A2 Media Studies Advanced Portfolio: March 2017

Ancillaries: Hardcopy Of Ancillaries

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Ancillaries: Final Ancillaries

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Ancillary 2: Creating The Advert

To create my magazine advert these are the steps that I followed.

Firstly I opened up the outline of the hands and flowers out into photoshop. I also opened up the photoshop file of the Digipak so I could copy some layers.

The first thing I did was create a new document that was roughly A4 size. Then I colour matched it to the same mustard colour used for my Digipak and filled it in using the paint bucket tool

I then brought in the design of the hands and I created two layers of the hand artwork, one being flipped vertically. I then positioned them coming from each side of the poster. I made sure the hands themselves met in a central composition and so they looked as if they were almost reaching for each other.

Then I copied the title layer from the Digipak document and added it into this document. I positioned it in the corner similar to where it was on my Digipak.

Then I added the reference to a new album by writing out 'THE BRAND NEW ALBUM' using a text box. I made the font bold and capitalized so it stood out to follow a common convention of album adverts.

Then below the hands I added the date of the album release in a similar style font below the hands. I spaced out each charecter similar to the title as I wanted to create variety and draw attention to the title. I also made sure this was bigger than the other text.

I thought the design was a bit plain so I added in one flower to begin with to see where it would look good, I played around with it and decided to place it so the hands looked like they were coming out of the flowers.

I also did the same with the other hand and added another flower design to add some consistency.

I wanted to add some more flowers but didn't want to overcrowd the hands so I placed some near the album title.

After this I was finally happy with my advert for the album and think it looked very authentic. I kept to common conventions such as release date, album art, band title and reference to an album release however excluded some elements such as institution logo and website as I wanted to follow a simple design due to my genre. I also wanted to keep it simple so it was more similar to my album cover.

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Ancillary 2: Advert Design Ideas

For the design of my advert I wanted to follow a conventional advert design. This includes imagery from the album cover, the artist name and title of the album. They also have an album release date and information about the institution and other promotional details like a website.

For my main imagery on my advert I want to include the album art from the cover and encorporate the same colour scheme of mustard, black and white.

I also wiat to encorpoarate the smae imagery on my album cover which is the outlie of the hands and the theme of flowers. I won't follow the exact design on the album cover and will play around with the positioning of hands and flowers.

Overall I want to keep a pretty simple design to my magazine advert such as this one by Arctic Monkeys for their album AM. I want to introduce a simple design, and a little amount of information or text to keep the focus on the imagery and design as it will further emphasize the appeal of the artist and create a recognizable motif. The ratio of background to text will focus more heavily on the background and I want to include as little information as possible and only keep critical details on the album release.

Although I am planning on following the template of a conventional magazine advert, I will change my dsign up a little bit and include the title of the album and the artist together as I did on my album cover. This is in order to keep some consistency within the image of my band and follow stereotypical conventions of the indie genre and many indie covers also combine artists and album names.

I will also include a line that indicates that it is an album advert such as 'New Album' or 'The Brand New Album' which is s typical convention of magazine adverts such as this one by coldplay. I will also include a date of release which is crucial information for my audience.

Overall I will be following many typical conventions of a magazine advert however I will exclude some elements of the conventional design and intend to keep my design as simple and minimalist as possible following a similar design to my album cover.

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Ancillary Research 2: Advert Analysis 3

Background info

Born to Die is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey. Her major label debut, it was released on January 27, 2012 by Interscope Records, Polydor Records and Stranger Records. Del Rey collaborated with producers including Patrik Berger, Jeff Bhasker, Chris Braide, Emile Haynie, Justin Parker, Rick Nowels, Robopop and Al Shux to achieve her desired sound. Their efforts resulted in a primarily baroque poprecord, which sees additional influences from alternative hip hop, indie pop and trip hop music. The cover for Born to Die was photographed by Nicole Nodland, while Del Rey and David Bowden oversaw the overall direction for its packaging. On behalf of Complex, Dale Eisinger ranked the cover eighth on the magazine's list of "The 50 Best Pop Album Covers of the Past Five Years", commending its usage of the typeface Steelfish and speaking favorably of the "ominous" feeling it evoked, which she credited to "the shadows or whatever the shapes in the background are [and] how properly Lana can affect her detached and still-flawless persona to a simple gaze". Its track listing was announced on January 9, 2012, while the record itself was released on January 31 in the United States; it became her major-label debut after securing a distribution arrangement with Interscope Records.

