(AT2) My Initial Magazine Adverts

I initially started with these two designs, after asking various members of my media group, almost 9/10 agreed that design one looked more professional and realistic, they also said that it connected with the layout and style of the actual Digipack much more.

 So with this I then took the original design and edited various arts to create these various designs for my magazine advertisement:

Overall many preferred the final design the most, I also agree as it is much more vibrant and vivid, it come across much more appealing I feel, the pale faded background used on the others did not do the text and the image justice. 

(AT2) Colour Schemes Of Magazine Adverts

I also after researching layout of these advertisements, researched the colour schemes etc. of them before I began making my own: 

(AT2) Layout Of Magazine Adverts

With my magazine cover advertisement completed I decided I would also like to create a full page advertisement for the digipack that would appear in the magazine itself. To create this I first researched the layout of these kind of magazine advertisements:

(AT2) Feedback From My Magazine

I posted my magazine cover onto Facebook as this is a very fast way to gather feedback and is also filled with members of my target audience, I asked them for any relevant feedback on my cover and how I could possibly improve it:

(AT2) My Photos

Through research of existing magazines featuring band photos, I have selected my photos I will be using when making my magazine advertisement:

I have selected this photo as my main cover image from an existing set of photos I had, I chose this photo in particular as through researching magazine band photos I found that when band members were featured on a cover of a magazine they were almost always separated with camera distances, clothes, lighting or the level each of them are at, this photo fits those conventions with each band member at different levels, this also allows me to place puffs around in a similar way. 

These were concert photos I had previously taken and had decided to use in my magazine cover as free gig posters:

(AT2) Magazine Photo Research

When I was looking at photos of other music magazine similar to my own, I found that when a magazine is using a band image, a common convention seems to separate the band members in some way, either by distance from the camera, levels from one another:

 

Many magazines I researched when featuring band photos would rarely place each of the band members at the same level or equal distance from the camera, even if they were placed on the same level and distance they would be made to contrast each other with either lighting or costume, so it was apparent that separating and contrasting band members in a photo is important.  This is something I will take into consideration when I am photographing my own band members.

(AT2) Final Magazine Layout Design

After drafting some initial designs, I was much more set on where I would like certain things to be placed on the page and how they would work best, with all this in mind I then designed my overall final idea on Photoshop:

(AT2) Initial Cover Designs

From these rough initial design I found that I much prefer my masthead to be placed in the top left as opposed to the center, I think that with it being only 4 characters long it shouldn't be spread out too much across the top of the page, I feel it works best in the left hand corner. I also feel that my puffs should be kept all to one side of the magazine in order to follow the image, rather than some on the left and some the right. Also I feel with everything else on the page being horizontal, having the main story title diagonal really made it stand out on the page. 

(AT2) Masthead Designs

I have created various masthead designs for my magazine on Photoshop:

My favourite of those I created was design 2, I felt that it was the most professional looking design and also the least confusing, the rest of the designs I feel are too overwhelming as a masthead, which are designed to be simple and not over power the rest of the magazine cover. Where as design 2 is basic but still innovative.

(AT2) Magazine Names

Here are my initial magazine name ideas:

My Chosen magazine name is Idle, I feel this is a suitable name, as it has it represents the magazine as being the idol of all other similar magazines, but is spelt differently to also represent the laziness and idleness of the typical target audience - teenagers. 

(AT2) Magazine Colour Scheme & Masthead Research

I have researched and studied the masthead designs and colour schemes of some popular magazines, I have chosen to only look at these particular three magazines as they are the most popular and well known music magazines so it would be most useful for me to see what the typical design and colour schemes are used on their covers, or if any colour schemes are used at all and most of all what effect the design and colour schemes have on their audiences.

From looking specifically at masthead designs I have found that, it is important to make sure the masthead is not over complicated, although one of the most important things on a cover it cannot distract the reader, a minimum of two colours are to be used in a masthead to create a professional look, most typical colours used in mastheads are black white and red. It is important to keep a balance between it being simple and hectic. Many logos will have one feature that makes them different and makes it more appealing, for example the kerrang logo is simply white or black block letter but then featured the cracked pattern over the top, but that is it any more would overcrowd it. The NME is also simply red block lettering but then has a black border to make it different. When creating my own masthead this is a technique I will use, making my masthead simply at first and then adding one possibly two small alterations to make it more appealing. I also found that some mastheads sometimes invert their colours with different issues like both kerrang and NME; this is something I would consider with my own magazine.

From looking at the colour schemes, I found that overall colour schemes very drastically form magazine to magazine some are simple with one basic colour other feature one or two very bright vivid colour but there were a few clear similarities between them. I found most importantly that the colour schemes must reflect one the genre of the magazine, e.g. dark colours such as black and grey be used on a pop or more upbeat indie magazine.  These common colour schemes of a magazine cover often come from the magazines logo, shown in the Q colour scheme coming from the Q logo of red and white this is also true for the NME logo, it wouldn’t be appropriate to have a blue logo and a colour scheme of yellow and red. This is something I need to be aware of when creating my own cover, that my logo colours and magazine link. It was also apparent that not overcrowding the cover with colour is important, sticking to a set colour scheme is vital, one or two colours should only really be used to not confuse the audience. I also found that the colour schemes are sometimes linked to the artist featured in that issue for example, green day a green and yellow colour scheme was used. This is something that will help me create a better magazine cover; I can now make sure my bands identity is shown on my cover through the colour used.

(AT2) Magazine Cover Analysis

(AT1) Inspiration For Disk

The inspiration for my disk design came from one of my own CDs:

I really liked this idea of cutting images into strips to merge into one image, I thought it was a very interesting and eyecatching design, it was also very similar to my cover design of taking strips and sections of other images to recreate another so would assure continuity throughout the whole digipack.

(AT1) Disk Impression

I have recently designed using Photoshop what the disk of the album would look like based o the theme of the digipack cover and inside:

To make this disk, I cut our part of the various photos I had taken for my digipack cover, in a similar way to the actually digipack cover, I placed different sections of each picture into a big collage of different size and coloured images, here it is:

Once I had filled the whole of the shape, I used the tools on Photoshop to cut out a circle shape for the disk:

(AT1) The Making Of My Digipack

To gain a better perspective of what my digipack would look like, I decided to print off the digipack and make it along with a brief impression of how the inside would look and the components it would have:

 Here on the inside of the digipack you can see there is a small pocket in the left of the disk, here is where a small booklet containing band information, song lyrics and a free poster would go. I decided this would be a good way to increase sales as many consumers now dont just buy CDs for the CD but for the whole thing as a package, they want the covers that come with it, the booklets and the sneak previews to information on the band.

Here is also a mock up of the poster that would be included in the digipack:

(AT1) YouTube Advert

(AT1) iTunes Advert

I have produced a mock up of an iTunes advert I might use when advertising and distributing my Digi-pack, with the advance in technology and the increase of more and more music being downloaded than bought in store, I felt an iTunes Advertisement would be suitable: