Planning Magazine Advert- Miss Miller

Magazine adverts are an extremely important tool in relation to promoting an artist's album as it would able able to spread to a wider audience and promote the artist and the album. The use of this is effective as different companies are working as one, creating convergence which is positive for both the artist/record labels and the magazine itself. I will be creating a magazine advert for my artist's album on Photoshop, and this planning is important in order to create an effective artist magazine advert as this tool needs to promote the album and create sales whilst representing the artist in a certain light to fans/the public. Below is my first draft of a magazine advert.

Firstly, I decided to highlight the album name and song titles in red to show their importance and connote the idea of love, a theme that reoccurs within the album. This is conventional to the indie genre as emotions are promoted through the use of elements, that involve and appeal to the female target audience. The use of the colour black also, shows boldness and makes the text easier to read. This colour creates a sense mystery and secrecy which is intriguing, to the audience especially as this features and upcoming artist and a new album. This is also a bold colour, making everything on the page more prominent. The colour black subverts the indie genre as it is more grunge however, this causes the artist to become different and more interesting which will appeal to a wider audience Overall I have subverted the conventions of the genre with the text as I wanted to create a statement and create something new and individual to the artist which her audience would respect/admire. 

Other than the colours, I believe that this magazine advert conforms to the indie genre. This is due to the personal features that appear for example, the hand written font, which creates a bond between the artist and audience which is also conventional of the indie genre. The background is also very simplistic which is again conventional of the indie genre as attention is not taken away from the artist as the audience are able to look at her as she looks in to lense, creating an attachment as well as linking to Goodwin's theory and promoting the artist further. 

The language used features colloquial aspects and short sentence structures causing the the text become easier and quicker to read. For example, a shortened date becomes more memorable to the fans and promotes the album and sales quickly. This also links to the line 'hit songs' highlighting the artist's talent and popular music which intrigues the audience. Also within the advert, only the most popular songs are covered, making the album appear stronger and highlights the artist's talent as well as highlighting how successful she she, which also makes fans want to buy their favourite music from the artist. I also made some of the writing italic, to cause it to look handwritten and feminine which causes the artist to appear this way and the added italic lyric 'I will love you til' the end of time' creates an artist/audience link as well as linking to a line in the song coursing it to become more memorable and authentic as she shares past experiences with her fans. This acts as a personal message to the fans which is a positive tool to include as a relationship is created with the audience as the gain appreciation from the idol

The image I have chosen to use within the magazine advert is a close up of half of the artist's face. This causes her to become the main focus of the whole cover however, creates an air of mystery. The artist will also portray Lana's signature vintage and wear a 50s hairstyle and makeup look with added red lips to create effortless beauty that I have possessed as an inspiration and also connotes the themes of love and danger, linking further to the title of the album and to the lyrics of the songs included. This effortless/signature look is extremely historic within the fashion era and idols such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe which causes the artist to become admirable and a figure of beauty which aligns her with these figures, highlighting her importance causing the audience to look up to her

Lastly, the layout/design incorporated is extremely simple which actually conforms to the indie genre. The advert only shows the artist and a plain/simple background highlighting her importance and the fact that she feels her image and music matters most. This links to the idea that the font is bold and black/red as her name and album title is promoted This links to the artist looking straight down the camera lense, which shows her power and confidence in herself and her music, which causes her to be admirable, too. This is conventional to the indie genre as simplistic features are used, promoting the artist throughout

I found this planning useful as the use of Photoshop will be easier and quicker as the group would have a guideline to go by as we will known which colours and images to use due to this. Also from plans such as this, we will know what type of pictures to take of our artist as they are already planned which overall, makes the process more efficient. However, the artist name and album name will be different as I was using this artist as a guide, this will be changed when I create my individual magazine advert as this draft is a part of planning. Fundamentally, I am more aware of the pictures I need to take for my advert and the idea that they would need to create a representation and conform in some way to the indie genre.