Publication Ad

My next project is to develop a concept for a full color magazine ad that can be executed for a specific publication, as a full page ad. A Microsoft Tag code is a required element of this ad. I decided to research Writer's Digest magazine to find out more about the audience of readers it attracts and the types of ads it usually runs, along with the publication specifications it requires. My specific ad will aim to attract fiction writers to scan the tag and follow it to the website of the journal to learn more about submissions and contests.

•  Full Page Ad- Live Area: 7" X 10" Bleed Size 8" X 11" Trim Size 7 3/4" X 10 3/4"
•  InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator are all acceptable software programs.
•  Files must be composite page layouts ready for output and may be a PDF file format.
• 300 dpi photo scans and 1200 dpi line art and the acceptable file format is EPS or TIFF
• A final PDF must be included along with a package with all supporting elements.
• All images and files should be CMYK, 4 color process or grayscale.

Target Audience

• 76% of Writer's Digest readers are primarily interested in writing fiction. 
• The average household income is $85,000
• 68% of readers are female. 
• 77% of respondents took an advertising-related action in the past year.
• Over 80,000 subscribing readers every month.

Call To Action
I would like the viewer of the publication ad to scan the tag and follow the link to the journal's website. At the website the reader would be able to find out more information about submissions and writing contests.

 
 Below is the first five thumbnail sketches I completed and the final rough draft idea I came up with.

A screen shot of the version that is ready for critique is below:

After my critique session I have made a few changes to the final publication ad to improve the look and effectiveness of the ad.

All vector images were created by Robin Mooney.
All Raster images were obtained as downloads from WeGraphics.com on November 11, 2011 and iStockphoto.com on November 11, 2011. The Microsoft Tag was rendered from http://tag.microsoft.com/my-tags/getting-started.aspx on 11/16/11