Magazine advert inspirational texts

I have researched some magazine adverts which advertise CD's in order to gain some further ideas for layout ideas for my magazine advert. Although some of these texts do not follow the same genre as mine, I like the designs of them and I could be inspired by them.

The above image is an advert for Gwen Stefani's album. I really like the design of this advert, I like how it is more focused on images as opposed to text. The text used is minimalistic, yet stands out and serves its purpose. I will strongly consider this design when creating my magazine advertisement. Furthermore, I like how all of the colours use compliment each other and how the text colour matches the colours in the main image.  

I quite like the simplistic approach used on this advert. I also like how it mainly focuses on two colours and uses a plain and simple design. I would like to create a simplistic advert as I feel these have more effect. In contrast, I don't like how there is quite a lot of text on the advert and there are too many things to focus on. 

This inspirational text is my favourite. I love how it is focused on one main image with very minimal text. The image gives off many possible meanings such as the marks on the guitar suggesting it is old which then relates to the name of the album 'A long time ago'. I like the use of monochrome and pastel shades of colour as these give off a natural approach.

My magazine advert ideas

As the coursework project states, I needed to create a magazine advert awell as the CD cover. As I wanted to create flowing themes throughout the print pieces and create recognisable themes for the CD, I felt it was necessary to use the same heading text and font types as used on my CD cover. I also wanted to use a similar colour scheme and include a heart shape similar to the one used on the back panel of the CD cover. In addition, I felt it is necessary to include an image of the front panel of the CD cover, so that if viewers see the magazine advertisement, they can recognise the CD cover in stores.

My final CD cover design

The print screen below shows my CD cover design as a whole. I feel it looks very professional and represents the theme of love well. The design also represents a natural approach, which relates to the song 'Skinny Love'. I love the colour scheme and the effects used which enhance the overall look. I am very pleased with the design.

Inside of CD cover

I have made a few animoto presentations to show the making of the inside of my CD cover:

http://animoto.com/play/T1QE31B8avl68sQR0Fk0gg

http://animoto.com/play/f4gYnuFhtqyILCoKkeARQQ

The middle panel of the CD cover

My quick last process of the CD cover was to create a middle panel for the CD. I felt it was essential for this to be extremely simplistic. In order to create this, I intended to use a block colour with minimul amount of text.

When creating it, I used a dark grey colour to compliment the colour scheme and added the name of the CD, as well as a number (as this was common on my inspirational research texts) and the production company initials. This design created a bold effect and serves its purpose well and also makes the cover look more professional. I am happy with the design.

My Final Back panel design

After considering many ideas for the back panel, this is my final design (below). I think it works well and compliments the front panel well. It also continues with the theme of love by the use of the subtle heart shape. The colour scheme works well and accompanies the colour scheme used throughout the CD cover. In order to create the heart effect for the background I used an embossed paint brush tool to draw the heart free hand. I then duplicated the layer and changed the colour to white. I then used a grey overlay on the background and varied the opacity to create a complimentative monochrome design. I made sure that the text stood out on top of the background by using text effects such as a drop shadow. These effects also gave a 3D effect which accompanied the cover well. To add further effect, I duplicated the name of the CD cover and placed it on the back panel, again, to give a flowing technique. As I didn't want the 'Skinny Love' heading to distract the eye from the song names etc, I adjusted the size and made it smaller and placed it in the top left hand corner. In order to make the CD cover look realistic and professional, I tried to add some product information including producers etc. Overall, I love the overall back panel design and it accompanies the theme well.

Trying back panel ideas on Photoshop

As I did not want to just create one final back panel with no developments, I decided to try out many different ideas in order to make a decision of which design worked best and complimented the front panel well. This would make sure that I was definately choosing the best idea for the CD cover.

The above print screen is a possible background design for my back panel. Although I like the sky image, I feel it would look too much once text and other features have been applied. However, I would like to use colours related to those in the sky above.

Above is another example of how I could design my background. This simplistic theme may work well on the CD cover, however, I feel this may look a bit too plain and may need a subtle pattern to take away from the bare look. 

In order to add some detail to a plain coloured background, I decide to experiment with the brush tool to create some hand drawn hearts. I varied the types of brush to create different effects. However, I think the plain brush tool with a slight smudge around the edges looks the best as I think the grass effect brush tool looks too much. I will definitely consider using the heart shape on the back panel.

What else should I include on my back panel?

After considering background ideas, I thought about what other factors I could include on the back panel. I considered using:

• Text to show the song names and to show the producers and price etc
• The name of the CD using the same text as the front panel

Back Panel Ideas

When thinking of how to design my back panel, many ideas ran through my head. Some of these were:

• Shall I use an image of sky as the background to relate to the front panel? However, I did think this would be a little over the top and would take away from my front panel.
• Shall I use a plain colour related to the colour scheme? I felt this may be more appropriate as a plain colour related to the colour scheme would follow with the theme smoothly, but would also create a good base for the text to go on. On the other hand, a totally plain background may look too boring and unprofessional, yet would continue with the natural theme.
• Shall I create a subtle pattern to accompany the plain background? This may look quite good as the text would not be masked by too much detailing but would not look too plain.

