Plans for magazine advertisement

These are the magazine advertisements created based on the album, music video and my research.

The first features the same punk-like font for the album name as that of the album. The band's name is shown in their own logo's font and in the background the skull on the album CD holder is graffitied on the wall of the tunnel featured in the music video. On the floor of the tunnel are some apples which highlight the use of cyanide. The album itself is then shown in the centre of the advertisement.

The second uses the same album name and band logo font in different positions. The background shows the wall on the side of the tunnel with the skull/apple of the other album design's front cover over it. All the text and images are graffitied or drawn onto the wall to reflect the punk convention of anarchy.

Magazine advertisement analysis of our chosen genre

As our band didn't already have one, I created an analysis of a poster from an artist of the same genre in order to know specifically what was included in posters of this genre. this would help me create my own one so it looks appropriate for our artist and genre. I chose to analyse the advertisement for the album Neighbourhoods by the punk band Blink 182.

Text and font
The text uses quite an abstract, unconventional font including backward or misshaped letters which relates to the generic convention of punk being to go against the rules. A larger font has been used on the most informative text, in this case it being the album name, artist and release date. In a smaller font is additional information such as the song featured and website address.

Colour
The overall greyscale colours used suggest the album's music will have quite a dark and depressing theme to it, which it does. The text uses a white colour which contrasts with the black background so the text is clearer and more eye catching for the viewer.

Images
The main image displayed shows a sketched out areal view of a city with a large section of buildings in the centre of the image shaped like the band name. The cityscape has been used to relate to the album name, Neighbourhoods. Other images shown in the advertisement include the band logo and record companies, all in white to follow the advertisements style and contrast with the black background.

Plans for digipak

These are the digipak designs I created based overall on my research into other digipaks, our song's genre and our music video.

My First design features the bands instrument (the guitar), a scientific flask to reflect the chemical theme of cyanide, an apple (where cyanide comes from) and a pint glass of beer like the one featured in the music video. The front cover includes the album name in a classic punk-like font and a group of hands which are shaped to form the letters TFI in between them.

My second design incorporates a more rebellious style to emphasise the idea of anarchy. I used a graffiti cartoon of an apple which a skull looking face reflecting how cyanide comes from apples and is featured in the video. Other references to the video are the beer pint glass with a skull over it and the smashed pint glass after being drunk in the video. The spray paint can has been used to symbolise anarchy by its use for creating graffiti. The band members are also seen on one of the panels in a line as silhouettes facing a crowd of generic looking people who look towards the viewer. This is meant to symbolise the idea of being an individual and not following the system, as punk is associated with.

Analysis of digipak of our chosen genre

Because our band didn't have a digipak I decided to analyse one from a band of the same genre. I chose to analyse the one for Green Day's Greatest Hits 2 digipak. This will help me when it comes to designing our digipak to make it look more appropriate for the genre.
The front cover contains the three band members stencilled onto a wall which connotes a gritty urban setting, which is strongly associated with that genre. Their faces are coloured in white to highlight them more to emphasise their importance. The band's name is clearly displayed in a large bright font which contrasts with the dark background. on the bottom of the front the album's name is displayed over a banner held by an eagle. This signifies their American origin and connotes patriotism which contrasts the way punk is generally very anti-patriotic.

The back cover uses a background of a stencil of the back of a man carrying rucksacks. There is little significance for the use of this background however it follows the urban graffiti style theme the album uses overall. The font of the track list uses a stencil looking font as well. Also it has been placed at an angle to mirror the generic gritty style of punk.
The rest of the album contains mostly photos of the band, emphasising their importance and that it is their album.

The digipak is made up of 3 panels and 6 sides and folds into thirds. Two of the inner sides are used to hold two CD's and the third is used to display what would be on the booklet.

Pitch idea based on lyrics

Once we had decided on TFI (The fake imposters) as our artist, we read through the lyrics for their song Cyanide, which is the song we chose to create a music video for, and discussed ideas for the video's narrative based on them. We each analysed the lyrics individually so we could think up more unique ideas then exchanged ideas together. Here is the analysis I made myself:

I came up with the idea of a couple who end up in an argument because the male has cheated on the girl with her friend and he leaves. The girl working at an inn has to serve the man who is now dating her friend and decides to put cyanide in his drink to kill him. The links between the lyrics and narrative portray mostly literal representations of them, including the inn, the cyanide pill in the drink, walking out the door and the couple having dinner.

Lyric analysis and importance

The lyrics in the song being used for the music video have a very large effect on what happens visually throughout the music video. The lyrics will help get across a message to the audience and engage them with the video. They can also aid the narrative and set the scene of the video by explaining what is happening or why. The video can follow the lyrics meaning literally or use them to create a hidden meaning within the video and in some cases the video can have nothing to do with the lyrics at all, but this is uncommon.

In order to understand how this would work I analysed the lyrics for Leave Right Now by Will Young which I hadn't seen the music video for before and planned my own music video based around the lyrics then compared it to the actual thing. This would help me by allowing me to test how the lyrics can be adapted to create an effective music video so I can apply these skills to my own chosen song and music video.

I ended up creating a very symbolic literal representation of the lyrics which involved the artist falling into a pool and sinking. Then the heart shaped pool cracks in half and they fall downwards before landing in a giant hand and is wet and trembling, a girl then walks over to him and he stands for her.
This turned out to be a much more exaggerated portrayal of the song's lyrics to how it did in the official music video which features a POV view throughout the video facing the artist who sings towards the camera.

Foreverly magazine advertisement analysis

I analysed two magazine advertisements for albums based on their aesthetic look. From this I mainly found text varies in font size and colour depending on its informative importance. I will use this knowledge so my own advertisement  shows the key information clearly to its viewer.
Text and font
The advertisement has used the big and bold font from the original album cover to highlight clearly the names of the album's artists and the album title 'Foreverly' in a white and yellow coloured font which contrasts well with its background so it stands out from the rest of the advertisement. Other text included is what the album is about, its release date and the artist's website. The most useful information is highlighted in yellow font instead of white to draw the audience's attention to it specifically and so it follows the style of the album cover.

Colour
The advertisement has an orange and black filter which uses the strong contrast between the two colours to make the image of Billie Joe and Norah much bolder and sharper so its more eye-catching. The colours are also much brighter where the album title, the artists and their names are, compared to the rest of the picture which attracts most of the attention to that section of the advertisement.

Images
The image shows both the artists recording at a studio together which highlights who the artists are to the viewer. Also the original image used for the album cover has been used, without the cropping,  as the advertisement's background. then the section which has been used as the album cover has been highlighted with the white border used in the cover and the outside section darkened to draw more attention to the cover itself.