Magazine research, Big Smoke

My next magazine proved to be an ideal magazine for me, as it contained many adverts which do link to my artist's mixed genre, and aren't too complicated to do. The magazine is called 'Big Smoke', a new magazine which has featured UK rap artists such as Sway, Sincere, Giggs, Wiley and many more. It contains several interviews and adverts, aiming to keep you 'in the know', by showing new releases, and interviewing artists to keep you up to date with what's going on with them.

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The photography in this magazine is very good, as is shown in the image above, a side shot of the main artist in this issue's magazine, Mr Manuva.

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I could go for a graphic approach with my magazine advert, such as the two above. One focuses on a manipulated photo to include graphics which make it look more effective to the viewer, followed by the text below for the details of the album. The other includes graphics for the logo in large, with a splatter brush to make the background look less plain around the photos and small text. The graphic approach would possibly be the most time consuming, but I think that it becomes more simple and does work alot better than text or photo based adverts, for this artist anyway.

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The photographic approach can still be as effective as the graphical adverts, as shown in the image on the right of above. It is a simple picture of a man looking over at a city in the distance, which brings the representation of him waiting to go there, symbolising himself as the album, and the city as the public, i.e us. The grunge-type text works well with it too, as it shows us the genre of music that it is by the text only, without needing to focus on the image. The blue advert on the left is a mixture of graphic and photographic. It contains four photos of the artists layed out in a square box sorrounded by a blue stroke outline, with the logo in the middle. A simple way to lay out your images, but it looks professional as it is accompanied by their logo. As always with a graphic advert, there is details about the album as you need to explain the image above, unlike the image on the right.

Magazine research, Big Up

This magazine focuses alot on the graphical side of things, as you see directly from the front cover. (As shown in the middle image below)

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Initially looking at this magazine I thought that this magazine would be ideal for featuring my artist, due to the cartoony images giving it a retro feel. The magazine features Dub step and grime music so it would be a good one to feature for due to it's growing population at teenagers and young adults in these genres. Unfortunately, it didn't feature much of advertisements for albums, but more of advertising artists with interviews, and several pages of an illustrator's work to promote him, as shown in the pictures above.

This magazine did not contain any adverts which I could use for reference, but I was able to get some ideas from the many illustrative images that were displayed within it, so it was worth getting my hands on to help me get some ideas.

The illustrator uses both photographic (with digital manipulation) and graphical designs, which both give a bright, colourful visual, giving a retro feel, which would appeal to the young audience which I am also aiming to target with my own magazine advert.

Magazine research, Flavour

This magazine I had to obtain from school online, as my computer didn't like the website. Eitherway, I was able to access a digital copy of their magazine, including back issues which was really useful. Flavour magazine is targeted at teenagers, due ot the artist's that it includes, and the use of colours they they choose. Now onto the adverts;

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As you can see, they have included some commercial albums such as "Pure Urban essentials", which is adverticed on the TV often. They also include possible unknown artists, such as the one on the right advert, and also a group which are sponsored, to support those that the magazine is targeted at.
The first advert uses a black and white ourline style of three characters, and some text to fill in the extra space, to give details for what it is about. An image of the album has been included to shwo you what it looks like when you go to look in store to buy it for example. Due to it supporting NHS with infectons and problems which teenagers are commonly getting lately. The advert targets the audience well, with not only it's sponsors, but the large image, with text beside it for an explanation.

The second advert uses simplicity; a large image of the album front cover in the middle, release date at the top, and details underneath the picture. For a commercial-based album, this is all they they need to include, and it's effective.
The third advert focuses on wanting sales. They do this by showing other albums which are available form the artist, and a quality photograph shot of the artist as the focal point of the page.

Magazines

Our final stage of this course is to design our own whole page magazine advert. The only difficulty for me is that I don't tend to read magazines much, and I have no ideas as to what magazines would contain the genre that my artist is involved around. This meant that I would need to do some research, which I did.

On the internet it's very hard to actually find magazine adverts that you can use, let alone ones that are in the genre you are looking for. I did manage to find a good one referenced by a student at 'Long road media', of mainstream artist Jay-Z, for his new album, Blueprint 3.

