Cover Art Construction

Album Construction

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Magazine Advert Construction

By looking at other magazine adverts we took several ideas to make our own and also incorporated our own designs. The overall consensus was to take screen grabs from our music video chorus and make them smaller and place them in different patterns over the page. This was a long process as we had to transform and crop each image and make them all the same size. Half way through doing this we decided to take an idea from Jessie J's magazine advert shown in a previous post. The idea was the make the second half of the page black. This matched with the current images on the pages as there were elements of black in the grabbed pictures.

Using Da Font we identified the correct font which matched closely to Bloc Party's type face on their album covers; underneath this is the album name which has been created in the same font but thinner. This way new and existing audiences can clearly see which is the band name and which is the album name. Using similar text to that of Bloc Party meant we could create the same mode of address which audiences could easily identify and link with the band. The masthead on the advert clearly identifies which band is being promoted. This typeface is also used on our album cover to create a unified house style and link our album and advert across the media platforms.

Once we had made the first half of the advert we had to being promoting the album, we did this by putting on reviews from music companies and newspapers such as NME, The Guardian and MTV. If bands are reviewed by well known companies such as these it helps to sell them as people respect the opinion of these companies. This promotional device is key in helping to sell albums. As well as a review we also put a star rating which can clearly be seen, we decided to use 5 and 4 star ratings in order to help sell more albums. If the album is rated highly then more people are likely to buy the album. To create some differentiation within the magazine advert we decided to change the font of the review to 'exibition' which was a tall elegant font which when researching we found that most magazine adverts did use this kind of font for reviews which made ours seem much more realistic.

When creating the magazine advert I used over 60 layers, this way it was easier to move individual pictures and text which were on the advert without affect any of the other graphics on the advert.
Looking at Rhiannas music advert we saw that she used an image of her album on her poster so we decided to also use this to help promote our album. All images featured on our album and advert were all taken from our music video to help promote it and link all three media platforms together.

The last thing to put on our magazine advert was record companies which are usually always featured on a magazine advert. I googled Bloc Party's record labels and used Atlantic and Wichita records to create realism for the advert. We also added in a website for the band where audiences can find more information.

We decided to make two album covers as our original album did not have that many links to our poster. Even though we have made two it is not unusual as bands such as Cold Play do have different album covers for the same album.

First magazine advert

This advert has the image of the album cover on the front as it looks different from our poster, this way audiences will recognize what the new album looks like.

Second magazine advert

This is the second magazine advert, we have removed the picture as the second album cover is of the first half of the poster image and therefore audiences will recognize what the album looks like.

Magazine adverts can also be used as posters; below I have distorted an image on photoshop and placed it at a bus stop where new albums can be advertised.

Cover Art

When we filmed in Camden we filmed by Camden lock where we found some beautiful lighting under a bridge. We also took pictures here and found that this had real potential to be our cover art considering Bloc Party are known for using locations as their album and single covers. However our filming in Camden was not up to scratch and so in our final music video we hardly had any footage of this location so it might have confused our audience if we had used this cover art as it had no relation to our video. We decided to use an image from our music video which will show the relation between our media products. As well as an image we had to think of an album name to go with the cover art design.

This is the layout our CD album must adhere to. We need four separate images to cover this, one for the front back and two for the inside.

Here is what our two album artworks would look like on a real album. I did this by placing our album images into photoshop, free transforming them and then distorting them to fit size of the CD album. This gave a 3D effect to the album in which we had created.




 

Album Research

The album we came up with was Escape, we felt this was similar to Bloc Party's current albums such as Intimacy. Before constructing our cover art we had to research into current albums to look at conventions so that our CD album looked like a real media product. Some of the conventions we found were that the band or artists names are featured on the front of the album and also an image of the artist or band or fancy album works or pictures.

