CD Advert: Final Idea

Here is my final idea for advertising Blighters. I have made this creation using Adobe Photoshop and the size of the piece is A4.

When creating the CD panes, they were my only design concepts. This was also the case for the Advert. The only differences I have made along the way is the size of fonts and the placement of these. To begin with, I had the tour details and special offers at the top, with the reviews and ratings at the bottom. I reversed these details as I wanted the reviews and ratings to be the first thing they saw, with people reading from top to bottom. This hopefully will entice the audience to take a second look at the band.

I wanted to keep the same front cover design for the advert to make the target audience remember the band when in shops or on the Internet. As well as the front cover, i have used the same type of font to keep the 'house design' the same throughout the products i have created.

I used the same techniques as on the CD digipack for the advert, only enlarging the design to fit the A4 size. Like all adverts in magazines or on billboards, the design includes quotes and ratings from music magazines. This should hopefully prove that the Blighters are a good band and the target audience may want to buy the CD. I have used the music magazines NME and Q as i think that the target audience are most likely to read these magazines.

Another way I have tried to entice the audience is by offering the album at a reduced price at selected stores. These shops, HMV and iTunes, are the two biggest retailers for music and is the ideal place to showcase and sell music. The logo's which I have used help to catch the eye of the audience and hopefully they will by the product.

When looking through music magazines at adverts for new albums, i found that some also advertise their UK tours. This would is now the main way for bands to create a profit when producing music, thus making an important part when advertising the band. I have included a web address at the top of the advert promoting the bands UK tour.

CD Digipack Final Design

Here are my four panes that I have produced for the CD Digipack using Adobe Photoshop. In ascending order are the front cover, inside left, inside right and back cover.









When creating this piece of the coursework, I changed little from my initial ideas as these are them! One of the tweaks that I have made along the way has been the font for the front and back cover. I found this font on the website www.dafont.com and the typeface is called Birth of a Hero. I chose this font as it stood out on the website and i thought it would appeal to the genre. Furthermore, the font is open and quite fresh, but the distressed looks give it a grunge/rock look which targets the audience.

The other change i made along the way was the brightness and contrast of the pictures after i printed them out onto paper. To create the effect for the front cover, I used a rendering future on Photoshop called lighting effects. This has also been used on the inside right and back pictures to a lesser extent. The effect creates the halo style picture with the black background. I have used this on the other two pieces but have stretched the circle so it only covers the respective corners. With all the photos, I removed the colour as they all were colour photos taken on my 2.0 megapixel camera phone. I have then played around with the brightness and contrast to make the black and white colour more vivid.

The four CD designs have either iconic, indexical and symbolic connotations or denotations. The creations are iconic as they are photos, thus looking like the thing it refers to. Furthermore, the pictures have indexical connotations which connote a certain value. The front and back cover connote the boys in motion, with Jake Mardell flying through the air with his skateboard, i.e. in motion. The symbolic element of these images show the freedom and individualism that the target audience have at this age. The inside left picture in particular represents this.

I used the image of the skate park as it is a great iconic image for the band. The location was used for the video shoot and this helps to link the CD and video together nicely. Moreover, I think the picture is very strong and striking as it shows the unconventional side to the band due to the rural location and the emptiness of the skate park.

Hockey: Mind Chaos

I am reviewing the 2009 album produced by US pop band Hockey. Their album, named ‘Mind Chaos’ and can be linked with Blighters, the band that I am promoting for this course. The setup of the band and genre of the Portland, Oregon band is similar to that of Blighters, with a pop/indie genre of music, popular at the moment in the charts.

The cover of the album, matches the title of the album ‘Mind Chaos’ very well. The front cover is split up into for sections and each box has absolute chaos inside. Each of the boxes is made up of modern art drawings, using cut out pieces of paper to create the name. The four different pieces of art do not mean or reveal anything, equalling chaos, like the title.

I think this kind of artwork would appeal to the target audience of Hockey as it different from the norm and makes it stand out when in a shop against other CD’s. It is certainly a colourful and vibrant front cover. The target audience, females and males between the ages of 16-25 could relate to the artwork as it very youthful in is appearance. The back cover of the album uses this same kind of quirky artwork in its font and background design. Everything used in the artwork looks very unprofessional, with the corners of the CD being coloured in roughly and Blu tack used to stick the lettering for the title down. The lettering used for the CD song list is very irregular, with some smaller and some larger letters used.

I think this design for the CD connotes the fun that the band had producing this record. When this was produced, the band was still an unsigned band only know to a few hundred people. This is important as they could create whatever they wanted and make it as amateurish as they wanted. The fun that the design connotes also is shown through their music, which is very much up beat and something you could dance to.

Bloc Party: Intimacy

Above is third album produced by English band Bloc Party called ‘Intimacy’. The genre of this band is similar to that of Blighters, aimed at an age group of 16-25, with a predominately male target audience. The album, which was released in 2008, received good reviews in the media, with a 4 star rating on iTunes and .

The cover for this album displays the title of the album, ‘Intimacy’, perfectly in my opinion. The front artwork shows two mouths just about to kiss, showing the intimacy and affection between them. Not only does the artwork fit in with the title, the bands lyrics convey the intimacy of lead singer Kele Okereke’s, who wrote many of the tracks. The albums that they have produced are in stark contrast to their presence, which is shy and very withheld when being interviewed on camera. Many of the songs in the album are like diary notes, full of emotion, self loathing and very personal. Bloc Party push the boundaries of their genre and this album is the most adventurous yet. It combines both the genre of rock and electronic into a blend of music that is moody and dark yet can easily be used in a dance club.

The colours used on artwork of Intimacy convey the dark side to the bands image, as the saturation on faces is very pale, with the dark nothingness between them. However, the lips are so rich in colour and help to bring the two people together, as a couple. The back cover also shows how dark and depressing this album can be at times, with a just a black background with the album details on top.

The style of design used for the album is a plastic Super Jewel Box, which is now being used as a replacement for the original clear plastic case. The album artwork works well in the case, with a good feel and look to the album making it pleasing on the eye. Furthermore, this is the easiest way to produce and distribute CD albums, which would come into account when producing an album selling in the millions.

I think issues that ‘Intimacy’ deals with about emotions work well with the target audience, as they can relate to the bands lryics in real life experiences. The dark and moody side to this album is often how teenagers, especially males, are conveyed in the public eye. Furthermore, the self-loathing in which the lyrics include can often be linked to the target audience, with a lot of changes happening in life between the ages of 16-25.