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(http://04musicvideo09.blogspot.com/2009/09/magazine-advert-analysis.html)

This advert is VERY plain, the use of a few lines of text, and his website. It's purpose is simply to inform people that his album is soon to be released, and that's all you would need to know, Jay-Z is one of the most well-known artists of rap in this generation.

I don't intend on creating a magazine advert by following this style, because simply it has no major impact and doesn't attract so much attention as there isn't alot going on. If my artist was well known, then maybe it could be a useful idea, but when he isn't, it's a good idea to bring across some new style with the advert to gain popularity for him.

While doing my research for magazines where I can find detailed examples of adverts to help me gain some more ideas, I came across several magazines which would be ideal. A few of them include;
Flavour, Big Smoke, Big Up, ReWind.

I was able to get my hands on two of these, and one of them includes a digital version of the magazine online which I will be looking into. Over the next few days I will write up some information about them that I have researched, as I have purchased two magazines, from Big smoke and Big up, which came today.

DVD Digipak final design

So here it is, my final design for the DVD Digipak;

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I have had several occasions during the creation of this where my ideas had been changed. I was initially going to create some drawing with my tablet to represent the artist, but that was before I had begun my research. It would have ended up something like the work I later created in the artist research for Julian Opie;
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxUZYm14HaLqwRPpwHKmKccow3Bg4pAqSqwoNET3EAvoFDl0n8P5SkcAFP9L3OsdbF7qXqh125vChLoWYPWQNNRFkgCHboFZZAyKMOKPuDjt1khJn70B37C8KtHWgJb_ri8DEeXITVR91/s1600-h/Julian+Opie+style+of+myself.png).

Due to the lack of music DVDs for my genre, I found what I could from it, and then looked at CD cover artwork, as they have a similar idea for their purpose, representing the artist and using some graphical imagery to make it look cool, with artists being successful with this such as Kanye West, Kid Cudi and Drake, as I discovered from my research. I decided to follow Drake's idea due to it's simplicity. It meant that I would create a silhouette image, and then minimize the colours so that the focus would be on the character, and I think that has worked in my DVD Digipak.

I decided to follow several other ideas too, such as the 3D glasses effect from the t-shirt I found, which gives a visual illusion, instantly attracting the viewer due to it creating a blur effect when you first see it. The spine has been copied from the DVD cover for "Mobb Legacy" which I researched. I decided to use their style, again due to it's simplicity, just a gradient of two colours and then some text in a completely different colour, it makes it look professional. On top of this, I decided to include some originality into the design. This includes the 'scrapbook' style photo frames to include snapshots of the music video to act as a preview. It was created by simply drawing a white square box, and including a custom photoshop brush of sellotape/masking tape. I then tried to meet the artist's idea for himself, wanting to bring back retro styles to himself and to the music. The use of a simple badge template was placed to allow the designs for his clothing which has been sold, to advertise it also.

The silhouette image was achieved, by simply taking a picture of myself in a pose which would work in suiting the genre of the artist, hip hop/rap. I decided to go for a pose to look as if I am leaning against a wall, so I found somewhere in my house where it was a plain background, and took a picture. It was then taken into photoshop and the effect "levels" was used to darken the image to create this effect. The eraser brush was then used to finalise the image and remove any unwanted parts of the image that remain. I decided to keep the wood texture underneath, simply because it is a nice effect, and it works really well with the 3D effect.

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The common/required images and text was then included; the DVD logo, PAL logo, DOLBY logo, a barcode, the artist's logo/signature, and the copyright text, to give it an authentic look, as if it was one made professionally in the media industry. The artist's logo was somewhat more difficult than I had intially made out. I asked him to draw it for me on a piece of paper, and I then decided ot take a picture of it and then upload it onto the computer. This however didn't work due to the amoung of different shades it created of grey around the design. I decided to scan it up onto my computer at a resolution of 600dpi, which came to the measurements of 5008x7008 pixels, which is a size far greater than I will need to use, which ended up being scaled down to roughly 1% of the original size. Here's an image of the design for explanation;

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As you can see, the scanned image is very thin, and when cropped to a size much smaller, it will be barely visible. I was able to work around this, by applying a 'stroke' to it, meaning it has a thick outline, and then giving it a bright colour to add some depth to it. It now looks like a very nice logo.

