Magazine Advertisement Design Idea

My Magazine Advert Design Idea 

For my design idea I included the names of two well know magazines that would have reviewed the album for their audiences. The ratings are very common for many album magazine adverts.

I have also told the reader when the album is out and the name of the album along with the name of the band.

Album Design Art Ideas

When coming up with some ideas and design concepts for our album's art I wanted to hark back to some of the key features of our band and specifically the song that we were covering. As an indie rock band doing things by the book and being part of the status quo just isn't an option, this is why I wanted to try and help make our album unique. I wanted it to stand out and make the viewer think about it for a few moments. Over the course of this blog post I will outline why I chose some of the artistic ideas that I came up with.

Front cover

The Front Cover

For the front cover I wanted to create a very unique and hopefully iconic design. I chose to replicate Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man illustration but incorporate our style with it. The basic idea is that the black silhouette is the darker subconcious side of the character that appears in the song Across the Skyline and the white, clear figure is the other supressed yet real character. In a way the design shows that the silhoutted figure is blocking the clear figure which is shown by his arms being held out in such a manner. The clear man seems to be trying to stretch and escape from behind the shadow which is shown in the song Across the Skyline. This design works with the name of the album, which is Trapped Reflections with the silhouetted man's dominance showing that he is trapping the clearer character. Both figures are the same person but two sides of the person, which is why they share the same face and head. The sharing of the same face shows that they are the same person to the viewer yet the vacant expression shows that the characters emotions are trapped and suppressed by the silhouetted figure once again.

The circular design around the two figures is also taken straight from Da Vinci's illustration and it's inclusion shows once more that the figure is trapped within a sort of bubble almost. The main theme of course is that feeling of being trapped which I feel has been expressed in a variety of ways with
this album cover design.

Inside panels and disc

The Front and Back Inside Panels

The image to right is of my front and back inside designs. For this I was aiming for a simplistic concept that represented the band in an indie sort of way but also reflected the name of the song and some of the lyrics within it.

The disc design is deliberatly blank to reflect the individualism of indie rock and the band itself. Fans of indie rock and indie rock artists don't conform and they don't buy into brands and labels. I believe that making the disc blank shows that feeling and reflects it effectively.

The background of the entire inside is also again deliberately a single colour. This is to contrast with the white of the disc to make it stand out but to also allow the birds to fit into the design on the left-hand-side.  The birds are shown in the design flying off into the distance which relates to some of the lyrics within Across the Skyline and the name of the song itself. The song itself features the word skyline which has a connection to birds which we incorporated into our music video and which also features in the song. The lyrics "bitter the bird that flies" are reflected with these birds on the inside panel of my album design. The idea behind incorporating them within the album is that they signify freedom, which is something that our character doesn't have. This contrasts with the front cover and I believe forces the audience to think for a few moments about the meaning.

Back cover

The Back Cover

The back cover of my design is again playing on the idea of being trapped and again focusing on our clearer character. The man is shown pushing up against the border between him and the song names list. The song names list is irrelevant to the image of the man but the border between them is not. It signifies a wall or a barrier. This barrier is trapping him and he is shown pushing with all of his strength trying to remove it. This again relates back to the concept shown in the previous designs and the theme of the song. The contrast of white on black makes it stand out visually and it fits in with the theme of the rest of the album design. 

I haven't come up with any song name ideas to fill the list with at this stage and the text below the man shown with the lines is showing the credits and some extra detail we will be including. The barcode on the right of course is very recognisable and it's just a common feature of albums so I decided to incorporate it within my design idea.

Alterations, Technical Difficulties and Story Board Changes

Above, some of our alterations and changes explained.

Album Art Design Idea, Electronic

FRONT

INSIDE FRONT

INSIDE BACK

BACK

Magazine Advert Design Idea

Magazine Album Advertisement Analysis

Below is a magazine advertisement for the indie rock band The Horror's album called Strange House;

An analysis of the magazine advert using MindMeister;

Album Art Design Ideas

This picture is my interpretation of the music and my first initial ideas for our CD cover.
I have used colour- purple and blue. These are deep, dark colours which represents the pained and longing feel of the song.
The birds flying across the page link to the lyrics "bitter the bird that flies", we have included footage of birds in our video and including birds in the CD cover will link it to the song and lyrics.
The houses that I've drawn on the waves of colour represent a skyline through the eyes of our tormented artist. It creates confusion and disorientation.
I have also drawn pictures associated with our artist, I have drawn gritted teeth and a desaturated field scene with our artist standing in the middle. This link of our music video and would show the audience who the artist is.
The chain hanging down the centre of the page links to the themes of restriction and entrapment. Chains could be used on the CD cover as accessories or as a physical restraint trapping our artist.

