Individual magazine advert - Miss Miller

I have created an individual magazine advert to represent the artist and genre in a way that will appeal to an audience and promote the song as well as the artist herself. The concept of creating an individual magazine advert means that each group member can compare, contrast and then combine ideas in order to create the best quality and most effective magazine advert for or artist as possible. A magazine advert serves the purpose of capturing the attention of the audience to make them interested into wanting to buy the album that the artist is releasing.

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Within my individual magazine advert I made the artists name white and bold in a capitalised font in order for the artists name to stand out and be one of the main focal points, the boldness can symbolise the importance of the artist. The album title is also in bold and a in the same font, this shows that the artist puts her music at an equal importance as herself, which is good promotion for both the artist and her music. The use of the colour white connotes the idea of purity which shows the audience that the artist has a sense of purity or innocence about her which is artist promotion. Thus opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation as white can represent a successful beginning, which therefore highlights the purity and freshness of the artist new in the music industry. The colour white however, subverts the indie genre as it is not individual or associated with nature, this causes the artist to become different to those others in the indie genre which would therefore make them more interesting and thus more appealing to the targeted audience. 

The image on my individual magazine advert is the use of a mid shot which shows the artist's face smoking and the top part of her body showing upper clothing. The use of this mid shot causes the artist to become the main focus as she is central which promotes her artist image even further. The mid shot is at a low angle showing the artist looking down at the camera which could show that she is representing herself as an idol to her fans of whom should look up to her as an independent and some what powerful female. The artist is also dressed in a vintage shirt and wears a floral head crown, back combed hair and 50s make up for example, nude lips to create a vintage old-style look. This causes the artist to be seen as an idol and makes her seem more important however, the effortless look causes her to become relateable to her audience as they may feel as though they can achieve this look themselves. Our artists appearance and overall image reflects her music within the album being promoted as they are both follow the conventions of the indie genre and are both a vintage type of style. The relation between the artist and her music shows the audience that she has a connection between her music and expresses it through the way she looks therefore making her more memorable.

Within the image used on the individual magazine advert the artist is seen to be holding a cigarette. This causes her to seem rebellious and not conforming to a typical feminine image which highlights her individuality. The cigarette links to negative habits that are typically portrayed within the indie genre as aspects of artists lives and usually explored.

The layout of my magazine advert includes the border of roses which links to the indie genre as it highlights the idea of the naturalistic theme and being associated and exploring nature. The use of the flower border links in with the image which shows the artist having flowers in her hair, this could mean that the artist is co-ordinated. Although there theme of nature through the use of flowers, the main focus is the artist acknowledging her importance and making her apparent to her audience and standing out within a magazine and receiving attention, which is a positive promotion tool. 

 The language used within the advert is short and colloquial/informal and doesn't take away attention from other key features such as the artist. This is shown through a shortened date, which can make it more memorable to the audience. Also, the phrase 'includes hit' gets to the point and expresses the successful song to viewers showing the artist's success and promotes individual songs to her fans, and highlighting a successful song to the public, which can causes them to purchase the album as other songs may be a success, also. Lastly, the advert also adds a website for the artist, giving fans an easy way keep up with their idol and giving new viewers an easy device to search and share her music. The use of a website is a positive promotion tool and causes the audience to feel connected to the artist and with each other. 

I used photoshop to create this magazine advert. I had many strengths when using this software, such as creating new layers to make the text and finding colours and the correct fonts that matched well with my chosen vintage theme, and I believe that this helped me create a more successful magazine advert as the text should stand out to the audience and I believe that the text I chose to incorporate through the use of this software is able to conform to the indie genre and make the advert more personal from the artist to fans for example the use of type written wording. However, I did struggle with the editing of pictures to make the font more prominent to overcome this, I would change the colour of the text or I would change the filter of the photo for example, the hue/contrast/brightness.

I overall believe that my advert conforms to the indie genre conventions due to mise en scene for example, the costume that the artist is wearing such as vintage clothes and make up and setting as an example, as artists within the indie genre are typically shown within a naturalistic background. I believe that this advert appeals to my chosen target audience as every aspect was chosen in great detail to make the audience bond with the artist for example, cinematography as the artist looks down at the audience creating a person connection and involving them into what she is doing. Fundamentally, I believe that creating an individual magazine cover will help ensure that my group will produce a final successful cover as we will meet and discuss any positive features within each and how the will be incorporated into one, the representation of the artist and indie genre will be taken mostly into account and how the audience will react to them.