Here is an example of a front cover from the band the Hoosiers who are part of the indie genre. They use the colour scheme of red and white here and you can clearly see the band and album name, the band use this text on all of their albums as it creates a unified house style and a mode of address that makes them easily identifiable by fans and new audiences. For the cover art they continue to use the red colour scheme and have created a cartoon like design. Having listening to the hoosiers and watched various music videos this type of album fits the personality of the band.

This is the inside of their album it again continues to use the red colour scheme which creates the same house style through and each item compliments the other. If these we to be separated you could tell that they belonged together, which is what we would like to achieve in construction our album. They have included an image of the band on the inside page and used similar images from the front page for an image border. The CD has a plain simple design with the band and album name. The image behind the CD is also simple and consists of a red background.

Finally this is the Hoosiers back page of their album. Again they use the red colour scheme as seen in the other elements of the album. The use a similar design to the front of the album cover with the cartton design around the edge. In the middle they have a song list of the songs included in their album, this is a key convention that all music albums will have. Lastly a bar code is also included and so it is important that we also use this same technique.

Here is a layout design of how we want our album covers to look like. For the front page we will feature a close up image of our artist and place the band name and album name in the top right hand corner. For the back page we will place a similar image but with his eyes closed. We feel this compliments the album as he has his eyes open on the front and eyes closed on the back. The CD cover will simply have the band name on it. The inside page will feature some images of the characters seen in the music video. The album will also have the same colour scheme throughout in order to create the same house style.

Music Adverts

For our axillary task we also needed to research into different music posters as we have to make one our selves to promote the artists album. Looking at different music adverts gave us an insight in how we should create ours.

Rhianna has used a similar colour palate throughout her poster to create a unified house style. At the bottom of the poster there is a banner that promotes the album and also has an image of the album so that is it easily recognizable. This helps to promote her album and help to sell albums which is important for the artist. As well as this she also has a large image of her self on the poster so again people can easily recognize that this is her.

Cold plays poster is in a similar design to their album art work. The use of graffiti is used as their album as so when people see this advert they can link the two together. It has a release date information to allow audiences to know when they can get it or they can pre order it on iTunes. The colour of the advert really stands out and the use of a white outline on the album name is emphasized on the coloured background. It is important for audiences to easily recognise album names and for them to be drawn to it in order to sell albums.
Noah and the whales also use the same image on their album, this helps to link to two platforms together. This poster includes ratings which are a key feature of magazine adverts. The use of ratings acts as a promotional device and will encourage customers to buy the CD. Consumers will buy things that have been highly rated. The style of advert reflects the bands genre for example this is an indie style band and the use of a camera and pale colours reflects this.
This adverts image compliments and amplifys the album name. The audience see the album is called 'lights' and also see a similar image. Again ratings are used here and business icons such as record labels are placed down the bottom of the page. This creates awareness of the artists promoters.

All these posters show the albums name, the artist, a picture of the artist, some of the songs included, reviews and small business icons towards the bottom of the posters. In order for ours to look realistic we have to use the same conventions of a music poster.

Digipack Research

For our digipack we needed to research into the types of albums that bloc party already had and other artists of that genre. Below are some images of some of Bloc Party's album's; as you can see their albums and singles mainly consist of location shots. This was good for us as we had taken some really nice images when we went filming in Camden. In the picture below we have included our on take on an album cover to see how it would fit in.




Here is a larger image of what we created on photoshop. The colours were already vibrant in this location but we wanted them to be even more distinguished so we therefore increased the contrast on photoshop to make the colours stand out even more. This is an image that we feel would be apropriate for our cd cover. We placed the text in a similar way to Bloc Party to create a sense of realism for our audience. Additionally Bloc Party do vary the colour of their texts for example the top right hand picture features blue text whereas the rest feature white. This meant that we could experiment with colour to see what colour was emphasized the most and complimented the background image.




After our change of story line we could no longer use this image for our album cover because we did not use this scene in our final music video. Instead we decided to use an image of our mine character that can be seen in our actual music video however this still links in with Bloc Party's albums as a recent album intimacy uses images of people.

