Digipak: Finished!

 Front Cover:

Inside Left:

Inside Right:

Back Cover:

Overall, we are really pleased with how our images have turned out. It is really rewarding to see it all come together and makes all the hard work worthwhile. 

Poster: Finished!

Poster 1:

 Poster 2:

These are the final posters we have designed to go alongside our music video and album cover.

We took our inspiration from existing posters within magazines, identifying the key conventions and embedding them onto our background. Firstly, we added the image and played around with the positioning a bit. Then once we were happy with the layout, we added the tour dates alongside John Newman's web address and social network links. At the bottom, we added a small promotion for the 'Love Me Again' album, below which we put the ticket offices website and contact details in small print. 

We ended up drafting two album covers to demonstrate that you don't always have to use the exact image for both articles, which is something we noticed in our research. Within both posters, you can still recognise that they are for the dance genre due to the use of bold, vibrant colours and contrasts. However, I do prefer the first poster to the second one personally. I like the way it fades into the background and makes eye contact with the audience; it just seems like a stronger, more powerful image to me. 

We are really pleased with the result of our posters; it is a huge relief to see all of our hard work come together. 

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.

Artist Research: John Newman Representation & Style

Newman's style is rather retro and vintage; high contrasts of black and white with splashes of bold colours. His facial expression in bith his album and single CD covers is quite reflective, which links to the style of his songs, as they often follow themes of love, regret and forgiveness; not giving up. He explains that his album is a break up album. Most of his influences come from blues/jazz music after he worked in a bar, which he expands on below:

In the cover of his Love Me Again single and the Tribute album, his retro influences are clear to see. From this, we can tell that his music will be more than a pop/indie album; it is a throwback and vintage with a modern twist. The colour contrasts add energy to what would have been a purely blackand white album, which again relates to the style of his music
In terms of his fashion style, his love of vintage and retro comes through in this sense too. In love me again music video, the dancers all were very 60's style clothing, so floral dresses with slim waists and bold skirts and casual suits. Newman's hair also reminds me of the 60's aura, due to the statement quiff and slight colour streak. So in conclusion, his retro roots have had a huge influence on the style of his music as well as his look.

Artist Research: John Newman Early Life & Career

John Newman grew up in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales. At the age of fourteen, he started to play the guitar which led him to begin writing his own songs. Naturally, he soon learnt how to record and produce musical content himself. He used this skill to create his own house tracks and did some freelance DJ'ing to gain even more experience.

When he was 20, Newman moved to London and started his own band who took part in many live gigs at a range of venues. Following this, he was spotted and signed by Island Records and produced, 'Love Me Again' as his debut single.

In May 2012, he featured in the established pop/dance group, Rudimental's single, 'Feel The Love' which reached number one in the UK charts. He then featured as the vocals in their second collaboration for the song, 'Not Giving In' during November 2012.

Now he was beginning to be recognised as an artist, he released his own single, 'Love Me Again' which peaked at number 1 in the UK charts in July 2013. Following the successof this, he released, 'Cheating' in October from his debut studio album, Tribute. He has immensely grown as an artist and become increasingly popular within the music industry in a short space of time which demonstrates the potential he has as an artist.