Advert Task

The final piece of coursework this year, is to create an advertisement in the form of a poster for a magazine. The poster will be advertising the CD/DVD digipack we have created for our chosen artist, in my case 'Florence and the Machine'. To create this advert, like before I will be using Adobe Indesign, and Photoshop, and will be using my own original photographs, that I have taken to suit my particular style of genre, and more importantly my preferred target audience.

Below are two of the adverts I have chosen to analyse as part of this task. I have chosen these in particular, because they are also based on the "indie style" genre. By analysing these, I will hopefully be able to see a link between them, and for them to give me some ideas when designing my own advert in order to make my genre and target audience consistent and for the images and designs I use to be appropriate.


Katy Perry is a singer/songwriter and focuses more on a pop/rock genre. However, although Katy and Florence have a different style, there are certain attributes that make them similar to one another. For example, both have a very distinctive sound to their voice, and it is different from anything heard before. They both also have a very unique style, and the use of colour and props is something that occurs in many of their videos and advertisements.

Katy's style in the advert for her most successful song "I Kissed A Girl", is based on a fifties pin-up model, with bright red lipstick and colourful clothing, and throughout her career there has been a lot on controversy displayed about her innocent look, and the lyrics she sings about in her songs. For example "Waking Up in Vegas" is about partying and not remembering anything from the night before! Viewers feel this is not how she should be influencing her target audience of young girls.
The advert shown above is a typical Katy Perry magazine poster, which like many of her others, highlights her bubbly personality and sense of style. The colours used in this particular poster, are very bright and her colourful clothing of blue high waisted shorts and a pink top, stand out from the page. The image which has been edited to make her brighter than the background, also places her in the main view of focus, and highlights the artist.

The use of props in this poster is very unusual, but after looking at the video the ducks in the paddling pool and the heart shape lolly pop shows consistency with the video and pulls everything together. By using these particular props, (like Florence and the Machine) shows the target audience who they are, and makes them different and individual from anything else in the charts. The quirky use of props and colours, reflects upon the quirky, colourful traits of Katy Perry's personality.

As well as featuring the artist on this poster, and some of the ideas from the music video, there is also a print screen effect of the album which contains the song "I Kissed A Girl", which is why the advertisement has been created. This is something I want to include on my poster, as well as information about when the single is going to be released and the symbol for the record company which have helped to produce and manufacture it (capital records - as part of EMI). I believe that by having a copy of the album cover on the poster will help the audience to see what it looks like, and so when buying or seeing the album they can relate it back to the poster and know exactly what artist it is.













Here are a few other examples of Katy Perry posters, and from looking at both of these, it shows the consistency in the designs, as both have a strong sense of colour and use unusual props and costumes to represent her personality and to show her pin-up style of clothing and photograph poses.

Rosie and the Goldbug were a British indie/rock trio active from 2007 till August 2009. Unlike a lot of artists they did not go for the mainstream approach and join a record deal with one of the major four record companies, instead they set up their own record label called 'Lover Records', where they wanted their talent to be the main feature and for it not to be based on money or expensive equipment (as so many are in order to create a hit!)
There is a huge contrast between the look of 'Rosie and the Goldbug and Katy Perry, and this is the use of colour in their adverts. Whereas Katy Perry has a very bold and colourful approach to her designs, Rosie and the Goldbug, has a much more subtle use of colour and in this particular poster, it is only the red that stands out from the image, as everything else is a pinky, beige colour and blends into the background. From researching further into this band, I found that the use of the colour in this poster is very significant, as the song it is advertising is called "lover", and so the red represents the symbol of love. The video, like the poster also includes flashes of red and this is the main colour used in the video, so it makes both the poster and the music video consistent to one another. The image to the right also shows this feature as the red lipstick is the only source of bright colour used in this image. It is clear to see from a number of their advertisements and pictures that this idea is consistent throughout and a personal theme of theirs.
These are print screens from "Lover" by Rosie and the Goldbug. These images both show the use of the colour red and how it links in with the consistency of the poster and the video. The image above, also reinforced the theme of 'love' and 'red', as the only use of colour is the red lipstick, which catches your eye as you look at the promotional picture for this band. With the picture being in black and white, it also helps the use of the colour become a focus, but still reinforces the indie-rock style of the band, and their sense of style.

The header at the top of the advert, lets the audience know who it belongs to, and from looking at this particular advert, it reinforces the name of the band. For example, the use of the bugs circling the name of the band, links in well with the artists name "Goldbug". If they then went on to use the same image in every one of their adverts it would make it obvious to the audience who the advert belonged to, as it could be easily recognised through this. Not only would it make it easily recognisable but it would also create consistency for the band. This links in with what Katy Perry has done in her advertisements, as her sense of style and colour is something she is recognised for.