Main image

The main image is Lana Del Rey, who is the artist of the album which is a common feature of magazine adverts as it helps with the promotion of the artist's image. Here Lana has delicate hair and makeup which promotes the idea of innocence along with her wearing white. However this is contrasted by the red lipstick she is wearing which is suggesting promiscuity. The whole look of her pays homage to the 1960s which is a feature of her image as she is known as being an indie and slightly old fashioned artist in both her dress and music. The image also has a blue toned filter applied to it which again gives the image a vintage and outdated look. the image is in central composition which draws attention to the artist. It is also the same image from her album cover.

Layout

The layout follows conventions of other magazine adverts where we see the artist in central composition and the name of the artist directly above them. We have the name of the album just underneath where her shirt is. Directly below this is information on release such as dates and features.

Overall the layout of this is very simple and conventional and very simple to read and follow. The ratio of image to text focuses heavily on the image which again draws attention to the artist and image of the artist.

Title/font

Both titles on the advert are the same size and font and are both capitalised. This makes the important information on the advert stand out. The only difference between the titles is their colour, the name of the artist is white - contrasting with the blue background and the name of the album is blue - contrasting with the white shirt. Both follow the same colour scheme which is blue and white which keeps some consistency within the advert. The colours relate to the main image which is Lana outdoors and link to the colour of the clouds in the sky.

The other font here is information on release dates and features which is in a smaller and different font. This attracts less attention to this information and draws more attention to the image of the artist and album. This is also blue which contrasts with the white background and fits in with the colour scheme.

Colour scheme

The colour scheme consists of many colours that compliment each other. We have the blue colour complimenting the white, the orange complimenting the red and the black which is highlighting shadows in the actual photograph. These colours also add to the theme and image of the artist as they as quite archaic colours to use for contemporary music. All of these colours work together to create a vintage look to the artist and help promote the indie music Lana is well known for.

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Ancillary Research 2: Advert Analysis 2

The second advert I analysed was Ed Sheehan's concert/CD advert.

Background info

Ed Sheeran was born in February 1991 in Halifax, England. He began playing guitar at a young age and soon after started writing his own songs. When he was just a teenager, he moved to London to pursue his music, and his outpouring of creativity added up to several early EPs and hundreds of live shows. Getting a lot of attention with his online performances, Sheeran hit No. 1 on the iTunes chart before he ever signed with a record label. Since signing with Atlantic, Sheeran has sold millions of records, had a song appear in the second installment of The Hobbit trilogy and won a Grammy for Song of the Year, specifically for the Top 5 hit "Thinking Out Loud."

Main image

The main image consists of a black and white image of Ed Sheeran holding a cat. It is on a white background which draws attention to the main subject of the photo which is Ed. The imagery of him holding a cat relates to his image as a songwriter as he is a very well known cat lover and eunthusiast. It portrays him as a caring individual and shows his diversity in his music as it is quite a carefree image and isn't serious. The cat in the image is actually his own rescued cat which makes the image more personal, which again may be a reason why it is also black and white. The black and white also highlights a sense of nostalgia which is a common theme in his music.

Title

The main title is his name handwritten, which is very similar to his signature. This again adds a personal element to the advert. Is also inconsistent in size and style which again makes it more carefree. The colour is black which fits in with the theme of the imagery and contrasts against the white background.

Layout
The layout of the advert is very simple, with the main image of Ed in central composition and his name positioned directly above. Extra information on his tour is positioned below his name and positioned to the right hand side to add extra information.
The date of the tour is in the bottom left hand corner which doesn't follow the conventional advert design but instead draws attention more to the main image. Overall the ratio of text to background is heavily balanced on the background side so we see less text and more of the image. By having an advert more focused on an image of an artist is makes it more authentic and less commercialised which adds to Ed's humble image.

