Magazine Advert Final Draft

For my final magazine advert design I didn't change much from the previous draft as I was pretty happy with what I had created. When showing my media group my second draft I seeked some advice on what I could potentially change and they gave me pretty much the same feedback and that was to bring the album title and the artists name closer together on the poster.

When moving the album name and the artist name closer to each other I made sure that the artists name was still clear and visible so I had to make sure that the letters were opposite colours to what the background was for example the B on Bella needed to be black so it was visible on the white jeans and the same applied to the ELLA on ella where that had to be white to be visible on the black vest top.

I added three more things to this poster in my final draft and this was to make it look more professional and realistic. I added the iTunes logo so my target audience would know they could download this album on iTunes on it release date. I also added MILTON RECORDS logo onto the poster as an advocate for Izzy Bella and to advertise my own record company. Finally I added the sentence 'Listen to previews at:' above the website address as I thought this would be something which would catch target audiences 13-25's eye so they could go online go on the website and trial some of the previews of the songs from this album. This would be another selling point in drumming up attention for my CD album.

Magazine Advert Second Draft

For my second draft I went straight on to use Photoshop. With previous practice with using it to create my digipak I found it very easy to use.

1) I opened Photoshop and selected a plain A4 background.
2) I added the two pictures I wanted on there which was the one with my artist sitting down and the picture of the sky.
The pictures I used on my poster compliment each other really well as they both give off a very nature like feel. This works really well in-conjunction my my album name 'Release me' and the No.1 song 'Break Free' as the outdoors gives off connotations of freedom. The poster also looks although my artist is looking down at the bright blue sky which could symobolise her looking down dreaming of the freedom she would have if she was free from her relationship. This keeps the target audience intrigued to whether she does ditch the man or not and will make them want to listen to the album to find out what she is singing about in each song. For example is the album going to be a mixture of sad songs singing about a break up and some songs about the independence and happiness you can gain from escaping from the wrong relationship.

3) Finally for this draft I added the website for my artist so my target audience and fans can get online and few the latest news on Izzy and find out the latest gossip on her new album and potential tours etc. I felt adding this would give a more professional and realistic feel.

Magazine Advert First Draft

For my first draft of the magazine advert I drew out a rough picture of what I wanted the advert to look like when finished.
I already had the images I wanted to use on the poster as I will be using the same ones I used to create my digipak therefore I only had to choose which pictures I wanted from my digipak onto my poster. I choose the image from the front cover of the digipak and the sky print which is from the print on the CD. I thought these two images were the most important from the digipak as the front cover is what attracts people and the CD inside is the useful thing people use to listen to the music.

Like the pictures I used the same font styles in my poster as I have in my digipak. Again like the pictures also this will create a synergy and recognition between the two texts which will be noticeable when looking at the two texts together. This is done so the target audience can see the links between the texts which make them more likely to buy it if they see it in various places and see the connections between the two different formats of text. This will potentially be in the back of their mind therefore when they are in a shop which sells music they will subconsciously be looking out for it.

I have chosen to add 'Featuring the No.1 Break Free' onto my poster so target audiences are attracted to it further and will get excited about it.

The final two things I did was add the name of the album onto the poster so target audiences will get a taster of what other songs they can expect to hear from this album and I also added the disclaimer message which I added onto my digipak case so people know what the terms of use are before purchasing the CD itself. I thought adding this was an extra way of covering MILTON RECORDS backs when it comes to copyrighting.

DigiPak - Final Draft

For my final draft I added a few new things to create a better looking and professional looking digipak. Below is what I did to change each face of my digipak to make it look as good as I could make it.

Top left: I added a picture I had taken at Rendelsham forest to add to the 'breaking free' connotation of the album. I also changed the black circle in the middle of the CD to a transparent circle so the image behind the CD (the actual case) would show through the hole in the CD  and create a more realistic look.

Top right: The only thing I did to change this one was to change the picture over. Previously the picture in the top right was in the bottom right acting as the front cover picture. I thought this one would act better in the inside cover and from advice from my media group I opted to changed these two pictures over.

Bottom left: I added two things to this face of my digipak. First of all I added a barcode which was easy enough to do and was a small thing I could add to instantly give my digipak a extra realistic feel.