The composition of the image being used in this advert, is very simple, but effective. It has been staged in a bathroom with the sink and the shower visible in the background. This is quite similar to one of the promotional pictures shot for the Florence and the Machine single 'Rabbit Heart'. There has also been a composition decision made for the way in which the members of the band are standing and whether they are looking directly into the camera or not. The main singer in the band Rosie Vanier, is positioned closest to the camera, and she is looking directly at it. Whereas the two other members in the band, Lee "Pixie" Matthews and Sarah "Plums" Morgan have been positioned back from the camera slightly and are both looking away. This may be due to the status within the band, but could also have some reference to the meaning and themes behind the song, and the idea they are trying to put across to their target audience.


Flat Plans


In order to get the result I wanted; before I started to design the advertisement for my digipack, I firstly drafted out 3 flat plan ideas, that all incorporated some of the ideas I wanted to achieve. I was undecided on what size I wanted my advert to be, and so not only have I experimented with different designs and what images I wanted to use, I have also drafted out different sized pages (such as A4 and A5), so that I can see what the overall result might be.


A key idea that I have learnt from looking at previous Florence and the Machine advertisements and videos, is her use of colour. In most of her videos there is a bright visual use of colour, and a lot of the time this is situated on a white background so that the colours stand out. This is a key idea I have taken on board when designing not only my advert but also my digpack as well.












For this design I wanted the name of the artist to be one of the main features, to let the audience know exactly what they are buying and who it features. I also want to use one of the pictures I have previously took after doing a photoshoot of the side of the face, to create a different style of image, and not a usual looking into the camera shot. As well as using this shot, I also tried out the idea of using more than one image on the page, as this design was for an A4 poster, and so there was more room on the page for it not to appear cluttered. A key feature that runs through all of the designs I have created is the flower. This is something which not only features in my digipack, but also in my video too, and so to keep my work consistent, I also wanted to include it in my advert, so that it links everything together. To achieve this, I would have to cut it out of an image previously taken using the lasso tool on photoshop and adjust it down to the right size for my advert. Also features on all of my designs, is an image of the front cover of my digipack, so that the audience can recognise what they would be buying, and would be able to keep an eye out for the single in the shops.



Unlike my previous design, this has been created using an A5 size of paper, and includes one image of the artist. I decided to experiment with a different size, so that I could see how much information I needed to put on, and whether an A4 size would be too big, and leave too much white space. Like my first design, this also features the front cover of the digipack, making the audience aware of the product, and it also includes a bigger image of the artist, which is the main focus on the page. I have taken the focus off of the title of the artist, as the appearance, is usually something in which the target audience will recognise first and they will know exactly who it is from a first view.


On my designs, I have also tried to use catchy phrases in order to grab the audiences attention, and to make my digipack appealing for them to buy. For example the use of "unmissable", creates a feeling that the product is so good that it is not to be missed. For this design I have tried to keep the writing down the left hand side column of the page, to make it easier for the audience to simple read down the page, and gather information from the advert.






This is the final design that I have created for my advert. Like my second design I have also created this using an A5 piece of paper, and stuck with the idea of making my advert smaller in size. Unlike my other designs, for this particular idea I have used a full length image of the artist, and hopefully want this to be as tall as the whole of the page. I have an image in mind that I want to use for this design, and due to the artists arm being out in position, I thought it would be effective if the information and writing about the artist and the digipack was placed underneath. In this design I have also included an image of the front cover of the digipack, as well the continuity of the flowers which feature throughout my promotional pack.


My Advert

This is a print screen of some of the processes I took when creating the advert, advertising the selling of my digipack. I have tried to keep it consistent and in a similar style to my digipack, but as well as this, I have also made it consistent to the video, as the same model has been used from when I originally took the pictures for my digipack and advert. By doing this, it makes the digipack and advert easily recognisable to the audience, and if they were to be posted in a shop for example, straight away members of the target audience would know exactly who it was and would be able to tell this from the images and style.

The print screen above, shows the beginning process of making. I decided to go with the third design for the end result of my advert, but may adjust this along the making process. The reason why I chose to use this was so that I could use a full length image of the artist, and show off the style further of Florence and the Machine.

I first began by placing the image onto Adobe InDesign, after I had previously edited it in Photoshop using the 'star brush tool', and placing these above the image. I started off with a simple rought edit, and placed all the information and images I need onto the page. This included the image I had chosen, an exported image of the front of my digipack, as well as a cropped version of the flower I intended to use from my digipack. I then also started writing my catchy phrases in order to draw in the readers attention in a normal font, ready to edit later on.

