Evaluation Question 2

When creating my ancillary texts, I knew I wanted them to have continuity with the style and themes of both the song and its music video. Therefore, I decided to use the same style for the poster and digipak as used in my music video, but I wanted to distinguish these designs from the music video and not make them seem like screenshots, giving more the feel of a separate photo shoot as per in a live action video. I recreated the hand-drawn backgrounds in Microsoft Paint, a very basic program but I feel I was able to effectively give the designs a smoother and more ‘poster-like’ feel this way. I was used to working with Paint from experience in animating entire films with the software before, which have gained positive acclaim on YouTube, so I was able to create the images in Paint exceptionally quickly and efficiently.

I included every detail from the original images shown in the music video without any significant changes, except on the digipak front cover, where the main character is alone to show to the buyer who the main character is within the narrative of the music video. This was done instead of showing the real artist of the song on the cover, because the artist is an indie artist who is not necessarily well known and would not be looked out for by a specific fanbase. In addition, I always wanted all of my anxilary texts to have the same style which would become recognisable and would stand out amongst other digipaks showcasing the indie genre.

The designs of the poster and digipak show moments from the music video which, based on my audience feedback, seemed iconic. The same style of art was used across all these products, albeit in different forms of art, which creates a continuous style for all of the products. Both images are long shots which show the main character as isolated, as per in the video.

The band name, ‘Vivid Scheme’, and the song name, ‘Intoxicated’, are clearly displayed in their respective fonts on the poster and digipak. The different fonts were to distinguish the song and band names from each other, such as the name ‘Intoxicated’ for the song adapting a serif font, Poor Richard, which looked much starker and suited the song’s lyrics because the font connotes a seriousness which the song displays within its lyrics. In contrast, a sans serif font was used for the band name ‘Vivid Scheme’, which is marketable because it promotes a fun, playful style, and it would be used as a logo to promote the band. The logo stands out on a poster where the target audience would spot it straight away, and the same for the digipak cover where people may purposely be looking out for it in a retailer.

The logo of the record label, Parlophone, is also clearly displayed on both the poster and digipak. Parlophone has gained much respect for working with big names including ‘The Beatles’ so this would be another selling point. The iTunes logo is also displayed on the poster only to let people know they can download it from the iTunes Store, but the iTunes logo is omitted from the digipak cover where it is not needed. The poster also advertises the digipak and digital download releases of the album to attract its potential customers.