The document analyzes an advertisement for Rihanna's album. The masthead uses a tilted font to suggest rebellion. The black and white close-up of Rihanna looking directly at the viewer makes her appear mysterious. Low key lighting adds to the dark and mysterious tone while still representing Rihanna positively. The mix of black, white and red colors and more complex cover lines suggest defying pop music conventions. Design principles focus attention on the image of Rihanna in the primary area with supporting details in weaker areas. The overall style represents Rihanna's rebellion against stereotypes through its imagery and genre-blending color scheme and mystery.

1. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
AS Media Studies
Foundation Portfolio
Masthead
The masthead ‘RIHANNA’ is in white font set against
a black background and is tilted to one side,
breaking design formality and suggesting a sense of
rebellion and lack on convention in the advert. The
wide spaced sans serif font is simple and thus allows
focus to remain on other aspects of the advert such
as the main image.
Main image
The close up of Rihanna is in black and white and
therefore makes the image appear to be authentic
and also more dark and mysterious. Rihanna give
direct mode of address which makes the reader feel
that she is looking directly at them, and thus
engaging the reader’s attention. The fact that she is
covering half of her face with her hand along with
her gloomy facial expression suggests that she is
perhaps angry and this creates a narrate enigma
and the reader may wonder what has happened to
her.
Photography Lighting
The advert uses low key lighting to add to the sense
of mystery and darkness surrounding the image and
represent the fact that despite being a pop artist, in
this album Rihanna is defying genre conventions.
However, the high key lighting on her face suggests
that this is still a positive representation of her,
Coverlines
The cover lines are in a different font to the
masthead and are in red, serif font. The cover lines
detail the songs on the album and the fact that they
are more complex in font and colour suggest that
they are the most important aspect of the album.
Colour
The colour scheme is black, white and red, a
conventional colour scheme of the rock genre,
however less expected of the pop genre. This again
shows that in this album Rihanna is showing rebellion
towards the stereotype of female pop and is
attempting to defy convention.
Typefaces
The contrast between the simple sans serif font and
the red, serif font is minimal but allows both fonts to
stand alone. The contrast between the two draws
attention to the informative text and thus ensures
that the reader is engaged with the advert.
Design Principles Used?
The Guttenberg Design Principle is used as the main
focus of the advert is the image, which is feature
predominantly in the primary optical area. The strong
fallow area also includes the image and also a graffiti
style ‘R’ which we may assume is the logo of the
advert and therefore significant. The informative
details are featured in the weak fallow area and the
terminal area as they are secondary to the image
which is key in engaging the readers attention.
House Style
The house style of the advert is representative of the
pop/rock genre, and thus represents Rihanna’s
rebellion against the pop genre and a break out into a
more dark and enigmatic genre. The imagery
alongside the colour scheme suggest that there is
mystery behind the advert and thus intrigues the
reader to find out more.

2. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
AS Media Studies
Foundation Portfolio

3. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
AS Media Studies
Foundation Portfolio