In order to get the sizing right for the DVD Digipak design, I used a very simple technique, using guides and showing rulers to allow me to place things perfectly to where I wanted them.

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So from the image, (click the image and view it in full resolution to understand it easier) I have included many guides (the cyan colour lines), to allow me to place things in the centre of whichever side it is on. I initially only used it to get the sizes right for the spine, back and front side, so that I could split them up and work on them separately, but then realised that i would be useful to me so that I could then apply the images in the correct area where they are intended, and it also helps to plan where everything will go before you go straight into it. I also decided to keep all of the layers organised with correct names/labels to allow me to know what is on each layer, so that it is easier to edit.

So, to conclude, the DVD Digipak successfully suits the genre, due to it's retro style, using a silhouette image, then creating a 3D effect and applying additional images to give the whole retro feel to it. Track listings and extra features have been placed on the back rather than a blurp due to it being the common style from my research.

Resources used;
Badge template - http://whaletea.deviantart.com/art/Button-Badge-Template-129656284
Photoshop tape brush - http://www.fudgegraphics.com/2009/01/sticky-tape-free-hi-res-photoshop-brushes-textures/

Just about done!

The DVD cover is practically how I had initially intended it to look visually. I just need to add a few finishing touches to make it look "authentic", such as the "DVD" logo, to show that it contains a DVD, and any additional logos such as the artist's tag for "JSK" in which I will need ot gain during next week.

I was able to find a copy of the DVD logo from a google search, in a resolution of which is far greater than the size of the template I am working with, making it ideal for me to use, so that I can edit it if needed, but know that it will be large enough. (Taken from http://womenofgraceandpower.org/DVD_Video_NEW_LOGO.jpg)

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Several changes will be made to this in the final design, such as;

1. Blurp replaced as not used in the designs researched
2. DVD logo and title on front cover removed as not needed, repetitive
3. Front cover "Junk St*r Kids" will be white instead of copying the 3D effect
4. Authenticity images included to make it look more professional
5. Back cover will be re-arranged to make it look more appealing, such as placing the photos on the top of the page.

Update to progress on DVD Digipak

Today I used my research and draft design to begin adding the detailed touches to my cover. I decided on creating a silhouette type image, copying the style of Drake's CD covers. Following this style I decided to include colour also, focusing on four colours, blue, black, red and white. I will be including some images of the music video on the back, to show screenshots of what's included. I also included some badges, to represent a 'retro' look and feel, to try and signify that the artist is trying to bring back a retro style to the music genre. My next step is to simply finish this cover off, by following my draft design, as you can see below;

Another idea for the DVD cover style of Digipak

I often check certain websites which sell clothing for new designs, as I do enjoy looking at some of the styles, and wondering how they are done, due to being a graphic designer in a local store for printing on clothing anyway.
Recently I found this design which caught my eye before the others around it, due to it's simplicity and bright colours. It's a design by a well-known brand, "Famous Stars and Straps", if you see their logo you might recognise them. This design concists of three colours, blue, red and black. The red and blue act as the effect of wearing 3D glasses, which are then shown above the text to emphasis on this. I think this technique works really well and does look good with the text/graphics involved. If I were to use it for my DVD Digipak, it would link with current films which are coming out which use 3D glasses such as "Avatar" and "..". The three colours are of the same image, which then slightly overlay to give off the effect of a blurry image, which when wearing 3D glasses, it will look normal. It's a very clever idea which then looks professional due to the effect it creates.

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New upcoming artist "Mr Hudson" has used a similar idea for his CD artwork, using an image of himself three times to create an effect of blur, giving the same effect from this T-shirt design.

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As you can see, the idea is pretty straight forward to create (picture above created by myself quickly), You create one text layer which has red text, then another which has blue. If you then move the blue layer so that half of it is still ontop of the red text, and then change it's layer style to 'Darken', then you will get this effect. So simple yet so effective.

