Digipak...initial sketchings/ideas

DIGIPAK IDEA 1

DIGIPAK IDEA 2

DIGIPAK IDEA 3

Analysis of NME magazine- album advertisements

NME (new musical express) magazine is a music based magazine that's target audience is teenagers and young adults that share a common interest in the indie rock genre of music. My chosen band REDMANRED would be typical to appear in a magazine like this.

For my research I photographed certain elements in the magazine that are typical of NME, such as album adverts, this will help me when planning and drawing out my designs for the magazine adverts :) Plus- photographed extra pages to show band image and representation! :)

So,... the front cover appears with a photograph of Liam Fray - the front man of the indie band The Courteeeners. Other Subheadings that are included in the magazine include festival news and news on other bands such as The Strokes, The Maccabees and Bombay Bicycle Club etc...all representing the indie rock genre -likewise to my chosen band REDMANRED.

DYERS - STAR THEORY

STAR THEORY — Dyer applied to Pop Stars

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The star theory explains that there is a clear distinction between those who are simple known for performing pop music and those who are known for being pop stars,

who have an identity or persona which is not restricted solely to their musicianship.

One of the reasons so many pop performers are described as pop stars is that they are quickly promoted to this status by their management. This is easily done courtesy of a few headline stories, a famous boyfriend/girlfriend, attendance at premieres/parties and a feature in a popular magazine. It can be easy to forget about the music in the light of the outfits or love affairs. There are some who appear to leapfrog the performer stage entirely, but they do have to go through it.

However.... a true pop star does have a lasting significance, and has "brand awareness" amongst a wider market over a period of time. Many of the so-called pop stars thronging the top forty have not made a sufficient sociological or cultural impact to be classified as true stars if we return to Richard Dyers’ definitions.

"A star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])"

Therefore... for my music video I need to create a persona within the band, especially the lead singer to create a popular audience for my band. And I need to be aware of "Brand awareness"

When studying the image of my band, it is clear that the lead singer Tamara is the central image- therefore her personality or her natural "big" hair could create a popular image that created an impact on my audience.

Perhaps... this can definitely be shown in the digi pack I will produce, representing the band in photographs for promoting the cd etc with the lead singer central in the photograph!

(I will further develop this when generating ideas for digi pack etc) :)

Album Covers - NEED WORK

Icons of the time...research

Throughout music history there has been many famous artists/bands that are not only known for their courageuos or popular music but also for their band image.
For my research I asked several different age groups and types of people of their famous iconic image of a band/artist.

"David Bowie and his album cover"...


"Definitly Bay City Rollers and the tartan!"


"Gotta be MJ- (Michael Jackson)"

"BEATLES of course - Abbey Road"



"Housemartins? -Andy Warhol can of soup!- very bizarre!"


"Busted! - Prison Cards"



"Britney Spears"



From my feedback I shall do a bit of research and try and photograph some of these iconic images to analyse! :)

BAND IDENTITY themes?

Fonts..
For my digipak designs I wanted to research into a variety of fonts I could use as the main band title.
In my research of existing indie/rock artists most keep the font simple but prominent throughout the cd so it creates a band image and style.
Here is my analysis:

Colour Theme/style:

When looking at the types of font I could use I also started experimenting with colour, as the title of my band is "redmanred" I wanted to use the colour red to reflect band identity that will be eyecatching and stand out. From my research from digipaks such as Kings of Leon and Blondie they had a simplistic colour theme. Therefore I have chosen to do a monochrome style which is black, white and red as I feel the red will stand out the most against the black and white.

With this in mind I will furthermore experiment with the style of my digipak when sketching my intial ideas, for instance whether to show a photograph of the band or have a cartoon/drawing that represents the band/album name fully.