The use of colour in adverts

The use of colour in adverts

Colour is one of the most powerful elements of design in adverts, as it can change the viewer’s perception of the advertisement, regardless of what the product that is being advertised is.

Red

•      Associated with all things intense and passionate, danger, fire, energy and excitement

•      Symbol for violence, blood and war

•      High visibility → used for road signs

•      Indicates courage → used in many countries' flags

•      China - indicates celebration or luck

•      India - colour of purity (used in weddings)

Yellow

•      Colour of sunshine

•      Indicates energy, optimism, joy, hope and warmth

•      Symbol of spontaneity and impulsiveness

•      Dull yellow is associated with decay, sickness, jealousy and deceit

•      Asia - symbol of royalty and sacredness

BLUE

•      Depth and stability → colour of the sky and sea

•      Symbol of freedom

•      Associated with tranquillity, wisdom and loyalty

•      Symbolic of cleanliness, technology and security

•      Masculine colour

•      China - associated with immortality

•      Hindus - the colour of Krishna

•      Jews - holiness

•      Middle East - protective colour

ORANGE

•      Associated with enthusiasm, attractiveness, energetic, creativity and warmth

•      Creates an invigorating effect

•      Symbol of fall and harvest

•      Ireland - religious significance (Protestant)

GREEN

•      Associated with Nature, youth, fortune and vigour

•      Also associated with feelings of envy and jealousy

•      Indicates inexperience (a greenhorn)

•      Darker green associated with money

•      The colour of Islam

PURPLE

•      Connotes royalty, nobility, wealth and extravagance

•      Symbolic of wisdom, magic and arrogance

•      Associated with mourning

•      75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colours

GREY

•      Associated with security and solid

•      Linked with maturity, old age and dignity

•      Symbolic of conservativeness and boredom

BROWN

•      Associated with Earth, home and comfort

•      Represents down-to-earth, boring or sophisticated.

•      India - the colour of mourning

PINK

•      Associated with romance and love.

•      Also associated with feelings of calmness.

•      Female colour.

White

•      Represents purity, simplicity and faith

•      Associated with clinical elements → hospitals

•      Colour of perfection

•      Represents peace → colour of doves and snow respectively

•      Japan - white carnations signify death

Black

•      Gothic representations → death and evil

•      Symbol of grief

•      Associated with power, mystery and fear

•      Positive connotations - elegance and class

•      Aggressive and strong colour

School magazine Analysis

Masthead- “back to school” is in a bright eye-catching orange, with the words ‘back’, and ‘school’ in bold. This is to make it seems interesting and playful, while still being informative about it being a school magazine.

Kickers- “Q&A with nutritionists, Breakfast, lunch, snack, power eating to keep kids alert, energized.” This article clearly provides helpful information for parents who may have a problem with what food to give their children.“First-day Jitters; help your child transition from summer to school” Again, this article is informative to help parents and children through school life, making the magazine more appealing to worried and concerned parents.

Kickers- The first kicker “Quiz. Are you smarter than your child?” sounds intriguing and would attract many parents to take the fun quiz.

“5 answers to your school-safety questions” sounds reassuring to possibly worried parents and offers comfort to both parents and children.

“Backpacks, 10 tips to lighten the load” provides helpful tips to make school life easier for children/teenagers, which would appeal to those who have problems, making it easier to relate to.

SUGAR FEBRUARY 2012 ANALYSIS

Sugar, published by Attic Futura, falls into the category of teenage girls’ lifestyle magazine. Competing with many other magazines in the same category, the front cover has to stand out from the whole range of magazines in the shop and grab the audience’s attention. The front cover of this edition attempts to attract its audience through contrasting colours of hot pink, light grey, black and white; the big picture of Selena Gomez dressed in mostly black; the 5 shocking personal interest stories and through the main cover line: ‘Selena shows her dark side’. This cover line, with its intriguing and suggestive connotations, would  interest the target audience to the extent that they would feel compelled to buy the magazine to find out what the ‘dark side’ to Selena Gomez – a teenage Disney channel star who’s general image is quite innocent-is.  The words ‘Selena shows her’ is presented in small capitals in serif font half-way down the page and to the left and in white, contrasting against Selena’s black top so it will stand out and catch the audiences eye. The words ‘Dark side’ also in capitals are in a contrasting hot pink and a slightly bigger font, and look as if they have been scratched into the cover- coinciding with the theme of Selena having a ‘dark side’. Under that there are the words ‘I still don’t know who I really am’ back in the white, serif font, again contrasting against Selena’s dark outfit.

                The up-to-date, youthful style of the magazine is reinforced by the design of one of the advertisement features to make it look like a sticker that has been stuck over the top of part of the cover, in the corner, with light coloured clothes outlined in contrasting hot pink, over the top of the light grey cover background. The words ‘winter whites’ are in white serif font against a black background, which also looks like a sticker stuck on top of the light clothes. This layering effect gives the magazine more depth, and makes it look more intriguing to the audience.

                The cover lines positioned at the top left of the page offer ‘5 true stories’, appealing to the audiences need for diversion from their own problems: ‘Mum lets me have sex at 14. So what?’ and ‘Murderers pray at my feet’. As cover lines, these 2 stories have shock value.

                The masthead, Sugar, is in lowercase sans-serif pink, connoting fun and unconventionality. It is positioned so that it appears half-hidden behind Selena Gomez’s head, reinforcing the audiences willingness to feel part of an elite group, or club, that recognizes the magazine without the need to see the more conventional full magazine title of its counterparts. The strapline ‘Meet your perfect match: your face+ this hairstyle.’ In black and pink serif capitals above the mast head and overlaid over Selena’s dark hair.

