A2 Magazine Advert: Plans

Just as before with the digipak, I am going to be using the programme Fireworks CS4. This is because I am now more familiar with it and my digipak turned out well. I have decided to do my third design of the magazine advert that was inspired by the "Good Charlotte" Advert.

Fonts: I am planning to use "Arial Rounded" to reproduce the HMV logo and "Arial" for the XL recordings logo. It goes to show how easy it is to create a simple, popular logo.

Colours: I will be using free images from the same website as before to keep with the theme of collage and fabric.

Images: The free images that I will use will be exactly the same as those used for the digipak. This will make both products more recognisable to each other and hopefully help potential buyers with remembering it.

A2 Magazine Advert: Mock up of Advert

Below is one of my ideas. I have taken the title "Vampire Weekend" from the CD cover. From my deconstructions, I discovered what needed to be on each advert. Below includes all the typical conventions such as band name, album name, C cover, release date etc... To make these I used MS paint just to get an idea of what it may look like. I have decided to eliminate this idea as it is a little unoriginal. It was also not very challenging, I have achieved quite a good look using such a simple programme:

A2 Magazine Advert: Initial Ideas

After deconstructing the magazine advert, I have used them as a template to help create my own magazine advert. Here are my ideas:

This first idea has been inspired by the +44 magazine advert. I have planned pictures, the band title, album name, the CD cover, release date, song name, where it is available, the website, record label and a promotional free poster. Although this included absolutely everything, I am not sure on the use of photographs or the layout. I feel that added photos will take the focus away from the digipak.
The second design I like much more, it includes everything the previous one has to offer except a promotional gift or the website. The layout looks more conventional and is easier to understand. However, it is missing the website so if i developed this further, I would add it.

This is my favourite design inspired by the "Good Charlotte" advert. I really liked how they're advert was their CD cover with an extension to the design at the bottom. I have done this to my CD cover but added the song, album name, artist name, website, where it is available, the record label and when it is available. It includes everything that is expected from a magazine article and will be quite easy to achieve as I will have the advert already completed.

A2 Magazine Advert: Advert Deconstructions

Below are a range of magazine adverts for CDs taken form Kerrang! Magazine. I have deconstructed them to help inspire me:

A2 Magazine Advert: About

Similar to the digipak, another part of our brief was to design a magazine advert that would accompany the digipak. The purpose of the magazine advert is to persuade. It should promote the digipak/CD's that we created for "Vampire Weekend." Before I start, I know that I need to include the following:

Name of Band: Vampire Weekend
Album Name: Contra
Release Date: Now!
What's on it: Cousins
Where is it available: HMV

When receiving feedback from the music video, viewers suggested that the music video could be played on Kerrang! Fortunately, I have a large collection of these magazines so will look at some existing magazine adverts to begin developing my ideas.

A2 Digipak: Final Digipak

After finishing the panels to a satisfactory level, I placed them onto the digipak template. This is the final result:

A2 Digipak: Final Panels

Below are my final panels.

Front cover:
This partially complies with the conventions of existing products. I had originally planned to include both the artist and album name on the front cover. However, during the process I thought the piece was more aesthetically pleasing without it. I am surprised with the results as this was my first attempt.. I have succeeded in making my CD cover bright, colourful and attractive. However, If was to do it again, I would maybe use more masculine colours. I used a combination of pink and blue to address both genders but the pink is a little over powering. Overall, I think that the composition works.

Inside Left and Center:
I think the contrast of the black and white photo with the colourful collage background works well. The photographs add a more personal feel to the digipak whilst also maintaining professionalism. We were careful with the photos we took, this means that every "pose" is intentional to give this image. I also feel that I have successfully kept the theme strong throughout.

Inside Right:

This panel is for the CD, I ave kept it simple ads it will be blocked by a CD. However, I have still maintained the theme so that when the CD is removed, the digipak still looks nice.

Extra Panel:

Similar to existing products, I used this extra panel for special thanks. This is where I put Chris, our main actor, Freddie and myself. Although I haven't put the record label but I think that this works well as an extra panel. It is also a typical convention.

Back Cover:
My back cover is supposed to represent a track list. Our teacher suggested that we should put the contents of the actual CD so it is for that reason, that I have done it. This includes the artist name, the song title, what is on the disc and my candidate number.

The same fonts, styles, colours, tools and free images have been used throughout.

A2 Digipak: Process

I created the other five panels in exactly the same way. The difference however is that it took less time due to being more familiar with the programme. And I included photographs. To add a bit of variety to my editing, I decided to edit the photos using google image software Picasa:

This image was changed to black and white and I played around with the highlights and shadows. It is a simple programme which was sufficient for what I wanted from it.

A2 Digipak: Process

In lesson and over the Christmas holidays I have been working on my digpak.

Step One: I decided to do all my six panels as separate images, then place them onto the template I found. I started with the front cover. When opening the programme, it asks you for the image attributes, for this, I selected 1000x1000 pixels to make a square. Because I knew what patterns and images I vaguely wanted, I searched for them on online free image websites such as www.freeimages.co.uk.

Step Two: Once I had the images I wanted, I save them and one by one I imported them into the programme. To create the effects I wanted I used the tools: pointer, lasso, and pen tool mainly. I was now at the stage where I could enhance the image.

Step Three: To enhance and improve the image, I decided to use drop shadows to create the illusion that the image was made of real materials.

This entire process took a lot of patience as I was not familiar with the programme and it consisted mostly of trial and error. My image consists of many layers, this is what I found most difficult. For example, I would press delete thinking it was going to remove one thing, when in fact I had other layers selected. This was frustrating to begin with but I am very pleased with the result.

After all of this, I then added the text. "Vampire" I made using the pen tool so that it had more o a freehand look and feel to it. The "Weekend" part was using the text "Arial" with an added drop shadow. I also repositioned the lettering. I am very happy with the outcome despite the long, frustrating process.