength of her magazine advert was her image, the image grabs the audiences attention and portrays the artist as being quirky and different as it is an unusual image. Lucy's weakness with her magazine advert was her typography as the font size was too small as it wasn't big enough to grab the audiences attention. 

We lastly looked at Devon's magazine advert for our inspiration for our group magazine advert. Devon's magazine advert is conventional to the soul genre as includes an image of the artist looking emotional wearing vintage quirky clothing making her seem unusual and unique. Devon done this so that the advert would appeal to the target audience who enjoy soul music, therefore we decided to use this image in our group magazine advert as although the artist is looking down you can still see her face allowing audiences to recognise her. The colours used in Devon's advert are very bright as the artist is emphasised by her pink coat and the title of the album is green and her name in white. These colours aren't very conventional to the soul genre so we decided not to use these colours as they don't promote our artist very well and don't appeal to our target audience. The layout/design of Devon's advert is the image of the artist is off centre to the right, the artists name at the bottom and the album title at the top. We decided to use a similar layout in our digipak but move the artist to the centre more and put the artist name at the top rather than the album title so that it is clearly to identify the artist. The language is the same that we all used in our advert; the artists name, album title and featuring the smash hit, the typography Devon used was effective as we decided to use the same font that she used she used writing the artists name as it stands out from the image and is very clear to read. Devon's strengths of her advert is the image and font as the image promotes the artist well but still shows her being shy and mysterious. Devon's weakness was the colours she used as they don't portray the soul genre and therefore don't appeal to our target audience.

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Group Meetings - Miss Georgiou

Group Meetings

·    Meetings and discussions are important to carry out as it means as a group we can voice our opinions on what we think will make our music video better, this way we can all contribute our ideas to each other and take them all into consideration. Meetings are important to carry out as it means we can stay on top of what we have planned to do to work towards our music video and make sure we are all doing the appropriate preparation. I think my group worked well together as we all had unique ideas to contribute and we all added our own unique attributes to the ideas and merged our different abilities.

Date	Action	To be done by	By whom	Discussions
15.09.14	To decide on an artist and a song	15.09.14	All group members	Various ideas were discussed and a mindmap was created by the group. Eventually we decided on creating a music video by…and the song…..
16.09.14	Wrote a letter to our chosen artists record label, asking for permission to recreate the music video.	16.09.14	All group members	As our artist belongs to two record labels we discussed which one we were going to write too.
17.09.14	We annotated our lyrics to find out what we could incorporate into our music video.	17.09.14	All group members	We discussed what lines had a deeper meaning and created ideas which we could represent throughout our recreation.
22.09.14	We decided on the mise-en-scene we would use for each scene.	22.09.14	All group members, however did individual posts.	We discussed what the conventional locations and iconography would be for each scene within our music video.
25.09.14	We decided on the different camera angles we were to use for each scene.	25.09.14	All members, however did individual posts.	We discussed which camera angles were most effective for the scene.

01.10.14	We decided on how we wanted out artist to be represented.	01.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what our artist would wear and look in order to attract our target audience.
07.10.14	We decided on what editing styles we would use throughout our music video.	07.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what editing styles were most effective in order to build a relationship between the music and visuals.
13.10.14	We created storyboards in sequence and chronological order of our planned music video.	13.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed many different aspects of our music video eg; iconography, setting, editing.
18.10.14	We made up a schedule of when we were going to film our music video.	18.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what times we were available to film certain scenes of our music video and planned what days we would film at each setting.
23.10.14	We created a risk assessment for the filming of our music video.	23.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We came up with specific accidents that could possibly occur during our filming and assessed how we could avoid them and what we would do if they did occur.
30.10.14	We filmed our music video.	30.10.14	All members.	On four different occasions we filmed at different settings the footage, which we used in our music video.
03.11.14	We created a photoshoot post including different photos captured during the filming of the music video.	03.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We selected different pictures from the footage we had taken and analysed why they were conventional to our genre and how they would appeal to our target audience.
07.11.14	We planned our group digipak.	07.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We combined our ideas as well as ideas we got through inspiration from existing digipaks from artists within our genre.
14.11.14	We planned our group magazine advert.	14.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We combined ideas to create a magazine advert for our artist album release.
18.11.14	We created our music video rough cut.	18.11.14	All members.	We edited all the clips and material by cropping them and adding transitions in order to create a rough cut for our music video.

01.10.14	We decided on how we wanted out artist to be represented.	01.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what our artist would wear and look in order to attract our target audience.
07.10.14	We decided on what editing styles we would use throughout our music video.	07.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what editing styles were most effective in order to build a relationship between the music and visuals.
13.10.14	We created storyboards in sequence and chronological order of our planned music video.	13.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed many different aspects of our music video eg; iconography, setting, editing.
18.10.14	We made up a schedule of when we were going to film our music video.	18.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what times we were available to film certain scenes of our music video and planned what days we would film at each setting.
23.10.14	We created a risk assessment for the filming of our music video.	23.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We came up with specific accidents that could possibly occur during our filming and assessed how we could avoid them and what we would do if they did occur.
30.10.14	We filmed our music video.	30.10.14	All members.	On four different occasions we filmed at different settings the footage, which we used in our music video.
03.11.14	We created a photoshoot post including different photos captured during the filming of the music video.	03.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We selected different pictures from the footage we had taken and analysed why they were conventional to our genre and how they would appeal to our target audience.
07.11.14	We planned our group digipak.	07.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We combined our ideas as well as ideas we got through inspiration from existing digipaks from artists within our genre.
14.11.14	We planned our group magazine advert.	14.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We combined ideas to create a magazine advert for our artist album release.
18.11.14	We created our music video rough cut.	18.11.14	All members.	We edited all the clips and material by cropping them and adding transitions in order to create a rough cut for our music video.

Individual Digipak - Miss Miller

Individual Digipak

The main purpose a digipak is to engage a consumer to buy into a product the artist is associated with. This therefore benefits the artist as it increases audiences listening to their created art and are also engaging with photographs of them. It also allows the artist to be represented in a certain manner to appeal to a particular target audience. Most digipaks are very personal to the artist themselves and often can consist of a lyric booklet which can also provide more artist photos in addition to personal stories from the artists point of view as well as 'thank you's' to family members, friends and fans, all of which can inspire them to produce music. Digipaks are typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs. Digipaks generally consist of a gatefold paper board or cardboard outer binding, with one or more plastic trays for the CD. They are often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums due to their unique style of packaging. Digipaks usually contain a letter from the artist directly to the fans giving it a more personal feel when a CD case only includes the lyrics of the songs in the album. This therefore means audiences will be able to build a better relationship with the artist from a digipak as it is seen to be much more personal as it includes a personal letter from the artist directly to fans. Also digipaks usually include bonus tracks which appeal to the target audience as they feel they are gaining more information about the artist and gaining more of their work. Digipaks are much more longer lasting and are very easily accessible where as a CD case only includes the songs from the album which makes it difficult for audiences to engage with the artist as there are no personal elements to a CD case. Overall, a digipak allows the audience to feel more connected with their favoured artist and in turn enjoy their music more so because they can relate to it.

The use of colour has an important and primary purpose of attracting potential buyers into purchasing the product. The obvious use of colour on my individual digipak are red, black and white. The colour red is conventional of the genre of soul music as it immediately symbolises passion and love which are two major emotions instigated by the music. Red is a colour that promotes the artist in a positive light as the connotation of passion reveals to the audience that the artist is also passionate about her music and her fans. The next prominent colour is white; this has the clear connotation of purity, which highlights the innocence of the artist and attracts the target audience who sympathise with the artist through her time of heartbreak which is narrated in the song. White also symbolises a sense of freshness on the digipak indicating that the songs on the album are original and new, attracting new buyers and fans of the soul music genre. Black is used with the purpose to create a clear contradiction with the use of the colour white, it's also a colour which represents power. The artist is presented as a powerful character to her target audience who will be attracted to buy her music because of her strong and independent attitude despite her heart ache. The fans will purchase the album in hope that they can adopt some of the artists powerful attitude for themselves, which creates a relationship between the artist and the audience. The black and white images are sparse of colour, the reason for the colourless filter is to continue a mysterious sense about the artist, this deliberately reveals the artist but leaves much under wraps. The idea of this is to encourage people to buy the digipak to continue the consumption and learn more about the artist though their music. 

     The images used within my digipak portray my artist as being focused on her music and work as in all of the pictures she is either off centre or she is looking to the side. This shows that she is more focused on her work than her image, this shows she is a successful artist as she doesn't have to post a lot of images of herself meaning her work is more important. Including images of the artist in my digipak will attract and appeal to fans as they will be able to recognise the artist from the images and therefore relate this back to her past music and if they enjoyed it they will feel more included in the artist. Including images of the artists means that audiences will be able to build a relationship with the artist as they will feel they are seeing a more personal side to her as digipaks tend to include personal aspects of the artist. In my digipak i have also included an image of a kiss mark, i have included this as it portrays the running theme of love and relationships within our album showing her heartbreak within the video and how the breakup has affected her.

      The layout within my digipak is conventional to the soul genre it includes a main image of the artist at the front and includes the artists name and the album title. Within my digipak i have included images of the artist and different texts, the pictures are all based in the middle of the page, this focuses the audiences eye on images of the artist to keep reminding them of the artists image, this will help build a relationship with the audience and artist as the audience will admire the artist and look up to her as there are more personal images being used. The design of my digipak is conventional to other digipaks as it includes a front cover, back cover, tracklist, artist letter to fans and images of the artist. This makes it appeal to audiences as they know what to expect in the digipak meaning they are more likely to buy it as they know what it is going to include. 