This is a copy of the flower that consists throughout my promotion pack. I decided to use this as I believe it represents well the quirky, bold style of Florence and the Machine, and the use of the bright colours will work well with the theme of colours that I have tried to create in my work. It will also stand out well on a white background and would be something that could potentially be something that may lead to be associated with the artist. As you can see from the print screen I have cropped out the flower from a previous image using Photoshop (under the arm of the model).

After creating a rough edit for my advert, I then started creating it properlly and played around with the positions in which I wanted to place things. For example I couldnt decide where I should place the image of the digipack in order for it to be noticed on the page. But after getting advice from my teacher and peers, I decided the best place to put it would be at the bottom of the page with the information about it above.

For this advert, I also need to decide on what style of font I wanted to use for the writing. In order to make my digipack and advert consistant I decided that I wanted to use the samestyle of font for both. To find this I searched through hundreds of fonts on http://www.dafont.com/ and when I found the one that suited the style of Florence and the Machine, I was able to extract the files and save it within my own font list.

This is showing how I was able to extract the files from the dafont website, and save it within my own files.

I first became interested in using a script style of font after seeing on one Florence and the Machines advertisiments. In order for my own work to link in with the style of Florence and the Machine I decided that this was an idea that I wanted to include.

This is a example of what my finished article looks like. I am very pleased with the overall result, and feel that I have captured the essence of Florence and the Machine in my work, do to the vibrant colours and the use of bold and 'funky' shapes such as the stars and flower to create the random feeling that comes acorss when you view any of Florence's work. I decided to make the image the biggest aspect of the advert, as the artist is what the audience are going to recognise first. I have also trired to keep my writing to a minimum and placed this is columns, so that it is clear and easy to read, and does not appear to be everywhere in different places across the poster making it seem complicated or cluttered. I have also, as I said when designing my advert used white space to make the colours on the poster stand out, and to highlight the main features such as the images and the text.

Like I have done with my other tasks, I posted this onto facebook and asked people who fit into my target audience to comment on what they thought of the advert. I asked them to comment on things such as how it links in with the ideas behind Florence and the Machine, and whether it challenges or contrasts their work, as well as what they thought of the overall design, and whether it had all the information on it that they needed to know. I gathered some really good feeback by doing this, and I am very pleased with what was said.

This feeback suggests that the audience liked the way in which I clearly showed all the relevant information needed, and also liked the way in which I have used the font type, colours and image to reflect the characteristics of the music genre and the artist.

An improvement that could be made would be to include a web adress for a fan site to appeal to a wider audience, which is a comment that I fully agree with.

Depth of Field

Depth of Field:

Before setting out to achieve a certain depth of field, there are a few things on the camera that must be changed in order for it to work and for the best result.

- Settings: the camera must be set to manual [P] on a XM2 camera.
- The manual/focus must be set to on, and this will appear in the viewpoint screen.
- White Balance: this needs to be set to either natural or artificial light depending on where you are filming.
- Exposure: Shutter Speed: slow right down 1/50
Aperture: opened up as far as it can go.
Gain: can be adjusted to brighten and contrast the footage.


To gain camera experience and to get us used to working in a filming environment, we experimented as a group with Depth of Field around the college. By doing this, we now have the knowledge of how to use the camera properly, and were able to test out the settings to get the desired result. Below are the images were captured back from our filming to practise using depth of field.

This is the first shot we took before filming, and by using a clapper board it makes editing a lot easier. We did this to get us used to working professionally and called out the shot before starting to film. When filming our actual video, it would be beneficial to do this, because we could keep a list of the shots that worked well, and the shots that didn't and this means we would be able to find them quickly.















The two images below are example of images taken from the camera that did not work. When trying to achieve a good depth of field, we wanted to have the subject in the foreground in foucs, whilst the subject in the background is out of focus. From doing this, it is clear to see that in these images, either both subjects are either slightly out of focus or they are both completely out of focus, and this is not what we set out to achieve.
To make this better, we found that the distance between the two subjects and the camera is crucial, and so we increased this distance when using the 'pull focus' on the camera to try and get a better overall depth of field, and to have the right focus on the right subject.














After having a few attempts at getting it right, we managed to get a few really good frames, and achived our required result. From these two images, you can see that the subjects in the foreground is in full focus and the subject in the background is out of focus. This was achieved by setting the camera to manual and adjusting the pull focus and as I have previsouly said, this was achieved by increasing the distance between the subjects and having the subject in the front as close to the camera as possible, and the subject in the background back as far as they could, but still making sure that their features and body positition could be seen.

