individual magazine advert analysis

Individual magazine advert 

The individual magazine advert was created to promote and show to our audience the style and genre of our artist. The purpose of having a magazine advert is so that my target audience, can gain some knowledge about my artist, which will lead them to want to find out more, therefore leading to my target audience wanting to get hold of the album itself, which is my digipak. My magazine advert was made on photoshop and my theme was low-key / spotlight. This is because I planned to use this sort of theme within my digipak, therefore making the digipak recognisable from the magazine advert. 

Firstly the colour scheme I used was low key for the actual image itself, and white and red font colours. The low key contrast with the white and red fonts, makes the fonts more visible and stand out more. The use of the low key helps my font colours to be extremely noticeable. But the main purpose of my magazine advert being low key and dark is to make it conventional to the soul genre. Low key lighting is frequently used within soul genre music videos, this inspired me to incorporate the use of the low key colour into my magazine advert. I want the audience to be intrigued to pick up my magazine advert, by having the low key contrast, it connotes representation such as: isolated, down, sad, insecure, lonely. By the audience understanding these representation, it makes the audience want to find out why the artist feels this way. Therefore the low key colour helps to appeal my target audience to pick up my magazine advert and find out more about the artist. The white font suggests innocence, because the artist name is in white it suggest that she is innocent and surrounded by the low key contrast, tells the audience that the innocent artist is surrounded by negative and sad feelings. Finally the red font colour used within my magazine advert symbolises love. This shows to the audience that the artist is either looking for love, or has been hurt by love. Therefore this appeals to the target audience to buy her album, so they can workout if she is looking for love or has been hurt because of love.

My magazine is conventional to the soul genre and also promotes my artist style effectively. The use of all my colours, layout, image used and typography are all very typically soul genre like. If you look at a similar artist such as Adele you can see in the comparison that her  magazine adverts are focused oh her facial expression, via a close up. This helps the audience to understand the artists emotions and feelings. Within the soul genre the audience are looking for ways to connect and build relationships with the artist, therefore my magazine illustrates many ways that the audience are able to relate to and build a relationship with the artist. Also having the five stars on the front appeal the audience to listen to her music as she is rated at the top level, this is a key way to promote my artist and effectively entice the target audience.

The image used within my magazine advert is a close up. I used a close up so that my audience could easily relate to the artist herself, the close-up is engaging, this is because the artist is making eye contact with the camera, which creates a personal feel for the audience as they feel as though the artist is looking at them. Therefore I chose to use this image because it intrigues and interests audience. Also due to the artist covering part of a face it suggests that the audience that she is vulnerable and insecure about her appearance this leads to the audience getting an understanding of how the artist feels emotionally and physically therefore the image helps the audience to gain a better understanding of the artist herself which leads to the audience feeling more relatable and overall building up a relationship with the artist. 

The layout and design was structured on photo shop I trialed and errored a few different ways to place the title Amy 18. In the end I decided to use all the text below the bottom half of the magazine this was so the spotlight was clearly above Amy and shows that she is in the limelight. This was done  so the audience could clearly understand that our artist is professional and has fame. The positioning of all the text in the bottom half of the magazine advert was also so it was easily readable this is because the background is much darker down the bottom half of the magazine advert, which meant the text would stand out more and have a greater effect on intriguing the target audience.

The typography I used was based on research into other so genre magazine adverts I found out from my research, that other soul genre magazine adverts tend to use capitals and bold fonts. Therefore I chose this typography off of dufont.com as it has a soul genre look to it. Amy 18 being my title I chose to make this font the largest, and also the most sharp look to it, this was so the audience would be able to understand that the artist is professional and someone to idolise and look up to. It was made the largest so that it would stand out amongst the other fonts. The same font I used for Amy 18 I used for 'winter exclusive featuring' this was so the magazine advert had similar fonts within it so that it looks to a professional standard. 

The language I used within my magazine advert was stereotypical language that you would see on any magazine advert for example 'winter exclusive featuring' this was also a subtitle from a real magazine advert that I found in my research. I also included a slogan 'from the backstage to the limelight Amy Sowerby revealed' this was so the audience would be intrigued and interested into how my artist has risen into her fame. By the audience being absorbed by this, the audience will then want to find out more about the artist, this will lead to the audience getting the digipak.


During my use of photoshop I came across several difficulties, with the tools and how to use photoshop itself. Firstly the layering format on photoshop was confusing, this was because previously to this task I had not used photoshop. Also the blurring tool, which is meant to be used to hide any erase-ments that are not perfect. When I used the blur tool I either blurred to much and had to start again, or didn't blur enough. Overall Practice makes perfect and I believe that is all you can do with photoshop, as the more you use it, the more you become comfortable with the tools and ways of photoshop. As I did throughout creating my magazine advert over the space of a couple of hours.

The positives of using photoshop are the range of tools that you have to edit your images and fonts. There are so many different ways to add filters, colours, layers and more so easily. Photoshop helps to make the magazine advert to a professional standard. The main strength of photoshop is the layering, this is because you can hide parts of your font or images behind others. It is such a simple thing to do yet is so effective in making your magazine advert look good.

Overall I think my magazine advert is very conventional to the soul genre as I have discussed through my paragraphs on colour, conventions, images, layout, typography and language I used. But overall its conventions are that the artist is seen as insecure and vulnerable, which are two key representations within the soul genre. These representations help to connect the artist to the audience in a symphatic way. Making the audience feel sorry for the artist. I believe the target audience would be appealed by my magazine advert because it is conventional and due to the five star rating of the artist, the audience will be appealed to listen to her music.

Based on the feedback I received from my target audience. I changed and adapted my magazine advert to suit the music industry. The feedback I received was that my magazine advert was looking more like a thriller magazine advert. Therefore I took this onboard and removed the low key lighting and the brightness and contrast filters, that were effectively making the advert dark and gloomy. I then changed the colour of some of the fonts from red to white, so they are more effective and visible.