Ancillary Task - Album Covers/Magazine Advertisement Sketches

These sketches I created are ideas for our CD covers and Magazine advertisements, the top two sketches show the singer of the band with her hands in a kitchen sink and then the back cover is simply a shot of the kitchen from a different angle. The photographs (which are shown below on a previous Blog post) are of the whole band, and a few of Joe, the singer. We will be editing these photographs using Photoshop then be using them in Indesign to create our album front and back covers, inside covers and also the magazine advertisement. The bottom sketch is for the Magazine advertisement and shows the whole band in a living room with the singer closest to the camera.

We chose an old house for our location as it reflects the band's lyrics and their general theme, the singer's eccentric choice of clothing (as seen in the photographs) also relates to the attire she wears in the music video.

Here are some examples of handwritten calligraphy fonts that we could use for the album covers/magazine advertisements.

By Pete Field

Ancillary Task - Album Cover/Inside Covers/Magazine Advertisement photo options

Here are some of the photos that we took of the band 'Funnel' The Style of picture that we have chosen i feel suits the genre and the look that the band are aiming to acheive, we took the pictures in one of the band members great aunt's living room. her house was what i would describe as eccentric and matched the look and style of the frontwoman, Joe Hesketh. there is also a vintage feel to the pictures as the band are all wearing vintage and retro atire and in this location i feel they work well together. the pictures that i chose as the best ones are that i would picture on an indie album cover.


Lewis Holgate

Questionnaire Analysis

Here is a scanned in copy of our questionnaire that I created and distributed to people. I chose to include a variety of questions, some multiple choice and some where it leaves space for a written answer.

Some of the questions 

like: 

"Do you believe genre can be presented through a music video?" 

and

"Do you feel a music video is important in creating a brand image for a band/artist?"

were particularly useful questions as we intend on presenting the band's genre through the use of the music video and at the same time creating an image for the band and the

 singer, Joe, in the music video. 

 

And here is an example of a questionnaire that has been answered, in total we asked ten people to answer the questionnaires yet it was not neccessary to scan in all ten. 

I learned from these questionnaires that were given out that the majority of people agreed that genre can be presented clearly through a music video and that a music video is important in creating a brand image for a band/artist.

Pete Field

Ideas for Magazine cover Advertisemenmt

To create our magazine cover we will be using 'InDesign', a program that allows the user to import pictures and add text to the front cover to make a realistic layout that would be seen on music magazines such as - NME, Q, Kerrang and Mojo. Usually the picture of the band that will be found on the front cover of the mag would not totally show them within the image that the band is aiming to achieve. It is the Album or single cover where the band will use their personal image in order to sell their material, the magazine will only aim to have their name in a big font and usually a close-up of the band stood together. below are some examples to indicate the most common images of bands on the front of music based magazines.

As you can see there is a general consensus for magazine covers as said befroe there is no real band image used but just to rely on the name and the face of the 'front man'.

Inspirational CD Covers

For our second part of the coursework we were given two ancillary tasks which would go alongside our music video, using the required software packages we will be creating authentic products.


The brief given offered us various tasks to choose from we will be creating a brand which will support our music video which is our main product.

We chose to do:

A CD cover for
its release as part of a 'digipak' and a magazine advertisement for the 'digipak' (CD package)

We will be designing both of the above using Photoshop and Indesign, this will give the products an authentic look and allow us to create a distinct brand image for the music artist.


I will now analyse various CD covers which I feel are possibly inspirational and are well designed.


This is a typical phsycedelic record cover, by 'Jan & Lorraine' it is called 'Gypsy People' (1969). I like the colour scheme and the identical patterns which are mirrored on either side, the font used is relatively simple yet it appears to be stretched slightly which is very eye catching. It is an aesthetically pleasing album cover and was similiar to other covers that were around during this era.








Jimi Hendrix was known for his experimental styles of music and techniques used, this cover for 'The Jimi Hendrix Experience' reflects his psychedelic
style and I like how the designer of this cover has taken inspiration from Hindu gods, for example it appears as if he has multiple arms, yet the use of mirrors creates this illusion. I feel as if using the mirrored effect is a convention of this pyschedelic album art.




Below are some possible inspirational album covers that could be used, The Streets' 'A Grand Don't Come For Free' and Oasis' 'Definitely Maybe'
I like how both covers reflect real life things, like the band just relaxing in a living room and with The Streets' back cover it shows a list of their songs, which could possibly be a 'to-do' list or a shopping list.

Album Ideas

As we are also making the album cover/booklet for our artist 'Funnel' we have been looking at other albums from all genres of music. Looking specifically at similar artists/bands as Funnel with the same sort of quirky bohmeian image, again for example Florence and The Machine, Kate Bush, The Rolling Stones.


