Magazine Advertisement for Release date of Digipak

Advertisement Plan

This is my A4 sized plan for my advertisement to publicise the release dat of my artists digipak,that will appear in a magazine. I have tried to follow the codes and conventions of existing album advertisements that I have understood form thorough research into existing media texts in this field.

Analysis of Existing Album Release Magazine Ad's

Magazine advertisements are a key marketing area for any product and they are perfect for marketing the release of a new album or in my case a digipak. In the post I am going to analyse some existing album release advertisements from different music genres to help me establish the conventions of magazine adverts in order to create my own advert for my artist’s new album/digipak.

Mika is a true pop artist in the best sense of the word. His songs are often self-reflective and deal with difficult topics however he has the ability to infuse joy and happiness into all his music and this joyfulness is represented through the bright, vibrant and busy visuals. This album cover is unique in terms of visuals in comparison to other pop albums. The busy mixes of graphic images are inspired by a pop art style which represents the music genre at large. In what appears to be a distorted passport size photo there is an image of the artist, this is unconventional as to the majority of album covers and advertisements which would normally incorporate a full blown image of them selves or an iconic image that represents them that would dominate the cover or advertisement.

The images are bright and vibrant and instantly eye-catching and attractive to the consumer. Mika’s debut album also contained animated images and by continuing this theme on in his second album it enable the consumer to more easily recognise the album as his. The pictures that feature are illustrated interpretations of each of his songs that feature on his album. The album name 'the boy who knew too much' may be a reflection of him and his album suggesting that he perhaps knows too much and everything is confusing and mystifying and thrown onto the cover.

The advertisement is basically an enlarged version of the actual album cover itself. Therefore people can link it back to perhaps an advertisement for the CD that they have seen on television and instantly recognise it. The dominating image of his CD cover will attract the attention of the audience. They have made the advert appear more 3D, almost as if you are going to fall into it, this will make people want to stop and read it. I think another reason they have chosen to use the album cover to advertise the CD is because the artists name and album title are bold and eye-catching and placed in a perfect place to incorporate the rest of the information and still maintaining distance to separate the two.

The information the advertisement contains is that it establishes that this is Mika’s ‘new album’ this will persuade more people to buy it as potential buyers like to try out new things and especially if you are a big Mika fan you will want to know when the new album is out. The key piece of information is the actual release date it will be available to buy, this is displayed in number format rather written in letters as it is easier to read and stands out form the rest of the text. It also informs the viewer of the most popular songs that are contained in the album this is indicated where it says ‘includes…’, people are more likely to buy something if they know it will contain their favourite songs, this way it draws peoples attention closer. Other information that is also included within the advertisement is all the places it available to buy and in what format for example deluxe edition or available on download.

In very small print at the bottom of the ad is the artist’s website, all though this ad is not marketing the website it is useful to have on because fans will appreciate this information and also it enable people who have not heard of him to perhaps use this source to find out moiré about him and then possibly buy the album. All the important information is situated in the bottom right hand corner away form all the distracting visuals, so people are able to give it their full attention. The text used is blue and white to contrast and stand out form the black background and also to continue with the colour theme of the whole ad, because although there are a variety of bright colours the dominating three colours are black, white and blue and these colours are incorporated into all of the text displayed on the advert.

In conclusion I think this album release advertisement works well because it is visually attractive, instantly attracts the attention of the audience with its unique qualities and still contains all the key information that is needed to successfully market the product.

Gwen Stefani is a pop artist and this magazine advertisement is marketing the release of her first solo album ‘Love Angel Music Baby’ otherwise known as l.a.m.b which is also her clothes line label. The album is full of extremely catchy music and is overall a well crafted piece of pop culture. The content within the album represents women as attractive and sexy but not in an objectification or sexualised way and this is displayed in the advertisement. Gwen Stefani is represented in the stereotypical light of platinum blonde bombshell, showing off her envious midriff for added sex appeal and attraction. Her lips are a distinctive red and they are slightly open which indicates lust, seduction and look inviting and enticing. Moreover her hair is covering one eye which adds a height of mystery to the album, making people want to find out and the one eye which is visible is directly looking at the audience making them feel more involved and respect as a fan or potential buyer.

