EVALUATION QUESTION 3- DRAFT

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Below are a couple of surveys we have put together, we hope to premiere our music video in front of a select group of people that will hopefully fit our 'target audience' criteria. The information we receive from this feedback will be discussed as a group and will hopefully give us some idea as to whether or not our main and ancillary texts were effective from our target market/audience's perspective.

Click here to take survey   Audience feedback survey (Music Video)    

Click here to take survey   Audience feedback survey (Digipak & magazine advert)

 

Below is all the feedback I have received from my peers on my blog posts (research and planning), the main product (music video) and my ancillary texts (Digipak and magazine advert).

Magazine Advertisement Secondary Draft

Final Magazine Advert

I have decided to submit this as my final magazine advert. I got the idea of using the QR barcode from an advert in a tattoo magazine (picture below) this advertisement gets the reader to colour in the barcode which they then scan in to their phones, I tried a 'whited out' version which would be coloured in but I wasn't happy with the result (see below). Unless it stated on the advertisement that the QR barcode needed to be coloured in and then scanned (like on the tattoo ad) no one would know to do that and it would either be ignored or it wouldn't scan properly as it hasn't been coloured in. To colour in the barcode would take a lot of time and the whole purpose of the QR barcode is that it is 'quick' and will take you to a link that relates to the advertisement. The type of paper the advertisement is printed on will also depend on the success of the 'colouring in' technique. 

I have produced a Tumblr page that features images of INFLUXX, the album cover, the music video etc. This is linked to the QR barcode on my advertisement, once scanned on a smartphone the audience will be taken to this page which acts as part of the advertising campaign for their album. This advertisement could also be featured on billboards & London Underground advertisements rather than just magazines.

QR barcode link to tumblr site: influxxmusic.tumblr.com

Magazine Advertisement Development 1

Above is some development I have worked on for the design of my magazine advertisement. As displayed, I have decided to do choose a portrait page as the posters I have analysed and researched are also portrait- conforming to pre- existing conventions of the Indie Pop/ Synth genre. Initially, I started with very simple and plain ideas (taking inspiration from The XX's 'XX' poster) as I felt that it was a good starting point which would give me room to manipulate and alter my poster accordingly. While focusing on the white background and black text posters, I experimented with boarders and the positioning of text but felt that I could still further my ideas. 

Consequently, I chose to experiment with a black background and white lettering- yet again adjusting the boarder and placing of wording on the page however was still unsatisfied with the results. Proceeding from this I used Photoshop Elements 6.0 to edit a pattern and place it behind the text. I used a layer effect called 'multiply' so that the bands name 'Influxx' would appear to have been filled with the abstract artwork. I decided that I wanted the band's name to be the most prominent feature on the page and therefore avoided using the pattern within any of the other text on the page as I felt it could potentially distract from 'Influxx'. To ensure that it remained the focal point, I placed the other wording layers above the imagery so that it remained white. I considered having the font in a grey shade but felt that there wasn't enough of a contrast between the background and lettering and wanted it to be easily legible. 

Similarly, to many of the posters/ albums that I have researched- I chose to avoid having photography of the band featuring on the design. Despite having attempted to use a picture I had taken of the band on my draft copy, I decided that I was ultimately unhappy with the outcome and discarded that idea entirely. As I have discussed in previous posts, it is common for Indie Pop/ Synth artists to want to showcase their music before their appearance- holding their 'artistry' in higher regard than themselves as a 'brand'. Because of this, I felt that my decision to use merely lettering on the poster and digipak was justified and conforms to our selected genre's conventions effectively. The absence of reviews and tour dates on all of the above designs (and the record label on some of the above designs) can also be understood when viewing the posters I have already analysed and researched- as I have found that these features aren't an integral part of the design. 

As the development progresses, I personally like the designs more. I feel as though there are still various tweaks which could be made to the poster but overall I am adhering to a minimalist design, having been inspired by various other pre- existing magazine advertisements and digipak's. I plan to continue to further the development of my poster until I am completely happy with it but feel that I now have a fundamental idea concerning how I want it to look and also a better understanding of the direction I want to go in.

Less really IS more.

After doing some more research into minimalistic/simplistic styles I came across theses quotes from famous writers, artists, musicians & architects. These famous quotes again prove that simplicity works well in all levels of creativity and 'art'. My own coursework incorporates a very minimalistic yet bold style which I believe is successful in advertising my band's (Influxx) debut album.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."- Antoine de Saint-Exupe (French aristocrat, writer & poet).

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."- Albert Einstein (Theoretical physicist).

"The simplest things are often the truest."- Richard Back (American writer).

"Less is more."- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (German-American architect).

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."- Leonardo da Vinci (Painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer).

Dieter Ram's principles of 'good design':

"Good design is unobtrusive."

"Good design is honest."

"Good design is as little design as possible."

Source:

-http://mnmlist.com/quotes/

Final DigiPak Draft & Magazine Advert

DigiPak Final Draft:

Magazine Advert Final Draft: 

M

INFLUXX DigiPak & Magazine Advert Shoot

As mentioned in my post on Friday, last night I planned a photo shoot with INFLUXX for my magazine advert and DigiPak. Above are the 54 selected images i chose from the 200+ I shot overall. I feel that the photo shoot went very well and this was due to my planning and organisation. I wanted to continue the same style of photography from my AS year 12 Media Studies work as it received praise from my peers and the examination board moderator. I felt confident that this style of photography would work well and that I would be happy with the final outcome.
I planned and organised before the photoshoot the outfits that the band would wear, their make up & hair style plus poses that the band could emulate (taken from my previous AS work & existing band's photoshoots e.g. AlunaGeorge, MSMR). I ensured I had enough time to prepare the band before we started shooting (hair & makeup) and gave them a quick brief on what I wanted the overall style of the photo shoot to be like. Alex and Ellie are already good friends and they have great chemistry together which works very well in my favour as this is shown in front on the camera (during both the filming and the photo shoot) and therefore means they perform well together as a band. To also help them relax and get into the roles of INFLUXX band members I also put on a playlist of music within the same genre of Indie/Synth pop, this really helped then to overcome any awkwardness you would first encounter during a photo shoot.
About an hour into the photoshoot we were interrupted by the school fire alarm, this took about 20 minutes away from our time shooting but when we returned back into school we were able to get back on task and complete the shoot within the allotted time (the photo shoot took 90 minutes to complete well within our 2 hour scheduled time).

Below are a couple of images Phoebe took of me during the photoshoot: