Codes and conventions of magazine advert

To advertise and artist's new album, magazine adverts are used. Often these magazine adverts will have similar conventions.

The first convention of a magazine advert is that the design of the advert is the same as the front of the digipak. We can see this with Ed Sheeran's digipak and magazine advert. When looking at the two images we can see that the two designs are the same. This will help create an identity for Ed sheeran as people will recognise the image, therefore knowing it is him.

Another convention seen in magazine adverts is that the album or single release date is placed onto the poster. This is to create excitement around the product and maximise sales. Another way an institution tries to maximum sales is by adding websites and different social media platforms. This then invites people to begin talking about the product, once again creating hype around the product.

Other conventions of magazine adverts:

Name of artist
Name of album/single
Image of the artist
Tour dates
Album release dates
Reviews

Just like digipaks, magazine adverts often have messages encoded in them. This will give the audience an insight into the music played by the artist. For example, Ed Sheeran's digipak and poster has a large image of his face with an orange fade covering it. This indicates to the audience that his music is very personal to him and his songs could have been moments of his past. This could then lead to the customer buying the album as they feel that this music would suit their taste.

What have I learnt from this?

Knowing the conventions of a magazine advert will allow me to design my poster in a professional way as well as conforming to some of these conventions. The main convention I will most undoubtedly use will be the magazine advert's design being the same as the digipak and creating consistency between the two.