The release of Stefani's first solo album brought attention to her entourage of four Harajuku Girls, four back-up dancers who dress in Gwen’s interpretation of the Harajuku Station of Tokyo, Japan, known as a popular shopping destination and fashion center for teenagers. They were featured in her music videos, press coverage and on the album cover for Love. Angel. Music. Baby., and have a song dedicated to them on the album. This indicates that her target audience is teenagers and young adults. As she opts to feature these girls in most press events it is unusual that they are not central to the advertisement, this could be the reason she has chosen to feature an image of the actual album in the bottom left hand corner because they feature the china doll looking figures at either side of her. Fans will recognise these models as being exclusive to Stefani and make her album more easily recognisable.
Again this advertisement features a dominating image taken from a section of the actual album cover the advert is marketing and enlarging it. For this advert they have chosen to display the centre of the cover which is the artist herself ‘Gwen Stefani’ slouched provocatively, representing herself as quite literally a ‘pop princess’ as she is sat on what appears to be a thrown. In the advertisement and album cover she is represented as royalty through the use of props such as a crown, a cane with a jeweled crown on the top, and the dominating red an gold colours that are incorporated throughout the ad to reinforce the idea of royalty as these are the associated colours. She has a presence of dominance, superior and power and this is reflected in her use of the cane.

There are four dominant colours within the advertisement and these are gold, red, black and white. The gold and reds are stereotypically associated with royalty, high social class and wealth. The text is in gold, this represents wealth and power and this reinforces the idea about her being royalty illustrated in the visuals. The font used is very grand, it looks proud, professional and is visually attractive and artistic representing her as having many high /superior qualities. .

There is a picture of the album that is being advertised in the bottom left hand corner, this gives the audience something to relate to and also makes it more recognizable for consumers when they go out to buy it. Similar to Mika’s album advert the visuals are bright, vibrant and eye-catching not only attracting attention but representing the music genre which will directly appeal to the target audience.

It also informs the audience what the album will include the most popular songs, these are likely to have been number one singles or high in the charts, a technique used to persuade people to want to go out and but it. In addition to this the advert also tells the audience that one of her songs also features another high profile singer ‘Eve’, this is like telling the consumer they are getting the delights of two of their favourite singers for the price of one, enticing them even further. The difference between this advertisement and Mika’s is that ‘Love Angel Music Baby’ is already out for sale, this ad is reinforcing that the album is already out, we are told this at the bottom of the advert as it is not as important to stress the release date, instead they can focus on emphasizing the artist and album itself. We know it is currently on sale because it says ‘Album in store now’ below this is a logo from the online music store ‘target.com’. This extra information may help increase sales if fans and potential consumers know where they are able to buy it from, it also helps give publicity to the music store itself. In addition to this the advert also publicises the artists websites, which seem to be a common feature on advertisements.


In terms of the real world the sales figures of albums can be largely influenced by how much publicity they have and whether it is good, effective publicity. Advertisements must be designed in such a way that it attracts the target audience for that specific product. So for example an advert for an album of the rock genre would not attract potential buyers by having images of flowers or bright, bubbly colours. It is therefore important that everything that goes into the advert from colours to visual images and to fonts represent the the genre of the album and the potential buyer.

What I have learnt about the codes and conventions of magazine advertisements for album releases; the advert usually has some sort of image or visuals that dominate the majority of the space. These visuals are often representations of the content or graphic images taken from the actual album at hand and adapting it to fit in the text that has all the required information. There are usually three or four colours that are dominant and I have found that this is a conventional aspect of not only advertisements but a range of media texts such as front covers and that the same colours continue throughout the whole of the product.

The information that is supplied is usually grouped together in bold font and a contrasting colour to the background to make it stand out, clear to read and easy to spot. The information that is usually supplied is; The artist, the album title, the release date, special mention to the most recognisable/popular songs and possibly a particular artists that may also feature in one of the songs, which is usually indicated by ‘includes’, a dominating image of the artist/visual representations of content/an enlarged version of the album cover itself adapted to look like a magazine advert and creates space for the information to be supplied, more often then not it will display the artists website address and also where it is available to buy for example in store or downloading online and also in what different formats in comes in whether it be CD deluxe edition or digipak or DVD. Occasionally there will also be specific reference to what shop or website you can buy the product from by including the companies logo.

Now that I am able to recognise and understand thoroughly the codes and conventions of what needs to go into a magazine advertisement for album release. Through conducting this research I have supplied myself with the knowledge to make my own advertisement for the release of my artist’s new album to the best of my ability and make it as effective and realistic as possible.

