Analysis of adverts

Analysis of Adverts

Lady Gaga is known for her wild and outrageous outfits but the way this poster has been designed has toned her image down just a little even though we still do see some extravent hair pieces and hairstyles. The poster has been put into black and white which I think is really effective and makes this poster stand out as the pictures look very sharp and powerful as well as having a hard edge to them. At the top we see a picture of Lady Gaga where her hair and the background are opposite colours but is  contrasted very well. We then see the artists name written in bold white writing infront of another quite dull image of Gaga with a second headline underneath showing the album name "The Fame Monster" again written in bold with white font. Other pieces of text we see is a quote "The defining pop star of 2009"- Rolling stone which is a great unique selling point for Lady Gaga's album. We then see two small images showing a copy of her albums with text showing where the album is available to buy and also what features on it. On this poster two songs in particular are mentioned and this is due to the fact that they will be the most popular songs on the album and audiences will be easily able to recognise the songs which also means that fans and target markets will be likely to go and buy the album.

This is poster generally fits the codes and conventions of an album advert as it has many different features. This is an advert promoting Katy Perry's first ever album called "One of the boys". It is different from Lady Gaga's album because it is very colourful but is also landscape compared to Gaga's which is portrait.  We see a long shot of Katy as a young teenage artist in this picture and this is also reflected by the lolipop she is holding plus the clothing she is wearing. However we also see some sex appeal as we can see some skin and her choice of clothing is very tight. The image is very effective as it covers the whole of the advert and is very aesthetically pleasing to a wide range of audiences and will stand out when people see it. We then have Katy Perry's name written as the main headline in a very bright pink and white colour to attract the target audience and also to promote her as an artist as this is her first album. Below her name is the title of the album "One Of The Boys" which is written in a small font in a sky blue colour which fades in with the colour of the background. It is very hard to actually see that part of the poster which I believe is because the album name doesn't matter as much as her name and really she is promoting herself as a new artist. Then again the same as Lady Gaga's advert we see one of Katy's most famous songs "I Kissed A Girl" spread across the bottom in bold white writing that stands out against the background as well as the date of release. Lastly we also see a copy of her album cover imprinted of the advert so that audiences can recognise what the album will look like. The album and advert poster have a very similar look which shows the style of the 50/60's reflecting on Katy's personal, unique, quirky style that she has. I really like this advert because it is fun and exciting. 

Here is a poster promoting Madonna's greatest hits album named "Celebration" and this advert is very different to the other adverts I have analysed  This advert goes a little bit against the codes and conventions of a poster, due to some features not appearing such as the image of her album cover. 
However Madonna's advert is very unique and extremely interesting to look at. The colour scheme is mainly black and pink, they are also the colours used in the writing as well as having black background and pink featuring in the image. We see her name spread across the top of the page in bold writing and underneath the album name. Then at the bottom of the page it gives out information such as the album release in stores and mentions that the album has 34 songs that "changed the world" including a special mention of the title song "Celebration". Lastly the cartoon like image is powerful as it is simply just a mid close shot of Madonna's head with many more images inside the head and has been effected with lots of colours which are contrasted together very nicely.

Advert

What is an advert?

The type of advert that I am going to research into and make, will be in the form of a poster to advertise my artist and his album. On the poster you will often see:

1. The artists/bands name
2. An image
3. Album/song name
4. Release day
5. The album picture may appear on the page

I haven't decided whether my poster will be more appealing landscape or portrait. I will research other posters to decide what i think looks best and will appeal to the audience i am targeting.  Below are posters that appeal to me. The Rihanna example shows her image with just a few lines of text and i think that it is striking in Black and White.  I think the poster portrays Rihanna's style and genre of music. 
The Britney Spears poster is brightly coloured and features no images, just colourful text. It is made to look like a poster you would find, which would be advertising a circus which is in town.

Back covers

My two possible back covers are very similar but just show two different images. The first image is in black and white and I think shows my artist to be very fashionable and smart but the bottom shows my artist in colour and is also blurry which I believe makes the image quite interesting. The top image i think fits better with the album cover because it is in black and white but please can you vote which you think is the final best back cover?

Final Album Cover

I decided that I would prefer to have a plain front and back pane as the inside panes will be very bright. I also thought that this close up image looks high class as well as professional in black and white. I did contemplate and play around with the A in Angel being a red, pink or green but it looked much nicer and effective in white.

3rd page for digipack

The third outside pane I wanted to be a little different compared to other digipacks, so I decided to make a collage of images of the artist both in black and white and the orginal colour. To make the collage, I used a website that allows you to create a collage and then I saved the image and imported it into photoshop. In photoshop I then made the image fit to the digipack dimensions which are 12.5 height nd width.

Inside digipack

Above is an image I took when i visited Hong Kong using the panorama gadget on the iPhone. I am using this picture for the three inside panes on my album cover because the size of the image will fit well within the panes and I also think the image suits the type of genre that my artist represents (RnB/Elector/Dance). Lastly my album cover, back cover and inside pane are all lots of images of the actual artist himself and mostly in black and white so I think this picture will be a good contrast to have within the digipack itself. The CD will slot inside the middle pane which is going against the codes and conventions of most RnB artists digipacks.

Software

The software I have used is Imovie which is a video editing software application and is specifically for the mac and iOS. It allows me to import and implement my video footage or photos files which I can then edit. It lets me:

• Add titles
• Add music
• Add effects
• Basic colour correction
• Enhance the video
• Use transitions (dissolves, fades)
• Allows me to also do very basic adjustments like crop and rotate

I have also used Photoshop which is a photo editing software. It allows me to import images and edit them using a number of different tools like different colouring tools and also allows me to crop images and paste them onto different backgrounds.





