The first magazine I looked at is 'Kerrang'. A previous cover can be seen below.
On the front cover we can see that this magazine leans towards pop rock. Straight away I can see that this isn't an appropriate choice for my chosen artist because D-Rey only makes rap music. I can see that this magazine in particular focuses on pop rock because the main band on the front is 'Fall Out Boy'. Also mentioned is 'My Chemical Romance' and 'Bullet for my Valentine'.
The next magazine is' Mixmag'. A cover can be seen below.
Looking at the cover of 'Mixmag' I can see that this magazine focuses on a mainly dance music. I can tell this straight away with the large picture of the popular DJ Scuba standing in front of some DJ equipment. Another thing that tells me that this is a magazine that focuses on dance music is the sentence at the top which reads 'The worlds biggest dance music and clubbing magazine'. This particular magazine will not be suitable to my chosen artist 'D-Rey' because he makes only rap music and is not in any way similar to any of the artists on the front of the magazine, Technimatic, Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox etc.
The next magazine is 'Q'.
From the first look at this magazine I tell that this magazine focuses on popular artists around a large variety of genres. There is the rock band 'Mumford and Sons', and rapper 'Kendrick Lamar' mentioned so this is what tells me the magazine doesn't focus on one main genre. This is the closest magazine so far that would feature my artist because of the large variety of music they cover but 'D-rey' is an upcoming artist so he most probably wouldn't be featured in this exact magazine.
This magazine 'XXL' is probably the most suitable for my chosen artist. It mainly focuses on rap and hip-hop which matches D-Rey's genre. I can tell this magazine focuses on rap because of the artists that are mentioned on the front cover. These include Kanye West, Dr Dre, Nicki Minaj etc.
Photoshop Practise
The perfect software to use to create and edit my CD Digi Pack is Photoshop. Because of this I have been practising different techniques to use for my front cover. A couple of examples are below.
This is the double exposure technique. I have added a picture of Mesut Özil and blended him in with a picture of Arsenal's home ground the Emirates Stadium. For my front cover of my digipack I could add a picture of my chosen artist and do the same effect with the skyline of London.
Another example of a photoshop technique I could use is the 'low poly effect'. An example that I made can be seen below.
This technique is not very suited to my genre so i think the double exposure technique is more likely to be the one that I choose for my CD Digi pack.
Another example of a photoshop technique I could use is the 'low poly effect'. An example that I made can be seen below.
This technique is not very suited to my genre so i think the double exposure technique is more likely to be the one that I choose for my CD Digi pack.
Music Magazine Practise
In my spare time I went on to photoshop and made a couple of practise adverts for various artists. This is very beneficial for me because when I come to make my own I will know where my strengths and weaknesses lie within photoshop and also what works best in terms of colours and effects specifically to my genre. My practise pieces can be seen below.
Planning
I looked at existing music magazine advertisements and then made my own which can be seen above. When I felt that I could create a professional looking advertisement I sketched out one for my chosen artist.
I asked people who enjoy the hip-hop genre of music if this design would appeal to them in terms of making them want to go out and buy the album. Overall it was fairly positive feedback so I decided to use this as my final design.
The main things that I added were the big bold font for the album title and artist name. I felt this was important because it is the main thing that everybody should be remembering when going out to find the album. The second most important thing was the large images of the artist. This is because in the hip-hop genre it is mostly the image of the artist as well as the music that is being advertised.
The next thing I added was the list of singles that had previously been released. This is because if someone had come across a single which they heard and liked, but didn't pick up the name of the artist, they can recognise the album and artist from seeing the singles along the side.
Next I added the 'OUT NOW' at the bottom. This is to let people know that the album has already been released and they can buy the album straight away.
Lastly I added a list of the social medias that the artist can be followed on. This is important because D-Rey's fans may want to keep up with him on Twitter or Instagram to see what he's up to and find out any information on upcoming songs or albums.
Construction
After I had sketched out my original idea I took the pictures I needed, opened up Photoshop and began to create my Music Magazine Advertisement.
I firstly opened up a template with the correct dimensions and guidelines then imported my images.
I noticed that my two images had a noticeable difference in contrast to I clicked on 'brightness and contrast' on the sidebar and increased the contrast of the image at the top.
I increased the contrast to 75 because I felt that this was the best level that made the two images look similar in terms of brightness and contrast.
Next I added a black box at the bottom of my image because it would make my white text stand out more than if it was on the original background. It is important that this part can be read clearly because people who want to get his album will need to know when they can get it.
Next I added the album title and artist name. This is important to be in big bold letters because it is meant to be the first thing you see when looking at the advertisement. This is because if someone see's the advertisement then wants to go out and buy the album, the artist and the album should be the only thing they need to remember.
Lastly I added the last two things which are the tracklist and the social medias. These are important so people can recognise the singles if they didn't pick up on the artist already and the social medias are so people can keep up with his life and get updates on new music.
After some small adjustments and finishing touches my finished Music magazine advertisement looked like this:
