Ancillary Texts

Ancillary Texts

DigipakWhat is a digipak?

This is a type of packing for CD’s or DVD’s, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs. As the aim goal is to create our own to promote our artists album alongside the music video, I’m going to look at examples to gather an idea on what we should aim to create; something that will reflect back on the indie music genre and will allow us more recognition within the industry.

Indie Digipak Analysis: Lana Del Rey

This digipak for Lana Del Rey is both focusing on the indie genre and the pop genre. This is a key example to focus on due to our artist being indie/rock. While it moves away from the typical mainstream ideas within the music industry, it still adheres to it in a way of focusing on the ‘pop’ side of music.

The cover is bold due to the chosen colours, the background being a simple blue due to the sky and the artist wearing a white top, allowing her to stand out brightly compared to the blue. This has proved affective as with the text, it has used the same blue and white colours, but in contrast of the other colours (e.g. blue on white & white on blue); this has proved effective with allowing the cover to have an overall calm and smooth appearance; this can be seen to link in with the indie style due to how calm and ‘mellow’ that style of music can be portrayed to be. The clothes the artist is wearing can be seen to be more mainstream, allowing the cover to stand out more to the mainstream audience as something relatable that a woman with similar style would wear. The back of the cover is plain and focuses simply on the track list, in the same font, showing a repetitive style which helps the whole didpak’s design to work and stand out. The disc itself is plain white but has images of roses on it; they can be said to be the same colour as the artists lipstick, once again focusing on minor details to allow the whole image and design to work in a creative but simplistic way. The idea of using roses can be seen to link in with the CD’s title being ‘Born to Die’; showing the idea that the flowers may link in to the theme of death or focusing on the romanticism that the artist portrays, the roses symbolising love and lust (due to the red) standing out against the white (symbolising virginity). The symbolism of flowers can be seen to be a typical indie genre trait due to focusing on objects and meanings rather than the artist themselves.

Indie Digipak Analysis: Arctic MonkeysThe digipak for the Arctic Monkeys typically adheres to the stereotype of the indie genre with dismissing mainstream views. The font used for the artists name is used in a unique way, allowing it to be clear of the original style that the artist is adapting for themselves.

The front of the digipak shows all of the band rather than just the ‘frontman’ which most artists tend to do, the photo has a purple tint to it, something which could be described to be aesthetically pleasing for the indie genre due to the big influence of social media sites such as Tumblr, where this sort of imagery is greatly appreciated; this proves to be efficient as it will eye catching for the artists target audience. The dull colouring effect is more typical of the indie genre as most mainstream artists focus on using bright eye catching colours to attract their target audience.

Digipak Design 1

For this design we chose a piece of artwork on the front cover instead of a picture of our artist as this has proven to be an effective technique, as shown by The Killers. Although I haven't chosen to use a picture of our artist, I have kept the picture relevant as the imagery of a woman crying reoccurs within our music video, as well as it reinforcing the theme of heartbreak. Black, white and light pinks seemed to be the most fitting for this particular design as they give the cover a sense of ‘softness’; which again reinforces the idea of a vulnerability that comes with the lyrics of the song on the album.

Digipak Design 2

The second design is a complete contrast to the first with focusing on the idea of using a photo shoot that links in with the artist and an advertisement for future work for the artist. I chose to adhere to the indie convention of using dark colours (predominantly black and white) and this has proved effective with linking back to our video which is also in black and white’ allowing a common theme to be repeated and become memorable to the audience with looking at consistency. We decided to focus on using album art rather than an image of our artist as we will be able to incorporate this with the magazine advert as well. I was able to create an individualistic font for the bands name, which again will be consistent over all works to do with the artist. “Poltergeist” has a different font to “Transparence” and although this isn't consistent as a result, I believe it works well as the font for the song title is more fitting.

Final Design

In the end, after weighing out certain pro’s and con’s, we decided to go with the second design due to the fact we believe it is best fitting to promote and portray our artist ‘Transparence’. Our research into Digipak’s showed that there are codes and conventions to the indie genre and artists that typically follows these conventions are successful within the genre. A main feature of the indie genre however is to be individual and different, and I feel that we have achieved this individuality whilst not completely deviating from the genre’s norms and expectations from the audience. If we were to change one thing, I feel that incorporating our artist onto the front cover of our Digipak would be effective as this is what we have chosen for our magazine advert and by doing so on our Digipak we would be creating a consistent image for our audience.

