Poster AnalysisBy Dani Wilkinson

The 1975 poster for their album is a black

and white image of a highway with cars

travelling through it at night. The image

itself is an open image but the border

around the text makes the image closed.

The picture is blurry with just one

headlight in focus pointing directly at you

to catch your attention. The phrase black

and white means when one idea is clearly

right and the other is wrong so it’s easy

for you to make the right decision

connoting that their music is the right

choice and we should listen to them

because their poster is black and white.

The text is very minimalist, it uses as

little shapes as possible to create their

name to make you look at the poster more

closely.

This poster for Vampire Weekend is an image of a city taken from high up. The city is foggy and misty making it seem more mysterious and intriguing. The text is black on white which relates back to The

1975 poster being subliminally telling you to listen to them as it’s the right choice. The name is written in quite a simple font so The image gives off quite a calming mood but also a curious mood to wonder

why it’s so misty.

The reception theory is present

here because the image isn’t

explained well, we just know

it’s a city and the album has the

word city in it. The audience

would be wondering why it’s

so misty which could be

received in either a positive or

negotiated way. The positive

reaction could be to recognised

that it’s a lovely photo and the

negotiated way is to wonder

what happened to the city.

This poster uses parts of the Enigma Code, from Barthes codes, to create a mystery

through the misty image. It builds tension and leaves the

audience guessing whether it’s just fog or whether it’s smoke from something more serious.

Todorov’s theory can be applied here in two ways because it

could be interpreted, or received, in different ways. It could be a scene of disruption

and the smoke is what’s followed from the event or it

could be a state of equilibrium and a peaceful view.

The font for the name “Vampire Weekend” is in a clear, easy font with large spaces between the letters because they’re connoting that they’re not complicated and when you listen to their songs they’re real and don’t ‘dance around’ the subject. The other writing is in a fancier font that’s harder to read and is written smaller so you look closer at the poster. The name of the album underneath could be a way to

attract the target audience talking about it being modern and the vampires cleverly relate to their name.