Evaluation 2: DRAFT

Evaluation Question 2 How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

The combination of my main product and ancillary texts link well, they all show consistency in creating a brand for our ‘band’ The Everything. Whilst putting together the digipak, poster and music video we decided that we wanted the minimalistic approach to run through all three pieces, this was because the audience could then subconsciously recognise the band and remember us and make us distinctive while fitting in with our genre. The main point we focused on was the use of the bands symbol of the parallel waved lines. This was included in my digipak, poster and the intro of the music video. We did this because we wanted to follow similar conventions of swim deep. They use this same effect, which allows the audience to instantly link the lines to the band, wherever they see them, they instantly think of the band. Our bands logo has also been introduced between the three main products; this is to further emphasise the branding of our band.

*With both the poster and the digipak a sense of continuity can instantly be noticed by the continuous use of the ‘parallel lines’ and the bands logo.

The simplistic approach I introduced on the digipak/poster was to keep everything minimal, this included little writing to enhance the professional look and not over complicate both pieces, and also using just significant information, for example the release date and album name. This was followed through into the video by using one set location of a plain white undecorated room. When doing our research we figured that the majority of bands in our genre involve a simplistic approach similar to this, plain studio zooms, nothing too vibrant etc. so we followed this through ourselves to create a similar effective look.

Furthermore we noticed with The Black Keys photos the band usually seem to be quite serious looking; therefore we decided to incorporate this into the blog as an influence with our header photo being a serious expression band shot.

(simplistic and minimal location used for the video)

We found that it would be best to represent our band in this way because it allows the audience to make their own perception on the band too. Not only this but a simplistic approach doesn’t give anything away about the band, it can actually leave the audience with a sense of interest, wanting to find out more. Along with this it allows a more sole focus on the music itself that the band our playing, this is why in the video we have included a lot of close ups of the guitars and drums being played throughout the song, so the audience can notice that the band primarily focus on the music, rather than their appearance etc.  However we did realise that the bands image have to appeal to the target audience too or they wouldn’t really be interested, therefore we dressed the band in appropriate clothing to suit this genre such as plain shirts and smart footwear (brogues). We followed this approach from the band The Black Keys whose song our band sing. They seem to be visually passionate and enthusiastic about the music they are playing which has effectively built them a strong fan base, something we wanted for our own band.

(sole focus on music)

To continue to further branding for our band we decided to use the same font throughout all three pieces. This specific font is ‘bebas nueue’. We incorporated this into all three final products because the style is bold and simple, which works quite effectively with the image we wanted to create for the band. It is also allows the audience yet again to create a connection from the products and they will subconsciously recognise this font and link it to The Everything.

Along with this the colour scheme we used can also be recognised as a branding implementation. This is because the standard colour scheme of black teal and white is presented in the digipak and poster and furthermore the band logo. Constantly emphasising a specific set of colours to an audience is a useful feature to involve as similarly to other processes, it allows the audience to re-establish and create further links between it and the band.