Analysis of Magazine Poster

This is the first draft of my magazine poster. The colours in the smoke were designed to replicate those of the northern lights, and the image of the smoke was intended to give a diverse outlook to the northern lights- as you can see the colours of the smoke transends into a darker blue. The pink feathers are also used to show the purplish shades people see within the northern lights. The connotations of smoke and the dark pink/ red feathers that fall down the right of the page are intended to suggest danger, which links to the story line of the music video. There is also a subliminal connotation of religion within the image. The feathers are falling, and as they are red/ dark pink they are in the direction towards 'hell', whereas the smoke is rising, and the mixture of blues suggest that it is shifting towards 'heaven'. This has been created to link to the lyrics of Spectrum (Say my Name) within the religious context the lyrics promote. Contrastingly, the pale blues and white connotes innocence and naturalism, which is another, light-hearted and up-beat side to the album. This is also reflected in the "Rolling Stones Magazine" comment, to show sarcasm and wit. This could narrow down the audience to those who understand the wit behind the comment without offending.

This magazine poster coincides with the music genre in the colour scheme of darkness with a mixture of lights, this could signify club lighting for a dance track. Likewise, the poster challenges the typical conventions of the electro-house genre as it has a simplistic and symbolic meaning, where the typical album artwork would maintain a vast array of colours with a robotic typeface (Example on left). This album artwork cooperates more with the electro-house genre than that of the artwork my group has created. The colours are more prominent, and the blurring image suggests it is a staccato paced sountrack, whereas the softer colours and focused images in our piece contrasts this- therefore it could be suggestible that the advert is designed for more of an indie genre.

At the bottom right the 'Island Records' logo does not suit the image, as it blocks off the smoke effect and cotrasts against the background colour. This will have to be considered within the final poster to ensure the logo does not attract a substantial amount of attention. Some may argue that the poster looks ameteur due to the crossing links between smoke and feathers, with the array of colours. The text could have been centred to show structure

Within reflection, although the smoke and feather look looks dramatic, there is no obvious relevance to the artist, nor the song. With this in mind I created the second magazine.

This is the second and final magazine poster. At the top we have the band name and album title, the centre focus is an eye, which is a significant symbol within the album. Below, there is information about the singles being released, then finally, like in the first magazine, a humorous comment and recommendation from a popular magazine that caters for this and similar genres of music.

The eye, we thought was important to suggest that the artist can 'see' the improvements in her life, she sees her mistakes and accomplishments- to which she opens up to the audience. The iris is the outline of the eye to suggest a planet like figure, showing that the artist is almost on another planet to ordinary lives- she feels alienated due to her life experiences. The colours within the iris are to imitate the spectrum, and how there is a burst of colour through the ordinary and bleak lifestyle many people live.

With acknowledging the music genre from the previous poster- I decided to add in more colours to the iris, in a spectrum resembling style. I have decided to challenge the typical genre of electro-house by keeping the simplistic image on the front. The challenging of the music genre also relates to how the artist challenges a happy and ordinary lifestyle. Therefore, challenging the music genre portrays her unique and individual attitude towards life. These colours go with the electro-house music genre in that it replicates club lights. The eye is a reference to the notion of looking, this could refer to the theme of the music video in the audience gaining an insight into her alternating life.

This is my preferred magazine advert. The image has more of a connection to the music video we are creating, it is also interesting for the audience and suits the genre of the music video, in the fact that it is diverse, simplistic and replicates common club lights, which being a dance track, is suitable.