The language used within my digipak helps the audience to build a relationship with the artist as i have included a letter from the artist to her fans and friends. This helps the audience to build a relationship with the audience as this is a more personal element of the digipak meaning that audiences will feel they have a better understanding of the artist and have a more personal relationship with her. This will benefit the artist as it shows that she cares about her fans giving the artist a very positive representation of herself as it shows she cares about people who support her music which is a very vital in becoming successful. I have also included basic language within my digipak such as the artists name and the album title, these are vital bits of information to include in a digipak to keep re-emphasising the artists name to keep it in the audiences head. The style of font that i have used within my digipak is a vintage style old fashioned font which is clear to read. I have used this font as it portrays the artists personality and style of being unique and quirky, this helps the audience to build a relationship with the artist as it allows the audience to gain a further insight into what the artist is like as a person making them feel more involved in the artists music. Using this font is conventional to the soul genre as soul music is about being yourself and being unique and using this font defiantly portrays the artists individuality, therefore making the digipak conventional. 

My weaknesses using Photoshop was editing the actual photo such as changing the colour, vibrancy and contrast etc, i overcome this problem by getting my team member Devon, to help me with this and show me how to work out this problem. My strength whilst using Photoshop was cutting around the image to make it separate from the background, i feel this helped make my digipak successful as i used this skill a lot when creating it which meant i had a lot more time to work on my weaknesses and perfect them.
I think my digipak conforms to soul conventions as it portrays the artist being unique and quirky which promotes her own individual style making it conventional to the soul genre as it promotes being unique. I think my digipak appeals to my target audience as it includes a letter from the artist to the fans and also includes some personal images that i haven't used anywhere else making it much more personal to the artist, therefore meaning that audiences will feel they have a better relationship with the artist. Overall i think making my own digipak will help my group to create a successful digipak as we can put all of our ideas together to create a successful digipak as we can work on everyone's strengths and weaknesses meaning we will include everyone's ideas and thoughts. 

Individual magazine advert - Miss Miller

Individual Magazine Advert

Creating a magazine advert is important because it will advertise the artists new album to a wide audience meaning that the target audience will be able to find out about the artists new album, making them want to go out and buy the album.

The colours used in my magazine advert appeal to the target audience as i have used colours such as black, white and red. These colours portray our chosen genre - soul, as the colour red portrays the theme of love and romance which is what our chosen song is about. This appeals to the target audience as it allows them to gain an insight into what the album is about, meaning they will feel more engaged in the artist and how she is feeling. The colour black and white portray the artist as quite dark and emotional as it shows that the artist has a lot of feelings she can't get in touch with as she feels she is in the dark. This promotes the artist as it shows her being mysterious and different meaning that audiences will want to find out more about the artist and about her emotions as it seems like she is hiding something. These colours promote my artist effectively as it shows that she is simple as there aren't a lot of colours being used which shows she is more focused on the music than her image. The images being used within my magazine advert is an image of the artist leaning against a wall looking away. I have used this image as it shows the artist looking emotional and mysterious which connects with our chosen genre of soul. This therefore promotes the artist as being different and unique as most artists magazine adverts use a picture of the artists face as the main image but it shows the artist is more interested in her music. This image would appeal to the target audience as audiences will think the artist is mysterious and therefore want to find out more, meaning they will want to buy the album. The layout/design of my magazine advert is the artist is leaning against the wall but the image is slightly off to the right, the name of the artist is at the top, the album name is at the bottom and there is some extra writing underneath. I have laid it out this way as the artist is seen to be off centre which shows she is unique and different compared to other artists as she is focused on her music rather than her image, this would appeal to the target audience as they would want to find out more about the artist. The layout of the writing would appeal to the target audience as the font is big which means it will grab the audiences attention as it is big and clear at the top of the advert, this would appeal to the target audience as they would recognise the artists name and therefore would want to buy the album. The typography used in the magazine advert includes a bold clear font in red with a white border as well as a vintage style writing at the bottom, the two different fonts appeal to the target audience as the writing is big and clear which would grab the target audiences attention and therefore engage them to buy the album, the vintage writing at the bottom is conventional to the soul genre as it shows the artist being unique and different which promotes the artist's image as being quirky vintage and unique. The language used in my magazine advert appeals to the target audience as i have used the artists name, album title and a hit song. This would appeal to the target audience as they would recognise the artists name etc meaning they would want to buy the album as they may already like the artist from her past music. I have also included 'OUT NOW' as this would encourage the target audience to go out and buy the album. All of these aspects are conventional to the soul genre as it promotes the artist as being unique and vintage portraying the conventions of the soul genre of being unique and yourself.

When using photoshop i struggled with a number of techniques such as changing the colour of the font when i done my research i came across a number of different fonts where i found the vintage style font. My strengths whilst using photoshop would be editing the image such as using the different brightness, contrast and highlighting meaning that i could edit the image well which is how i managed to change the colour of the image to make it more dull.

I feel like my advert conforms to the conventions of the soul genre as it portrays the artist being unique and different which is a large convention of the soul genre as being personal and yourself. I feel my advert appeals to the target audience as the artist looks mysterious and unique meaning that audience will find the artist appealing as they want to find out about the artist more and therefore buy the album. I feel like creating my own magazine advert will ensure my group produces a successful magazine advert as we will be able to put all out ideas together to make it the best as possible.