Evaluation of drafts

Evaluation of drafts

• 1.
  EVALUATION OF DRAFTS HannahWicks
• 2.
  ■ This wasmy initial idea for my print productions, here I think I was taking the theme of broken communications to literally by disrupting the picture by placing cracks over his face. I did this through using the polygonal lasso tool and rubbing it out on Photoshop to show the white background beneath. I personally feel that this does not construct a strong enough brand identity through how it could be perceived as looking unprofessional. In relation to Stuart Hall I think my target audience and others could potentially decode this in a way that was not intended.Through the cracks it could be portrayed to be more of stereotypical heartbreak theme, especially considering my target age range of 16-24, although this is an aspect of the music video, it is not the entire message I want to convey through the synergy of my products. However there are aspects of this design that I do like, for example I feel the black and white filter placed onto the photograph is successful, I want to employ this technique in my final design as the color symbolism is effective in communicating the tone and themes of the album; for example the black and white connotes how heartbreak and sadness are key themes in the album but overall it does not communicate my main theme of broken communications successfully.Therefore, through taking into to account I have decided to employ black and white filters across all my final print productions.
• 3.
  ■ In thisdesign I have employed the technique of covering his eyes and mouth, thus I think this is an improvement from my earlier first design that I have previously discussed as I feel this is a more subtle way of communicating my theme of breakdown of communicating, this goes in hand with my chosen visual style; minimalism as it is not an overly complicated design. I feel more confident in the photograph I have I used through it being a more close up shot and I feel this is a more professional approach.This is a more stylistic approach to using his portrait on the front cover and is a genre convention of indie music. Again, in terms of decoding my productions for my audience, I feel this would be more successful through the use of the newspaper.This is because a newspaper is an obvious metaphor for communications, the way it covers his mouth and eyes conveys a breakdown of communications, these are the senses we communicate most with.Therefore, with the newspaper covering the eyes and mouth it conveys my theme successfully, thus I have decided to employ these techniques in my final production. However, I still feel a sense of sophistication is missing from the brand identity I am trying to construct.
• 4.
  ■ This isthe third draft of my print production, here it is clear to see how I have employed the two successful techniques discussed earlier; the black and white filter and the newspaper covering his eyes and mouth. I wanted to make a statement of his name and previously I had not added this feature, it is a convention of the indie genre to have the name bigger than the album name.This is to construct a strong brand identity for the artist.Thus I attempted to do this with the white bars added below and above his name, I also thought this would create a strong link with my music video as in my music video I featured the cinematic technique of adding black bars to every shot. Upon reflection of this draft I decided to make the newspaper cut outs bigger as I feel it would look more professional with the whole of his mouth and eyes covered.This perhaps would create a larger impact of my theme which is ideally what I would like ■ Although, I am covering his eyes and mouth I think changing the original photograph to one that I took that uses direct address would create a stronger connection between my artist and the targeted audience as they would still be able to tell he is looking directly at them where as here he is looking down and I think the text at the bottom would look better without his hand behind it.
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  ■ This wasmy first attempt at a back panel design, you can see here I have employed the technique of surrounding his name with white bars, however here I feel it is not successful as it looks very alike to a front cover as the name dominates the panel despite having the track list on it. However here you can see I have added a newspaper border, it is the same newspaper photograph I used from covering his eyes on my front cover, I feel this creates a nice flow throughout my products. I will be using this in my final production as it establishes a much more professional tone to my print production, I think it is separated from the other drafts as it doesn't’t not appear as novice and naive as my other attempts. Here, in this particular draft I have changed the portrait photograph to one with direct address of Finns eyes, as said before I feel this is a much more wiser choice of photograph.Through the direct address of the eyes, particularly on the back panel as I have chosen to not cover his eyes her, creates a much stronger connection between the audience and artist as through this direct address a relationship is established. I feel as though some aspects of this design are extremely successful, for example the font and border, hence I will be using these in my final print productions.
• 6.
  ■ These arethe inside panels I have chosen to use in my final production, here you can see I have decided to use the same photograph twice and they do not include direct address. Because they are inside panels I felt as it was not necessary to include direct address and may feel a tad repetitive. ■ Especially considering the age of my target audience (16-24), it was particularly important for me to include social media logos to highlight to my audience that they could find information on my artist and his social media on these platforms. For this targeted age range this would be an extremely significant way of establishing a relationship with my artist, for example this would be through following them on Instagram orTwitter and seeing what their daily life consists of. By giving my audience they option to follow my artist on such platforms it also constructs a stronger brand identity as it would be a key element to marketing an artist, social media is probably the biggest way of marketing now compared to 20 years ago when perhaps posters andTV appearances would have been the biggest way to market. ■ I decided to include a personal message from my artist as it is a key convention of the indie genre because indie artists often want a more personal and intimate tone to their albums and music more so than say a pop artist.Therefore by dedicating to his ‘friends fans and most of all my family’ I believe I have successfully achieved such a tone and mood.Thus I have concluded that I will be using both inside covers for my final productions as I think they are both extremely successful.
• 7.
  ■ This isthe final draft of my front cover, here I have employed all the successful techniques I have previously discussed, black and white, newspaper covering his mouth and yes and using it as a border, direct address photograph. However I also chose to put the album name ‘Where DoWe Go’ on the cover, although I chose to make his name in larger text size.This is a convention of indie and general CD covers as it emphasizes the artist name and makes it more recognizable to the audience. I am happy with this draft as I feel it is successful in commutating my theme of a breakdown of communications and constructs a strong brand identity through the different elements that make my front cover. I also feel confident in the professionalism of my print productions, in my opinion I have been successful by creating a CD cover that does not look naïve or as though a student has created it.