The document analyzes four magazine CD advertisements and discusses aspects the author found effective that could inform their own advertisement design. Key points included: 1) Simple color schemes, large images of the artist, prominent display of artist/CD name, and inclusion of website were common across ads. 2) Quotes praising the CD and track names were featured, along with enhanced images and simple fonts. 3) Inclusion of the CD cover within the ad and banners providing details were techniques the author wanted to incorporate into their own design.

1. Analysis of existing magazine CD adverts I couldn’t find any Owl City magazine adverts, so I looked through the music magazines ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ to find other adverts that I thought looked effective to see if this gave me any ideas for my own CD cover. Here is my analysis of my 4 favourite magazine adverts.

2. Simple colour scheme – white, black and a pink/purple colour – links with colours of CD cover Image of the star taking up most of the page Name of artist and CD name in biggest font Website of the artist Picture of CD front cover on the advert – relates to the picture and text on the advert Details at the bottom of the page such as when it’s released, quotes about the CD etc.

3. Quotes about CD, top of the page Simple image taking up the page – brightness looks enhanced Artist name and track name centre of the page Simple font style – all text in black White ring around main text – drawing focus Colour links with artist name – white belt yellow tag Yellow banner at bottom of page – details and logo

4. Image on advert relates to image on CD cover Puff at the top of page – stating its ‘mind blowing’ Simple colour scheme – grey, black and red hair and lipstick – image looks like it has been made to look more subdued CD cover used within advert All details – price, quotes etc. Simple font style – all text in black HMV logo – where to get the CD from

5. Big, heavy font used in black – creating a statement CD cover only image on page – takes up over half of the page Name of artist and track biggest text on page Details – when its out etc. CD cover is the only coloured part of the advert Website of the band Straight lines used with text to contrast with the curve within the CD cover

6. Aspects I would like to use for my own CD cover After looking at these 4 completely different magazine adverts I found some parts of each of them that I would like to incorporate into my own CD magazine advert, such as: In the 2nd magazine advert I really liked the use of the banner at the bottom of the page containing some information In the majority of the adverts they placed the front cover of the CD within the advert – which I really think works well I liked the overall style of the 3rd advert – using an image as a background that relates to the image in the CD cover – I also like that the artists name and CD name is only written on the CD I think this looks a bit more interesting. I also like the use of putting the bands webpage on the advert as in the 1st and 4th adverts. The use of quotes, praising the album or artist also seem like a good way of advertising the CD