Magazine Advertisement Research

I have decided to make a magazine advert for the album of the band (the digipak I have created) because I think promoting the album is the best way the band can become successful as an establishing band in terms of finance, as well as just achieving fame if only the band were promoted as opposed to their music as well. I have analysed some magazine adverts for albums that have been promoted by band's of a similar genre to the one that we have created for our music video. All of these adverts feature the date that the album will be released, which is important for being informative and useful to the audience if they are persuaded to buy the album from the advert.

Lostprophets are an alternative rock band similar to Shinedown (the band who originally sang the song we chose for our music video) and released a magazine advert for their album 'The Betrayed'. The colours are very dark, including blacks, blues and purples, to match the darker genre of the band and song meanings. The white text makes the album name and band name stand out to be clear to the audience and act as an audience hook, which is more professional. This white text also seems to be glowing, almost ghost-like, to give a spooky atmosphere to the advert to further match the band genre, and as a concept I am interested in for the promotion of my band, I can take this into account when making my advert. The actual imagery that is used is the same as the imagery used on the album cover, although the album cover features more electric lightening type effects as well, where matching the two things together is a professional technique so that the audience associate the two things together. It also acts conveniently to the audience, where they are able to establish whether they are buying the right album when they go to find it in a shop, if they already recognise the cover. The imagery features the band, which therefore promotes the band as a whole as well as the album. The production/record company and distribution company logos are clearly seen on the bottom of the page in white to avoid legality debate and stand out, and in a way promote the company as well. 

Strange House by The Horrors is another album of the darker genre - garage/post-punk. The imagery involves the band, which promotes the band as well as just the album, and this image directly links to the album name. The band are sat in quite an obscure looking room, with strange mise-en-scene like the patterned curtains and animal head on the wall, which fits the description of a 'strange house' - the album of the band. This direct link is more professional because it is clear-cut to the audience. The imagery is also the exact imagery used on the album cover, so that the audience can associate the two things, making it easier for the audience when buying the album, although the colour effects and placement of the title are different so that the audience can distinguish that the album and the advert are like two media products individually. The image has a sepia effect,to create a more creepy atmosphere, and reinforce the genre. The contrast is also high, to make the band look more gothic and more strange, also relating to the 'strange house' idea. The title text of the band is the band logo, which also works as a promotion technique to familiarise an audience with the band. The title of the album is in the same font as the band logo, so that the audience can associate the album with the band themselves. This text is white, along with the rest of the text on the album, to stand out against the background so it is very clear to the audience and make the advert more professional. The production and record label logos can be clearly seen at the bottom of the page for legality reasons and so the audience can associate these labels with the type of music from the band and how famous the band are.

This magazine advert for Green Day (punk band) is quite different to the others. Firstly, Green Day are a more established famous mainstream band, and this advert doesn't just promote the album, it promotes the single as well. It doesn't promote the band that much either, because only Billie Joe Armstrong, the front-man, is involved with the imagery, so that the audience are aimed to associate the single 'Wake Me Up When September Ends', which the advert is promoting, with Billie Joe himself. The poster seems to be split in half, with the single image clear for the audience to be hooked by on the top half of the advert, with a black banner across the bottom half containing the information. This banner is then split in two so that each side represents a different item belonging to Green Day that is being promoted, to make it clear to the audience, which is more professional. The colour scheme is red, black and white, typically punk colours to match the genre of the music, but also match the typical Green Day iconography, such as the album cover for American Idiot which is featured in the promotion for the album section, so that the audience can associate this running theme with Green Day themselves. All of the text is bold and simple, so it is clearly readable and so more useful to the audience and also more professional. The use of the album cover also helps the audience to remember what it looks like when they aim to buy the album. The production logos for legality are featured in the bottom corner, along with the charity Green Day themselves are promoting, which further acts as a hook to the audience because it makes them feel like they can help with the charity if they buy Green Day merchandise. As the band I am trying to promote are just starting out as an establishing band, some of the conventions used in this advert may seem less relevant, but it is useful to establish layouts for the genre of music I am concerned with.

