Friday, 20 December 2013

RESEARCH ANCILLARY: Font Research

I believe i will be using a technique to letter press my font into my digipak

Letter pressing will hopefully give me a professional yet mysterious look, because of the nature of my genre i will be adding filters and making it look somewhat vintage to ensure i get a distorted and abandoned feel throughout my production, similar to my music videos locations.


UPDATED: To give a letter press feel, i used innershadow to give it the embeded feel as bevel and emboss did not work

Researching Ancillary Products: Feedback for Pitching Ancillary Products


Feedback from my Pitch was overall good although I had many improvements to make on the advert.

+My digipak design was described as unique and the theme of the product supports the   genre and who the artist represents. 

+My Advert was described in 5 words as unique, urban, dark, masculine and moody
I was advised to add more selling points for the artist in the advert products like 5 star ratings, tour dates, availability on iTunes and website information

Thursday, 19 December 2013

RESARCH ANCILLARY: Inspiration from artists

My Digipaks have been inspired by a few artists, images will be sown below.


the house of balloons one has a very discrete font and colour scheme which i will adopt, whereas the james blake cover is how i will have my artist at this current stage but with less of an effect on his face, the combination of these two will hopefully give me a strong digipak and drafts will be posted during the christmas break



RESARCH ANCILLARY: What magazines will my advert feature in?

After being asked what magazine my advert will be placed on i had to have a quick research session as no dub step/urban magazines came to mind.

Music magazine wise, i found two websites which have a dubstep feature.




However, my magazine advert will also be placed in urban magazines for big cities with an underground culture, so for example in england it would be a magazine based around east london.

Dubstep and new genres which create a buzz tend to be done mainly over social media and the internet, but the more commercial dubstep (which our song is) can be advertised by many magazines, even such as NME and GQ because of its sudden surge of popularity.

RESEARCHING ACILLARY: My mockup (Practise)



In terms of conventions, these two front panels have everything you will see in mainstream artists' covers.

An Artist name, spine, album title, logos on the back, track listing.

However, the artists name is not obvious and this can be a deception for the target audience. the colour scheme is also feels out of place and the spine is not clearly defined as a separate entity in comparison to the two completely contrasting panels.

--inside panels to be posted--

RESARCH ANCILLARY: Features of my digipak

My Digipak will consist of

- 4 Panels
- A grayscale colour scheme
- Simplicity yet mysterious
- A picture of my artist(to conform to conventions)
- Distorted
- Embossed Text


I decided for these features after initially wanting something bright and abstract but then after some thought my music video itself is very distorted and mysterious and by making my digipak a similar way i could ensure i was creating synergy between my productions


Drawings of my initial idea will be posted here

RESARCH ANCILLARY: Non Conventional entry into the music industry/DIGIPAK


Blog about The Weeknd and his non-conventional entrance into the music industry.



What we have learned in media is that when a new artist is trying to break into the music industry they do as many interviews, guest appearances and basically give it all up just to have one song in the charts, many of these artists who are pushed by their record labels don’t last that long, such as artists from x factor only make it so far. The weeknd has reached massive heights independently and took the music industry by surprise.

In 2011, Abel Tesfaye (the weeknd) released an album on the internet (forums etc) called ‘House of Balloons’ this album was released for free and nobody had any idea of the real identity behind this stage name.


The house of balloons album cover/digipak only had the artists name and album title, you could tell it’s the artists name as its bolder and font size is bigger than others. Subsequently the album title is smaller and then the songs are even smaller. The colour theme is conventionally the same, around 3-4 different shades of colour, which fit perfectly well together; the colour scale is also present below the artists name.





Abel Tesfaye also released two more albums that same year (2011) both were also available for free download on his website and other social media.

Next thing you know is that everybody is talking about this mysterious artist, he later revealed that many labels contacted him early on for a record deal and that many music magazines and radios wanted to interview him, he only recently gave an interview in 2013 despite being on the scene since mid 2011.
He has since sold out the O2 Arena in November 2013 with his new album ‘Kiss Land’

Friday, 13 December 2013

Researching Ancillary Products: Mock-up of Digipak


My mock-up of my digipak






Researching Ancillary Products: The Do's and Don't's of Design Work


Here are some rules I need to follow in order to produce a good piece of ancillary work.


Stick to TWO clear fonts

Stick to THREE colours maximum, and make sure they fit in with the genre correctly. 

Make sure photos are CLEAR

Follow the rule of Thirds for composition

Include elements such as Bar codes, copyright information, title of album ad etc



Avoid using unnecessary effects

Try not to have images that are really stretched out 

Do not place text across the face of the Artists


Researching Ancillary Products: My Practice of a Digipak


I had a practice run of making a digipak in class just to get the idea of making the finally album for my artist and to familiarise myself with using photoshop.









Researching Ancillary Products: Magazine Adverts (Inspiration)









Researching Ancillary products: Analysis of Digipaks from my Genre


I analysed a digipak classed in the Dubstep Genre,.

The first was Krewella - Get wet
-The animation work on the album cover is very effective due to the dark and vibrant colours being used
-The font on the band name and album name fits in well with the background
- They have stuck to the 'Get wet' theme of the album through making reference to water in the animated work and font.


Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Researching Ancllary Products: The Importance and Function of Digipaks


What is a Digipak?
Digipaks are a modern approach to CD/DVD packaging and is the album and includes the album and advertisemnt in which the artist current music videos and material.

Digipaks are important because the artist\band shares their music, promotes the artist,create a fan base and increases the number of CD sales. Advertisement and other aspects of digipaks show preparation for the official album release date which updates fan. 

Elements to include:
- Image of artist/band 
- Artist name
- Album name
- record label
- Web address 
- Bar code
- Promotional information and maybe sticker 

Here's examples of a digipak...




Researching Ancillary Products: Album Covers (Inspiration)
































Researching Ancillary Products: Practice Album Cover

 unfinished

Research Ancillary Products: My Digipak form Last Summer




Analysing my digipak from last summer I've realised my product was very unprofessional. Recently I've learnt key things i must incorporate in order to have that professional look and avoid an amateur look.

Weaknesses ...
- There are different fonts which looks confusing 
- There is over four colours of font
- The filter on the back cover and front are to different ones
-The font looks similar to handwriting

Strengths ...
-The front cover has a matching scheme 
-The picture of the artist doesn't look stretched out  

Monday, 9 December 2013

RESEARCH ANCILLARY: Analysis of three digipaks and three advertisements

-- have not finished my blog post on this as i am making a very detailed blog based on this task with contrasting my genre and a new artist who has blown and took the music industry by suprise--
 
will be on here 12/12/13