Ancillary Task Inspiration

We have taken our inspiration for our ancillary task from Young Kato's album, 'Drink, Dance, Play'.

Young Kato has used bright, vibrant colours which make the front cover very striking. This is useful to us, as one of the main conventions of our music video and the dance genre as a whole is the idea of colour; loudness, volume, confidence etc. The pain also links to the powder paint we used in our music video, so it would be easy for the audience to make links from this connection.

Furthermore, an image with someone who isn't the artist has been chosen for the front cover; they have used someone completely extrenal to the band which adds a sense of mystery. We are using this technique through using the same actors for the ancillary tasks, mainly for two reasons; a) it will allow the audience to make the link between the song, album and music video and b) it would be extremely difficult to hire John Newman!

Digipak: Initial Ideas Take Three

The general idea to this album cover is to have a girls face with powder paint splatted over all her on the front cover, filling up the space with bold and sharp text stating the album's title, 'Love Me Again'. 

The powder paint highlights the youthful, carefree vibe the album has, and links the the dynamic, upbeat songs which feature.

The typography we are planning to use is extremely bold and 'blocky' which connotes to the bold bassline within the song. The fact it is sharp and angular also relates to the choppy beats within the song too. 

Love Me Again is a Dance/Pop song. The conventions of this genre is loud, bold, colourful, up beat and powerful elements. We have showed this in our album cover idea through the typography and the iconography with the bold and colourful text and picture.

John Newman has a traditional look to himself. He is very old school and retro. On his album covers you see dull colours and the main focus is him on the front. We have added the UKF (who remixed the song) look to our album cover and made it very colourful and bold to make it stand out as a dance/pop album. 

Digipak: Initial Ideas Take Two

For this album cover idea we designed a symbol for the song. We picked a heart for the 'Love' aspect of the lyrics and we put an arrow on the end of the heart to show the 'Again' part of the lyrics. Together, this symbol represents loving someone again, almost like recycled love.

We decided that the Outside of the heart would have splattered powder paint on a black background with the heart outlined in black. With the bright colours of the powder paint and the boldness of the black heart, this shows that the sound is going to be loud, sharp and to the point; It portrays the dance/pop genre within the album cover.

The typography we are planning to use is extremely bold and 'blocky' which connotes to the bold bassline within the song. The fact it is sharp and angular also relates to the choppy beats within the song too. 

Love Me Again is a Dance/Pop song. The conventions of this genre is loud, bold, colourful, up beat and powerful elements. We have showed this in our album cover idea through the typography and the iconography with the bold and colourful text and picture.

John Newman has a traditional look to himself. He is very old school and retro. On his album covers you see dull colours and the main focus is him on the front. We have added the UKF (who remixed the song) look to our album cover and made it colourful and bold to make it stand out as a dance/pop album. 

Digipak: Initial Ideas Take One

Our first idea was to have a completely black background with one hand print - that had been covered in bright powder paint and then stamped on - in the center of the frame.

We thought that this would continue the theme of contrasts which we portrayed in our music video, as the colourful hand would stand out against the dark background. The symolism of hand also represents holding hands in a relationship as well as the action of throwing the powder paint. The fact there is just one hand represents power and individuality. 

The typography we are planning to use is extremely bold and 'blocky' which connotes to the bold bassline within the song. The fact it is sharp and angular also relates to the choppy beats within the song too. 

Love Me Again is a Dance/Pop song. The conventions of this genre is loud, bold, colourful, up beat and powerful elements. We have showed this in our album cover idea through the typography and the iconography with the bold and colourful text and picture.

John Newman has a traditional look to himself. He is very old school and retro. On his album covers you see dull colours and the main focus is him on the front. We have added the UKF (who remixed the song) look to our album cover and made it very colourful and bold to make it stand out as a dance/pop album. 

Another Powerful Video

This is another finding I have come across whilst doing my usual internet rounds. I think the video pretty much speaks for itself in terms of the concept, but it really made me think… are we spending far too much on our little luxuries such as film promotions and movie marketing? 

I'm just thinking that with the infamous rise of the internet, and ever-developing technology that there are far better ways to put money to use; why should we create a hype about another film when there are people dying? 

The above clip is a typical example of how we could better use parts of our money and actually demonstrates very clever marketing; I will definitely remember this film now! It is this sort of 'thinking outside the box' (what box?!) which will lead to the greatest ideas and most innovate discoveries, therefore it is definitely something which should be promoted! 