My initial CD cover designs:

This is my design for the front cover.
The artist is in the centre of the page, he is wearing a dark jacket and dark trousers. The chains will be around the artist's wrists restraining him, holding him down. There will be chain hung in the top corners of the cover to emphasise the themes of entrapment -these could be digitally added.
There will be one light source illuminating one side of the artists face and body. This will make the artist stand out but also symbolically represent his inner struggle to be free.

This is my design for the inside front cover.
It will be a photograph of the whole band. Whilst filming we took photos of the band performing so that they were acting naturally. Using a photo of the band will help the audience to associate the band with the song and the album. Because the photo was taken during the filming process it will directly link the album to the music video. This could increase the number of views/downloads of the music video because the photo of the band will show the audience that we have created a music video to accompany the album.

This is my design for the inside back cover/CD.
The CD will have images of birds printed onto it, they will all have one wing pointing into the centre of the CD and the other wings pointing outwards. There will be around 6/7 birds on the CD arranged in a circle. This will link the album directly to the lyrics in Across the Skyline- "bitter the bird that flies". This should increase the lasting impact of the song making it more memorable.

This is my design for the back cover.
It includes birds again. The titles of the songs in the album will be moulded along the line of the birds wings. This creates an aesthetically pleasing effect and it is memorable. The use of birds will again link to the lyrics "bitter the bird that flies", but birds also connote freedom and space. These connotations contrast dramatically with the front cover of the CD which represents entrapment and suffering.

Work is progress photographs of our story boards

These story boards show our ideas so far, we have listen to the song (Across the Skyline) and taken inspiration from the lyrics and mood of the music. Some of our ideas have been symbolic and some have been literal representations of the lyrics.

We have chosen to include narrative and performance in our video; peer feedback and research has shown us that this mix of music video genres is commonly used by Indie-Rock bands and artists.

Magazine Album Advertisment Analysis

The target audience for this artist and the advert are males and female, early-mid 20’s. This is shown through the use of a black and white image filter, this shows that audience who the artist is but it doesn’t focus on his ‘star image’; this effect is suitable for his audience because they will be buying his album for the high quality music not because of his celebrity status or image.

The sketched drawing on the front of the album is a child-like impression of the artist Joe Zeffa. This ‘character’ has been used in the advert, he is hiding behind the artists shoulder, and this may link to the mood of the album. The music may include themes such as loneliness- this is indicated by the sketch of the artist being alone on the CD cover, the songs may also use themes of longing for companionship and friendship- this is indicated by the sketch being behind Zeffa’s shoulder, it could be seeking protection or company.

The advert highlights the artists name and the album title, this has been done to make the audience create a link between the artist and his debut album. The title of the album ‘After the Cake’ is quite obscure, unless the song focus on food and cake the title does not reveal much about the content of the album. Zeffa’s pre-existing audience know his style and understand any references that he may be making in this title. If somebody has not heard his music before, this tile may seem odd or random, this could make this new audience interested and intrigued and want to listen to the album to find out the hidden meaning. But it could just confuse them and make the album less appealing.

This is a full page advertisement; this makes sure that the audience can easily see this advert. Because no distinct colours are used the greyscale colour scheme will stand out against the bright colours on the other pages surrounding it.

Because the album cover has been put into the advert, the audience will know what the cover looks like if they plan to buy it in a shop. The advert also states that the album is available to download form his website, this is ideal for the early-mid 20’s audience who use a lot of technology in their everyday life and increasingly for music.

Half of the artist face is shown; he has a stubble beard and shaggy hair. This is his image which his target audience will recognise but he is not relying on his image to attract this audience. At the very top of the advert it says “Manchester born”, this represents his roots and background. It shows that he is a normal, inner city man who has found success; his audience may feel that this makes him a more down-to-earth and honest person, who they can relate to.

The artist’s logo is large and bold. It dominates the top quarter of the page making it stand out. This will draw the audience’s eyes to the artist name so that they know who the album is by and who he is if they don’t recognise him.

