Evaluation: Question TWO

It is very important to make sure that the main product, being the music video, matches and has an effective combination with the ancillary texts, which consists of the album sleeve and magazine advertisement. And it is also important to create a marriage between the style of the music and the ancillary texts too. The style of music of the song ‘Keeping On Without You’ is soft alternative Rock, yet the lyrics represent heartbreak but strength. However, within my music video, I represented youth, relationships/friendships and fashion, and therefore I had to make sure that my ancillary texts matched this well. After thinking about what I could possibly do for my artwork, I researched into similar artists and bands and browsed at what they had produced for their individual original albums. ‘The Maine’, a highly similar band to This Providence have several album covers, and they all centred on bright colours and people in a particular setting. Another band called ‘Every Avenue’, of also high similarity to This Providence, focused more on a photography and polaroid element of the album sleeve. Being inspired by both of these areas, I came across a website called Dear Photograph. This particular site is fairly explanatory: you take a picture from the past, perhaps your childhood, you go to the location where the picture was taken, line it up, then take another picture. I thought this looked charming but so meaningful and definitely distinguished the difference of time, which I was indeed portraying through my own music video through the flashbacks of the relationship. But I decided that I would use this element for the lyric sleeve as you fold open the album covers. So I decided I would print out some stills from my actual music video, apply an effect on them so they look like vintage polaroids, then took them to the location they were first shot in, lined them up correctly then took another picture. I then edited the images by putting the different song titles that actually are on the ‘Who Are You Now?’ by This Providence, along with the lyrics. I then used the brush tool on Photoshop to add leaf decoration to seem very autumnal, and this too matched with my music video and highlighted a warmth atmosphere. This is an example of the finished piece:

I think it is very effective in terms of the combination from the main product of the music video, to the album sleeve. I think it matches the feel of the video and gives a personal effect to the album as photographs are seen as a personal and valued thing. I find lots of areas effective: I love the fact that the polaroids look very orangey and warm and autumnal, but where I re-took them, it is wintery and snowy, this definitely highlights the use of time and flashbacks. I also love the use of fonts and their appearance and positioning among each page. I did hours of research into finding the perfect font for the job, and applying lining and glows to the track titles and lyrics to accentuate their importance and represent the album cover in a real artistic and creative way. I think my album art folds of lyric pages, are definitely individual and original ideas, as I have not seen another design like it, so I feel that they give a great style for promotion yet still match the main product related to it.

The front and back cover to the album which are obviously the first thing I customer is drawn to if they do not recognise the band, or may be a real interest to a fan of the band if they enjoy the album work. Therefore it was important to create an interesting cover that was still relevant to the artist and music video. Since the lyric sleeves were quite bold and busy, the front and back covers should really be quite simplistic but still creative. During research, I was really interested in the Girl With The Red Balloon by Banksy. Although this is a very urban/street piece of artwork, I thought I could be inspired by this and produce a different take on it. So I took two photographs, both in related locations to my music videos (on meadows in forests). In one, Daisy is facing one direction with her arm stretched out as if to reach out to something, and in the other, Rob is facing the opposite direction with his arm slightly stretched out but as if he is holding something. I then edited the images and pasted in a red heart shaped balloon; in the photograph of Daisy, I made it look like the balloon was floating away from her, and in the photograph of Rob, I made it look like he was holding onto it. This represents Rob holding onto love, but Daisy letting go, which is what the song lyrically represents. In the spaces left, I edited in the logo I produced of the band name and song title, that looks like this:

I believe that they are both effective in terms of combination through the main product and ancillary text, as they show aspects through the characters of the music video but also represent the music in a lyrical sense. I did a lot of research also into finding the perfect font for the band title. Through looking at similar artists, I needed a bold font and hosted it in black to show a basic but professional format. I wanted quite a flowing almost handwritten font for the song title, and hosted this in orange to represent the colours in the music video.

I also had to create a poster to act as a magazine promotional advertisement, where I featured a page spread including an individual picture of Rob looking up at the titles, with information on the promotion such as: band name, album title, tour dates, critic ratings, links to their own website/facebook/myspace. I made sure that I linked the posters design with previous ancillary texts such as the album sleeve and even the music video, but I did not feature any specific details from the music video like stills or snapshots as I wanted to concentrate more on the sale aspect than the video product as I featured this in the album art. I kept all the colours very orangey, black, grey, white and red, to give an autumnal feel. And I kept all the same fonts as my album art to create a combining link between them all. And I also applied a leaf decoration like I did on my album art to add an extra warmth and season accentuation.

As a poster for an advertisement to promote the album, I believe it includes all the vital information needed to enlighten the audience of what is being sold and when it can be bought. It also presents extra information such as links to their own website if they might perhaps want to find out more, and there are tour dates featured too for any fans to be interested in. Putting critic ratings mean it gives the audience a sense of how talented the band are and how good that particular album will sound, being worthy of listening to it themselves. I realised creating a single page spread gets the point across more as a promotional advertising device rather than creating a double page spread featuring ‘the making of…’ and interviews where it goes away from the promotional side of things. Although it will only be featured on one page, I have crammed in enough information for the audience to know exactly what is on offer and still have it presented in an interesting and creative way.

In conclusion, I believe all of my ancillary texts are very effective as a combination as they all are related with colour schemes and font usage and present a decorative collection of artwork whilst still remaining consistance with the genre of music in mind, along with similar artists research.