Development of Final Magazine advert

Our initial advert:
This is the original magazine advert that we created. However, as explained in a past post, it lacked information and failed to grab the audiences attention. Because of this, as a group we decided to ad some information to the advert as well as changing the design slightly.












Some ideas that we played around with: 
We chose to experiment with a few different ideas whilst keeping the same general design. For this advert we chose to change the filter of the background so that it could clearly be seen as a pile of leaves, which was not clear for our first advert. We wanted the audience to recognise the leafy background as it relates to our digipak and video for the song 'Enough'. First we chose tried different ways of presenting the front cover of the album on the poster. We initially tried it within an actual CD cover, however, we believed that this album would be downloaded more than bought as a CD so decided to stay clear of this idea to keep it as modern as possible.We then tested to see whether the cover taking over the top of the advert would work well, however, we thought that it seemed to take up too much space, leaving minimal space for written information as well as making the leaf background unclear as to what it is. Finally, we chose to use a fairly big picture of the front cover, slightly fading into the background. We thought that this was the best design that we experimented with and therefore chose to use it for our final design. We then had to decide how to present the written information on the advert.We chose to use a simplistic, easy to read font that seems quite smart,casual much like the band themselves. The difficult part of adding the written text was finding a colour that would not be too bright or too dark, otherwise it would fade into the background or look too tacky.

Our Final Magazine Advert:
On the right is our final magazine advert. We chose to put the name of the band at the top of the page so that it stands out from the other information in order to promote the band as well as the album. I believe that the size of the picture is the perfect size as it draws attention to it as well as blending into the background, leading the colours to complement each other, The information we added to the poster was the release date, a name of the main single and ratings from relevant music companies.

The Finished Completed Final Digipak

This is our final version of the digipak. We have connected all the separate images to create a realistic product in a net template of a digipak which we found during our research. 

Included in our digipak is the front cover, the back cover, the lyrics booklet, some extra "behind the scenes" panels, the CD and a spine. 

First magazine advert, why we chose to remake it

After creating the first design for our magazine advert, we realised when comparing it to other magazine adverts promoting albums and audience feedback that we needed a lot more information on it. Our advert was very simplistic which at first we thought would be effective as it gives the short and sweet idea of the advert, giving the band’s name, picture of the album and the release date. However, when the ‘finalised poster’ was done I thought that there was a lack of information and that it looked very plain and boring. To make sure that I was correct, I chose to ask for audience feedback from our target audience. They gave the same response as what I thought and gave us some ideas for what we could include. As a group we have decided to redesign the poster and to include other information on it such as the production company and website link in the bottom corner of the page, some ratings of the album from related music companies as well as mentioning some songs that are on the album. I also think that it is a good idea to brighten up the background as it is hard to tell that it is a picture of leaves which is relatable to our video and digipak. Some of the audience feedback that we received about our initial poster alongside the poster are below:

Tiarnan Bown:

“It seems like quite a boring poster, it didn’t draw me in at all, and if I saw it in a magazine I wouldn’t have a second look at it. I think that it needs a bit more colour to it as well as maybe some more writing”

Joe Power:

“There isn’t much information about it at all, I’ve never heard of the band and so I think that there should be something about how good this album or band is written somewhere on the poster. Also, if it had a review or two it would probably catch my eye”

Final Digipak Update

Front Cover 

This is the front cover of our digipak as finalized in a previous post. we feel this cover is appropriate because it is edgy and unique with the effect over the image and the black, white and grey tones. The fact that the face of that artist isn't completely visible creates mystery which may appeal to out audience and they will become intrigued about the album. 

Back Cover

This is a new version of the back cover for the digipak. initially the image was in natural colour but we have modified this and made it totally black and white. This decision was made because we though it would add congruence to the product as a whole. The front cover has the same types of tones and so we thought it made more sense to match both side of the product. We have also added some text on the back cover to inform our audience of certain details. From previous digipak research it has been noted that a list of the tracks that are included in the product is printed on the back often, thus we used ten songs from our band that they have also written. We have included a bar-code and the copyright symbols to emphasize realism. This product has to be able to sell in the real world so by adding little details such as these really makes the product come to life. Finally we have put the band's email address in the bottom left corner which helps encourage synergy between our media products and enables the audience to connect more to the artist. 

CD Panel

This is the CD panel which means as the digipak is opened the CD will be seen placed in this section. The reason we made the background of this panel leaves is because ultimately it is plain. The CD is the main attraction and so having a busy background behind it might be distracting especially as the other panels have star images for example. This background does follow the autumnal theme of all of out products however, to it is keeping in line with the image of our products. 

Lyrics Booklet

This is the design of our lyric booklet. The text has been coloured white in order to make it stand out against the yellow and blue background but also to keep it on the same track as the front and back covers of this digipak, which are black and white. The leaf again follows the autumnal theme of our product but is also a good platform surrounding the lyrics. It is an interesting design which is likely to attract an audience as it is unique. The fact that the artist of the band is holding the leaf and therefore the lyrics but without his head showing adds an intriguing element to it. The foreground of the image has been made to be more in focus than the background of the image in order to put emphasis on the lyrics which shows that they really are the essence of the product. 

Extra Panels

These extra panels include a star, medium shot of the artist and a close up shot of the band's guitar. These shots enable the audience to know the band a bit better. Previously the audience haven't been able to see the artist's face clearly and so this image shows him plain and simple, it makes him appear down to earth and less of a 'celebrity'. This aspect is something we thought would be important because the audience want to be able o relate to the band and so putting the artist at eye-level makes him seem more like them. This image of the guitar has been taken from the music video of the single that is featured on this digipak, it is called, "Enough". I believe this is a good example of cross media as the image can help promote the music video. 

Rough Digipak

Full DigPak Images

Here is a full digipak creation with the front cover, back inside cover and right cover etc. These are the final image choices that will be used in and on our digipak. Although these are our final image choices to which we will definitely use, we are still going to edit these images adding filters and texts to make them more effective and look like an authentic digipak.