EVALUATION Q.2.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

I feel that one of the most important aspects of creating a successful combination of texts is keeping consistency. If I was to produce three pieces that had no similarities, they wouldn't be able to be presented as an advertising campaign, and would provide a disjointed and somewhat 'messy' image for the artist.

Using an example that I have previously listed as an inspirational text, I will show how I think this particular artist has kept consistency, thereby creating a strong image for herself and presenting a concrete advertising campaign for her album.

The image above shows Florence and the Machine's various texts associated with their album 'Lungs', including the CD cover, the magazine advertisement for that CD and two stills from tracks that are included on the album. The clothing that Florence wears is consistently floaty and gives an ethereal look, contributing to the overall fantasy image that the band were hoping to achieve. The same fonts and the same main image are repeated over the two print tasks, making them almost identical, apart from the extra information given on the magazine advertisement. 

This is what I have tried to replicate in my print tasks, using the same modern serif typeface called 'Nueva Std' which I felt was exactly what I was looking for; a serif font that was formal, but not too formal and as recognizable as Times New Roman. I have also used the same wallpaper design over the two ancillary tasks, which I sourced from Homebase, photographed and edited on Photoshop to create the colour scheme that I wanted. This colour scheme is very dark and somber, and is exactly what I wanted to create to reflect the mood of the song and the video. I have aimed to explain further in the video below:

Obviously, in order to create a solid image for my artist, I have to include images of him, in order to put his face out there and advertise him to his audience. As mentioned in my previous evaluation post, I chose not to include an image of my artist on the cover of the album digipak, as I had already decided on the wallpaper design. In the following video, I will explain how I aimed to combat the lack of image on the CD cover, and how I hoped that this would relate to the video, thereby linking the three texts together as a product:

The following images show how I have used Jonny's image throughout my texts, in the hope of establishing him as an artist and beginning to associated the themes/moods of the pieces with his image.

click to enlarge images:

MAGAZINE AD
The images to the left show the still that I took from a piece of footage I shot on location in Backhouse Park when filming with Jonny, that I then used in my magazine advertisement. As you can see I cropped the image considerably, flipped it horizontally and removed the background before placing it onto my revised magazine advertisement. Jonny is wearing a black coat, black jeans, brown shoes and a checked scarf, in keeping with the style of the Indie/Alternative genre and also the weather in which we filmed.

His relaxed stance and serious facial expression reflect the mood of the song, as if he is stood contemplating his relationship.

VIDEO
This is a still from my finished video, which shows Jonny stood against a tree in a medium shot. This is similar to the image from the magazine advertisement however it is taken from a different angle. Jonny's costume remains the same, keeping consistency between the two texts. Again, he has a subdued facial expression which suits the mood of the video and also reflects the emotional lyrics.

CD DIGIPAK
Although I didn't use an image of Jonny on the cover of the CD, I did include one on the inside cover that I designed:

In this image Jonny is wearing a different costume and isn't directly facing the camera as he is in many of the shots in the video. As I mentioned in the video, like the magazine advertisement, I feel that the genre of the album is much better suited to an image where it appears the artist doesn't know it's being taken. I wanted to differentiate this image from the ones in the video and magazine ad, as the song that the video is for is only one track on the album, so the image used on the digipak had to be more universal.

I feel that using Jonny on all of the pieces gives them a strong image and brings them all together under a common aim; advertising the artist and creating a reputation. Many times, an music artist is best known for their appearance first and their music second, which is why I wanted to establish Jonny as a brand in his own right.