Alterations to the Chorus

As we started to edit the chorus the footage which we had captures did not fulfill our expecations. It was too slow and their was not enough movement, enthusiasm or flow. We were not entirely happy with the make-up and out fit choice we chose either. We decided that instead of having smaller more detailed make-up to portray the 'good' and 'bad' side we should go for a more bolder and stronger look.

We did this thorugh painting one side of her face black and the other side gold. To continue the theme we opt for our artist to wear a black and gold dress to maintain the unique look. We shot the scene in the blue room which allows us to be able to make the background transparent and use any background we wish, the image directly below has also been taken in the blue room. To further increase the idea of movement and bring still images to life we used a fan that acted as a wind machine. When editing the film the fan effect will make the video more dynamic and create the sense of movement even when she's not.

In order to create this look we used water based face and body paint to coat either side of the face, we used fine brushes to make the distinct line down the middle.

To add a touch of elegance, beauty and attractiveness to the face we applied self adhesive jewels under the good eye and above the bad eye in a simultaneous fashion to create continuity and a sense of symmetry whilst still being noticably different.

In order to make her eyelashes stand out from the total blackness of her skin create by the paint we have used silver glitter mascara to help define the eye, make it stand out and find the beuaty of the eyelashes.

My digipak

Pictures Taken for Covers and Inside Panels of my Digipak

I opted to take a range of different images against a blue background in order to give me a wider variety of editing options. If you look to the all the panels which I have created for the digipak in more recent posts you can see the changes which I have made.

In order to change my background I used the image editing software contained in the programme ‘Photo shop’. I used the magic wand tool to amend the blue background, it picks up mass areas of blue and makes it transparent, this speeds up the process and makes it a lot easier. Now I have to tidy up the areas close to the image and for this I use the lasso magnetic tool. It aids me to carefully follow the outline and eliminate any existing blue. To achieve maximum precision I then used the eraser to get into tiny gaps. To create a different background you create a new layer, select the brush tool and choose any colour you want then paint the entire picture. You don’t have to worry about painting over your original image because you simply drag the new layer below the existing one and it only changes the bits you have made transparent.

Digipak Cover Planning Stages

To begin my the planning stages to help me complete my final cover I have designed a rough layout of how it will look and what will feature where. On the front cover the image will dominate most of the cover. I have decided to place the artists name in the top right hand corner and the album name in the bottom left in bold font, as I have found this to be a conventional layout of a CD cover. Along the side I have also established the height and width of a real CD so that I can make sure I plan the layout according to the correct size.
On the back cover the image will not be so dominating as there is more information on the back of the cover. I have made sure to include all the conventional aspects of the back of CD cover in order for my product to have as much realism as possible.

Below are more detailed drafts of my final cover. All the text will stay the same, I will just have a real photographic image and also the background will be totally white, it has just come out this way becasue of shadowing and lighting when I took the picture of my drawing. As you can see I have stuck to the same layout I chose when making my first draft version as I think it works well by seperating the artists name and album title at diagnal ends of the cover as they both stand out. The writing overlaps the image a little but this is done for a purpose, it gives the cover a sense of togetherness/all in one, rather than being all mapped out as seperate aspects. If you look at other album covers text is more often than not overlapping the image, it is effective because as you read the text it draws you to the image and likewise if your drawn to the image it makes you want to read the text.

Below is the back cover to my digipak. It is self explanatory within the analysis I have included in the annotations. The only thing I would say again is that just to remind you the background will be a bright white in the fully edited version and the image will be a proper photographic image.

It is essential that I conduct these planning stages before rushing into creating my final front cover as it gives me an idea of what will work and what will not, the most effective layouts and any changes that I may want to carry out before continuing.

Sample Fonts

These designs are for the back and front of my digipak. Within my artists music video the theme tied in within the chorus is heavily incorporated into my video, the idea of a binary opposition; sweet dream and a beautiful nightmare, love and hate, good and evil. This is represented through costume and make-up. As you can see from the video during the chorus the artist has two different sides the 'bad side' illustrated through dark colours in particular black and the sharp and threatening shapes on her face. The 'good' side is portrayed as pure and innocent with soft natural make-up and flower designs.

A typical convention of CD covers are that the main image is of something that the audience can relate to as part of a popular song, for example Take-That's CD cover features the mechanical elephant which appeared in their live show performance. I decided to adopt this into my Cd cover. The artist appears in the same way as she does in the chorus of her music video the song 'Sweet Dreams'.

Below are my ideas for the main image which will dominate the front cover. This will be Elle-Rose's 'sweet' side to further represent the album title which will also be featured on the cover 'Sweet Dreams'.