This You Me At Six album advert for 'Hold Me Down' I found very interesting because it doesn't feature the band at all. The band are already quite an established band, and so instead, the advert completely features around the promotion of the album. The imagery used is exactly the same as the album, so that the audience can easily associate the two things, and matching these things in this way creates a running theme to make it more professional. The band logo text is used for the band name title here, so that existing audiences can create a link between all of the band's music, but also for new audiences to familiarise themselves with the band. The imagery directly relates to the album name 'Hold Me Down' from the use of a tape effect where the band name is, as if holding down this band name, and a variety of different colours, smoke objects like flowers and wings all coming out of the top of the band name in quite an explosion manner, as if they were held down and now they are bursting out.The general colour scheme of the advert matches the colour scheme of the album, including the white and yellow themes of the text and the greenish background, to create a professional running theme; this use of a lot of colour describes the nature of the band - bright and bubbly and the more upbeat end of rock music. The distribution logos and production logos for legality are also shown on the bottom of the page.

Digipak Experimental Editing

Photos - Outside Panels

Here is the initial photoshoot for the album front cover, back cover and fold-in panel of the digipak, which involve the band, to experiment with:

Fold-in panel

Front cover:

Back Cover

Digipak Ideas

After researching different styles of digipak I have decided to use a six-panel folding design, because it is simple and traditional, which looks more aesthetically pleasing compared to modern ones with the booklets in. This will include a front cover containing imagery, a back cover containing a tracklist, a fold-in panel containing more imagery, (these three panels will all be matching, and stand out to appeal to an audience), and then three inside panels, one containing the disc, which will all match and represent the more personal aspects of the album. 

Using the idea of Alice In Wonderland which has been used as a break-out video and song for the band 'Truth of The Fallen' that we created, I decided to use a concept based around dreams, hallucinations or escape from reality for my digipak and album name, as this is the concept that surrounds and creates Wonderland. I also decided to use this theme because it isn't subject to just Alice In Wonderland, it is usually what a lot of bands in the same genre as ours sing about, in a way of sending a message to their fans, and so I thought it would be more professional in a digipak to stick to genre conventions.
After thinking through some ideas, I came up with the name 'Somnium' for my album, which in Latin means 'dream' or 'lucid thinking and imagination', which works perfectly with my theme. I have also noticed that a lot of bands of the the alternative rock or metal genre use Latin names for albums, songs or band names because they sound more mysterious, and so it fulfills genre conventions. 

Front and back cover design:

• The front cover will contain an image of the band to promote themselves as a new band for the audience to familiarise themselves with them. It will contain the band logo, so the audience can also recognise this, and the album name so that it is made clear to the audience what it is called and therefore what kind of things to expect in the songs. It will be set in the field where a part of the 'Her Name Is Alice' video was filmed so that the audience can associate the two things together, but obviously a field isn't subject to just that video, and so it can relate to other songs as well. There will be a greenish blurry effect on the image that makes the band members look ghostly or transparent and mysterious, to fit with the name of the album and to look almost like they are not real to fit with the idea of hallucinations or dreams, but also creepy looking to fit with the genre of music.

• The back cover will be just an image of the field without the band members (with the same effect on it to look mysterious and ghostly) so firstly, the tracklisting can go on it to look very clear to the audience without band members in the way to make it unreadable, and secondly so that comparing it to the front cover, it's almost like one minute they are there and the next they are gone, which again fits with the theme of mystery and imagining things. 

Inside Panels and spare fold-in panel:

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• The inside panels will be slightly different from the outside front and back panels, to give a bit of variety to the digipak to be more aesthetically pleasing to the target audience. It also adds to the element of mystery that I am having throughout my theme. I will have more effect and object based photos, because these panels aren't as important for attracting the audience, and the audience can already be established with the band from the images on the front - too many images of the band could be too much. Here I will use things such as smoke and water which show transparency, to represent dreams and hallucinations and how they aren't quite physically real, they aren't solid. These will be in black and white to also represent the escape from reality, and also to represent a cold and dark atmosphere, which fits with the genre conventions of the alternative rock/metal music scene.

Disc:

• The disc will be very simple, due to the fact this is a new band are a new establishing band so can't afford as much in terms of distribution. However it will still stick to conventions, such as a black background to represent the dark alternative genre, and the band logo will stand out to show they own the own the music on the disc. The record label logos will also be on as a legal requirement. I will also include a pattern or some form of simple imagery to make the disc more aesthetically pleasing, such as the use of smoke to match the inside panels and look more professional.

