In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms an conventions of real media products?

Question 1: Part 2: Digipak & Magazine Advertisement

When planning where I wanted to go with my ancillary tasks (digipak and poster for music magazine) I knew that I wanted them to reflected real media products,

this is too make them seem more professional.

Before I had chosen my artist I first looked at digipaks from two very contrasting artists Mumford & Sons being indie/folk and Rihanna pop/R&B there were very

noticeable differences.

Mumford & Sons are a very humble band, not the centre of media attention, very back to basics in terms of mostly using just there instruments and voices, there digipak shows this it is a simplistic design, shot in an area that could be in a small town, or people could relate similar buildings where they live, they are sat casually, looking relaxed and comfortable with their surroundings and each other. I like this album cover because it reflects the genre of music I like it is simplistic and not dramatic but it could be easily lost in a crowd of other music albums.

On the other hand, the Rihanna album Loud is very bold and could easily be spotted,; it shows her as the centre of attention, as she also is in the media. She is shown as an icon, someone who people want to be and look like and she isn't afraid to cross boundaries, the music in the album reflects this. It looks like it is professionally shot, in a studio, this could show her status, whereas the Mumford & Sons albums looks lie its shot just in a small town. I do like the Rihannas album it reflects her well and is good for marketing as it can be easily recognised.

Ideas I gained through analysing these two Digipaks is definitely to focus on what the target audience would want but not too

lose the reason for the Digipak, the music.

17-21

Digipaks need to represent the artist well

and I think the more personal the better

because the people that would buy Digipaks are usually people that are big fans of the artist so they would appreciate

the personal touch

I chose to use Erick Baker as my artist, like my music video I wanted my digipak to follow the generic verisimilitude of the

indie genre and follow a non-verbal code with the artist’s indie appearance, costume, iconography and setting.

I looked at similar artists. Such as Ben Howard and Tom Odell who are indie acoustic artists. I wanted to follow the natural Ideology of indie artists, to enforce that his

main focus is his music, I also had the artist looking rugged and dressed casually to show that they aren’t

concerned about there appearance.

All digipaks tend to include generic information:

A visual image band or artist namethe album titletrack list basic background information of the band (colloquial language

to make it seem more personal)acknowledgements reviews from companies (e.g NME etc...), CD maybe booklet Colour scheme will usually reflect the mood of album or genre

of the songs on the disc.

This the deluxe edition of Alt-J's album An Awesome Wave, it is a collectors edition with CD and DVD.

Alt-J fall under Indie rock alternative rock/ art rock/ experimental/ folk rock this is due to their unique style of music, I think the cover for their album reflects this perfectly; it is very unique but still very interesting and would draw your attention.

I like this design I think the front cover is very interesting and looks very indie but I don't think the back cover does the entire album justice, I think the font is too big and the fact that some of the songs are in white makes them seem like they're less important songs.

I think that it’s a limited tour edition would make it more appealing to fans and especially saying it's 'limited' will make people more willing to buy it, having something original is more appealing than having something that everyone else has.

The rest of the design of the album is quite plain for example the back, I think that because of all that's going on on the front cover they didn't want it to be too overwhelming by having the back too busy hence the plain design.

My artists is of the same genre but has a very different style of music I like the front cover I think if warmer colours were used this could be adapted to my artist, I think the colours are too cold for an artist that sings about love and relationships in such a positive way. Making the album personal and limited is an ideal selling point and shows that the artist cares about their fans, it connects them, this something I definitely wanted to express in my digipak.

I asked a focus group a variety of open questions.

What attracts them to real music videos? A story, creativity, dancing, clever plots, instruments, women, sex, imagination and it being

unique

What they don’t like in real music videos? Being flashy or over the op, confusing an no logic, just about the artists money, cliché

scenarios, naked dancing people, generic dances, when it’s over the top, too fussy, obvious product placement

Favourite music videos? ganman style, foster the people- houdidni, ah ha take me on, blurred lines, satisfaction, muse

What they liked and disliked about Mumford & Sons and Rihannas album. 

Mumford & Sons, Likes: shows the band, simple, disc stands out, design, pretty, vintage

Mumford & Sons, Dislikes: plain, no colour, boring, hardly any writing, not much effort made.

Rihanna, Likes: Colours, disc is creative, colour theme, noticeable, she looks attractive, coordination

Rihanna, Dislikes: needs to be more dynamic, all about her, lack of detail, centre of attention, not original.

The Codes & Conventions for a Magazine Advert are: Visual image,

A small image of the digipakClear links between the band’s genre and the magazine’s

genre Band/ artist name

Date of release of album The name of company where the digipak is available to

purchase and the music video must link with the digipak and magazine advertisement

making it distinctive and easily recognisable for our audience – often using similar fonts / images for both advertisements.