To cleverly and effectively include both sides of the artists face I am able to use the front cover and the back cover to represent each side individually. As the album is called 'Sweet Dreams' I have opted to feature the 'good' side on the front of the digipak. This way her image can be related to the CD title and also be easily recognised by the audience as they will remember this from the music video.

Below is my design for the back cover of my digipak which will also contain all the other conventional information such as a track list etc. This is Elle Rose's 'bad' side which represents the 'beautiful nightmare'.

I also have two panels inside my digipak which I will need to fill. I though about filling them with close-ups of the 'good' eye which is surrounded by a giant flower and stars. And a close-up of the 'bad eye' surrounded by jagged edges and black patterns. I have also thought about filling the panels with full length

In addition to this as my partner and I have decided upon a name for our artist which is 'Elle-Rose' she is boasting flowers in her hair that resemble a rose and this provides the audience with visual representation of the artist herself. This could perhaps be a symbolic emblem that 'Elle Rose could use to promote herself in the future and a way for fans to easily recognise when a product is hers.

The actual disk that contains the content i.e. the CD and DVD often contain graphics such as writing or even photography. I have decided to use the name of the album and the name of the artist on the disk in the same font that will be displayed on my front and back cover. However each one will be different sizes and some bolder than others to make it look more eye-catching rather than boring.

Below are pictures of how my CD will look and how it will appear in the digipak packaging.

Now I have decided on the images I will be using, the next thing I have to do is plan the overall layout of my packaging to see how image and text will work together to create an effective digipak.

Digipak Research

The Digipak is a new, modern alternative to standard cd packaging. Made mostly from thick card, the digipak is virtually shatterproof and it allows for great graphic display. Originally used for the album packaging of leading musicians, the digipak and digipak family are now priced reasonably enough to be used for any CD or DVD project. The digipak is an extremely versatile packaging. It can be made to accommodate a booklet either by placing in a die-cut slot or gluing onto one of the panels. In addition, the panels can be increased from 4 to 6, 8 or more. The DVD Digipak is a popular alternative to the DVD box. It is now widely used for feature film DVD releases which are special editions because it increases the value and creates a premium product.
I will be working on a 6 panel digipak to accommodate both the album CD and the dvd of video footage. This is the template I worked from:

Using the same measurements and simple, basic design I made a few adaptions to my digipak in order to create a unique one for my artist;

It still has room for two discs but one will have the conventional plastic case and the other can just be attached using a centre button as you can understand better from the pictures below. Where my design becomes individual is the middle panel. As you can see I have made an addition to the original template by including a sleeve which will hold a small information booklet about the band, as when conductin research I noted that most CD's also include a small information leaflet that contains more information about the tracks etc.

Below you can see from the pictures how my digipak has come together and how it will be suitable packaging for the promotion package of my artists new album.

My digipak creation

To learn more about the digipak I have done some research into some existing texts and the most interesting one I came across is 'Lady Gaga's' digipak, I chose to analyse this as she is a female artist as is my own and her values and ideolgies are shared by the artist I am promoting within my digipak. I therefore thought this one would be the most useful for me to look at.

Here is an example of what would be expected to appear within a digipak style product.

These images are from the front cover and inside panels of her digipak titled 'The Fame Monster'. It is can be seen that the same theme, colours, style and fonts are continuous throughout the product. I will be able to adapt the codes and conventions from this into my own creation.

Codes and conventions

When going through the process of designing and creating my own front cover to the digipak promoting my artists new album it is important that I know and understand all the codes and conventions of what goes into a CD front cover in order to produce it successfully and to the best of my ability. Along the left hand side are CD covers that illustrate the points I am making in this post about codes and conventions

With the generic conventions of a CD cover, you have to consider how the front and back differ; the front of the CD is the first thing people are attracted to when the product is on the shelf. Conventionally a CD cover will contain; the name of the artist, the name of the album, a colour consistency that reflects the genre, a consistent font that also reflects the genre, an eye catching image of either the artist/band or an icon and sometimes a sticker that either warns the consumer of content that may be found offensive or promotes/gives special mention to the most popular track.

The album cover generally defines the 'real fan', as they are able to deconstruct the images, colour, lettering, initials and realise who the artist is. This excludes people who are not fans and in turn makes them feel as though they belong to an exclusive group, this refers to the uses and gratification theory; people using the media to make sense of the world and to get a sense of ‘belonging’. For instance fonts fit an artist’s image, a gothic font suggests that the album within the rock genre.