Disc Research

I have decided to look at some disc designs for the genre of my music, to help me out with how the design of my disc should look like. I have looked at a variety of different types of disc designs to give me some ideas.

Alter Bridge's One Day Remains contains similar song genre's to our band genre. This disc is very picturesque, because it contains the exact same picture as the album cover, which then makes it clearly distinguishable to the audience that this disc belongs to a particular digipak. Having the same running theme throughout a digipak then makes it easier to associate certain imagery with the album, and furthermore, the band, and to have it all matching in this way makes it look more professional, which is what Alter Bridge as a more established band are trying to do here. The picture is very ironic to the genre, where it is very bright with bright colours in a very relaxed artistic setting, as opposed to dark colours in a loud or mysterious setting. The use of irony would make their album more memorable to their target audience which works as a marketing technique. The band logo is clearly seen on this disc, so that it is clear to the audience who this music belongs to, which is also why the music producers and record labels are shown on the bottom. These are slightly transparent so that the band are promoting themselves more than their record label who also produce music for other bands. The font for the album title is very fancy and script like to fit with the artistic and beautiful setting, another use of irony. 

Asking Alexandria's Stand Up and Scream album is fairly similar to the genre of our band as well. This is an extremely simple design where only lettering really has to be used onto the disc as opposed to a full circular image, which would make it easier and cheaper for distribution purposes. This also makes it quite a unique disc type that might appeal to alternative audiences. It matches the theme of their album cover because that too is very simplistic, however, it is also very different in the sense the colours and fonts are different and the band logo is not used, which shows a more experimental or ironic approach to the relationship between the disc and the digipak, making the disc almost like a new product in itself. The record label recognition is clearly shown which is important for professional musicians in terms of legal issues.

Fever by Bullet For My Valentine actually has many different disc designs, but I decided to choose this one, a very simple one, because unlike a lot of simplistic disc designs, this one has a full swirly pattern on the disc which makes it more aesthetically pleasing even without the use of a full image, which is something I could consider. The swirly pattern could relate to the mixed feelings from a person in terms of 'fever' which is the album name, and also is quite a mysterious and beautiful, to fit with the genre of the music. To further fit with this genre, the background is black, which connotes darkness, mystery and rebellion - which Bullet For My Valentine's songs often relate to. The band logo with album name is shown in paler writing to stand out to the audience, which also promotes them and puts a personal concept on the disc and songs on the disc. The music distributor and record label are also shown as legal requirements.

As Shinedown is the band that originally sing the song that we used in our music video, I decided to look at their CD's. This one uses the band logo and name, so that it is clear to the audience that it is their CD, and belongs to the particular digipak that it is associated with. The bird silhouettes in black and white match the album cover directly, to look more professional, but these two shades are inverted, so the disc in itself is a product compared to the digipak. The name of the album is also clearly printed on the disc so it is obvious to the audience which album it is, and the 'S' used in the title of the album is the same S associated with the band Shinedown, which therefore links the disc to the band. Overall the disc is very plain and simple, which would make it easier in the production stage when having to distribute it with the digipak, and as the disc is inside, it isn't always necessary for the disc to be as aesthetically pleasing.

Digipak research

I have chosen to research didgipak's that have the same genre as the band we have created, because these are therefore more relevant, and will inspire me more in terms of creating my own digipak that fits genre conventions. The genre ranges from rock to metal, meaning the image of the digipak's is a more darker and mysterious than for example mainstream chart music, because the digipak is made to fit with the band style and genre of music.

My Chemical Romance are an alternative rock band similar to the genre of our band, which is reflected in their digipak for 'The Black Parade Is Dead' - a live album. The whole thing is in black and white, which represents the darker genre and star image of the band and the darker messages portrayed in the songs on the album, such as 'Dead!' and 'Cancer'. This aesthetically is a major colour contrast, to show the contrast that the band are to the norm and mainstream. Black and White is also a big symbolism in funerals, where the black represents death and the white represents moving on to the heavens, which is really exactly what The Black Parade is Dead album is about, and so the digipak colour scheme parallel's the purpose of the album. The imagery also directly relates to the album, where it involves pictures of crowds and the stage, as the album is a live album. The back cover with the tracklisting on has an unusual layout compared to other albums. The tracks are all in different fonts of different sizes, to represent how each song means something different and represent different circumstances of death. It is also in the style of old-style newspapers, representing headlines, emphasising that the songs represent issues and tragedy  a typical convention involved in this genre of music. The disc itself contains a skull pattern to further connote death (the theme of the album and also a typical theme of the genre of music). The disc also contains a lot more white, to stand out from the rest of the digipak and so the black logo of the band is clearly seen, where on the dark front cover, the logo is white for the same reason. The band logo here is important to promote the band image and so the audience can associate certain imagery and fonts with the band, making the album and band memorable, which is therefore a promotion technique.

