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.