Evaluation: Question 2

I think the combination of myproducts (video,website,digi-pak) iseffective in terms of creating a starimage and promoting my artist. Itwas important for me to create thevideo, website and digi-pak so thatthey created a recognisable imageand style for that artist.

From research into album artwork of my genre I found that solo artists had covers that were minimalistic, focusing on the artist. I wanted to make my cover very stripped back with just the outline of the artist, and the same with the inside of the booklet. Throughout my digi-pak I wanted to keep this because it showed consistency and created a star image of a sleek and to the point artist. By following these conventions I would be fulfilling the needs of my target audience. Audiences of this genre are more concerned I feel with the representation of the artist rather than focusing heavily on the music they make, like an audience of the indie genre would, which influenced the way I presented my artist in my video, website and digipak.

Throughout my digi-pak (and website) I kept to the colour scheme of black/white/red. I did this because I wanted to keep to a constant them to make the artist recognisable and I wanted to convey a stripped back minimalistic theme. The star image we wanted to portray was a relatable, confident and slick artist. This was demonstrated in the video through the costume changes i.e from a suit to his own clothing, showing that when he is putting on a performance he take it seriously. Although we had a naturalistic and laid back aspect in our video, I wanted to focus on the smart more artist aspect, as I thought this would appeal more to the audience.

The front and back cover meet the artist’s fans expectations as it is just the artist on the cover and there is a plain back ground with simple writing around him. I chose to make the front black and white as I thought it emphasised the minimalistic theme. The font is also simple. I positioned the writing purposely in this way to add a bit of obscurity, and I thought it made the cover more appealing for the audience. The writing is in black and the bits that overlap onto the picture are white, this was to keep the black and white motif and also the double exposure of the image. The double exposure could be seen as the two sides of the artist that are conveyed in the video.

On the back over I wanted to the writing to be in red so that the front and back covers straight away demonstrate that red is consistent colour of the artist. I chose to use font that looked like handwriting, so it suggested that it was the writing of the artist making the album more personal and creating a connection between the fans and the artist. I added an old style microphone so that there was motif of old style stars, the intertextuality of jazz performers. Also it went well with the black and white on the front, again emphasising the intertextuality.

Allows audience to access products and gain further info about artist.

Justin Timberlake was an artist I analysed and researched closely as I wanted to create a similar star image to his. Justin Timberlake is well known and is presented as a talented relatable figure. I really like this idea which he included in his album booklet, this gave me inspiration for the front cover.

In his booklet he kept a coloured theme, which made his star image stronger, this is something I incorporated into my digipak as it gives it a more serious and appealing look.

Here the colour red is obvious, this maintains a star image as it is used in the video and website as well.

Another intextualityreference is included in my booklet, showing a recurring motif and highlighting the star image we created. I used the idea of pop art again to illustrate the genre, so included the post production digital effects in this.

I used the same font on the disc cover as I did on the back cover, create that personal feel. I created a target/bulls eye on the disc to show the fun side of the artist, as pop likes to show performance and energy. This energy is also shown in the images on the other side, where there are images captured midst movement of the artist.

Originally the font for the lyrics were different but then from feedback I then decided to change it match the other writing. And it made more sense for lyrics to be in handwriting, as it looks as if the artist has just written it.

Normally, artists include behind the scenes in the booklet so that their fans get a close look. I did not want to do this as it did not go with the star image I was trying to create, which is performer. I did want to develop this so I included a still from the music video, so that was incorporated into the booklet. I included this particular image because I thought the dramatic lighting worked well and also highlighted the performer side of the artist.

I made a 3d effect for the title so that it stood out against the other writing and it also added to the red/black colour theme.

These were previous designs I made before I made my final digipak. I liked the front covers of these but I didn’t think they were good enough for the front cover which is why I went for the one I did as I think it is more powerful and effective than these. Also the image quality of these were not of good quality.

Looking back I would of included Aaron wearing his own clothing in the booklet, like in the video to show both his sides as performer and someone relatable.

A mistake I made was not keeping the same font across my main products and ancillary texts, which is limitation because it does not maintain the star image. I do not like the font we used in our video as I don’t think it maintains or represents out star image, as it looks very ordinary I think maybe it needed to bold. I originally in the website had the same font as I had on the digipak but I didn’t like the way it looked. I changed it to an old 1920s style writing which went more with the idea of intertexuality and in a way it goes with the digipak as this was represented (e.g. microphone).

Website

I think the website is key and the most effective way to target you specific audience, as it holds all the social platforms, the main product and the digipak, making it important that all the products work together and create/maintain a ‘brand’. It is where fans learn about the artist through their bio, gallery etc. This helps build a fan base.

I researched many websites, including ones that were not in my genre, I did this as I wanted to understand what made websites effective in promotion of artists. From my research I found that there was consistency, through colour and fonts. Therefore, I made sure I maintained the colour scheme of red and black throughout my website and also the same font. The font I used was old style Hollywood which went with the idea of a performer and the intertextuality in the video. In maintaining the star image for the background I used the same image that was in the booklet. From research I learnt that all the recent and important information was on the first page of the website. On the front page I included the album, video, tour dates and new music. This was to make everything easily accessible to the fans and also so that everything was in their face. I added as many social media links as I could to show that the artist is across many platforms. Many websites I looked at had the album and where you could buy it, I did this and also made a playlist of the album so fans could sample it before buying it. By it being on the first page and a link to buying it is a way of manipulation with out them knowing it.

Social media is key to promoting and building a fan base. On my website I made the links to the different social networks easy to find and direct to the eye. On every page you go to all these are on the page making it easy for the fans to look around and find out more about the artist. As there is constant access to being able to follow the artist it creates a bigger fan base which would mainly consist of a younger audience as they often have more than one social network that they use (e.g tumblr/twitter/facebook).

The format of my website is clear, so the audience have easy access to what they want. Also including links everywhere was effective as again it meant all the important information was right infont of the audiences eyes.

I added details that would be in a real website, for example a poster with tour dates and also an image saying the artist won an award. The ‘Brit Award’ promotes the artist more as it suggests that he is talented and is being recognised for it. I wrote in first person to again make it more personal, and as though the artist was connecting with the fans.

Gallery included behind the scenes and personal artist photos, letting the fans get to know the artist.

The combination of my main product and ancillary texts all work together effectively. They are linked with similar motifs, such as the colour scheme and images. This makes the ‘brand’ I am trying to create a recognisable one and creates a certain representation of the artist to the desires audience. I worked carefully always considering that I am working towards a product that will construct an image of the star.