How the conventions have been met with our main product and ancillary products

During our research we came across numerous things that we decided to include in our music video and ancillary tasks :
- dual colour themes for example blue and black, red and white. We chose red and white as we felt this was appropriate for religion to represent evil and purity for example.
- theme of religion is kept consistent throughout all of our tasks with the usage of a cross. We felt a cross would be the most appropriate as it is the most obvious to an audience member.
- In the magazine adverts and digi-pak, large, aggressive font were used and placed in the centre or to the side of images. However, they were still intrusive enough to stand out.
- the lighting chosen was darkened as the atmosphere is not intended to be bright and upbeat
- Camera angles were close up and invasive to be intimidating and in your face.
- Consistent character or image used throughout multiple products.
- Use of urban areas to set the scene
- We decided to use the same character in the music video for both ancillary tasks to create significance and for the niche audience to relate and recognise the character.
- For both Ancillary tasks and the main product they both have a threatening yet vulnerable feel which most rap-stars nowadays have so we followed these conventions.

FINAL MAG AD !

Here is the final result of one of our ancillary products, our magazine advert. The same image here is used again in the digi-pak as we felt it was important to have a continuous trend throughout our products. Here, Leila, Chloe and i chose to use a stained glass window effect as it blocked the colours really well. Furthermore, our research supported our decisions to use a red and white font. We chose to use the logo of 'island records' as a hypothetical image. Also, we displayed a possible retailer for the up and coming digi-pak. I feel that this image is powerful and strong as such things as the facial expressions and the use of the cross are very dominating of the photo. Also, we felt that it would be effective for the artist's name 'AIM' to be the only thing displayed at the top of the image. This follows the conventions we discovered as we found that majority of hip-hop artists like to place a title in an area where it will catch the audience's eyes.

Different font styles on Hip-Hop adverts

                

     

These are the four different examples of magazines within the Hip-Hop genre. I want to try and focus on the font styles as there will be a lot of text on the magazine advert that the group and I produce. Text is an important part of the magazine advert as the font style must fit in with the genre and represent it. With the examples above you can see that the fonts used are big and bold.
This gives the magazine a 'hard edge' which many Hip-Hop artists try and achieve.

I have found some examples on Microsoft Word that I felt would be suitable for the design of the magazine advert that my group and I will be creating. All of these font examples have similar characteristics (bold, solid and strong), which fits with the conventions of a Hip-Hop magazine. Because the genre we are working with isn't mainstream and has quite a niche audience, the advert will mainly be viewed within a Hip-Hop styled magazine. And so for this reason our advert must link with the conventions of the entire magazine.

I got some feedback from people so we could come to a conclusion about which font would be most appropriate to use.

Chloe (myself): Personally, I prefer Rockwell and Bold Ariel Black. I think that these two fonts have a powerful and cool feel to them which is what we want our artist (AIM) to represent
Courtney: Elephant, because it's plain and yet still catches your eye.
Leila: Rockwell and Vineta BT - Because I have also looked into Hip-Hop magazine adverts I am aware of the style used and I think Rockwell would look good in a wide range of colours. And it's also quite hard and solid, just like the personality of a gangsta.
Nia: Ariel Black and Bondini MT Black

After looking at the results and the resoning of these, my group and I have decided the the font which is best suited for our own magazine advert is Ariel Black (in bold). This font holds the strong and yet simple style which we are trying to maintain in a visual sense.

Artwork for both the digipak and the magazine advert

These are examples of magazine adverts from a variety of genres (Hip-Hop, Pop and Indie). My group and I had an idea that the artwork used on the Digipak and the artwork for the magazine advert were to be the same. This is a common convention throughout all genres. A good reason to do this is so the Digipak can be easily recognised by the public as they wont mix up images. This is useful as the genre of Hip-Hop usually reaches out to quite a niche audience, and so the use of the same image means that if different people see the same image, it will become more familiar and various people will remember it.

We are still to plan out our initial ides for both of the ancillary products, but we have already found and backed up our reasons for why we want to use the same image on both the magazine advert and the digipak.

FINAL digipak

Back                                                                                                                   Front

I decided to change our idea from a 6 spread digi-pak to a 4 spread case. This way we would have more time to focus on the design ideas for the 2 main covers. 

As you can see the same image was used for the front of the digi-pak as the magazine advert. This way a consistent trend can be seen and understood. Another theme that we have kept consistent is the usage of the same cross. This was used to display the trend of religion. Religion is a very well recognised aspect of hip-hop conventions. Furthermore, we felt that if we maintained the image of the cross throughout the main product and the ancillary products, it would enable the viewer to recognise that all the products are linked together with the same artist being 'Aim'.

Why were certain images chosen?

Whilst creating the digi-pak, i used photoshop to alter the two images. Different images were played around with before the final two images were chosen. For example with the cross, there were multiple images taken in various locations such as on the ground or the steps. However, we felt that this final image was the most powerful as the cross was displayed a lot clearer than the other images. Furthermore, the brick background displayed a beautiful red backdrop for our picture, again fitting the convention colours of hip hop as red is very prominent. With the front cover we decided to use the same image as the magazine advert as it is very common within hip hop to continue the theme from magazine advert to digi pak cover. This highlights the importance of keeping the audience familiar with the artwork of products. Also, the location of the image was very apt as it was taken on a graffiti backdrop which contributed towards the scene.

What types of effects were used through Photoshop?