As well as doing that I made up some disclaimers to put at the bottom of the back cover which read (2015 Milton records plc. The company group. The copyright of this sound is owned by J.S. records limited. A universal music group company. All rights reserved. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance.) 

I got some ideas for this of CD's I own already and came up with some using my own knowledge of what should be said, studying business helped me with this as I had learnt what should be said in small print disclaimer images.

Bottom right: As well as changing the pictures which was explained above I also changed the typography of the artists name. I thought this new font gave it a more updated and girly feel. As I had used blue colours mainly in the digipak I thought adding a feminine touch may reach out to the female audience looking to purchase this. 

Finally *un-mentioned in my previous draft* I added some sides to my digipak. The inside side of the digipak was left black whereas the outside side was black but with the artists name in blue with the same typography as the artists name on the front and the album name again the same typography but filled in white to show up clearly on the black background.

DigiPak 2nd Draft

For my second draft I decided to go straight on the computer and start working on the program I was intending to use which was Photoshop. This program took a little getting use to but I learnt how to use it pretty quickly. I had previous experience with using Photoshop whereby I had practiced how to use it in a lesson as my teacher took the class through how to use it.

1) I completely changed my design. (Reasons justified below)

2) I uploaded a 4 faced DigiPak onto Photoshop which gave me a starting basis to get designing properly my second draft of digipak.

3) I added the photo's I had taken to Photoshop and adjusted them to the correct size to make them fit into the individual faces of my digipak. I cropped one of the images using the magnetic lasso tool which left me with an uneven almost zigzagged edge. However I managed to sort this out by using the feathering tool Photoshop provides to smooth the edges and make them look more professional.

4) I added some titles over the images, for example I used a certain font to create the typography for the words 'RELEASE ME' which is the albums name which I carried through to use it on the CD itself to create some connections. I edited a picture of the sky which I had taken on a bright day previously. I did this to symbolise 'freedom'. I also added the name of the songs onto the back of the CD cover using a different font but this time making it bold so it would stand out more and look more realistic like other models I had been looking at.

The draft for my second digipak was completely different to my first as when I started to create it on Photoshop what I had designed on paper just didn't look right therefore sticking with a similar theme I completely changed my design. This meant changing what locations my pictures were taken in to other things such as my typography. I thought a beach theme connected with my music video somewhat at first as I have a few clips of my artist at the beach but watching it back and analysing it I thought having the pictures on my digipak taken in a garden will fit better because the locations for my music video are more home/garden orientated rather than beach. *below I have justified my reasons for choosing what I have chosen when creating my second draft*

In the top left is my CD tray which contains my CD which I designed to have a picture of the sky on with the artists name and album name written around the side. It was easy to upload the picture of the sky into the circular shape on Photoshop but the writing around the edge did take a while to do every letter individually and space around the circular shape with the relevant spaces.

In the top right the only thing I did was upload the picture of the artist which would be the inside cover of the digipak so wouldn't contain any writing or editing over the top as the inside cover of most CD cases I have researched and looked at just show a picture of the artist or other images.

The lower left picture I added the playlist for the CD. To make sure they are visible I had to change the colour of the writing to ensure it could be seen over the background colours. Song 1-5 are written in a white colour so they show over the black top whereas the other songs 6-8 are in black show over my artists white jeans. This shows a contrast and looks effective.
I also decided to add my record label 'MILTON RECORDS' to this back cover of the digipak to show which record label 'Izzy Bella' is under.

Finally the front cover of my digipak was easy to create as all I had to do was add the name of the album and the artists name. I did this by using fonts which linked to others on the digipak to create connections within the text. I chose to make the album name blue as I didn't want my artist to fall into the general stereotype of 'girls colours' (there is no such thing as a girls or boys colour but I am talking through stereotypes) such as pink or a bright red. I think this colour makes the artist more individual and less an artist which follows and conforms to gender stereotypes. Like my back cover I wanted to add the black and white effect in the typography therefore I chose to make the artists name in black and white and again change certain letters to have different colours so they can be seen over the black and white clothing.

Photoshoot

It was a sunny April day so I decided it was the right time to take some pictures for my digipak. The outfit picked for my digipak was perfect therefore I only needed to stick with one. The only thing left to do was to get some pictures taken using great and effective camera angles.