We should be trying to constantly break conventions so that we can create new ones and become better thinkers, meaning we could use our time and money more wisely. 

Unfortunately there are far too many restrictions and pressures placed on profits and results which limit creativity in many situations, but maybe with the help of videos like these, we can try to move on from the sticky structure of film making. It is certainly something I will be aiming for. 

Digipak: Album vs. Poster

I wanted to explore how the album covers extend their iconography/theme/concept to the magazine advert or poster. I thought this would be valuable research we could use when constructing our digipak and would enable us to make it as realistic as possible.

Rock band, Muse have a very loud, vibrant sound which is portrayed on the cover of their 2012 album, 'The 2nd Law'. It features bold, bright colours; mainly electric/neon pink, purple, blue, green etc. This colour scheme is  transferred to their tour poster, which has pink and purple hues acting as stage lights at one of their concerts. The link isn't direct like many album/poster combinations, but is clever and subtle.  

For their album, 'Mylo Xyloto' Coldplay 

devised this colourful, piano and guitar heavy vibe, and the lyrics describe idealistic and reflective ideas. This absract approach to the music comes accross in their album artwork in that it is very spontaneous and doodle-like. The concept also relates to the music video for, 'Paradise'. They used the same image for their poster, but just extended the artwork and added extra tour information.

 David Guetta again uses the same basic image as a platform for the text on both his album cover and the poster. The simple theme relates to the title, 'Nothing But The Beat' as it suggests the music will be pure and original. On his poster, the same typeface is used where the A's are missing their bridges, highlighting it as quite futuristic/high tech - much like the sound of his music.

Digipak: Album and Poster Research

ALBUM COVERS

The sole purpose of an album cover is to represent the artist and the music they make; if an album cover does not carry this representation out successfully, then it is not fufilling it's purpose. It is mostly concerned with genre recognition, which shows how important it is to meet the conventions of such. For example, you would rarely have elements linking to nature and tranquility on the front cover of a dance album; it does not allow the audience to assess the artist and their style approriately. Therefore, the album will have been misleadingly promoted which may evoke a sense of distrust and/or disappointment within the audience.

MODERN ALBUM COVERS AND THEIR CONVENTIONS.


It is more common nowadays for people to download music from the internet, via iTunes, GooglePlay or similar, so the only time we get to see the album artwork is when going through this process as well aswhen the song is playing. In many ways, I find this a little sad, as it suggests that the album artwork is not being apprieciated or recognised for it's creativity anymore; people are far less likely to base their decision on what the front cover looks like. This is mostly due to the intense growth and popularity of the internet, meaning much less physical albums are being sold everyday.

This highlights an uncertain future for hard copies of music albums; technology is so unpredictable and ever-growing that it could completely discard the need for the digipak and physical CD Disk - much like the expansion occuring in other spheres, such as online articles, which lessen the need for newspapers, and online films, which decrease the need for DVD's - which originally wiped out VCR's.
 
Conventions of Album Covers

• Significant, recognisable image on the front - either a key aspecty of the band/artist's iconography or a link to their music video
• Often the band/artist themselves are on the front, although this is certainly not concrete and many choose a more abstract approach too.
• Band/artist name as well as the title of the album.
• Sometimes reviews are featured on the front too.

Album Interiors

• Often different images from other angles/perspectives that relate to the artist's iconography/music video concept in some way
• Smallprint & copyrights
• Disk holder - disk again often features similar artwork relating to the key concept/iconography
• Sometimes special thanks or dedictations.

 
Album Back Cover

• List of all songs on the album
• Duration of each song
• Record company information
• Barcode
• Smallprint
• Recycling/packaging information

These features can be arranged in a variety of ways, often depending on the background image used. However the songs will always be displayed in the order they play through on the CD. We have to be aware that we may have to align our text to either the left or right depending on the image, as of course we want to make it easy to read and ergonomical.
 

 POSTERS/MAGAZINE ADVERTS

 

MODERN MAGAZINE ADVERTS AND THEIR CONVENTIONS

The purpose of a poster primarily is to promote the artist and to catch the audiences' attention - even subconsciously. This is achieved by clever marketing and product placement/distribution. The advert will be distributed in the public eye, for instance on bollboards, underground station walls, street walls etc. Alternatively, they will be featured by more exclusive means, such as in magazines or newspapers, whereby people have effectively paid to see the content.