Font

The other font on this advert is the dates of his concert. It is capitalised which draws attention to it and in a consistent font. The sizing however varies and we see the date in a bigger font than the location info. This again adds more emphasis to the important details of the poster. The colour of the font is also black which contrasts the background and therefore draws more attention.

Colour Scheme

The colour scheme for this advert is very simple and all in greyscale. We see more of a contrast in the black and white image and more of an emphasis to black and white tones. As mentioned before, by having a black and white or greyscale theme in a advert highlights a personal element to the artist and music and emphasises a common theme in Ed's music which is nostalgia and memories.

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Ancillary Research 2: Advert Analysis 1

The first advert analysis I did was Arcade Fire's magazine advert for their album 'Neon Bible'.

Background Info

Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band based in Montreal, Quebec,[1][3] consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, along with Win's younger brother William Butler, Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member Sarah Neufeld, frequent collaborator Owen Pallett, two additional percussionists, Diol Edmond and Tiwill Duprate, and saxophonists Matt Bauder and Stuart Bogie.

Founded in 2001 by friends and classmates Win Butler and Josh Deu, the band came to prominence in 2004 with the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Funeral. Their second studio album, Neon Bible, won them the 2008 Meteor Music Award for Best International Album and the 2008 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. Their third studio album, The Suburbs, was released in 2010 to critical acclaim and commercial success.[4] It received many accolades, including the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year, the 2011 Juno Award for Album of the Year, and the 2011 Brit Award for Best International Album. In 2013, Arcade Fire released their fourth album, Reflektor, and scored the feature film Her, for which band members William Butler and Owen Pallett were nominated in the Best Original Score category at the 86th Academy Awards. All four of their studio albums have received nominations for the Best Alternative Music Album Grammy; the band's work has also been named three times as a shortlist nominee for the Polaris Music Prize: in 2007 for Neon Bible, in 2011 for The Suburbs and in 2014 for Reflektor, winning the award for The Suburbs.

Main Image

The main image consists of neon lighting that make up bibles and a border. The neon lights are different colours, the covers of the bible are red and the insides are white and blue. The border around these bibles is made up of white neon lights. The imagery of the bible is significant as it relates to the name of the album which is 'Neon Bible' which is also why neon lights are used - adding to the appeal of the album. The background is black which helps to illuminate the neon and draw more attention to the imagery.

Title

On this magazine advert we have two titles, the band name and the album name. The band name 'Arcade Fire' is also made up of neon lights and being white and capitalised - helps it to stand out. The actual font itself looks quirky and almost handwritten as letters vary in stroke and size which relates to the genre of Indie.

The name of the album however is not made up of wire which makes it stand out as it is not consistent with the rest of the design and is white which contrasts with the black background. Unlike the band name the font is consistent between letters as they are all capitalised, have the same stroke throughout and are all the same size.

Layout

The main art is centred in the middle, with the neon bible directly centre and framed by a wire border. The name of the band is directly above this and the name of the album directly underneath the art in the centre like a conventional magazine advert. The layout of all of the fonts are centralised and line up in the centre like the album art. The date of the release is the last thing on the advert which is the most important feature of the advert so by having it last creates anticipation.
Font
We have three different types of fonts on this advert. First is the name of the band which is written with wire lighting and is irregular in size and style. The second style of font is the name of the album which is written in capitals and is consistent in size and style, the same font is also used for the release date of the album. The third style of font is underneath the album name where it talks about the tracks on the album and the different features. This is similar to the font that says 'NEON BIBLE' but is smaller and is not capitalised. All the font on the advert is in the colour white which contrasts nicely with the black background and stands out.
Colour Scheme
The colour scheme consists of bright and darker colours, we have black and white which are classic colours but we also have neon colours to contrast with that as well. Most of the advert background is black and all the album art is in neon colours making them stand out. The colour white can be seen in the fonts, contrasting against the black background, so we can see consistency with what colours are used where.