elements of a magazine advert

Elements of a Magazine Advert Website -http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/publishing/articles/82873.aspx Here is an article that can give us some idea as to what to include and what to think about in planning and making a magazine advert to make sure we have the correct things to engage the audience and although this is a general overview for any magazine advert along with our other research of singer/songwriter magazine advert research we can hopefully create the perfect magazine advet for our genre.

Plan Your Ad Layout: Where Does the Reader Look?

Viewing a magazine ad, the reader's eye sees the illustration first, no matter where it is on the page. Then they read down from the illustration on. As to where the ad's main illustration should be, consider this: the "optical center" of the page is one-third of the way down and in the center. Keep these in mind when thinking of the layout of your magazine ad.

This has helped us the know where the reader looks first and therefor where we need to place the most crucial information to make sure its eycatching so the imortant imforamtion making sure our images is the 'optical center' and the the crucial infroamtion beow this would make sure we get the readers attention and having one images significatnly larger and prominant would makre sure this is where the readers attention is drawn.

Ogilvy Method for Magazine Ads Designer's should create an ad using the Ogilvy method at least once in their career, but to be honest, most ads should incorporate at least some of these principles no matter what. They were formulated by advertising icon David Ogilvy and are backed up by scientific research.

The Ogilvy method in a nutshell is based upon 5 items: *

a very strong visual, either a photo or an illustration

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a caption for the visual, if needed

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a headline

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well-written copy

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a "signature" — logo and contact information for the product/company

By following or taking note of these bullet point we will be aware of what a good magazine advert consists of and follwing these should make ours professional and have all of the things on that is needed.

Magazine Ad Layout Principles This is a general percentage breakdown of the different elements of a magazine ad as your rule

of thumb guideline: *

Visual (the main photo or illustration) — 65%

*

Headline — 10%

*

Ad Copy — 20%

*

Logo — +5%

The percentages are how much space each major element should take up in the ad. The main visual should be very large, and in the top portion of the ad, in order to take advantage of where the reader instinctively looks first.

The headline doesn't take up a lot of space on the page, yet it stands out because it's succinct, contrasts with the page, and set in large type.

Copy describes the benefits of what you're promoting or selling.

The logo should be placed in the bottom right area of the ad, because that's where the eye is drawn to last.

Knowing these perecnetages will help us to get our magazne advert into proportion making usre our layout is clear and not too confusing making sure its all in place and thingd dont look out of proportion, this will help to mke sure the aueidnce are focused and know what its about and that they dont become confused.

Type Tips The design principles of balance and contrast when selecting typefaces and type sizes for your magazine ad. Contrast means your type will be readable on the page and vary in size. For instance, brown type on a black background is low-contrast and virtually unreadable. Use dark type on light backgrounds and vice versa. Avoid placing type on busy backgrounds.

Make the headline as big as possible for the layout and set the copy no smaller than 8 or 9 point. It may be trendy to set type super-tiny, but keep your audience in mind and remember that ad design is primarily about motivating people to seek out the product, not showcasing creativity. I highly recommend staying in the 10–16 point range for ad copy, depending on the length of the message.

Don't use all capital letters, and use reverses (light type on a dark background) judiciously.

The type tips can help us to make sure our advert is clear to read so that the audeinces dont become confused or distracted so that they get the message and clear and quickly as possible and by following these basic rules such as nt having numerous different fonts we can easliy avoide this.

These tips for how to design a magazine ad come from years of research conducted by marketers and famous names like David Ogilvy. They're time-tested and will help you to lay out an ad that's not only attractive and eye-catching, but effective. Let us know how you're putting these tips to use in the comments.