Graphic idea

I saw this image yesterday after checking my emails from msn.com. It's like a sketchbook cutout idea, where there are images collaged together, with a rough white outline around them, giving them a stylish feel to them. This theme for laying out graphics with this white cut out stroke is generally linked to the indie genre of music, but I think that with the graphic approach to the DVD Digipak this could work out effective, depending on what is created for it.

An example of how to do an effect such as this can be found from this tutorial on YouTube; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9fQz9eS28U . All you simply have to do, is use the polygonal lasso tool (preferably in Photoshop, not Fireworks which is used in this tutorial), and do a rough cut around the image, then when you are happy, you can either create a smooth white outline by using Edit -> Stroke, or just simply create another rough cut which is slighly larger and different to the one you just did, and then fill it to white and put it behind the one you have just created, so that it gives this effect of a magazine cut out. I'll post a quick tutorial with images below to show you what I mean;

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Firstly, you will need to view these images in full resolution to be able to see the lines drawn. Step one involves drawing a rough outline with the polygonal lasso tool, and then cutting it out from the image. Step two involves the same idea, but this time, you will fill it white and place underneath. The second line will need to be roughly the same distance as the first one is to the image. Try not to do the exact same cut out as the first one, to allow it to give this effect rather than just a simple outline appearance. This is what you should get, below is an image of three I have done, using my own images;

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Initial design of own DVD Digipak design for artist

From the research I have made, I then begun to create this initial design of how I would expect my cover to look. It is without my own designs which may possibly be made, and it can only be called the 'Initial idea' due to how I don't feel ready to begin creating the cover to its final draft so soon. Here's the image;

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As you can see, the template is basic, it doesn't need to have anymore on it, aslong as it shows where each section of the cover is, then it can be worked from.

So i've begun my research, and found some ideas, and some artists which have their own unique styles, all that's left to do is to make my own. I thought i'd begin by creating a template for this cover, with the right measurements to ensure that when it is printed, it will fit properly. This involved measuring the lengths by hand, and then placing markers into Photoshop so that I knew where the gap between the spine and both covers would be. Here's an image of the template in which I had created;

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Now as I stated, this is a very rough design, it will more than likely change completely to the final design. The spine is similar to that of the DVD cover I deconstructed labelled 'Mobb Legacy - 10 years deep', I just felt that it looked really nice, allowed the text to be easily visible, and helped to create a certain colour theme to the rest of the cover.
The text on the back with the repetitive phrase 'Junk Star Kids' is where the short description of the DVD will be shown, I just simply used this phrase repeatedly to act as a block to show roughly how it could look.
The front cover is what will be important about this design, due to how it will be what people will see before even touching the DVD case. Obviously a DVD label will be included (shown in the bottom right of the design) to signify that this does contain a DVD disc, but it will need to have some image displayed to represent the artist. My idea is to possibly go graphical with the design, allowing me to create something original that shows the artist, and that is bright and colourful to represent the artist and gain attention. A use of typography/text to display the artist's music name 'Junk Star Kids' so that it stands out in big at the top. A grain effect was used on the coloured background to give a retro feel to it, with the use of a gradient to allow more colour to be shown.

Again, most of these ideas have been taken from other artist's DVD/CD covers, but the final design will contain something original that will be liked by both the artist and the public who get to view it.

CD artwork research

Photography, when framed at the right moment can catch something special that will look good on an album cover. This shot of the dog in mid air works really well in creating a sense of humour. A website claimed that the album in fact wasn't very good, but with the effect that the album cover creates, you wouldn't think so.



An abstract design, very unusual and not really used often. It may not join the rap genre, but it's design is something unique, it creates an illusion where you will feel that it is animated when you stare at it.



A typical design for mixtapes. The artist will be placed centre, with any additional artists in the mixtape, with a background of something stereotypical of the rap genre, e.g. cars, women, money, jewellery, drugs. Some of these can look good, such as the one above, whereas others will look badly made and will more than likely convince you not to get a copy of it.



A cover so simple, yet it looks really good. Nothing complex is going on with this cover, just a tick with lots of colours on it, and that's all you need to see. A tick signifies something that has passed some test, something positive, thats enough to convince you to buy the album.

