How Effect is the combination of your main

product and ancilllary texts?

Introduction

With the combination of the main task (the music video) and the other media mediums such as the Digipak and the website, it make the overall product and promotion of the new artist seem professional.

Digipak

To produce our digipak we used the software- Photoshop combined with an editing app called pic blender.The deign of the digipak was inspired by our research into indie pop music, the music video and the design of the website. It was very important to use that the design of all products look similar and carried a house colour and style throughout, to establish the artists brand. And importantly, the theme of beach/seaside was included as there were the main aspects of the music video, so it was key that these had to be included.

For the Front Cover, we decided to use a picture of Paddy which was a close-up to medium shot where he was giving the camera direct address. We conscientiously made this decision because we wanted the album to have a personal feel to it, yet we still wanted it to conform to the minimalistic convention which many indie pop albums show. We manipulated the image in Photoshop, using double exposure which you can clearly see from the above image were the background and the picture of him are merged, making no definite distinction between them. We thought this tied in well with the indie pop genre, as it conveys him a that little bit different. This makes the album more eye-catching and engaging for the audience, helping it to establish a USP (Unique Selling Point) and hopefully generate interest.

The text which we used, was a simple clear font which follows the conventions of indie pop that is presented in capital letters. The name of the artist appears at the top in the header of the album cover, and the album name appears at the bottom of the front cover- this is a standard layout for CD albums which we decided to follow, because it has brought a large amount of previous success.

Back & Front Cover Inside Cover

On the front cover, there is a filter used which is used throughout the album to ensure it remains consistent in order to establish a brand. The filter is a grey tone, which ties in with the contrasted with the white text. These dark colors are reinforced across the website.

The text used on the back cover, is consistent with the front cover for the tack list. The background image, is the textured background from the image on the Front Cover. This is to tie in with the front cover, and again to help establish him brand which is followed through throughout the website. On the back cover, we had a facebook and twitter icon, as well as having a website URL for Paddy’s website, this helped to market Paddy’s multi platform campaign. As well as this there is also a barcode, as this is a key feature which needs to used to fit in with the conventional to all album covers.

For the inside of the album we decided to continue with our theme from the music video. This was mainly a beach/sea side theme, so therefore we decided to have an image of the artist back on the same beach which we filmed on. This helped to develop an brand for Paddy, with keeping the same consistent themes emerging throughout.

One of the panels, used a picture on the beach, of the sand and the waves moving out. This is an important symbolic image in our music video and therefore we wanted to have it appear in the album cover too. The other panel, is an picture of Paddy at the beach. Both the front and back covers, as well as the inside panels use this same consistent filter to establish a consistency which is required for the album, and create a recognizable pattern which can be identified with Paddy Sloan and this ‘Upside Down’ album.

Back & Front Cover Inside Cover

What did we include in our youtube and twitter Pages ?

In terms of design, we aimed to keep a continuous house style so we used the same image as the back cover for al social networks sites. On twitter we posted latest updates and news to keep fans informed about the artist. On youtube we included videos that compliment and show the progres of the video making and the final music video. We also posted videos of paddy performing other songs.

Youtube

TwitterWebsite

Our Target Audience

Our targeted age is predominately females 20+ as which is what our informative research showed us. However, we are aware that there is a large percentage of audience that are still males, as well as a percentage of the audience being below 20.

Therefore we designed a narrative concept which could be understood by wide range.

Our music genre is universal so would appeal to many different people, as most can relate to the genre of music we are portraying.

Indie pop music tends to have emotional attachments to it as many can relate to it as people can associate it with past memories and experiences they have had.

Website For the website, we decided to use ‘Wix’ which is a website which enables you to create your own website for free. The reason for this choice as Wix was free, easy to use and to understand and it seemed to work well and was a popular choice amongst other media students, proving it was reliable. As well, when searched into Google ‘Best Interactive Presentations’ on a website it was ranked second so I knew it was good.

I think we have used it well as we have all the conventions of what a artist website has, for example tour date information, online store for merchandise etc. Also, I think it does look quite professional as again we have followed conventions. We made use of a lot of effects, proving that we have an understanding of the software, and by using them it added a bit of originally and style.

The only problems we faced was sometime, on the school computers I couldn’t save the work that I had done to it, it wasn’t wix fault it was purely technology. Apart from that, and overcoming how to use it, I found it easy to use and was please with the outcome of the website. By using wix it allowed us to have links to the social networking sites that we have created, present the music video, and giving other information about the artist.

When I first stated working on the website it took a while to get use to how to use/work it and where the tools are to use it. After a while, it soon became very easy to use as tools were labelled well and just self explanatory. One of the key benefits were that the software is free to use, so no costs had to be made. Another point is that you can have as many pages as you want that already have links to and from the home page. In terms of layout, there were a vairety of templates you could use and then further along to adopt or you could start from new and build and create original design.

Here is where you can add things such as

pictures, music, videos, text etc. It was easy to use, just one

click and it will appear on a page.

Bold name of the artist is in the centre of the

page, to grab the audience attention and make them aware that it is Paddy’s website. The same text is used

for title, then in the album cover- to reinforce brand.

The ‘page manager’ is where you could add

or delete pages, it was so easy to use as all

you had to do was click ‘add page’ then name

the oage, it them appeared on the navigation bar.

Navigation bar, presents the different pages on the website. When you scroll over a page name, it will appear a white colour

to highlight where you will have been navigated to. The current page you are on will be white. As shown with Home below:

We added the song of which we are doing, as well as some other of Paddy Sloan’s music. To add it to the website we used a wix tool

called ‘sound waves’ which allowed us to play the music, and

as well it looks very sleek. We thought this was importatn as

Paddy Sloan is a new and upcoming artist, therefore his

work may not of been heard that much.

Here is a menu of all the categories of effects which you can edit the

website through.

The colour schemed used was dark colours, to dye in with the album

cover. We use blacks and greys predominately throughout the

website. The main image on this page

is image used across all Paddy's Social networking

sites as the seaside in Bangor, typing in

with the music video.