The artist is obviously the biggest selling point of the album, which is why the majority of CD covers conventionally opt to use the band or artist as the dominant, eye-catching image as this is one of the reasons fans will buy the album. The focal image will either be an iconic design, artwork or a photograph of the artist.

The mise-en-scene will represent the values and ideologies of the artist through the use of colours, props, lighting, make-up and clothing. Also how the star or subject is posed for instance, if the artist is making eye contact, if their body language is open/closed/suggestive/attractive and what their facial expressions are portraying. All these choices are sending out a message to the audience through connotations that are gained from these particular aspects and it could determine how the consumer reacts to the CD. Abstract images show that the artists like to defy conventions and explore an air of mystery, this may be because they are renown for their ‘different’ or ‘out-there’ approach to life and they can use their celebrity to promote this. Fans can recognise this defiance of conventions as the artists image.

The artist(s) or icons represented on the cover are usually what you would expect to see of that artist and music genre, for example Beyonce or Rihanna have always had an image constructed by glamour and sex appeal while punk bands such as Green Day tend to focus on more social issues to sell their CD’s. Some artists may even have particular props, make-up or wardrobe that are instantly recognisable, for example Lady Gaga’s outrageous outfits or Marilyn Manson’s metal teeth. On the other hand some music artists’ are constantly challenging their audiences expectations like Madonna, this keeps her style fresh as her CD cover reflects the new image or the re-branding of which she is going for.

It is very important to a music artist the way in which they are presented as it could determine how successful their CD is. How the band or artist and the genre of music are represented can be a deciding factor on how the audience will react to what is being sold to them. For example hip-hop celebs have been critised in the past for portraying and glamourising guns, cars, violence and ‘gangsta’ related images, critics say it sets a negative image for young people to follow and sets up a stereotypical black culture. This type of music has also been slated for portraying women as sexual stereotypes. When designing my own CD cover I must decide whether to reinforce these stereotypes or challenge them. As this is a new, fresh album and we are the future generation I think it would be a good idea to perhaps challenge these stereotypes in subtle ways, women can still be sexy without being sexual and this is how I want my artist to be portrayed.

When designing my cover I need to think about why my target audience of young females aged 18-25 will want to buy my artists new album, is it because they want escapism and pleasure or to gain a sense of their own identity or feeling of belonging. Or have they been influenced by somebody else to buy it, or simply because it’s their favourite artist or genre of music.

Rhianna cd cover analysis

This is the front cover to Rihanna's new album 'Rated R'. I have chosen to analyse this artist inparticular because she has similar styles to the creation of my own music artist for whom I will be designigning a cover for.

The R situated in the right hand corner is effective for its ambiguity. It could stand for Rihanna or it could stand for the album name ‘Rated R’ or it could be a symbol for both. Either way it works. It has been made to look scripted as though someone has etched it in with a nail perhaps. This gives the album a dark look illustrating as having dark, deep meaning within the songs on the album.

Although in the bottom right hand corner the title of the album does appear faintly in small, bold, white type. It has not been made to be the focus of the cover but it still ties in with the conventions of album covers. Instead the main image of the star herself has been made to be the primary focus.

As rihanna is renowned for her pop/RnB style you expect there to be more colour. However she has chosen for this particular album to appear in black and white, this gives it a more serious meaning. The main image backs this point up as she has her head in her hand, representing thoughts, feelings and emotions which are contained in her songs.

Even though you can only see one side of her face she is still looking directly forward. This way it looks as though she is looking at the consumer of the album, making them feel more respected, almost creating a bond.

Her look is very unique as she is sporting what appears to be a metallic style dress which portrays superiority, power and a rather masculine appearance. Her jewelry emphasises her dark, serious look as her arm bracelet has a rather large spike at the end that acts as a claw almost. You can clearly see a bold, black stud in her ear, it would not tie in if she was to be wearing a big flowery earring for example, the plain stud reinforces her overall masculine appearance. Rihanna’s lips are covered in black lipstick and her eye make-up consists of thick black eye-liner, it flicks right up at the end so as she still looks attractive and adds a subtle hint of feminine beauty.

I decided it would be of use if I could analyse the back of album covers also to learn the codes and conventions. To get the most out of my research I have opted to analyse the back and front of the same album to see the simularities and differnces that I will need to take into consideration when conducting my digipak.