Digipack - Final Design

Audience Feedback:

To gather audience feedback about the images I have taken for my digipack, I posted an album on facebook and sent an email round to people, asking what they thought of the pictures, e.g. the use of colour, props, how it relates to my target audience, and also asking them anything they think could be changed or made better. This really helped me when choosing the images to use for my digipack, as it let me know what the audience liked and what they wanted to see. This is very important, as the audience are going to be the people who would be buying the record, and it is important to know that they like the style being shown.


This is a print screen of the email I composed to send round to people on facebook, in order to achieve some audience feedback for the images used on my digipack.

In order to achieve the right look for my images, I researched further into my chosen artist, and looked at a number of different promotional pictures produced for Florence and the Machine. This then gave me some ideas about the type of poses and positions I wanted to place my model in, and the style of costumes and props I wanted to use in order to create the right look for this particular genre.

I wanted the colours in all of my pictures to be very bright, and for the model to be the main focal point in all of the shots. I also wanted to include different unusual positions so it would represent the quirky individual style of Florence and the Machine.


To create this particular shot, I used a flowery duvet which I placed on the floor. I thought that the bright colours and the outgoing patterns represented perfectly the particular style I wanted to create, and to reflect the bubbly personality of Florence and the Machine. The black dress being worn by the modal, makes her stand out from the background and shows up well against the vibrant flowers. When taking this picture, I placed the camera in a high angle shot, and focused on the model from above.

The heart that has been drawn onto the models face, represents the theme of 'You've Got the Love', and gives the song and the images consistency.

This is an example, of how i edited the original picture, in order to connect more with the target audience and to make the picture more appealing. The stars have been added using Photoshop, and I feel they make the image more interesting to look at, and different from anything else. The models pose, has been inspired by a promotional picture taken of Florence Welch, but with the added prop of using heart lights, to help bring out the theme of love.

I wanted all of my pictures to stand out, as vibrant colours are a clear idea that Florence and the Machine have based themselves on, and I wanted to also show this in my digipack to link with the unique "indie" theme. To compose this shot, I positioned my model in front of a white wall, and costumed her in 'stylish' clothes, that would make her stand out, and to also represent the styles and ideas of my target audience.



This is a different style picture that I have created for my digipack. I have incorporated the theme of 'You've Got the Love', by editing the word 'love' on to the mirror beside the model. To compliment the unusual style of Florence and the Machine, and to link with there 'strange' style of music video, I wanted this particular photo to be posed for in a different type of way, and so to create this I have used props such as the mirror, sink and chest of draws to create originality in my style. Once again, I have used a plain background, and have also put the model in bright coloured clothing in order to compliment the style of the target audience and to keep my photos consistent.

Below is the audience feedback that I have received from posting my images on facebook. As the email shows, I asked people to comment on particular aspects of my photos, such as the use of colour, props, mise-en-scene and composition of the shots. By doing this, it helped me to focus more on my target audience, as the age group that I asked to respond, where all people between the ages of 16-21, which are all ages I am aiming at for my digipack and video. As well as asking them to comment on what they liked about them, I also asked them to comment on things they didn't, and how they thought it could have been taken better or improved. By doing this task, I received some really encouraging feedback about my pictures, and I also received criticisms about the lighting for example, which I will take on board for future assignments.

Above our some of the comments I received for my photos. The comments include encouragement about the composition of my images, and how they link in well with the style and themes within the song, and within the artist. There is also comments about the mise-en-scene used within the images, and how the background, costume and make-up shown is unique to the style I am trying to capture.






























Above are a few of the improvements people think I could make to my images, and how these photos are not as good as some of the other ones I have taken. I agree fully with the comments said, and will not be using these images in my digipack, as they did not reflect upon what the target audience want, and do also not show my best work, and create the result I wanted. The comments made for these particular photos are about the lighting used in both, and go from one extreme of the image being too dark, and not being bright enough to show off the model against the background, and the other extreme being that the image is too bright and over exposed, which means the focus is detracted from the model.






Creating my Digipack




I have decided to create my final digipack using Adobe In Design. This is due to the layout and how I feel more confident about using this programme. I have however been using Photoshop to edit the images I am going to use on the digipack.

To begin the creation of my digipack, I firstly created a template for it, and adjusted the size of the document to help me with this. I then used the shape tool to draw four equal boxes, which helped me to properly set out my layout.




