Album Poster Research

A music poster/ advertisement are tools used by an artist to promote their album's release. From research we have found that they tend to follow a set of codes and conventions:

·         It includes the single/Album name: This creates an awareness of the song and helps create recognition of the album among consumers.

·         Reviews; Helps to promote the product by telling them how pleased other consumers were with the product.

• Images; usually eye catching and attract attention from the audience to the poster.
• Appropriate colours. Match the genre of the song, and reflect the mood of the product.
• Appropriate font: matches the style of the poster.
• Artist/band name; used to promote album, consumers are likely to buy products from artists they like.
• Release date: Tells the audience when they can expect the product to be in stores.
• Other information: such as record label, release date, the artist’s website and so on.

Technical Equipment

Handheld Camera:


The camera I will use to film my music video is a Sony Exmar R, this will be good for handheld and tripod work. I will be able to get high quality footage and be able to use the camera to create artistic quality footage.

The camera has 30X Optical Zoom and will really show my artist off to a HD standard quality.

Digipak Template

This is basically what my digipak will look like. 

This is the template I am going to use whilst I construct my digipak.

 



Overall measurements

Height: 12.55cm
Width: 43.2cm

Existing Album Covers

These covers are all from artists whose genres are much like my own.

This album cover is very simple however, very effective. The bold red really exaggerates the bands name and I like how the band members image have been manipulated by styling females to look like them, showing the quirkiness of the band. The dark hue used shows the sound of the music to be alternative and grungy much like the denim jackets the girls are styled in.

 
The simplicity of the  cover shows the bands success and works very well, it highlights the new sound through the sound waves used. I like the monochrome design as its very professional looking and easily eye catching. I would however, like to use a picture on mine.

The art-pop vibe really shows the bands image and their edgy style. I like how there is burst of colours and random objects placed that make the band image like their music. The band have all been portrayed by cartoon characters which I believe is very effective in showing how the music will sound and also bringing colour to the cover.









I really like the style of this cover as it takes the audience back to the 1950's with the mise-scene-used showing iconography such as an old cinema which the audience can see as being 1950's. This is reinforced by the silhouettes of the models and the clear 50's do' styled on the women. I like how the cover is in a sepia tone and how the album title is capitalised and in italics.

Digipak Research

A digipak is the packaging in which the CD is placed in, which are often singles or special edition albums as it offers less chance of damaging the product than plastic cases. It is used to support the artist vision of their sound and image and is also uses the traditional way of selling a product by having something eye catching that will entice the buyers and will show continuity in regards to design depending upon the campaign e.g. poster, music video, promotions.

CONVENTIONS

In order for my product to be successful I conducted research into existing digipaks, and looked into the conventions of these products.

The image used on the front cover depends upon the genre of music, most commonly the cover will consist of a close-up of the artist as they're trying to sell as the person would be recognisable to the public. However, in the genre of which my song falls under which is much more alternative the artist use artwork that relates to the feeling of the music, most artwork is completely abstract and the audience will interpret it in their own and personal way.

The artists/bands name will be displayed clearly and on the front cover of the digipak; the font will show continuity to the artist campaign and will be recognisable to the artist themselves.

The title of the album is also displayed on the front of the CD and in most cases will relate to the songs featured on the album, for example Katy Perry's album was named Teenage Dream due to lead single of the album being the same name. On the other hand some artist use the name of the album to express something about them, Adele used this technique in both of her bestselling albums 19 and 21 as this was the age in which she wrote them.

The track list will often be on the back of the digipak and will remain with the font used throughout the campaign.

There will often be a booklet inside that will feature information about the artist and also feature more pictures of them that keep within the campaign. Sometimes, more so in the pop genre, the booklet will feature lyrics for the fans to learn. The booklet also will give thanks to all that helped make the album/single and reference the record company.

On the back of the digipak there will be information written in a small font which gives basic information about the people behind the CD such as the record label and distributor.