Again, we have to challenge the idea of whether the magazine advert will live much longer, what with the magazine content converging onto other platforms. It is valid to observe that the majority of the most popular posters/magazine adverts will become collectors' items rather than true advertisements.

There are two different types of posters that can be used to promote an artist:
~The Concert Poster :  intends to promote an upcoming concert/performance/gig of the artist, and therefore custom-made. Although, in many cases, their most recent album/single front cover is used on the poster.

~The Album Promotion Poster :  this is used to promote the album itself.

Iconography Investigation: Avicii

Falling into the genre of electro/dance, much of Avicii's iconography is centred around clubbing, parties and colour. Within all of his CD covers also lies the theme of escapism in some form, mostly through the slanted AV logo which is used amongst his fan base to connect everyone together; if you are part of the Avicii 'clan', you are somewhere you belong with lots of likeminded people. 

Avicii has grown enormously in popularity over the last two or so years, and is well known for the catchy, lively club anthems with relatable and realistic lyrics, providing an escape for the audience; someone who is in the same situation. 

In terms of the link between the lyrics and the CD artwork, there is again this strong connection to the praise and pride of being individual. There is also a strong representation of Avicii as an artist. This is cleverly shown on the CD cover for the single, 'I Could Be The One' where he collaborated with Nicky Romero. They divide the album cover in two from corner to corner and edit 'vs' (versus) in betwen, which represents a battle. The contrast in terms of colour is clear too; Avicii is represented with bright pink and orange gradients, which represent his sound as lively, colourful and fun but also complex: layered and evolving. In contrast, Romero is represented with darker grey outlining which shows how his style is much more toned down, simple and consistent. In many ways, these two opposites seem to balance each other out. 

Furthermore, Levels' cover artwork relates both to its music video and the idea of escaping to a different place. The music video starts with a man in an office environment, talking to a fellow co-worker, when he suddenly starts to dance. He scribbles Avicii's name on various surfaces, and dances on tables, while co-workers disapprovingly observe. Later, he gets immobilised by a taser and falls into a coma, where he has a vision of himself pushing a boulder up a mountain while lip-syncing the lyrics. At the hospital, just before he wakes up, a flower sprouts from his mouth, which infects the male nurses looking after him with an unknown substance, making them collapse to the ground. At the end of the clip, all the doctors and nurses end up dancing, also presumably infected. This heavily links to the front cover in that it could be interpreted that the eerie doorway is the abandoned/infected hospital, and perhaps it represents ground level, holding connotations to letting go and becoming free (preferably due to/through the music). 

He has his own font which is used to spell out Avicii; it is slanted and modern which linked to the tone of his music; edgy, different and new. It is also where his logo has derived from, as by filling in the 'A' and the 'V', you get unusual, parallel triangles. If you had never heard of Avicii before, and you just came across the triangle symbol logo, there would be a very subtle link made to the AV theme, which makes it easier to recognise his work. This was also used in the above music video, 'Wake Me Up' which highlighted the idea of people feeling isolated and out of place until they discovered Avicii. 

Overall, the iconography clearly represents Avicii as a new, modern and fun artist, which really suits and supports his music work.

Iconography Investigaton: Lupe Fiasco

The song, 'Superstar' by Lupe Fiasco matches the iconography of his album cover (right) due to several things. Firstly, he appears to be floating around in outer space, which holds connotations to him being, 'out of this world' and also to stardom and celebrity; being or feeling superior. Secondly, He appears to be surrounded by his influences, including video games, a phone, books, a boom box etc which at the time were all very popular, high tech bits of equipment. This links to the sound of his music, as it is quite futuristic and lively, connoting a new, fresh sound for the audience to hear.

The lyrics of the song match the visuals; superstar' is quite a sci-fi word, with similar lexis relating to astronomy, space, rockets, flying etc and this fits n with the look of the cover; the bright lights and the fact he is floating.

The sound of the music fits with the look of the album cover because it has quite a mellow, chilled out vibe to it, but has fresh, modern tinges, demonstrating the fact he is an upcoming artist. Additionally, the fact he doesn't fill up the whole space suggests that the album is not all about him, so perhaps the songs are focused on other concepts (e.g. Superstar = fame and money) or he collaborates with other artists too.