The magazine advert for Tom Odells 'Long Way Down' album uses the image for his album as the central image, the theme of this advert is very minimalistic, the name of the artist is in the top left corner in bold and the album name underneath, they're the same size so of the same significance, the colour of the album name is different but still in the colour theme, this is it can be identified easier.

Down the left side there

are quotes and rating, this is associating the artist with well known names and a rating shows positivist feedback of the album. At the bottom is the date of release, it isn't stated what the date refers to but you know that is is the release date by having it in bold and on its own it makes it stand out more.

 

 I really like this magazine advert design I think it isn't overly fussy which suits the genre, it is also bold and the image used makes it look vintage. This heavily inspired my album artwork and magazine poster. I think it works well that the album cover and magazine advertisement is the same image it will make the album more recognisable.

There is a clear colour theme and this makes it look professional. The quotes and ratings make it seem legitimate.

I think it is good that there is little information, this makes it less fussy and more eye catching, the association with the Brit awards make it seem very popular and It gives a dramatic feel to have the debate in a large font in the corner, it does not say that this is the date it will be released but it is evident.

This is the mock up design in the style of Tom Odells album that I started on Photoshop, I

found Photoshop very hard to use and it is something I will have to practice. Something that was stopping me from

completing the mock up was resizing the image, even when

doing what is necessary to change the size of the image

and still keep it in focus because of the quality of the photo I couldn't get it too be

high quality. It took me around an hour to get to this level on

photoshop and it is incomplete and out of focus.

This version has been done on Microsoft Word, I stayed with the same theme as the Tom Odell magazine advert, the font I used was ERICK BAKER (Utsaah bold). I think this makes it stand out which is good, but I think the whole cover would look better if designed on Photoshop. As you can see with the 'BRIT's logo using Photoshop I could edit the white background out which would make it look alot more professional. This took me around 40 minutes.

These designs influenced by Tom Odell then lead me to my final design

Ideas taken from the Tom Odell album guided me to created this on Photoshop, it took me around an

hour, what took longest was editing the Brit award logo and the stars because they are small. The central image is one I have taken myself, I have edited to make it warmer and added a lens flair.

The image looks really soft and I think this reflects the artist well, he doesn't look intimidating or to commercial, just approachable. It took me longer to do the Brit logo but it worked out a lot more professional looking than before. I played with font colour to see what worked best. I put the background out of focus like in the Tom Odell advert, this draws attention to the artist whilst

creating a earthy setting in the background.

This is the album cover and magazine advert

for Ben Howards 'Every Kingdom' album. I really like this album cover, I think it is really interesting and eye catching. I think the range of colours between blue and white work really well, the font is bold and draws your eye in, I think the theme of water shows that this album is relaxed and natural. I recreated using my own image and artist name on Microsoft Word. This style was not ideal for marketing, our artist was a new upcoming artist so his face has to be shown as much as possible so he could be recognised. What I did take from this artist was the white border, I think this draws the eye into the central image and makes it stand out more.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_uMJV-HECuQ/UqWLiMfMh8I/AAAAAAAAAm4/T9scefbA0kQ/s1600/mock+2.png

This is the album cover for Lewis Watsons 'The Wild'. I really like how natural this digipak cover is, the artist looks very relaxed and natural and the scenery works well it is quite dreary but the light from behind the trees makes it look positive still. All the actor has is his guitar and it gives the impression that it is just him and his guitar and that wherever he goes as long as he has music it we'll be okay. I really liked this style but like the Ben Howard cover it does not feature the artist enough. But I used a similar design for the inside image of m artist. Its simple image like that of Lewis Watson album, I think this works well because he isnt posing dramatically and he doesn't look commercial.

 like how interesting and light-hearted the Katy Perry digipak is but I think the focus is more on her than the music, the pop bubble gum style theme reflects the music inside. I think that there is so much going on that it draws away from her actual talent as an artist.

This is the layout I chose to use for my digipak, Erick Bakers like Katy Perry's will be a special edition with extras, this will make it more personal for the fans and more desirable.               

On the inside panels I used images of leaves, this is to reinforce the rawness of the music. Most artists tend to fill this kind of digipak with images of themselves, because this is a special edition for fans this is a perfect opportunity to sell themselves. But our artist isn't their to sell himself but to get across his music and what he's about an this is a way in which we defined conventions of real media products.

I didn’t want this album to have a heavy record label influence, there is no advertising for merchandise and there is not a push for a star image, I wanted to show the artist as being himself and this digipak have a personal touch. Even though Indie artist tend not be as concerned about their image there is usually advertising for merchandise in their digipaks and they're featured heavily for advertising. I didn't want this for my art I wanted to develop and challenge conventions.