Research for Digipak: HMV

Album Art Design Idea

Album Cover Design Idea

Album Analysis- 'Love in the Future' by John Legend

Album Analysis - Nirvana, Nevermind

The massively popular grunge rock group Nirvana released the groundbreaking album, Nevermind in 1991. It ushered in a new era of rock and music in general with the hit single Smells Like Teen Spirit taking the chats by storm for the many years that followed. In this post I will analyse the album and highlight the underlying message of it's strange and vivid artwork.

The front cover of Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind

Initially the name of the album was set to be Sheep, which was a subtle joke created by Kurt Cobain directed at the people that would be buying the album. In the end however, Cobain grew tired of the name and settled on Nevermind as it as a metaphor for his attitude on life in general and that it was grammatically incorrect.

The typography of the name of the album, Nevermind, is written in a way that almost reflects water shimmering and bending. The name of the band is written in it's traditional style that is associated with them and that they use on all of their work.

The album cover features a baby boy in a bright blue pool who is seemingly chasing a $1 bill that's on a fish hook. The artistic idea behind the image came from Cobain who had been watching water births with his fellow band member Dave Grohl. Cobain thought that it would symbolise how even at birth a person is chasing money, they're always after it. The nakedness of the child shows innocence and purity, this is enforced by the clearness of the pool and it's vivid blue colour. This idea of innocence is reinforced by the concept that the water is a associated with baptism.

Cobain wanted to create a memorable image that would challenge the business ideas of the time. The entire concept is a strange one as a baby of course doesn't understand what money is and how currency works. The baby chasing the dollar bill shows greed and avarice that is not possible in a child so young but it signifies how big business manages to reel us all in and have us chasing like fish.

One of the most striking parts of the album is the showing of the young boys penis. There was some concern initially from Geffen who though that if the penis was shown that the album would be received badly. Cobain however thought that it should remain. He refused to have it removed and his only compromise was that a sticker could be placed over the penis that said "if you're offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile".

It could also be said that the penis may symbolise an umbilical cord and that the image of the baby seemingly happy could remind audiences of babies in the womb. The deep blue of the water could signify danger despite it being clear that the baby is near the surface of the water. The deep blue could also however signify peace which relates to the name of the band, Nirvana. The Buddha described Nirvana as "the perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflictive states (kilesas). The subject is at peace with the world, has compassion for all and gives up obsessions and fixations" via Wikipedia.

The back cover of Nevermind is very different to the front but it follows a similar watery theme. The background is a turquoiise blue that shimmers almost like water. This, like the watery theme on the front cover could symobolise innocence and purity.

The main image is a collage that Cobain made himself. The collage which has a rubber monkey superimposed over the top of it features images from Dante's Inferno paintings, photos of raw beef and pictures of diseased vaginas. Cobain used many of his collages and paintings in Nirvana's art work as he preferred it to what others came up with. Cobain also revealed in an interview that if you look hard enough you can see an image of the legendary rock band, KISS. Just above the monkey's head the band are shown standing on top of a slab of beef. The collage of images could symbolise an internal struggle or just the rebellious attitude that Nirvana had. Shops would have to show these images whether they liked it or not and they wouldn't know what the images actually were.

Music Press Research - MOJO

We looked through a selection of music magazines on Magforum.com looking for a suitable publication for our band. We wanted a magazine that was appropriate for the genre and reflected the band effectively.

We have chosen to use MOJO for our magazine advertisement. This is because the magazine covers a wide range of genres but it encapsulates the indie/alternative style. Here are some examples of previous covers:

The Smiths

Nirvana

The Black Keys

Album Cover In Depth Analysis

Chorus Lip-Syncing: Practice and Analysis

What went well?
Shooting the clip was successful as the lyrics were well rehearsed and we managed to film without any problems. As a group we chose a suitable spot for the filming of the video; a wooden background which complimented the Indie Rock feel that we were aiming for, for this reason, we may end up using this in the final video. We found that the pronunciation was correct and we managed to stay in time with the lyrics as the music during the chorus was not too fast paced.

What did not go well?
One of the final lines was very quick so it would be better if we had a backup singer for that line so it would work in time with the music better. Also, it would be better if the performance was dynamic with potentially more people in the shot to enhance the video.

What have I learnt?
The artist should be more aware of the tempo of the music and the lyrics and how they should be sung to do this we need to immerse ourselves within the feel of the music in order to get into character and give a more dynamic performance.

What sections will we lip synch?
We will lip synch the chorus and verses that are not needed for narrative purposes. We’ll be more selective about verses which include backing singers, this will overcome the problem of overcrowding the shot.