In terms of the typography, he uses and Old English typeface which goes against all he has been representing. Personally, I find it difficult to read and I do not think it fits in with the rest of the iconography particularly well.

We will make sure that within our digipak, our font matches the conventions of the dance/pop genre, so looking into this particular artist's iconography has made us recognise the importance of the font within the ancillary tasks.

Iconography Investigation: John Newman

I decided to firstly focus on the iconography of our chosen artist, John Newman to allow me to identify with his image a little more.

John Newman's style is very retro and vintage, which derives from his inspiration and love of jazz and blues music. This approach is evident to see both in the music video and his CD covers. 

His music video for 'Love Me Again' cleverly links to the theme of the single's artwork in that it follows this classical theme. In his music video, there are dancers which, judging by the clothes and verisimilitude, is centred around the 1960's/1970's period. We can tell this by the old fashioned dancing shoes and bag, and actually, the event itself - as it is probably unlikely that you would come across a similar dance freestyle class now. The lack of mobile phones and other modern technology is also a clue. The video seems to have been filtered during editing with creams and browns, again highlighting vintage elements and in a way, the theme of something being worn out and used; secondhand. Despite being a reasonably upbeat, dance/pop song, it has surprisingly dull hues within the visuals, so they are intentionally breaking the conventions of the genre in order to meet the needs of the artist. 

This transfers across to his album (Tribute) and it's artwork. It is almost Great Gatsby themed; it is regal and glamorous. 

It also links to the tone of his music, which combines jazz/blues rhythms with more modern, lively beats. Furthermore, the name, 'Tribute' is a rather royal term and prestigious in itself. It stands for appreciation, praise, gratitude, recognition etc which relates to many of his songs relating to break ups; he is saying goodbye and thank you. The typography also fits in really well with the existing theme, and being a bold, sans-serif font is eye-catching. 

We want to make a similarly successful link between our music video and our digipak, so this has been a useful example to study. 

Overall, his iconography has been consistent throughout the majority of his career, and his style has been clear from the beginning, making it easy for the audience to recognise and support him.

Iconography Research

WHAT IS ICONOGRAPHY?

Iconography is the visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these.

It is used to describe  the visual language of cinema, particularly within the field of genre criticism/identification.

Iconography is an important aspect of genre. We expect to see certain objects on screen when we see a particular genre, for instance in a Western, dusty lonely roads, saloon bars, cowboy hats, horses, sheriffs badges, guns etc would be what we are expecting from the genre. These genre indicators are called the iconography of the mise en scene or genre. 

Iconography is essential in setting up a genre and ensuring a convincing verisimilitude is created. It is especially important when establishing a location, for instance, if a film is set in London, there will be shots of recognisable elements belonging to this location, e.g. Big Ben, red buses, the River Thames, the London Eye, black cabs etc. This way, the setting is clear from the start which makes for easier consumption of media for the audience. 

Digipak: Introduction & Research

Now we have finished our promo music video, we can move on to create the digipak which will work alongside the album. First I wanted to look into what a digipak actually was, so as I completely understood the elements of the task.

WHAT IS A DIGIPAK?
Digipak style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD's. They typically consist of gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays attached to the inside, designed to hold the CD/DVD.

Digipaks were first created by Mead Westvaco, and their product, 'Digi-Pak', is trademarked. However the termed has broadened to describe all soft CD packaging as it became more popular and used by many manufacturers.


How does this benefit the artist?
The font of the digipak will have features of the artists' representations as well as clues as to what their predominate genre is. The digipak will most likely embody a theme and a message about the artist and their image. It also exemplifies the artistic and creative approach the artist is taking throughout the music. For example, if there's some sort of futuristic idealism conveyed in the lyrics or visuals within the music video, then this will transfer to the front cover of the album, making it obscure and abstract.

Digipaks benefit the artist and their music as they intertwine all aspects of the brand image, music video and artist into one, which helps promote them and further raise awareness within the audience. This then encourages consumers to buy and listen to their music, and with hope, share it via social networks and other means of communication.

We are aiming to create something which will both inspire those who have not seen the music video, to watch it as well as encourage those who have seen it to share it with other people; something which is immediately recognisable.

We all have individual visions of what we would like the digipak to look like, and after discussing this together, we realised they are all quite similar in their concepts, so it should be quite straightforward to pull together all of our ideas into one.