Magazine ad process and alternative cover design

Magazine ad process

Above is an image showing the development of my magazine ad via photoshop. Firstly I developed the overall compostion of the ad and then applied my album artwork via a layer mask. The next stage was applying type and other graphical elements such as the retro rainbow pattern which was developed by layering different coloured vector rectangles together. I then went onto adding details such as the record label and distributor logo to which I also edited to fit in with the overall theme of the ad. Additionally as I was developing my ad I found some that I had some unwanted empty space to which I filled with lorem ipsum (dummy text) to serve as a place holder until I could work out what I wanted said text to say.

Finally after working I then added a distressed paper texture to age the look of the design to make it look more "retro".

When working on the ad I also slightly edited my album art to fit more with the overall theme of the ad however, I like the look of this edit that I decided to experiment with said edit and see if I could develop this into some sort of alternative cover of sorts.

Original on left, ALT on right

In the alternate cover I have adjusted the type of Burnin fever to make it more readable as well as add in a more darker atmosphere as originally planned to which I feel does a better job in drawing viewers attention towards the robots identity. The only problem I have with this alternate design is it seem a bit too dark to convey a electronic album as compared to the more vibrant look of the original. I am currently debating whether this alternative cover should serve as the main final cover or perhaps if I had the resources and time make some sort of "special edition" digipak which features like an extra track or two as well as a cover which changes when you view it from another direction which I believe is described as a lenticular cover based on this link here.

Below is how I would envision how this could look

I like how it seems like the image glitches out - this would work well in further exploring the glitch aesthetics of my music video

 

Magazine ad

Magazine ad

Above is a draft design of my magazine ad. After researching fonts via pinterest and fonts in use, I decided to use the font named "harry" since from my research I had found was used in many 70's/80's graphics. By using said font I intended to convey a retro 80's type of computer ad look to my magazine ad in order to both use the visual convention of alluding to the 1980's found within my chosen genre but also to keep with the computer theme based themes of my digipak.

In the ad itself, to keep the retro theme consistent I also adjusted the apple logo in the "available on iTunes" graphic to look like the second apple logo used during the late 70's and throughout the 80s.

Finally, while developing my digital draft I had found that unlike my plan there was a large amount of unwanted empty space in between the release date and title of the album. So to fill said empty space using what I had learnt I decided to including fake quotes and external promotions playing on album ad conventions in order  to reference my music video's humouress tone as well as reference two prominent lyrics and people such as Alan Partridge and Frank Sinatra in the print ad thus improving synergy between products.

Draft version of Magazine ad + fonts I would like to use

Draft maga from wolfgang13

Above is a slide share presentation of a draft version of what I would like the outcome of my magazine ad to look like. Please could you full screen and zoom in using slide share to examine my annotation if need be. Annotation circled in red " Extra type" refers to the inclusion of a small statement on the album art to further convey this "retro computer ad" look to the graphic.

Said statement as of now is likely to be "and the electrifying synthetic sounds of burnin fever". This statement is intentionally to be, sort of "chessy" to not only convey a retro tone but also convey the humorous tone of the music video attached to the digipak and thus carry on the synergy between the products.

Below is a pinterest board of fonts and graphics that I have examined for potential use for my ad to convey this retro tone.

Sketches for magazine ad

Sketches for magazine ad

 

 

After establishing a theme I would like to explore and developing a mood board for said theme for my magazine ad below are a range of sketches planning out the look of my magazine ad for my digipak.





Magazine advertisement idea + mood board

Magazine advertisement idea + mood board

After researching Magazine advertisements for Digipaks in terms of design and layout I had found that many of these covers would either feature the main artwork of the front cover of the Digipak as the central image of the advert to allow for magazine readers who are most likely to miss the ad to instantly be engaged in the image as well as quickly understand what they are purchasing or feature a minimised version of the album art in order to not only engage readers via its imagery but also fit more information about the viewers potential future purchase. Other features noticed would be the use of a Z formation format or a listing format in terms of organising elements. Normally this would consist of artists name top and centre, album artwork, release date and then extra information such as distributors, record label and artists website.

However for my magazine advertisement I would like to use these element but rather stylise my magazine advertisement in the form of retro computer ads to keep with the retro computer theme established by the draft artwork and design of my digipak so far. This I feel will keep strong synergistic qualities towards both products similar to the relationship between other digipak and magazine ad products as well convey a tech look to both of my products which should in turn make use of my chosen genres visual convention of technology based motifs and thus communicate the genre to audiences stylistically and effectively. However, one problem I do face when exploring this style is the possibility in creating confusion in the type of product being sold to audiences. I need to make sure I blend the best of both styles in order for this to convey this style of advertisement without loosing the main purpose of the graphic.

 Below is a mood board of the graphics I wish to use as inspiration.

I have noticed a lot of these ads are very text based and tend to feature the use of borders around the main product they are selling and then feature information about the product outside these borders. To communicate a retro design for my magazine ad, firstly I may wish to find similar retro fonts used in these ads as well as adopt the border based approach seen throughout. As of now I feel that adopting the text based style of these ads wouldn't fit my own product as too much information may overwhelm those examining the product as well as any extra information other than title and release date, distributors, label and awards etc. would be pointless and irrelevant in achieving the purpose of a magazine ad for a digipak, which is to sell