These album covers have a vintage, grainy look to them which i like and makes them stand out from mainstream artists. This sort of image is what we want for Funnel. Inside the covers instead of having the lyrics or letters or 'thank yous' etc we are going to go for having pictures of Joe as she is the voice and writer of all their songs. We want this to advertise to audiences what she is about etc

Jane Keegan

Audience

Media texts are a product usually made to make money and generate revenue for the institution that has produced them. In our case music videos and their artists been the product make money and generate revenue for the artist music label/institution.All products need audiences to gain what the institution wants. The institution needs an audience to target so they can construct the product to appeal to them. We define a target audience using GRASS:

Gender

Race

Age

Socio-economic Status

Socio-economic Status is essentially what class a person belongs to depending on their job/occupation/family here is a chart to explain the different categories, these are the six standard socio-economic groupings in the UK:

Group                                          Description

A           Upper Class                            Buisness proffesionals

B           Middle Class                            Middle management

C1         Lower middle Class                 Trades and supervisory jobs

C2         Skilled working class                Blue collar workers

D           Lower working class                Manual workers

E           Subsidence                               Pensioners/unemployed

This is the socio-Economic scale used in marketing today, these are the six standard socio-economic groupings in the UK.

Audience profiling can be divided in to two broad categories:

1.Demographic profiling techniques

2.Psychographic profiling techniques

Demographic Profiling

Following World War 2 media industries grew, there was a need to identify and target different audiences in order to market their product to the 'types' of people who would buy the products. The first type of audience profiling developed was demographic which involved grouping the audience into smaller groups based on variables such as sexuality, religion, class, economics, age, gender, geographical area etc. This method of profiling is good as it groups people according to the lives they live or/and their economic or social status in society.

There are of course problems with demographic profiling as people are not all the same just because they have the same job, income  etc. People with the same race or gender don't share the same interests, everyone is different, so it is hard to find out specific audiences through this profiling method. Due to these problems research has moved to Psychographic Profiling, the method which categorises consumers of products in terms of needs rather than characteristics.

Psychographic Profiling

This method of profiling just assumes the audience to be complex and have certain needs which are to be fulfilled. The method aims to appeal to the audiences' emotions and psychological needs, different audiences of obviously having different psychological needs and emotions. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs addresses audience segmentation this way.


Maslow's Hierrachy of Needs
Maslow developed his theory of needs whilst he was researching the behaviour of monkeys. He discovered that all living creatures have basic needs that must be fulfilled to enable survival. However Humans are more complex, therefore are more unique than other species. There is a diagram of a triangle which illustrates his theory. The way to read the theory diagram is to start from the bottom and move up. The first four sections below 'self actualisation' are known as the 'deficit' or 'D-needs', if these needs can't be achieved a person cannot gain 'self actualisation' at the top. The levels of need are known as:

• Physiological needs- ie need for basic survival. These are required to be able to move up the diagram. They include water, oxygen, food etc
• Safety and Security- this is the need for shelter, warmth, protection
• Belonging needs- ie social needs. Maslow describes this need as everyone has 'an innate need for love and affection of others. Its what Humans need in life.
• Esteem needs-this is split into two levels, lower and higher self esteem. Lower self-esteem is gained through appraisal of others, if people like a person the person often feels better about themselves, however if a person isn't liked by someone it creates a person to be low or sad or hurt. HIgher esteem is much more difficult to achieve but when achieved is much more stable/long-lasting, it is self respect and genuinely feeling good about oneself

If all the D-needs are met then 'Self-Actualisation' is achieved. Self-Actualisation is when a person realises our full potential of their Human Being status. Self-Actualisation is made up of 'being needs', which include: perfection,beauty, diplomacy, uniqueness etc, not survival needs.


Here is Maslow's theory:

The aim of our group is to appeal to our target audience, young people who like indie/pop punk music, and we are going to try and achieve to give them their needs in our video and our band 'Funnels' image. Other studies that we concern ourselves with are Young and Rubicam's Cross-cultural Consumer Characteristics. This psychographic profiling approach characterises people in terms of their personal aspirations/needs. Rubicam and Young said there were four categories of audience based upon there  aspirations/needs:

1. Mainstreamers-which is 40% of the market, largest section of the market. This group seek for security in conformity therefore tend to buy well known brands. ,for example popular mainstream Hollywood films.

2.Aspirers-This group are people who are motivated by status. They buy smart high fashion goods. For example the newest best equipped televisions.

3.Succeeders-This group consist of people who have already climbed the ladder and want to keep control of what they have. For example car adverts promoting 'power' etc are aimed at this group of people.

4.Reformers-This group of people are those that want the world to be a better place. As in educated people such as teachers and doctors who apparently are more likely to buy eco-friendly and health products.

In 1988 a new group emerged the 'individual', this group responds to advertising and marketing that emphasises quirkiness or individualism. This is the group we essentially want to appeal to our target audience. Hopefully our product, our video will appeal to our target audience because of the mise-en-scene-, the narrative and editing to match the song. We did a questionnaire which Pete carried out and from this we determined what elements we will put forward on our video..




Jane Keegan