Music Artist research - Kid Cudi

Kid Cudi is another new artist, who is also known for his unique style and appeal. He has a similar style to kanye west, due to the amount of time he has spent working alonside Kanye. His CD/mixtape covers show this, due to the cartoony style that is vibrant in colour and contains a story within it.

His album artwork concists of cartoonistic designs, which aren't that hard to create, just require creativity in the mind to put together. A cartoon version of the artist is used to represent the new style of the hip hop genre, aimed towards the teenage audience rather than adults.

Music artist research - Drake

Drake is a recently new artist that has entered the rap scene, and already he has grown to become known and gaining appeal before having to release an album. His mixtape which was released "so far gone" has a very unique style in it's artwork, the same was done for one of his single releases, whether it was a remix, unreleased from the artist or not, the same style has been used so it is beneficial in getting an idea of the style used.

As you can see, Drake is bringing back the idea is silhouettes, with black and white colours, then using a bright colour for someting within the artwork for importance. This works well as it is simple, cartoony and well designed. This style won't be too hard to create, considering you have the images to make it. The text will be used from either finding a nice font and laying it out yourself, or simply just drawing it. You can be very creative with this style, and that's why it works so well, because its something that you don't see often on CD covers, and yet it is so effective.

Music artist research - Kanye West

Kanye West has become an icon in Hip Hop for his unique style and for becomign a trendsetter, for things such as the Shutter shades, and the cartoon style which is included on his CD artwork, with the character associated to him as the bear. His CD artwork that he is most remembered for is from 'Graduation'.

As you can see, it is very bright and colourful, with the included bear as the focal point. The image represents the symbolism of graduating, with the other animals in the background, and the bear almost being shot out like a cannonball from the white object. The text isn't too visible due to it being less important than the image itself. It will be hard to find a CD cover as bright as this one, and this is why he is known for his originality and unique style in which he is bringing to the music culture.

Artist research - Dave McKean

Dave McKean is an artist who is very talented, being given the chance to create CD covers for artists such as Machine Head and Alice Cooper. His designs mainly concist of what looks to be photo manipulation, to give a direct impact to create a reaction to the public.

As you can see, these CD covers look part gothic, due to the darkness and mysterious images of people within the designs. The use of fire, and manipulating the people's faces to purposely make you feel abit odd looking at the image, but in a way thinking it looks pretty cool and creative.

Some of his designs do look quite simple, for example the image above. It is a portrait photo, of a person who has had their face painted white, and a leaf placed infront of her, whether it was during the photo or done after in a photo editing programme. The eye's have been made fully black, and the border and background made dark to give a sense of gothic, but to also focus your eyes onto the person's face, for the reason that she has black eyes with a red glow to them.

Artist research - Julian Opie

The easiest way to find some artists and ideas for my DVD cover is to look at CD album artwork. Many artists have professional graphic designers and photographers to create them, depending on the style of cover they want to be displayed.

One artist who's design is very simple, is Julian Opie. His style of drawing people is very basic. He will take a picture, and then draw around an outline of them, adding any additional features such as lines for hair and circles for eyes. Then he will add some fill for skin colour and recently some shading for lighting. It's nothing too difficult, but if you want it to look good then you'll need patience to make it work.

As you can see, the designs are deffinitely constructed from simple outlines, but its what you put inside the outlines that make it constructive and challenging to design. It does deffinitely create a nice effect, and the definite bold black lines around every part of the character work well to create a cartoony image of someone.

After roughly 2-3 hours, I was able to create one from an image of myself. The hardest part was making it look like the image which I was working from. The outlines were easy enough, but it's when you need to add the detail that it becomes difficult, but I guess that's expected.

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DVD Cover - Crigger Nacker, Hold it down

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http://www.myspace.com/criggernackerfilms
This DVD cover was taken from a page on a web 2.0 community website, called MySpace. The music group promote themselves through web 2.0, and have recently published this DVD to promote themselves and the artists involved, which contains music videos and interviews of them.