                The image of Selena Gomez is conventional for this genre of magazines; she is slightly older than the target audience (13-16), making her a potential role model. She looks out at the audience through the corner of her eyes, in a confident manner and her body is facing sideways to the audience.  She wears a dressy, unusual outfit including a black lace top and a green/blue feather skirt. This provides a good background for the hot pink and white writing. Selena has quite dramatic make up on, with black eyeliner which flicks out at the ends, a clear complexion and bright pink/red lipstick, providing an idealized version of the audience, whilst reflecting the idea that she has a ‘dark side.’

Seventeen and sugar magazine comparison

Both the magazines have a female teenage target audience. The content of both magazines are relatively similar because they have the same target audience. Both magazines deal with the typical issues for teenage girls. The layout of both magazines are bright and eye catching –making them appealing to teenage girls. There are more pictures on the cover of Sugar than there are on Seventeen- the only picture is of the cover girls. Sugar talks about quite mature things, while Seventeen has a more ‘innocent’ image, and talks about things that would be suitable for a range of ages. Seventeen especially focuses on college and career, just as much as they focus on fashion and dating. This is to make it clear to impressionable teenagers that the educational side of life is just as important as the social side. Both magazines advertise fashion items like clothes, accessories, make up etc. because they know that these types of things will appeal to their target audience.

In conclusion I would say that Sugar is a better magazine because it talks about a wider range of topics, some of them controversial, which makes it more interesting.

GLAMOUR MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

The title of this magazine is ‘GLAMOUR’, which connotes that the magazine is quite girly and is aimed at teenage girls who are interested in their looks, and things like make up, clothes and hair. Most of the slogans and captions relate to how to look good and tips on ‘amazing hair’ and getting your ‘best body’. Again this connotes a very girly feel and could be perceived as superficial, but to the readers it is very helpful.

The colours used on this cover are very bright and eye catching so the magazine stands out against the others. The main colour which you notice immediately is pink, as it is used for the title and for a few of the slogans and captions. Other colours used are bright blue, orange and black. As the background is white, these colours stand out even more and connote a very fun feel, so the magazine looks appealing to read.

The font of the title is very bold and plain, but it’s very big as well, so it draws your attention straight to the name of the magazine. The rest of the writing on the cover matches the title font, but smaller and different colours. One other font is used for the name ‘Miley’, again to make it stand out. The font looks quite like calligraphy which looks a bit classier.

Some of the words used by the magazine including ‘amazing’, ‘best body’ and ‘sexiest’ have been chosen to make the potential reader think that this is the most important magazine and has the best advice to achieve a perfect body.

The word ‘Miley’ is emphasised as it is in a different font to the rest of the magazine because the biggest thing on the cover is a picture of Miley Cyrus, so she is obviously their main story, hence the reason why her name would be emphasised.

Analysis of Q magazine

Q is published by the Bauer Media Group, the UK’s largest magazine publisher in the UK. Bauer own 282 magazines in 15 countries and also TV and radio stations. It has a low monthly circulation of 80,400 readers.

            The masthead of this particular cover of Q is a square at the top left hand corner with a capital Q in the centre, with the tip of the Q leading to the featured celebrity, Lily Allen. This is quite unusual positioning of a masthead; however it makes the magazine more eye-catching and intriguing, therefore letting it stand out against other competitors. Normal mastheads run along the top of the page, and is usually a whole word, for example ‘Sugar’, but because this masthead is simply a Q, it makes the magazine more compelling, as if you are part of a select club when you buy it. It would also look more prominent on a newsstand, competing with many other magazines.

            The tagline included in the mast head: “A different kind of music” encodes being different and independent, because it suggests that the magazine is diverse in the type of music it features in it. It also connotes individuality, again making the magazine more compelling to possible readers. The tagline could also suggest that the magazine has a different perception of music, and could change the way readers think of music their selves. It gives the magazine an edge in the fact that it is one of only a few that talk about that genre of music.

            The bands featured in this issue of Q include U2, Oasis, The Stone Roses, Pete Doherty and Lily Allen. Most of these artists would be described as very well known, but not particularly mainstream, but Lily Allen’s previous music could be described as pop music, which differs greatly from the other artists featured. However the cover describes her as a ‘Sexy beast’ and says it will talk about her ‘wicked, wicked ways’, suggesting that she may have changed her image, and could now fit in with the magazine completely, and appeal to the target audience.

            The target audience for this magazine is probably males, aged 20+. I know this because of the main image on the cover, Lily Allen is in a suggestive pose, and is topless, signifying that it is trying to appeal to the male gaze.

            The cover lines are at the very bottom of the page and are laid out in a way that doesn’t explain much about them. The different sentences are separated by forward slashes. This isn’t the conventional place to put them on a normal magazine cover, fitting in with the individual theme of the magazine. The lettering style is serif font. There are also cover lines at the very right of the page, again about bands and the interviews that are included in the magazine. There is a mix of serif and sans-serif fonts in these cover lines, so it separates the different articles.

            In the central image, Lily Allen is looking down over her shoulder, as she has her back turned away from the readers, with her name in large capitals, and contrasting colours going across her body. The black panthers next to her connote danger, but they are made to look like they are comfortable round Lily Allen, connoting that she is a ‘sexy beast’ like the cover lines read.

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