Time will Tell by Vendetta uses very typical genre conventions for the genre of music that the band are. A lot of blacks and greys are used for the main background to represent the dark metal genre of the band and dark representation of the songs and star image. The mise-en-scene of the image includes an egg-timer, which directly relates to the name of the album (Time Will Tell) so that audience can associate the album cover with the album easily, making it more memorable, which also relates to one of the songs on the album, their most popular song 'in time' which is a stereotypical convention of digipaks - the album name relating to a released single. There are also skulls in the egg-timer, which connote death and danger, which are two stereotypical conventions of this genre of music, and still fit with the concept of time in the digipak and the album; the concept that everybody dies in time. The other colour used within the theme is a pale yellowish brown - the colour of the skulls, so that all of the digipak matches but also again to keep the idea of death and mystery running through the digipak to promote the band's genre conventions. Also, a lot of the text is in this pale colour, and so contrasts against the dark backgrounds, which makes the text clear and readable to the audience and therefore more professional. The band name is the largest and boldest text on the digipak which makes it stand out to the audience as a promotion technique, and make it clear that the digipak belongs to that particular band. The disc is black, to keep with the dark conventions and contrast against the pale section that the disc is in. It is simple, with the same fonts as the front cover for the band name and album name, so that the theme is occurring and almost acts like a logo for the audience to associate with. The disc also features the eggtimer, to keep with the theme and make the disc fit in with the rest of the digipak.

In Legend - Pandemonium is quite a busy digipak that is also similar to the genre of our band. The clear running theme in this digipak is the use of a crooked piano, which has been edited to look old and a bit creepy, which is a typical convention of dark rock or metal bands. The piano itself represents dramatic or melodic music, which is music associated a lot with this genre. The image is then therefore an item that the audience can associate the album with, like a brand logo, which therefore promotes the album. This is used on the disc also, to make the disc more associated with the album, but is used in a circular manner to fit the shape of the disc. The inside uses pictures of the band, so that the audience can associate the band with the album and imagery and recognise them. There are also pictures of crowds pictures of concerts to suggest that the band are popular and liked, which is a promotion technique. The whole colour scheme involves blacks and greys to fit with the dark genre of the band and to help the audience recognise the genre of music. The band name is clearly shown in the middle of the front cover in the form of the band logo to promote the band by getting the audience to recognise and associate with the logo. This is shown in a bright pale blue, to stand out against the background so it is clear to the audience, which therefore makes the layout more professional. One of the inside pages features a QR code, which allows the owner of the digipak to access further information or extras to do with the band or album, which acts as a reward to the audience who actually bought the album. This acts as a marketing technique, which is something I can consider in my digipak.

This digipak uses conventional themes of the genre of music it is made for (a darker, more metal band), by the running use of blood, grotty and old settings created by a filter over the image, and a girl alone in the corner of a room, where typical conventions of this genre of music are death and loneliness. It is a lot brighter than the other digipak's which would normally subvert the stereotype of the genre, however this works as a way of making the things important in the imagery, stand out, such as the blood, the girl or the editing filters. Lyrics and lines are used throughout the digipak as a way for the audience to associate the imagery of his album with the songs that are on the album. The tracklist on the back is set out in quite a disjointed manner, which adds to the mysterious and almost aesthetically disturbing theme of the digipak. All of the font used is clear and simple, so it is easy for the audience to read and therefore professional, but the font is also unusual in shape, to fit with the idea of the style of music being alternative. 

Genre conventions are extremely important within a selling point of a band such as an album cover, because if they weren't adhered to (unless to create an ironic effect) then it wouldn't look professional in the industry or promote particular genres of music.