The layout of the cover is really good, a large picture of the group at the bottom, infront of a graphic-based background, and text at an angle on the left side of the top half of the front cover.
The back cover contains mainly text, besides a graphic-based background which is similar to that used on the front page. The text is to advertise, and to get you to read it, with the use of different sized text placed in different locations so that it gets noticed.
Below is a short deconstruciton of the DVD cover's layout.

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Due to the music group being in a stage of not being hugely known, this DVD cover is based on promotion, therefore alot of text has been used so that whoever gets their hands on this can read up about them, and see what's within the DVD.

For the front cover, the music group is the focal point of this, with them in the front, and there being a graphic-based image behind them. Text is placed above them to advertise the DVD and it's contents. A colour style of red white and black colours has been used throughout this cover, which works well in gaining attention to it and for using text.
The back cover contains solely text, to allow the viewer to know what's within the DVD before they watch it, due to how there's many different things inside. The text is slightly slanted to allow it to look effective, as it will catch your eye, but also allows room for slightly more text to be placed on the page.

DVD Cover - Jay-Z, Fade to black

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This DVD cover has been based aroung the photographic style of creating covers. A full side photo has been placed on the front cover, from the artist's side looking over to what looks to be a crowd during a live performance. The cover has been given a grain effect, to make it look like an old legend of the music genre, as giving the grain effect creates a sense of history, ans including a person in the grain effect makes them to be some historical figure, with the use of lighting to support this, as it is shining onto him.
Alot of text has been used in this cover, possibly because it is a DVD of the artist's live performance, so it will have a long description and a long list of additional artists who played with him.
Additional photos have been used on the back to show a sneak peek of some of the artists who joined Jay-Z in the live performance. They are placed on the back rather than the front due to them being less important, as it is Jay-Z's DVD in which he will be gaining the profits from, rather than the additional artists. Below is a short deconstruction of the DVD cover. Unfortunately I was unable to find the spine image for this DVD cover, so a plain white one has been used to replace it.

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The DVD cover here is really quite simple in terms of it's layout. A large photo is placed on the front cover to publicise the artist, with text in smallprint either side of him to show the extras in the video. The artist's name is placed at the top in large text, this shows that it's all about him. On the back it is mainly text, showing all of the companies involved, and the description of the video. Additional photos have been placed on the back to give you an insight as to what will be shown during the video.

DVD Cover - Mobb Legacy, 10 years deep

Over the next few days i'll be posting up some work that i've been doing over the past two weeks of my holidays. To start it off, here's some research into DVD covers.

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This dvd cover is a simple house style, in terms of its colours and use of text and images. The font type is the same, and the same colour (white), whereas the images will have a use of red around them, in a main background of black. Alot seems to be going on in this cover, but it actually isn't. It has a simple layout, using the cover to its full, covering the whole page with text and images to advertise themselves on the DVD cover as much as possible, which is what you want to do with this type of distributable. Below is a deconstruction of the layout in which was used for the DVD cover.

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As you can see, when looking at this image, and then back at the original DVD cover, it now looks pretty basic. For the front cover, they have placed a large image of a hooded skull character, with blood around him. The middle has the name of the artist group's name in bolt lettering, and then the extra text in smallprint at the bottom. Using this rule of thirds allows them to make the most of the area given, by placing their name in the middle it shows the importance of it, and then placing an image at the top to catch your eye, then the small print for you to read.
The back of the DVD cover works in a similar style. The image to link the front and back together has been placed on the top, of another skull character, wearing apparel of a stereotpical rap/gangster characteristic. The images on the left represent the artists within this group, placed inside a border of a blood drip, linking it with the front cover with the excess of blood used on the top half. In the middle is the small print text, explaining what is within the DVD, as there is with all DVD back covers. At the bottom is placed the sponsors and companies involved with this group and the DVD.
A simple spine has been used, but it still links with the rest of the cover. A red gradient background, with the name of the DVD in white text, simple but it works really well.
It therefore meet's the typical conventions for a DVD cover, with the companies and sponsors placed at the bottom on the back cover, the description placed on the back of the DVD cover, the name of the DVD placed on the spine, and then with the front cover used to advertise the group and text to show who they are.