Lastly I have used iPhoto just to import my the images and video footage so they can be transferred to the two above softwares. On iPhoto it lets me do basic editing skills only on jpeg files like crop, remove blemishes and red eye and lastly changing the colouring of a picture e.g from normal to black and white etc. 

Island Records and Universal Music Group

Island Records, is a very big record company which is owned by Universal Music Group,which is the biggest record company in the world as well as a huge global conglomerate. 

Universal Music Group being the biggest corporation music group in the world actually owns Island records which operates as a division of The Island Def Jam music group. Island Records actually originated from Jamaica and was founded by Chris Blackwell and this company produces all genres but has a main focus on pop and rock.

Drafting of digipacks

I have been playing around on photoshop and decided that it could look quite effective if my album cover had a background to it. So using the many available tools on photoshop like the lasso tool which allowed me to take my artists body out of one picture and on to a new background. Below are some little images of possibilities for album covers after playing with photoshop.

Fonts

Dafont is a website with a range of different fonts and below are some images of many different fonts that I will possibly use on my digipack. Please comment below which font you would like to see on the front of my digipack.

Editing pictures in software

Here is some evidence of editing a picture in iPhoto. The first image shows the original picture which is then changed to black and white in the next image. The third picture shows the blemish tool which allows me to remove blemishes on the face or background, for example a spot to make the artist look clear skinned. On the artists forehead to the right I have actually removed two marks on his face which appeared removed on the last image.

Photoshoot for digipack and advert

I took a range of shots and types of images both potrait and landscape with about four costume changes and accessories such as glasses and hats.

Reece information for digipacks and advert

My photoshoot will take place in my house because the image in my head for the digipack and advert is very plain and high class. I may purchase a white background like the picture below or simply just use a white sheet in the background to make the picture plain and simple. The photoshoot images will be used for both the advert and the digipack.

Costumes

My artist will wear very smart clothing which will include a grey blazer with jeans, a black blazer and jeans as well as a black leather jacket. The bottom half doesn't have to be smart due to the fact that I have planned on take shots from his hip upwards (Mid shots)

Equipment I will use:

-Nikon D60

- Other small camera

- Ipad

- Read head light

Drafting of digipacks with notes

Drafts of Digipacks

Here is my six pane digipack showing firstly the front cover which has a big picture of the artist and his name. Then to the right we see the back cover showing the list of tracks featuring on the album and lastly right is the inside cover which shows a collage of images of the artist. The bottom three drafts are again all of the three inside covers which will be one long landscape picture with the theme of a lively nightlife in a cool city. The CD will slot inside of the middle cover.







To the left we see my four pane digipack draft which shows a mid shot of my artist as well as the artist being on the back page with all of the featuring tracks. Then on the two inside covers/panes we see an interesting   collage of images of the artist and the CD which has the title 'Wonderful' written across it with a graffiti background to enhance the effect.







Above we can see draft images of my possible digipack options using either a four pane and a six pane format. I have not decided whether I am going to make my digipack from plastic or cardboard but if it will be from plastic the spine for the four pane will be exactly the same as the six pane above. Please vote on whether you would prefer to see the four pane or the six pane and also if you prefer plastic or cardboard. Thank you.

Audience Feedback

The feedback I recieved was that many of the target audience would like to see a number of images of the artist with some scenic pictures or cool themes to mix it up a bit on the digipack. On the advert they would like to see all of the usual key concepts of a poster like the artists name and image, the name of the album/songs, the release date, record labels etc. The public also provided feedback that it would be good if some of the images were produced in black and white , they also think the cost to purchase the album should be around the £8.00 to £10.00. This would be in line with the cost of others. Based on this feedback I will now start to make drafts of both my ancillary products.

Textual analysis of digipacks

Enter Shikari Album 

Digipacks

What is a digipack?

A digipack is a modern patented style case which can store more than one CD and is very beneficial to artists nowadays due to the fact that they can sell multiple products in a small compact way. Digipacks also allow space for information on the artist on the different 4-8 panels as well as many visual aesthetically pleasing images of the artist or band. To the left is a picture of a 4 and a 6 paned digipack.



Typical features of a digipack include:

• Images
• Text
• CD/DVD
• Booklet inside
• Gatefold/ book style
• Some are very colourful others can be plain.

Here are some of my favourite digipacks and albums that will inspire my work.

This is one of favourite front cover of a digipack due to the close up of image of Rihanna with her album simply spread across the bottom. Also the colours on the cover are really aesthetically pleasing, how the red lips, cheeks and hair all match. It is very simple and not complicated which makes it attractive to target audiences.

Here is another one of my favorite albums covers.  The picture look's a little bit complicated but the use of the white colour makes the image and cover classy, with the splash of red spicing the cover up a little.

The reason I choose Cher Lloyd album cover as one of my favourites is because it is a little different to some of the other album covers I usually like, but i found it inspired me. She has a very colourful background as well as bright clothing and accessories. This show's her rebellious side. 

This is my artists single cover which I do really like because we see images of him plus his actual name "Angel" as well as the title of the song "Wonderful". It is also very colourful which I think is a great feature to attract your consumer. Cheryl Cole's album is also one of my favourites due  to the simple image of herself and I really like the black and white effect on the album cover, which gives it a high class effect. Her name and album title is written at the bottom on her skin as if it is actually inked on her body like a tatoo which is a very unique effect.