Question 2
- 1. Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
- 2. Digipak Our initial Digipak draft was to create a digipak where the background image was focused on a particular design as within the house music genre, they like to use specific designs to catch their target audiences attention. Our front cover would have the band name which is ‘Plus+One’ with an image of the artists. Within the digipk we thought that we would include a booklet which will contain lyrics of the songs in the album. Furthermore we also thought to put images of the artists so the audience are able to identify who the artists are individually to pick their favourite. We also said that we would put the name of our album ‘Take Shelter‘ on our CD cover as well as the name of our band. Additionally for our back cover we decided to have a tracklist which is important as it allows the audience to pick out specific songs they’ll like to listen to rather than having to go through all of the songs when listening to the album. Looking at our completed digipak, we decided to not use the particular design from our digpak draft as it was difficult to create on photoshop. Instead we decided to use a image from our music video to use for the front and back cover of our digipak. Furthermore we decided to have a booklet page but use an image which all of us as artist were in. For our CD cover we thought that we would use a colourful image as this does conform to the code and conventions of house music and we thought we would use this to make sure we were focusing on our chosen genre. We also included two images of our artists together and one of the images have the credits from us artists to the audience. Digipak Draft Completed Digipak
- 3. Digipak - Continued Front Cover Back Cover Here is the front cover of my Digipak. As mentioned we used a shot from our music video to use as the image of our front cover. I used a website named Da Font to create the font for our album cover. The name of our band is ‘Plus + One’ as you can see on the front cover I have used white as the main colour for our album as it is distinctive and goes well with the image. Here is the back cover of my digipak. As you can see the back cover has the list of tracks which are in the album. I again used Da Font o, following the use of white as the font colour. As you can see we have used a similar image taken from one of our scenes in our music video to our but this time the artist are not seated in the chair, which contrasts the front and back cover. I thought this was a good idea as although it may not conform to the codes and conventions of the house music genre I thought it was different compared to the similar house music digipaks and playful which would attract our target audience.
- 4. Digipak - Continued Creation of Back Cover The font for our back cover is similar to Drake’s ‘If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late’ album. Drake is a more of a hip hop/r n b artist. However, I think the font on his album is very playful and looks like it’s hand written which is similar to our font. This wasn’t intentional as when looking for fonts on Da Font the one we used looked playful. During group discussion we decided that our completed back cover did look like Drake’s album cover. Drake’s Album Cover Back Cover
- 5. Digipak - Continued We decided to take different images individually, paired and as a group. When creating the digipak I decided that it would be best to choose the photos which we took paired as it would work best for your digipak panels as we would be able to show our different personalities artists as two. Many thanks to our family, friends and supporters who helped with the making of this album. We could not have done it without you. Recorded at Polydor Records Studio Produced by: Jack Dunning Executive Producer: Katie Brown Lead Vocalist: Rachel Cousins - Csmpbell Backing Vocalist: Danella Joseph, Priscilla Ocran and Awa Cham All rights to our music and lyrics are shared equally between the four of us. This album is dedicated to our fans. Much love x As you can see on the right, this is one of our digipak panels. This panel contains the credits of our album which I have also circled and put on the right hand side. In order to help me create these credits I researched ‘Album credits’ on Google and used different examples to create my own album credits. I then used Photoshop and placed a ‘Textbox’ on the image and began typing the credits. I thought this was a effective image to use for the album credits as there was enough space on the image to fit the credits on as well as the audience would still be able to see the image.
- 6. Digipak - Continued To the left the image I have chosen is the booklet of our album. Most house music genres albums tend to have a booklet which contain the lyrics of songs within the album. Instead of using a mage with a design, I decided to use a image of all 4 of us because it would suit the rest of our design and would appeal to the audience. I thought it was also best to use this image here because within the photo we are all seen posing different showing different attitudes. Furthermore , I also thought it suits the codes an conventions of the house music genre because of the trendy and cool outfits in the image. At first I did want to use this image as the CD cover for our digipak however I didn’t want us as artists to be hidden and thought it would be best to use this for our booklet panel. As mentioned this image above is our CD cover image. This was a random photo we took in one of our locations. I thought this suited the codes and conventions of the house music genre. Furthermore, the colours in the image are similar to the colours we have in our music video which are bright and expresses the mood of fun and happiness. House music usually tends to be upbeat which catches the audience attention which is why I used this image. I decided to be different and not use an image of us as artists because I feel this subverts from usual house music albums as there is a different design to it. Furthermore I also feel having a different style means that our target audience will see originality rather than being exposed to the usual house music styles. The image above is also one of our digipak panels. This image Is quite similar to the other panel which contains the credits. Using this image again, showed the personalities of the other two artists which would grab the audiences attention rather than just using a design. I also like this image as it is quite different from usual images. I feel this image represents our music video as well as there is excitement in one of our artists (Priscilla on the left) and unexposed (Danella on the right). This creates a good synergy for the music video and digipak as it does conform to the codes and conventions of house music whilst resembling each other.
