Album Advertisement

After researching and decided on an Album advertisement as a good way of including more images/models, I have decided to take an image of another school friend who volunteered to be a model for me in this, of whom again I chose to fit within my style and genre, again focusing on wardrobe, hair, make-up and pose etc.

However firstly I researched into existing album covers to gain an initial knowledge. Here i collected a few images of these to develop this...

After looking at images of initial album covers, I have viewed a range of styles and effects of the appearance of a cover, and its importance on how it is the portrayal and exposed advertisement for the whole album itself, revealing it to be a crucial participation to the campaign and sales of any artists latest tracks.
I then went on to look into 'Indie' artists album covers. As it being the genre of my magazine, using similar styles and replicating conventions of these will ensure what i make would surpass as a suitable Indie album.

Within these images, the use of subtle muted colours shows to be apparent through not only Indie magazines but throughout all of an Indie artists work. Again photography and art work seem to be a crucial part within the appearance of the covers, showing focus on using Indie models, through pose, wardrobe, setting etc (all things I have identified I need to consider). Also a majority of the Covers, have a photograph of the artist on the cover. This shows to be an effective way of branding the artist through all different types of media conventions such as album covers, magazine's, and other products e.g perfume. The titles of the album's are again simple, and show to have link to the artist for example, 'Bright Lights' by Ellie Goulding, is a catchy and 'cool' title, of which would be suitable for the age group of her target audience.

After taking a few shots I decided on this image to be used within my magazine...

I chose this image, because again it has a natural saturation within the colours, which is a convention of the 'Indie' genre, Also because of the lighting effects and how a spotlight effect was created from the flash, it also represents other album covers well and could defiantly see it used on an existing album. The subtle pose gives an effect engaging final image, which i would also be happy with to put alongside my original images and feel they would suit well and not look different styles. I specifically chose this image, as i feel the simple background wont over shadow or clash with the other images on the page, and the close up of the model, showing emphasis on it being their album cover and linking to close ups of existing artists album cover shots.

The first thing i did to the image was decide on a name for the album. After considering my research i gained going back to the Ellie Goulding comment, i decided on a choice of two: Young Love and Loosing Faith. Both simple and catchy, suitable for the artists target audience of a younger age group and effective for an Album. However i feel 'Young Love', is the stronger choice, of which i can now go onto making the title for it.

I chose to make the title simply through 'Publisher', text box, as within my research simple fonts and colours were used as titles. However changing the font to suit the style and image I feel is necessary. I also gave the artist a name, I chose Imogen Maher asb I feel it was a cool and quircky name suitable for an Indie artist.

I then experimented with the fonts available within Publisher, of which I finalised on Monotype Corsvia. This was a simple font yet still giving that edge, suiting the artist and there personality coming through within the image, being an innocent flirty and 'girly' looking style font, of which also links back to the Indie genre and the title of the album 'Young Love'.

After choosing a font, i also experimented with the colour of the photo. Black and White has always been a traditional and common way of making something look more Indie or to generally give it more of a style/ interesting photographic look. However as I have to consider my original images I feel a black and white image amongst them may stand out a bit too much so will use the more effective colour shot.

 I then decided on changing the colour of the title. Just to add another interesting and engaging feature to the Cover. The colour red is what most people would commonly associate with the word 'Love', so I created the font of just this red, as an experiment to see what it would come out like. I really like this change to the Cover and feel it an effective way of making it more interesting with even more uses of skill and knowledge developed into, yet still reflecting the laid back simple look.

I then decided to add a bare code to the cover, a few of the covers I researched showed to have bar codes at the front, of which i thought i would include onto mine just to add another convention to the cover, adding to the realism, and effect or it being an existing magazine including in this case, an existing artist with a real album. I then chose to place it in the corner not distracting from any key features of the Album eg the photo or the title.

I also discovered through research other conventions to include, were things such as 'Volume 1' or 'Volume 2' etc. In this case I decided to make my artist a new and recent artist and inclue a Volume 1, of which would be the first half of a double album. I decided to put this on the edge of the cover again to keep focus on the key features.

Here is a picture of the final Album Cover I have created of which I will put on my Original magazine...