Individual Magazine Advert Analysis - Miss Georgiou*

A magazine advert is a form of synergy that helps artists further promote themselves through the media, specifically magazines. The reason why I've created a magazine advert is to promote my artist; Sharna Rae's debut album featuring the single 'Wings' by Birdy, which I will be making a music video for. The purpose of the magazine advert is to accompany the advertising material for my artist, so that it attracts a wider audience than she usually does to her niche audience. By having a magazine advert, this appeals to a wider audience as her authenticity of being new to the scene will attract them and hopefully get them buying her album and following her as an artist. Therefore, having a magazine advert further promotes the artist and the album, increasing the sales for it especially as she's debuting, so the audience check her out through the information provided in the advert. Not only, is the advert being created to attract a new audience, it appeals to the niche audience of my artist of 17-25 year olds, as they are prone to buy magazines, therefore by having a magazine advert I am promoting to the artists target audience/fans. 

For the layout and design of my magazine advert, I was inspired by Birdy's advert, which was similar by having the artist aligned to the right and the typography on the left. However I made changes to this formant, by having the artist's name "Sharna Rae" positioned at the top, the typography on the left and image of artist on the right. The way in which the layout and design for my magazine advert appeals to the audience is through the positioning of typography and image of artist. The image of the artist is a long shot, showing the artist from head to toe, appealing to the audience as they see her fully. Also, the typography of the artist's name positioned at the top appeals to the audience because it is the first thing they see, which makes the audience aware of her name. This positioning is conventional to the indie genre, as seen in Lana Del Rey's magazine advert, because it establishes clearly who the artist is but as my artist is debuting, this gets her name out there to the audience. Also, by having the text that states her album title 'Illuminate' and single 'wings' next to the picture of the artist, informs the audience clearly on who the magazine is talking about and what she looks like. In addition, this makes it understandable and clear to the audience who the magazine is about and what it is for, as the writing accompanies the image of the artist. Furthermore, it could be said that this layout portrays the artist as neutral and genuine through the same level positioning of the typography and image of the artist. This could appeal to the audience as it gives them the impression that the artist is not big headed  and is genuine through the unbiased layout and design, therefore making them admire her honesty and making them want to buy her music because they believe she's authentic. 

My chosen image for my magazine advert is of my artist walking through a forest, whilst carrying a guitar and looking back to the camera. As planned, I followed the majority of my plan for my magazine advert when it comes to chosen image, however the changes I made were the setting and positioning of camera. I changed the positioning from a side view long shot, to just a long shot instead and the setting from a field to a forest. The reasons why I changed it from a side view positioning to just a normal long shot, is because I believe the shot conveyed the artist in a more interesting way, as it gives an impression of the audience following her whilst she's walking as the camera is positioned behind her. Also, the long shot establishes the artists body language and setting which is of her walking through a forest whilst looking back. The setting was changed from a field to a forest for my magazine advert, as I believe a forest is conventional to the indie genre as it is a real life setting, therefore portraying realism. Furthermore, the forest creates enigma and suspense which could appeal to the audience as they feel like they have to solve the mystery or see what the artist is about, therefore making them want to buy the debut album to find out more about the artist, since she's in a mysterious setting. The body language and setting of a forest appeals to the audience, as it connotes the artist as being sneaky, daring and brave because she's in an isolated area and her facial expression of being daring whilst looking back conveys her braveness. This could also connote the artist as being free spirited and being open to the audience, as the isolated place open environment could suggest she's open to her audience. Therefore, connoting a journey that she's on and that the audience is following her on this journey, which creates a relationship between the artist and audience, due to her looking back into the camera. 

The colours that are dominant in my magazine advert are: Lilac, off beige, white, blue and green. Firstly, we see the colour Lavender in the typography 'SHARNA RAE' and 'presents'. The reason behind I chose the colour Lavender for this typography because of the softness of it and how it resembled the clothing that the artist wears in the image; denim jacket. Lavender connotes youthfulness and romance which foreshadows what the artist's album is about as she's young herself and sings about her love experiences. Also, lavender connotes fragility and sensitivity which could portray the artist as vulnerable due to the lightness of the colour. In addition, the colour off beige is seen in the typography that states the album title and single. The colour off beige connotes warmth and quietness, which could represent the artist as being warm and shy. Also, it could portray the artist as delicate and foreshadow the music video narrative of her being the vulnerable one in the relationship she's in. I was inspired to use this font from the Birdy magazine advert, as she had an off beige  font for her name. Therefore, like the Birdy magazine, the colour portrays the artist as natural and ordinary which is conventional to the indie genre as colours that are dull, ordinary and associate with nature are usually used to convey realism. The next colour that is used in my magazine advert, is white. This is used on the typography at the bottom which states the ratings and the artists website "Billboard" and "www.sharnaraeofficial.com". The reason why I chose the colour white is because it is a bright colour that contrasts from everything else seen in the magazine subtly, therefore making the text seen but not a distraction. Also, white connotes purity which could connote the artist as being pure because she is debuting as a new artist, which draws the readers attention as they see that she is new. The next colour that is seen in my advert, is blue. The colour blue is seen through the artist's costume of a denim jacket and mom jeans. Blue denim connotes being strong and tough as the texture of this material is strong, therefore could suggest the artist feels strong within that moment. However, the colour blue it self connotes tranquility and peacefulness which could suggest that the artist is in a peaceful state of mind and is content with where she's at. Also, the colour blue connotes sadness, which foreshadows the narrative of my music video as she is grieving from a relationship that is broken due to her partner not wanting to be out in the open with her, therefore there are scenes where she is sad. The last colour that is evident in my magazine advert is green; this is seen through the leaves and trees. The green connotes nature and growth which could imply that the artist is natural and is growing up from a teenage to an adult which is a inevitable process of nature. Also, the colour green connotes freshness which could symbolise how the artist is fresh through debuting her self to the world, therefore it represents her as something new and interesting to the audience, grabbing their attention. This may lead to building a relationship between the artist and the audience, as they feel that they could relate to her through the natural colour;green, therefore conveying realism. 

