Magazine Advertisement

We're nearing the end of the semester here, and the next project up is a Magazine Advertisement. This piece will be paired with a Billboard, as a sort of campaign. Both need to cover the same subject, but they will have several differences. Check out my post on the Billboard Project for more information.

First, let's figure out the parameters of the assignment. Create a full page, full color advertisement including a Microsoft Tag, and the advertisement should follow the advertising specifications of the particular publication we are designing for.

I tapped into my inspiration, which led me to...listening to music. This seems like procrastination, but it eventually got me going in the right direction. I decided to look up the ad specs for Guitar World magazine, and, thankfully, I found them! So, with that in mind, I got to thinking of what I could conjure up that would fit into a guitar centered magazine. Finally, I came to the decision that I would create a promotional piece for a fake band, releasing a fake album, planning a fake summer tour. Simple stuff, right? I thought so.

Considering the magazine I chose to design for, I assumed I would need to have a target audience in young adult to middle-aged group focusing mostly on males. Of course, I'd also need to gear my ad towards music, which I've already got covered. One call to action here is to scan the Microsoft Tag, which would lead to this blog, rather than the band's sit (since there isn't a site). The second call to action would be to either look up the band, check out their new album, or go to one of their shows on their summer tour. I figured that depending on which one of these I chose for the magazine ad, I would choose the other for the billboard.

Here's some screen grabs from the PDF of the ad specs showing pricing and ad sizes:

So, there are various price breaks depending on the number of runs I would want to do in a year. For a one-time run of the advertisement, it would cost $12,060. The specs also tell us that the page will have a bleed of 8.25"x10.75", a trim size of 8"x10.5", and a live area of 7.5"x10". That means that the ad will have 1/8" bleeds and 1/4" margins. Compressed/stuffed high-resolution PDFs or TIFFs are accepted. Files are sent in via online submission. However, the specs give no information on preferred line screen or color mode.

Now that we've got all the basics covered, it's time to get some actual ideas out there. Here are scans of my thumbs (5) and roughs (2).

I decided to go with the more simplistic design, because I felt it was the most fitting for a magazine advertisement. I created this portion of the campaign first (before the billboard), because it would require more information. Here's what I came up with!

Just as a note, the image I used for the background was only meant for use on the web, so the resolution was 72 dpi. Since it was a dark texture, I decided to change the resolution up to 300, and then tile the image to fill the appropriate area, which I did in Photoshop. After that, I used the Patch and Spot Healing tools to get rid of any lines where the images met, and merged the layers down into one. The original Photoshop document I downloaded had a gradient overlay, which I then put over the new high-resolution image.

Also, I decided to do some extra work and add some scratched texture behind the social media icons. The texture came in a free download pack from WeGraphics. I used an appropriate one as an overlay on each of the icons, and turned them into clipping paths so the extra image wouldn't show around the edges. It was a lot of work for a very small detail, and it's difficult to see the different here on the screen. On paper, though, it's much more noticeable and adds a nice touch.

                                                                                                                   

Master Image List Elements: The white text counts as a reverse. The background image and the album cover are both 4 color rasters. The three social media icons are all clipping paths.

Copyright statement: The background and the texture used on the social media icons were both downloaded from WeGraphics. The social media icons themselves were supplied on ANGEL by the instructor. The Microsoft Tag was made online at the Microsoft Tag site.