Bloc Party's Album

Our Front Cover Image

The Text

The type face for the album titles creates a coherent house style throughout the cd covers. This means that people link this type of text to the band which makes it more recognizable for their audiences. For us to make our CD look as realistic as possible we also need to use the same text style. This will involve using the standard straight capital text with the full stop at the end and placing the album title or single name directly underneath it.


Using DaFont we were able to look at similar text styles to try and find the one the matched Bloc Party's current text style to make our CD look more realistic to our audiences.

The final font we chose was Code Bold and Code light which we felt best represented Bloc Party's actual type face on their cover albums and posters.

Bloc Party

This is the band Bloc Party, it consists of four band members. They are an indie rock band composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Russell Lissack (lead guitar), Gordon Moakes (bass guitar, synths, backing vocals, glockenspiel), and Matt Tong (drums, backing vocals). Their type of music has been to said to have been drawn from bands such as Radiohead and The Cure. Bloc party was formed in 1999 at reading festival (a popular festival consisting of indie music). The band did not set on the name Bloc Party until 2003.
The band first had their break through when Okereke gave the single 'shes hearing voices' to the lead singer of Franz Ferdinand during a concert, from here the
song was played on Radio 1. The song proved popular and this lead to many more releases of songs. There first song was vital in setting the scene for the type of music genre and target auidence they were aiming for. The indie genre has a huge fan base, and proved popular.

ALBUMS

Bloc Party released their debut album 'Silent Alarms' in Feburary 2005. This album was voted 'album of the year' by NME and reached number 3 in the UK album charts. The band turned out to gain a good reputation and it was dicovered they had positivite reviews from those in the US. Bloc party were now not only a UK band but a global band.

This was Bloc Party's first album cover; as you can see it is simple yet effective. Bloc Party have taken the name of the ablum and portrayed it in the picture. It presents a tranquill setting in a field with the use of whites, grey and black colouring. The band have not used their picture in this cover, this is possibly because the band had only just started out and fans and new audiences may not realise who the band are visually just yet. This however does work in the bands favour as they could put the band name in a large type face in order to stand out on the shelves with the hundreds of other albums. Releasing a first album is always difficult and the sales will decide the success or the failure of a new and upcoming band. This album sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide.

The bands next album was called 'A Weekend in the City' which was released in February 2007. (2 years after their first album), however this ablum was leaked in November 2006 and so was put on itunes for download so that the band did not lose out on sales. It debuted at number 12 in the Billboard 200, with 48,000 copies sold. This ablum reached number 2 in the UK album charts.

This is the art work for the second ablum released by Bloc Party, again the band do not use images of themselves. Having an image as the second cover begins to set a house style for the band and audiences will now notice that this is a Bloc Party album. The name of the album reflects the image on the cover. This picture is taken from a high angle where you can see the roads that you would usally find in the 'city'. Additionally lighting is key here, they use ambient lighting for example using the street lamps. The lighting on the roads has been cleverely edited to show the break and head lights of a car without actually showing the cars in the picture. The bands name and ablum name has been placed in the top left of the album. It has been coloured in white in order to stand out from the rest of the ablum.

The bands third album was named 'Intimacy' and was released in August 2008 one month after the band released their popular single 'Mercury'.

This album cover again does not feature the band but does have an image of two people about to kiss. This reflects the ablum name as kissing is an intmate thing. The lighting is used effectively here with the faces in a pale colour with a dark background in the space between them. The shadowing here helps to define the facial features of both faces.

In 2009 the band did not have a current recording contract and so were under no obligation to produce any more albums. They did release one more single called 'One More Chance' in August 2009 which almost relfects the state were previously in. After this the band decided to go on 'hiatus' and were unsure if they would continue with the band. However in 2011 the band are currently writing their fourth album with 15 new tracks. There has been speculation whether the band are looking for a new lead singer or not.

Looking at these ablums covers has given inspiration and ideas when we come to make our cd cover for the single 'Flux'.