Magazine Advert

Indie Magazine Advert Analysis 1The artist’s name is plastered largely above her in a bold font, identical to her digipak cover. This allows the audience to easily recognise the continuous pattern the artist has set up for her marketing; this is a positive aspect due to the fact of how easily it will gain the attention of fans. The photo used is the same as the digipak as well, however edited to fit the magazine advert in an effect way; the use of using the same image once again shows the repetition of the influence of the digipak. Using the image of the artist allows it to be clear to fans and others who she is straight away, allowing her to be easily recognised from her album cover. The colour is still simple with the use of blue and white to surround the entire image, still focusing on a smooth, calm appeal to the audience; thus holding onto the idea of an indie artist – nothing too bright and eye catching, but still holding onto the key features of a pop artist with the fact of focusing on the main image being of the artist. However, the font used to display the information within the bottom half of the advert is used with the same blue, but the font is in a cursive style, allowing it to appear too faint against the white and hard to read – this could prove to be a disadvantage for the artists marketing.

Indie Magazine Advert Analysis 2This artist has used the same font that they have used for their band logo, in order to create the same sense of recognition within their fans that the other artist has done. However, the font isn't as bold or predominant within the poster, so this causes it to hold less focus within the advert. Although, with a large focus of the advert being used to show the artist, once again using the same image from their album, this allows her to stand out thoroughly. This artist has taken a more conceptual way of showing her album by wearing a necklace of sorts showing ‘lungs’ on her chest; the idea of focusing on the title of the album in such a peculiar way, grabs the attention of others – unused to mainstream artists carrying out a feature such as this. With certain artists being quite famous within the industry due o their style, just using their image of themselves and focusing less on the artists name allows them to receive the recognition form fans that they know they will attract. Certain artists are unable to do this due to the lack of recognition they receive within the industry. The albums name is located right under the imagery of the ‘lungs’, the use of a larger, bolder font allows this to become eye catching . While the font is white, which can be seen as a typical, dull colour, it allows both fonts to stand out easily, due to the background of the image being surrounded with dark and dull colours. This can be seen to incorporate the idea of ‘lungs’ being ‘gory’ and dark. On this advert, they have also included, in a bold font, the multiple different ways the album will be distributed. This is effective due to how different ways fans may appreciate listening to music. For example, with vinyl's coming back into style as a ‘vintage/retro’ trend, the idea of being able to purchase and listen to this album on vinyl will be beneficial for fans and the artist.

Magazine Advert Design 1

In order to create synergy between the magazine advert design and the digipak design we decided to use the same images and font. This can be seen as effective due to seeing how other artists have carried this out and had successful results; it will enable the audience to recognise the imagery they will know from the digipak. With looking at other artists, we decided to give simple limited information in a different font at the bottom of the advert, however I believe the font is too simple and can be seen as unprofessional in some ways. We were inspired by Florence and The Machine with how they decided to advertise how they would distribute their album and decided this would be a wise move with releasing a new, upcoming artist. With not focusing on the artist herself, this can allow us create an image for our artist, focusing on the indie context within the music industry, not focusing on everything to be about looks. We hope this will be effective enough to help gather an audience for our artist. I feel this is effective as it enables the audience to recognise the image we’re trying to put out about our artist and therefore hopefully gain an interest into it.

Magazine Advert Design 2

With our second design, we decided to focus on the chosen digipak style. This would allow us to follow out in a similar way to successful artist who repeated their imagery and style from their digipak to create a sense of recognition and familiarity within their audience; this allows the artist to create a style and branding for themselves with using certain features such as same font and images. This was done to ensure that we created synergy. We were able to create this design within Photoshop to try and use different font styles and edit the photo-shoot from the digipak into a different way that make it similar but more intriguing for the audience. For example, with using Photoshop, we were able to create an edit of smoke appearing to cover the artists face. We believe this is effective due to the fact that while we have decided to show our artist on the poster, something not typically focused on within indie artists magazine adverts, we have changed it into a way where we have left a sense of mystery; we were able to it in the theme of the album and the ingle ‘Poltergeist’ to the advert by creating a mysterious, supernatural effect.

Final Magazine Advert Design In the end, we decided to stay with the second design due to the fact of how it was so similar to our digipak. By using this synergism within our products, we’re creating a consistent and professional image for our artist and for our audience to perceive. Our artist is also shown to be playing the guitar which adheres to the indie genre conventions of the focus on the music rather than the individual artist. In white font at the bottom of the poster is the relevant details of the album and its release, this is typical of an advert poster as this is the primary purpose of the poster. With the font being white we have kept our colour scheme consistent throughout the digipak, album and music video, as well as emphasising the most relevant information to catch the audience’s eye. With being inspired by other artists use of information, the total display of the albums distribution is effective with ensuring the success of an upcoming artists career within the music industry. The idea of using the date July8th will prove to be effective due to the artist being an advocate for LGBT, within being a lesbian herself, the idea of the album, including a music video featuring a gay couple, being released on the day of London Gay Pride can be seen as effective with broadcasting their music to particular key audiences. Overall, I believe we have made a relevant and effective magazine advert poster for Transparence’s album and song “Poltergeist” due to the consistency of colour schemes, adhering to several indie genres and creating synergy between all products surrounding the band.