Individual Digipak - Miss Miller

I have created an individual digipak because digipaks are useful in providing the audience with a bonus as digipaks are a special edition album which provides more information about the artist which therefore builds more of a relationship between the audience and our artist. Digipaks differ from a jewel CD case as it includes more of a design within the digipak to make it more appealing to the audience which can include more images of the artist  which are of higher quality. In addition I have created a digipak to give the audience more of an insight and to bring more information across about the artist so the fans can get to know them and their personal life. This can make the fans feel more connected to the audience as though they know them personally along with the meanings behind their songs.

The colours I used within my digipak are to represent the artist as well as our chosen music genre and also to convey different meanings behind our artist and their music. The colour pink is used on my digipak as this is the colour of the roses on the front cover border around the image of our artist. The clothes are also pink in order to colour co-ordinate showing the artist is co-ordinated and also to convey the idea of romance or love which links in with thier music therefore letting the audience in on what the artist is about. In one of the extra pictures included within my digipak the artist is seen to be wearing blue which is the color of the sky and sea so is often associated with depth and stability, as well as symbolizing trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence intelligence etc which therefore shows artist promotion with a positive effect, which also widens the perspective the audience has on her. The majority of the text  within my digipak is white this includes the artists name and the albums name as it helps them stand out and become more highlighted which overall causes them to become more vivid which can be identified more easily by the audience and making the artist and the album name more recognisable or memorable.

The coventions of the indie genre within my digipak include the positioning of the name of our artist which is located on the top of the front cover above the image of the artist which created a relation between the text and the image.The image is posisitioned central of the front cover of the digipak and is a close-up of the artist. By making the name and image a focus on my digipak it emphasises the aritsts importance which makes her more recognisable to the audience as they can put a name to the face of her music. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists are unique and by focusing the audience on the artists image and her name they are able to gain an insight into the unique feautres that the artist obtains. Within the image the artist is looking straight into the camera, causing her to look confident and makes the audience feel as though the artist is looking straight at them which thefore builds a relationship between the two. This is conventional to the indie genre as confidence conveys the individual characteristics that the artist witholds. Within the image the artists make up is seen to be natural and her hair has a flower crown in it, this follows the conventions of the indie genre as indie artists are typically associated with nature or flowers. Within some of the images I included within my digipak the iconography of a cigarette is used which follows Dyer's star theory as the artist comes across as rebellious which is again conventional to indie genre as indie artists often confidently express their bad habbits which include smoking, drinking alcohol and taking drugs as this can often be associated with their type of music and what they are expressing through it. This can also be relateable to the audience as the majority of of our artists audience is youthful and older teenagers of whom could be going through their rebellious careless stage within their life. In addition the indie genre is highlighted within the images ifo the artist is seen to be wearing unique clothes that are retro and vitange that would often be associated with the 70's. These vintage elements causes her look and overall appearance to become more interesting and iconic towards the audience which promotes the artist positively making her more appealing towards the audience.


The design and layout of the image includes the use of naturalisitc background of pink flowers to associate the artist with purity and the idea of blossoming as well as linking her to the indie genre. The use of a park and trees within some of the images are used to make the pictures more unique which conforms to the indie genre as artists within this genre typically use naturalistic settings.The use of this flower border makes the artist more focal which therefore highlights the importance of the artist even further, causing her audience to would look at her. The colouring connotes love and purity causing the audience to link these connotations to the artist making them feel as though they know more about her. This makes the audience feel more engaged to the artist as it creates a more personal feel to it.

The artist's name is written in bold, black writing at the top of the front cover on the border of the flowers in order to stand out above the background it is placed infront of. This causes the name to stand out and make it recognisable to the the public, promoting the artist by linking her name to her face.

The elements that I chose to include within my digipak used within this digipak also connote varying messages. I included a note to fans to create a personal element, which also links to the use of the roses on the front cover which can connote love for her fans or even for a lover/partner. Pink roses are used on the cd cover which was an influence from Lana Del Rey which connotes the theme of love and beauty, linking to song titles and the title of the album, as the artist can possibly reflect on her love life and also makes it more relateable to the audience as they may be in a relationship and could find a relationship with the artist through this.
I used photoshop software to create my digipak. I believe that this software had many benefits in order to create a successful digipak. An example of this is the editing of pictures, I believe that I was able to edit pictures of the artist in a positive way for example, changing the brightness and applying filters without making the artist to highlight different aspects of the artist more efficiently. However I did struggle with using some tools within Photoshop for example, applying the skull pictures on to the cd. Initially, I wanted to apply a different image alltogether to fit into the circle however, I found the cutting tools difficult to use. To overcome this, I cropped around a skull face to compramise with the indie genre idea which I think creates more depth as opposed to my original ideas.