GIven the genre of music we are focusing on, and the production we have created in the music video, our advert would not benefit from bright, 'in your face themes'. I feel sticking to conventions of being subtle and keeping colours darker will be more effective in order to represent the disconnections of the artist to the rest of the world. Keeping the same conventions to the genre is key, as we need to realte the digipak, video, and advert. I feel having the artist facing away from the camera also helps represent the disconnection from the audience, and the isolation that is clearly represented through the performance parts of the music video. Placing the guitar on the back of the artist I feel helps also humanise him, and also keeps the audience aware that there is a focus placed on the musicianship throughout the album, giving him more areas to sell records, as he may be commended more by critics if it is more obvious that he plays the songs himself, rather than a computer creating the songs like most of the current pop charts.
The writing on the advert is also very subtle. As seen on adverts for genre's such as dance or techno, many different florescent are used, but this is not a convention that fits with the 'indy/pop' genre that our artist falls under. Having the name as the biggest writing on the page I feel is necessary, as this is the artists debut album, and people need to recognise the artist rather than just the songs, in order for the artist to be continually successful. The name should hopefully then draw people into the advert, allowing them to take time to make note that the debut album is coming soon, and what it contains.
What are your inspirations behind your design?
A lot of the inspiration for the advert that I came up with comes from much more historical music icons that also feature guitars heavily as part of their artist 'persona'. One of the biggest examples of an inspiration would be that of Johnny Cash. Cash was one of the biggest idols with the guitar, and I feel is a great person to take after when looking at a genre that slightly avoids current trends in the charts, but is still liked. I feel both of these artists created a different pathway to popular music, giving everyone a different outlook on the current state of the music charts/trends, and both of which acted as a 'breath of fresh air' in their respective time periods. Johnny Cash has continued to leave an amazing legacy despite not producing much music in the later stages of his life that would be recognised by younger generations. However I feel this will help reach out to more people within the target audience if they see that he is trying to follow the same pathway that Cash did, by showing that he's serious about music, and trying to change the current music scene.
Cash is the only real example I can find of someone that follows this convention of just the guitar and the artist. However, it fits in with most indy, pop rock, and light rock artists also, as once again it fits the musicianship that is so heavily focused on throughout this albums genre type.
What decisions did you make and why?
I made these decisions as throughout the video, it is clear that the story being depicted shows that the artist now feels cut off, and shows his distance from the rest of the world, as whenever we see any performance elements, he is on his own. This is used well in contrast to the start of the narrative, as originally the narrative shows that he is with his girlfriend, with everything going well, so as the video continues, it works well to show juxtaposition with the two scenarios.
In the video, we also plan to include some complex themes such as the use of fire, and cards in order to connote how the relationship changes throughout the music video. I feel that if we over complicate the poster, things will become too clustered, and we will loose sight of the simplicity that can always be so effective when working on pieces such as this. I feel it would also place too much focus on those uses of iconography when someone sees the advert, and that the iconography should only be used as passing props in the video, not as focal points of the video.
How will this help you with designing your work on photoshop?
I feel that planning this advert on paper helped me to realise that I did not want to over complicate it. Firstly, I feel there should be no background to the picture. It should be a blank white canvas in order to show that he isn't in a relatable public place, he's separated from everyone else.
Secondly I feel we should use a low key lighting effect to it in order to also keep the theme more mysterious, and give it a darker mood. I feel if we were to use natural lighting, it would seem too humanised, we want to create the idea that due to the break up, he has made himself unreachable by anyone else. I feel the lighting can portray this well, as also, a connotation of dark lighting is sadness, angriness or depression, whereas high key lighting would connote happiness or joy, something that does admittedly feature in the video, but is not the key theme.
I also feel the writing on the advert should be minimal, as again too much writing would not fit in with the convention of the music genre we are using. The idea of the photo is that we keep it simplistic, and also the writing needs to be the same. Simple writing giving details is all I feel we need to give information to fans that may be viewing.
This post demonstrates excellent planning of your individual magazine advert and it is clear to see the inspirations and ideas that you have gained. The image that you have drawn, also demonstrates your understanding of the conventions well and how you will use it, as a base to create it on photoshop.
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