Front panel of CD cover

After shortening the line on the word 'birdy', I feel the overall look of the front panel is quite professional looking. The look of the cover continues with the natural theme and appeals to the target audience. When I shortened the extended line of 'birdy' I changed the colour to light blue and added some drop shadowing effects to make it stand out more. I love the wqay in which the heart in the sand connotates the theme of love. Below is a print screen of the design. I now intend to create a back panel for the CD cover using related colours to the front panel.

Implementing text onto my chosen image

The print screen above shows my chosen image with the text in which I liked the best. I really like this natural theme which is created on the cover space. I feel it matches the song meaning of love. However, I feel the extended line on the word 'birdy' is too long and ruins the effect of the heart in the sand as it covers it. I will use the select tool and press delete in order to shorten the line so that it does not cover the heart.

Implementing text into Photoshop

As I wanted to have as many developments as possible whilst working to my deadline, I decided to experiment with different words and fonts. This font is a simplistic font which continues with the theme of straight lines. I also added a drop shadow and a highlight effect. In order to make the text stand out even more, I copied and pasted the text and placed it behind at a slightly off angle and changed it to a low opacity. This then highlighted the shadow more. Although I like this font, I feel this name for the CD is inappropriate. 

                                     

The text above is another experiment of possible text for my CD cover, however, I feel it looks a bit too harsh because of the font type and the drop and inner shadow edits. I feel this name may be a bit too obvious and I think I would rather have a name which suggests heartbreak as opposed to just saying it. 

I really like this font type because of the simplistic look. I used lower case to add more effect to the lines and continue with the natural theme. In order to create the extended lines, I used the scale tool. This enabled me to lengthen the lines as much as I wanted to create more effect. Although I really like the plain grey background, I think that an image would look better behind the text. 

Blog Progress

Whilst I was working on my coursework, I ended up falling behind with my blog work because I was concentrating too much on my print work. Although this happened, I am now working hard to get my blog up to date with all of the processes I made throughout the print work task. Although my blog work fell behind, I was still working well to the deadlines which I created for myself on my calendar of December.

CD Name Ideas

As I want to add text to my CD cover, I felt it would be essential to think of some name ideas. Here is a list of name ideas which I thought would relate to my CD cover and type of music:

• Heartbeat
• Who Will Love You
• Stop and Stare
• Skinny Love
• Low
• Heart throb
• Love
• Broken
• Broken Hearted
• Look Back
• Down

These possible names relate to theme of a broken heart and a bad love life. I particularly like the name 'Skinny Love' as this is the name of the song in which I will use on my music video, however, it also represents the feeling of a broken heart or low times. 

Image Edits

In order to develop my image, I have varied the use of different edits on Photoshop in order to enhance the look of the image.

This first edit looks quite effective. I like the varied shades of grey and white in the image. I also like the way in which the heart is a very dark colour and stands out on the lighter sand. In order to create this effect, I used many of the adjustments such as Exposure, Brightness and Contrast, Vibrance, Colour balance and Channel Mixer. Although I like this effect, I feel it may be too harsh looking for the soft and fragile emotions created in the music.

The image to the right is an addition to the edit above. I have tried to add some colour into the heart shape to try and add some vibrancy to the image. However, I feel this effect takes the eye away from the original image and more towards the colour. To create this I used the paint brush tool to add the colour, as well as the colour picker tool to select a subtle colour. The colour seems to make the image quite child-like and this was not the effect I was trying to create. Although, at this stage I was just experimenting.




To the left is another edit of the photograph. These effects add a cartoon look to the image which is quite eye catching because the eye is drawn to the heart shape. In order to create this effect, I used the Threshold, Black an White, Colour Balance and Brightness and Contrast photo effects in Photoshop. However, I would like the text to be black and white which would then be disguised within the image and I did not want this to happen.








As I decided that too much editing led to the images not looking as good and taking away from the original photograph, I decided to just add a colour overlay of a light blue to add some more highlighted areas. Although I have done this, the image still looks natural and relates to my theme. I think that this image edit would work well on the front panel of my CD cover.

Chosen Photograph for front panel

As I would like to create quite a simplistic and natural looking CD cover, I have decided to use this photograph from my photo shoot that I took at an earlier date.

I like the use of horizontal line in this image and I feel it would look good if I was to continue the theme of lines throughout the text. I also really like the light shining on the wet sand which looks quite good. In addition, the photo looks quite dream like, which again, relates to what I was trying to create.

I think this photograph relates well to the theme in which I was wanting to create of being natural. As I want to use this photograph in my print task, I feel I wouldn't have to add much text as the photograph in itself stands out in its own way. This image on the front of a CD cover will really symbolise the genre of music and the theme of strong loving feelings which is created through the lyrics of Skinny Love.