Sketch ideas for our own magazine advert

From looking at three separate magazine adverts of three individual Hip Hop artists, we have come up with a few sketch ideas of what our magazine advert could look like.

Once we have decided on which sketch to use we will then be experimenting with Photoshop and colours.

We have decided on three inital sketch ideas, all with certain elements and conventions linked in with our own research we have done by looking at different magazine adverts.

Sketch 1

In this sketch the main character (the same one from our music video) is seen in a hoody holding a cross. There is a glowing light behind her and her knuckles are bruised. All of these factors are seen as contradictory, which was our aim. We wanted the audience to feel sympathy for the character, and yet still remember she is 'from the streets' and does not lead a very positive life. This is portrayed by the style of her clothes being quite thuggish contrasted with the person holding a cross. This shows both her 'street' side which is harsh and cruel, and also her religious side in which she prays and hopes for something better. The bruised knuckles show that she has gotten in fights and lives it rough, whereas the glow in the background acts as a 'halo' type effect and gives the impression that she is actually pure and holy. We liked this idea a lot as we felt it portrayed the image we were going for well.

Sketch 2

This idea contains a gang member sitting on a staircase holding a baseball bat. Each of these aspects link back to our genre. 'Gang members' were mentioned to be related to the Hip-Hop genre when we first asked for feedback to the class about what they expected to see in a Hip-Hop music video. The staircases were found as a convention through my own research whilst looking at videos such as 'Word To Ya Mutha'. And a baseball bat is seen here as a weapon, which links in with gangs and crime, another common convention of the genre. Although it includes many common aspects and elements, we found that there was a lot going on visually in this advert, which mean there was hardly any room for text to provide information about the artist.

Sketch 3

This idea consists of a red cross on a plain background. The use of the colour red symbolizes blood and death, which is a reference to our music video. The cross is a religious reference, which was a common theme in the music video that we intended on carrying on to both ancillary products. The plain background allows the audience to mainly focus on the red cross and emphases its importance. There is not a lot of text, but there is enough for the audience to get enough information about when the album is released and where it is available.This idea would be easy to produce on Photoshop as it is a very simplistic design.

As a group, we have all decided that sketch 1 best represents the style and genre that we are working with (Hip Hop). We tried to hit the main conventions and to make it as realistic as possible.