MAGAZINE ADVERTS CODES AND CONVENTIONS RESEARCH SUMMARY
IMAGERY Magazine adverts use the same imagery as seen on the album that they are selling. Often, magazine adverts use the exact same cover seen on the album cover, including titles, but crop to different dimensions or add a panel at the bottom of the canvas where extra information would be placed. This can be seen in the examples to the right, the advert and cover of You Me At Six’s ‘Hold Me Down’ album. Magazine adverts use the same imagery as seen on the cover of the album that they are selling for two reasons; firstly, this means that the imagery on the product is repeated and thus becomes much more recognisable to consumers. Secondly, this is because of the codes and conventions that dictate how album covers are designed; album covers are designed so that they reflect the nature of, genre of and meanings within the product, meaning that consumers of a particular genre will be able to identify the type of music within an album and are thus much more likely to purchase it. By repeating the imagery of the album cover on the magazine advert, these codes and conventions are carried over to magazine adverts, meaning that audiences are able to identify the album being advertised as something they may wish to engage with. Overall, this allows magazine adverts to fulfil their purpose; of selling the product. Interestingly, this convention is one that is applicable to both niche and mainstream audiences. This is most likely because of the fact that all magazine advertisements have the same purpose and thus have to follow the same conventions in order to be successful.
LAYOUT AND SIZE Magazine adverts follow a clear and consistent structure regarding how they are laid out and how they are presented within a magazine. One again, I found that this is a consistent convention adhered to by both mainstream and niche artists. The album artwork is placed in the top two thirds of the image, meaning that the imagery dominates the frame and the titles present on the album cover are the first piece of information that the audience would read. This is important for multiple reasons; it means that the product is the dominating element of the canvas, meaning that it is clear to the audience what is being advertised. This also enforces the importance of replicating of the imagery across both the magazine advert and the DigiPak product, because placing the album artwork in a minor part of the frame would almost defeat the purpose of using the same imagery. Secondly, this means that the album title and the artist’s name are the dominant pieces of text or information. Through both size and placement on the canvas, these titles become the most noticeable titles, again, making it clear as to what is being advertised. All of the extra information present on a magazine advert is placed at the bottom of the product, in the bottom third of the canvas, so that it does not detract from the importance of the album artwork and the album titles. This can be seen in the example to the right, which is the magazine advert and album artwork for the album ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ by the niche artist ‘Manic Street Preachers.’ Regarding size, every example I found was designed so that the advert took up an entire page in the magazine. This is important because a larger advert is generally more likely to be noticed, meaning that the product is more likely to fulfil its purpose of selling a product. I found that the page of a magazine is 7 ¾inch x 10 ¾inch, which is something that I must know when it comes to the creation of my own product.
TYPOGRAPHY Regarding typography, I found that magazine adverts value consistency in the same way that DigiPak products do, if they are adhering to codes and conventions. This means that generally I found that the typeface used for the extra information on the magazine advert is the same as the type, or a type, present on the album cover. This gives the magazine adverts a more completed, aesthetic and consistent aesthetic, as opposed to an almost comedic and amateur aesthetic that would be created if the product were to feature any more than 2 or three different typefaces. However, as seen in the example to the right, which the the album artwork and accompanying magazine advert for the album ‘Plastic Beach’ by ‘Gorillaz,’ the type can change completely from the album title and artist name and the information that is added to the bottom of the magazine advert. I found that when the typeface used on the album artwork is particularly stylistic, as seen here, the magazine advert may feature a completely different, much more readable, professional typeface for the extra information. I believe this is because, in this case, the use of the same typeface on all of the information would appear comedic, unreadable and unprofessional. Thus, the magazine advert features a geometric minimal font for the extra information. Regarding the colour of the type, I found that consistency is imperative, where the type is often the same colour as the type on the album artwork. I found that any coloured text is often the most important elements of the extra information, such as the release date on the ‘Hold Me Down’ album cover seen previously, but that any colours used are often sampled from the imagery on the advert and album cover, meaning that the colour scheme remains consistent and aesthetically uniform throughout.
INFORMATION Looking at a large range of both mainstream and niche magazine adverts, I was able to amalgamate the following list of information that is present on magazine adverts. Some of the information is not optional, some I found on a few examples but not all, thus I have colour coded the information according to whether or not it is necessary or optional. This will be a good reference while I am creating and planning my own magazine advert: •
Album Title
•
Artist’s Name
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Release Date (if the album is not already released)
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Record Labels
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The Website of the Artist
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Names of Singles from the Album
•
Cliché Language (such as ‘out now,’ ‘coming soon,’ or ‘featuring the single ___’)
•
‘Available at _____’ (or simply the logo of places where the album can be purchased, either physically or digitally)
•
Album Reviews
Key: Necessary, Optional
CONCLUSION Now that I have a good understand of the codes and conventions of magazine advertisements, I can begin the process of designing my own. Through my research I have been able to understand the conventions regarding the imagery, layout, typography and information present on a magazine advert and that these expectations span all genres, all artists, regardless of whether or not the product is considered niche or mainstream. I must consider these codes and conventions greatly in order to plan and create a successful, functional, professional product.