The language in my magazine advert is simplistic. Phrases such as "her debut album" and "featuring no.1 single" are straightforward and get to the point of what they're trying to express. The reason to why I kept it simple without any exaggeration and is understandable for the target audience of 17-25 year olds and less time consuming to read, which makes them pay attention to the advert as its not complicated to understand. This follows the convention of the indie genre of relying on realism instead of escapism like the pop genre, because it gets the message intended across easily. In addition, the style of language promotes the artist and album through the phrases above, as it tells them what they need to know such as the album name and successful single. By having "featuring no.1 single", it states the success the new artist as she has a no.1 single on the charts, which shows that she is becoming popular, this appeals to the audience as they tend to follow whats popular in music. However, when the company Billboard  state in the quotation "British Sensation", this describes the artist as loved by Britain. This is accompanied with 5 star ratings. The rating from Billboard, and their use of language especially "British", represents the artist as patriotic. This is because the word establishes that she is British and connotes that she is proud to be from there, therefore appealing to the niche audience of British people. 

Moving onto typography, I have two types. Firstly the typography "Sharna Rae" and "presents"  is in a quirky styled font ;Dk Yellow , in the colour lavender and is in capitals. The purpose of it being in capitals is so that it gives importance to her name and attracts the audience. The typography is positioned at the top of the magazine and is in the middle, therefore again placed in the centre to gain the audiences attention as its the first ting they would see. The text "Her debut alum" and "featuring no.1 single"  are in a quirky, curly, bold font called Luna, in the colour of an off beige. The typography colour stands out from the rest of the texts. Also, it could represent the artist as being quirky and different due to the abnormal typography, therefore making the artist stand out from the rest as the text is different. The following typography "Illuminate" and "wings"  are in capitals and are the font that Birdy uses for her magazines and albums which is called Blake. The reason why I chose this particular font is because it looks eccentric but normal at the same time. This is due to it being straight and not slanted like the other fonts. The use of this font is to make it stand out from the writing above them, therefore giving more importance to what's being shown, which is the album name and the single. The rest of the typography is located at the bottom of the magazine advert, and is in the colour white. The typography states "British Sensation" and "www.sharnaraeofficial.com" in capitals. The purpose of having these texts at the bottom is so that the audience are not distracted by them and put their main focus on the image of the artist and the typography in the middle. Also, by putting them at the bottom it concludes the magazine advert and makes sure the last thing they read is the website for the artist. This makes them want to find out more about her, as there is limited said on the magazine advert, therefore the audience may search up her website after looking at the advert.

I believe my advert does follow conventions of the indie genre and conforms them. For instance;the quirky font e.g Dk Yellow for 'sharna rae' and 'presents' connotes originality and youthfulness of the artist is conventional as it appeals and is relatable to the target audience who are young adults (17-25 year olds). Also another convention is the use of a real location which is a forest in my magazine advert and this is conventional to the indie genre as it portrays the artist in a real place therefore conveying realism and makes it believable. Furthermore, the artists costume is conventional to the genre as it is not glamorous and flamboyant like pop artists would have, as it showcases the artist as normal and ordinary, which appeals to the audience as they feel like the artist is one of them. In addition, the artist's costume is conventional to the indie genre. This is because the clothing is recognisable to the audience. Also, denim clothing connotes rebellion, which is stereotypical for her age group as they're labelled as this. Therefore, I decided to include this as it makes the artist look relatable to the target audience of 17 - 25 year olds as they can empathise with her through her clothing and the label added to it. Also, to connote the youthful and rebellious sides of the artist so that it engages the audiences attention and makes her look 'cool'. 

Here is an example of my layers used to create the blurry background effect. As you can see there are two images that are the same and the copy is the one with the artist erased out. This was to make sure she wouldn't be affected by the blur. By pressing the eyes next to the layers, this allows me to see all layers at the same time, therefore showing the blurry background and the artist clearly. 

When it came to using the software photoshop, It was quite a challenging process but one which got used to quickly. A strength of mine when using photoshop was blurring the image. This was easily done after the assistance I had from my teacher, but after I got the hand of it and was able to blur my image by myself. This involved using the blurring tool and erasing the part I wanted to be sharp,which was the artist herself as seen in the magazine advert. I believe the use of blurring on my magazine advert has helped make my magazine advert successful, as it eliminates the setting and makes the artist the main focus which is useful because it further promotes her. However, blurring my image was once a weakness of mine too, however I overcame this by watching a youtube video to teach me how to do the editing technique. Another weakness I had whilst using photoshop was trying to grasp the concept of having different layers on one thing, this was because I had never used the software before and I was new to using it. Therefore, I did not understand the layering process, but I did get it at the end and simply continued to layer different things in order to create my magazine. Now I know how to make something through layering different aspects of the media through layering whether it is added text or pictures.