This print screen (after selecting the images I wanted to use) shows how I have 'placed' the images into the template. This is done by going to 'file' and 'place', and then I have adjusted the images to correctly fit into the boxes. To do this, I also had to use the scale tool to make sure that the images were kept as a whole, and were not altered in any way. By doing this, it also meant that I could position the images as I wanted and could crop the parts of the image that I didn't want to include.

In order to properly set out my digipack, I had to rotate the top left hand image so that if it was to be printed, it would be the right way round when folded. To do this i simply used the rotation tool and turned the image round using the mouse. I want every background of this digipack to be different, and so I have carefully chosen images that reflect this idea. However, due to the theme of 'love' in the song, I have a focus colour of pink and red, that runs consistently thought all of the images.




The next step I took when making my digipack was choosing the font that I wanted to include for my front and back cover. To find this I used the website http://www.dafont.com/ and searched this website for scribe like writing. The writing I have decided on, is print screened below. I chose this particular writing because I wanted it to be like it had been hand written by the artist, to give it a more personal touch and also because I like the way in which a heart can be created using the symbols, to link in with the consistent theme of love throughout my digipack.

After experimenting with different pictures, I decided to slightly change my idea, and instead of using the left hand picture for the inside cover, I decided that it would make the CD stand out better, due to the use of the patterned flowers, if it was used on the back cover. By doing this, the bright, patterned flowers should grab the audiences attention if the digipack was stocked in a shop. Therefore this print screen shows how I have acheived this, and as well as moving the images, I have also included things that will make it appear more like a CD cover, for example a barcode, and Florence and the Machine's record lable symbol, Island Records which were edited using Photoshop. By doing this, it will make the whole overall effect more professional. I have chosen to place these in the bottom left and right hand corners of my digipack, so that they do not distract from the main images, but can still be seen.


To continue with the theme of love, I decided to create a heart shape for the inside left hand cover of my digipack. This is where the CD would be held. In order to do this, I cut out a heart shape from red card and carefully ripped it down the middle. This then meant that it compliments the theme of the video, as its all about having a broken heart and relying on your friends to help you through (paper clip holding the heart together). After I did this I took a still image and imported it into photoshop for editing.



I had the idea of colouring half the heart in red and having the other half in black and white. I decided to do this because I wanted the idea of love to be shown to be good and bad, that love can be strong but then lost. This links into the idea behind the video also. In order to do this, I firstly set the image colour to black and white, and then used the colour tool to carefully shade in one side of the heart in red. This took a lot of time to do, and it was hard to make sure that the red was all the same colour, depending on the different layers, but I was pleased with the end result.


This is a print screen of my complete digipack in Photoshop. As seen, I have rotated the two top image in order to fit with a digipack layout, so that if it was printed it would look professional and would fit easily into a CD case. I am pleased with the end result of this, and feel that I have completed the task well, and made use of the programmes available for me to use. I have tried to stick to a simlar colour scheme throughout, and as I have previously mentioned, paid special attention to the brightness of the colours as this is something in which I can link to the common conventions shown in a lot of Florence and the Machines work. In this digipack I have also tried to include things such as a barcode, and record label symbols to make it more professional and have also used a model within the same age range of my taget audience so that they can begin to relate to my product further.



After I had completed my digipack, as I will be doing with my video and advert also, I posted my work onto facebook, and asked people of my target audience to comment on what they thought. I asked them to comment on ideas that they liked and thought that worked well, as well as ideas in which they thought could be developed further or changed. I also asked them to write how they thought my work could be linked to the work of Florence and the Machine, and whether they could see the link between the two. By doing this, it meant that I could then take on board some of the comments and use this feedback in future tasks.

I am really pleased with the end result of my digipack and am also pleased with the responses I have been given from it. For example, in this particular feedback, comments have been made about the way in which I have incorporated the theme of love in my work, which links well with the feelings and meaning behind the song lyrics. This is also due to the pinks and reds which have been used on the digipack to keep this idea consistent, and the theme of love continued. There were also comments made about how I have tried to use typical conventions of a digipack, such as including a bar code, and record label symbol in order for it to look real and presentable, and as if it could be put on a shelf in a record shop. It was also mention in the feeback that my digipack had continuity, and the colours thoughout were the same or matched well to one another.

One improvement that was mentioned however was to include the artists name on the front cover of the album cover, and not just the name of the single. After recieving this, I now think that this would have been a good idea to do, instead of having it more on the spine of the album. By doing this it would have meant that the target audience could recognise the single more clearly, and may show more interest towards the artist herself. However, even though the name of the artist is not featured directly on the cover, I do think that from the way in which I have tried to link my own work with Florence and the Machine's style conventions, my target audience should be able to recognise the artist through the style I have adopted.