- 7. Website http://plusonemusiq.wix.com/plus (Link for website) This is the home page of our artist website. The image we have used is image of the us as artists with our logo ‘PLUS + ONE’ which is also on our digipak. The image we have used is effective as we are posing in the same way and we aren't hidden which means the target audience and others can see us easily. On the home page we also have the words ‘FIRST TAKE’ which is the name of our album. Although ‘FIRST TAKE’ is not written on our digipak we thought it would be a good idea to put the this on our home page so our target audience can know this is our first album. Our website is very simple which is what most house music videos look like from researching so from inspiration we decided to keep our website simple. This was a draft of what I wanted our website too look. The image I chose is eye catching to the audience. I thought this was a simple website design which is what I wanted our website to look like to conform to the house music genre. It also included the usual content which are on artists websites. This is similar to our actual website below.
- 8. Website - Continued On our Biography page we have provided information about us as artists. This is helpful to fans and others as they’ll be able to understand how the artists formed into ‘PLUS + ONE’ but also background information of the artists. This is easier for the audience to access information directly on the audience website rather than going to search engines to search for this information. On our News page we have provided the latest facts. We decided to put our album on our website so the fans and viewers can see our album on the website. On this news page you can see the latest updates of any news page. This is helpful to fans and others as they can stay on track with the artists and follow anything the artists publish on the website. Most artists websites have a news page so it is nothing different from other websites.
- 9. Website - Continued On our music page we have put our music videos and promotional videos. This also makes it easier for the fans and viewers to directly access the artists latest music. All artists tend to have a music page on their website. Again following the same simple style on other pages the layout of our ‘Music’ page is suitable for our chosen genre as it is not very exaggerated and is clear for the audience to view.
- 10. Website - Continued We’ve also added photos for fans and viewers to view. This attracts the audience as they’ll able to look at different pictures of the artists having a social life and not just being professional all the time. Again most artists pages contain photos of the artists which doesn’t make the website boring. The images on our Gallery page are effective because they show enjoyment which suits the code and conventions of house music. The screenshot above shows our merchandise which is the Shop page of our website. We’ve made different types of clothing items such as ‘T Shirts, Hats, A Bag and many more products. This is a useful way of buying artist merchandise as it is easy to buy on the website, the artists to gain profit and most of all for the artists to see their fans wearing their merchandise at concerts. This our contact page. On the contact page you can find information of where and who to contact. We’ve also put social media logos which can be clicked by fans and viewers to directly go on to the artists audience page. It is also useful as if the artist wanted to be booked for shows people can also access the information of where to book.
- 11. Conclusion Overall, I believe that our music video, digipak and website are all suitable to our chosen genre which is house music. I feel that house music artist tend to focus much more on their fans and are not very narcissistic about themselves. Our music video, digipak and website are all related to each other which is effective as our music video expresses personality and mystery which is seen in our digipak and our website shows simplicity through the design and format of the website. Furthermore, I think the two ancillary products we created were of high quality products to go with our music video as we were able to continue to stick to the codes and conventions of house music in the ancillary products and not change anything drastically which subverts our products from being of the house music genre. Again the codes and conventions of house music mainly consists of amusement, entertainment, enjoyment and being undisclosed which is what our products represent to the audience due to the layout and style. By researching into different house music artists, looking at their music video, website and dgipak his has helped us lot as we knew that our music video and two ancillary products had to be similar to each other for the target audience. Without researching into this we may have not been able to produce products which were not in line with our music video.