Joshua Millington Promotional Poster Analysis

This debut album features the artist name in the largest text; this is because he is a bankable star, from his previous work with: The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, Wanda Jackson, The Strokes, Beck, Seasick Steve and his record label Third Man Records (which is featured at the bottom of the page). This will catch the eye of a slightly bigger than niche demographic. The album front cover art features in the primary optical area, the main intention of this is so what consumers know what to look for when purchasing. The house style is the same one that consists on the digipak, promotional tour and on the mise en scene of the artist. This adds an auteur touch. It almost becomes iconographical of Jack White. The mise en scene isn’t very happy, the: dark colours, low-key-lighting, ravens and depressive facial expressions connote an emotional chill; which suggests the album is very poignant. These features also meet the conventions of the rock/blues hybrid genre. Taken from the back cover of NME from the 28th April 2012

Taken from the back cover of NME from the 7TH July 2012

The genre of The King Blues is predominantly punk, which is reflected in the mise en scene of this promotional poster. Even from the calligraphy of the band’s name, it is evident this band is quite rock/punk, through the sans-serif, blocky, graphite styled font. This font is red, which connotes danger and action, which is an ideological reference to the political activist side to this band. Out of the three promotional posters I am analysing, this one gives the most information. This is because the target audience for this band is a lot younger than the other two, and might need the knowledge. This poster has a slogan “THE FINAL CHAPTER” which is quite gripping, because it is quite ambiguous in its meaning, yet it most likely suggesting the final album of the band, which adds a form of sentimental value to the purchase. To meet the expectations of the young ‘punk’ audience, the whole page is done in the style of doodling and graphite, which the consumers can relate to and they’ll find it ‘cool’/fashionable.

Joshua Millington Promotional Poster Analysis

This is an extremely simple promotional poster, due to the fact there is very little context or concept, it is basically: the logo of the band, the band’s name (The XX), the album name (Coexist) and an unofficial release date on a blank canvas. However this is what fans of the band expect from this simple electronic band. Their stage performance, costume, look and previous album was very basic inartistic; yet consumers accepted this normality. The demographic is 18+, the web.20 generation, therefore they will well be aware of how to access this album; they don’t need the poster to tell them. The logo is in the primary optical area, and more taking it most of the canvas, the logo is intriguing. It contains a variety of colours and artistic designs. Which almost acts as an oxymoron on such a plain page, yet this intensifies the logo.

Taken from the back cover of NME from the 8th September 2012