Initial title ideas

We have used Wordle to create a representation of our initial ideas for the title of our album.

This is a Wordle of our title ideas.

This is a Wordle of the key terms and phrases associated with our song.

Album Cover Analysis

A look at album covers of different genres:


A look at album covers from the Indie Rock genre:

A look at the history of album covers

Health & Safety

Above: our set of health and safety considerations. It includes our filming locations, issues that may appear in each location and how to deal with the issues.

Peer feedback of rough cuts

This feedback sheet shows that we have met most of the criteria to a satisfactory standard. They feel that we have produce very steady shots but we need to increase the binary opposites in our video. We will do this by increasing the amount of narrative in our video so that we can continue our use of binary opposites. 

This feedback shows that we have performed strongly in a majority of the criteria including variety of shot types used, variety of angles used and inclusion of binary opposites. But we didn't perform as highly in our use of a variety of shot movement, framing and semiotics. We will improve in these areas by using more camera movement during the performance sections of our video, taking more time to check the framing of each shot and think about how to include more semiotics. 

This feedback shows that we have performed well in some criteria; steady shots, variety of shot angles and framing, But we have not performed as well in the other criteria including variety of shot type and variety of shot movements. We can improve these scores by, like above, increasing shot variety and movement.

This feedback shows we have performed well in the top 4 criteria, including shot type and movement. But we need to improve the framing in our shots, semiotics and binary opposites. We can do this by, like above, taking time to checking the framing of our shots, including more semiotics and binary opposites.

 This feedback shows that we have performed well in all of the criteria and very well in one criteria- our variety of shots. This shows that so far we have created a varied and interesting video.

This feedback shows that we have performed well in a majority of the criteria including steady shots, shot variety and framing. But there is room for improvement in the shot movement, we can do this by using more movement. We also need to improve on our use of semiotics and binary opposites, we can do more research and planning into these criteria to find inspiration.

This research shows that we have performed well in a majority of the criteria but we need to improve our use of shot variety and angles. We can do this by using creative shot types and angles to make the video more interesting. At the top of the sheet we have received a comment saying that we need to move the objects that were behind the dark curtain which in behind our band during our performance sections. We can rectify this when we re-shoot this footage.

This feedback shows that we have performed well in two criteria, steady shots and framing. But we need to improve on the other criteria including variety of shot type and shot movement. We can do this by trying out different and interesting shot types and movements. 

This feedback shows that we have performed well well with our variety of shot type and angles.
We could do work to improve the shot steadiness by increasing our use of the tripod. We have   performed less well in the other criteria including shot movements and framing. We can improve in these criteria by increasing our use of movement but ensuring that the shot is steady and we should take time to check the framing of each shot. 

This feedback shows that we performed well in just over half of the criteria including shot angles and movement. But we need to improve our framing, semiotics and binary opposites. We can do this by checking the framing of each shot, increasing semiotics used and adding more binary opposites.

This group feedback board shows that our peers felt that we used a good variety of shots, had good content, had a good balance between narrative and performance and high quality editing technique.



This group feedback shows what our peers feel needs to be improved. They felt that we needed more footage that's linked by a running theme, more binary opposites needed, develop narrative further, speed up some narrative shots, move boxes from behind curtain in performance shots (framing) and use more close ups.

Locations

Narrative:

Cars and people in the town center, we will use footage shot in town during the narrative parts of our video to display the setting our artist is in.

Narrative:

House, this is the first location in the video. It shows where the artist starts his journey.

Narrative:

High street, this town location contributes to the themes and narrative in the video.

Narrative:

Merrow Downs, this remote location emphasis themes and narrative in our video.

Performance:

Drama Studio, this location suites the performance parts of our video. We can use spot light to create an intimate feel to the shots.

Filming Schedule

Filming Schedule

Editing Schedule

Animatics

Indie Rock Mood Board

My Indie Rock Mood Board ft. Various Artists and Styles

Moodboard - The Indie Rock Genre

A collection of images which show conventions, motifs and ideas of the indie rock music genre.

Props list

Shoes: the dark coloured shoes will draw the audiences attention to the artists feet, especially when his feet are seen running or walking. This represents his journey, and longing to escape.

Music player: This will be used at the begining of the video to show the artist pressing play to start the music. This will create a direct link between the music and visuals and this follows Goodwin's rules.

Instruments: We will be using a four piece band to be in keeping with the song. We will use a microphone, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar and Drum kit.