With the front image involving our actress (myself) against a graffiti covered wall, the first effect that was chosen was adjusting the brightness to darken the image and playing around with the colours of the image to try and push it towards a red colour to match the image on the back of the case. I felt that it was important that the digi-pak looked like it matched together and that it had a reoccurring theme. After adjusting the image to darken it, i used a burn tool to add darkness to the actress' eyes. This was done because i felt that it was necessary that she looked dirty and rough in order for the audience to understand her story. We felt that this gritty image would fit our conventions as the woman would come across as being poverty stricken.

Whilst i was still using the burn tool, i added a bruise to her hand holding the cross. This continued the rough image. As i was bruising the hand in the front image, i had to ensure that i was bruising the hand in the back image also.

After the burn tool, i used a magic wand tool to select specific areas of the cross the actress is holding. I then chose to brighten these areas. This way there was a real contrast of a darkened background and a shining white cross. Furthermore, this meant we could really play on the theme of religion.

I chose to add the font for 'Aim' in large, bold, red letters as this would continue the conventions that we have used for our main products and ancillary products. Finally, i added the record label image used on the magazine advert and a 'parental advisory explicit content' label on also.

With the back of the digi-pak, the first thing i did was again darken the image. I also, played around with the colour saturation adding some more reds to fit with the front cover of the case. Afterwards i used the burn tool again to add some more bruising on the hand. This was very affective as the hand is very close up with the cross, therefore it is exposed well. Again, like before i used the magic wand tool to select specific areas to brighten on the cross. I did struggle with getting rid of the chosen sections but my teacher taught me to press ' ALT' then 'D' as it disabled the section that i was on. Finally, i added the fonts for the song titles and the spine of the digi-pak including a fan website. I chose white font for the back of the cover because it stood out the best on the red brick background. Furthermore, it fitted the conventions of using 2 colours. Red and white came up a lot during our research and we thought that it linked well into religion also to symbolise purity and evil. The same font was used here as the magazine advert continuing the theme. As this is a digi-pak i ensured that there were some added bonus features for the buyer.

Once all the text was added i placed a barcode on the back of the case for effect.

Overall i feel that the final out come of this product is extremely effective as it is apparent that we have chosen a consistent theme of colours, fonts, images and ideas.

photoshopped versions of digipak images

Influences for our ancillary task

One of our main influences for our magazine advert and our digi-pak was our actual music video. We wanted to take elements from it and to include these ideas to go forth towards our ancillary tasks . As a group we took the idea of a religious symbol ( cross necklace)  and did some research for religious elements in hip-hop/ rap  genre. The magazine (Vibe) itself follows a niche market to the genre of hip-hop/rap so it was good to take some research on how each of their rap stars are portrayed on their cover.

As you can see, here is rap legend Eminem.The mise en scene for this particular advert includes a religious symbol ( a cross necklace) we also took the element of his defensive posture , so we were thinking of having Nia with her hands together, shoulders forward this could be interpreted by the niche audience in many ways, for our digi-pak and magazine advert this could make her seem like she's praying or she's trying to look threatening. 

On the front of this cover 'Vibe' is the artist T.I. as a group we like his hand gesture and the contrast of the image ( this gave us a few ideas to experiment on photoshop with light and dark areas). The gesture with his hands linked in with the praying/ threatening concept , so we wanted to include the cross necklace dangling from Nia's hands to represent her wanting help because she suffers in the music video. 

For our digi-pak we wanted to do a template of 6 so we could include different images and traits from our music video, 6 is common for a digi pak and most rap artists have 6 so we followed the conventions and didn't contradict them

Photoshop trials for magazine and album artwork

Because neither Leila, Nia or myself have much experience with using Photoshop, we wanted to try out different effects on our test images to decide what looked most effective for our artwork. 

I (Chloe) edited this image. I enhanced the contrast to make the eyes look more blue and intense. Raising the contrast also made the fur on the hood of the coat stand out more and gave it an almost 'halo' effect which the group had discussed and liked. For the background, I used the 'burn tool'. This allowed me to darken the background and take away the detail which was behind the actress. I also used the 'burn tool' on her knuckles to give a 'bruised effect'. Although this doesn't look very professional in the edited image above, the group agreed that this was a good effect and links in with the image we are working towards. A problem I had with editing this image was that certain areas in the background were too bright (the light reflecting on the window) which caused some areas the edited image to have an outline of neon blue. I will either have to find away around this problem or have to find a new effect to use.

Although this is not one of my favourite effects I used, I do like the 'sketchy' look that it gives the image. I used the effect called 'dark strokes' within the 'brush strokes' file in filters. I think that this effect makes the image look a little blurry which gives the idea that the actress is not entirely sober. The face also appears soft, clean and bold. These are the exact characterises we wanted  to give the actress to fit the conventions of the genre and to make the audience sympathize with her. 

On this image I (Chloe) wanted to make the artwork appear 'cartoony' and yet still have a 'dark' feel to it. I raised the contrast to its fullest and decreased the brightness. This gave a shadowy effect in certain areas around the face. I then used the 'cutout' effect under the 'artist' filters. This gave the image the 'cartoony' effect I was trying to achieve. It completely cuts out the face but still shows features of the nose so it is evident where certain features are. The background behind the hooded character also has a 'graffiti' type effect running down from the walls, this is linked into the Wretch 32 magazine/digipak artwork.

I ( Leila) chose this particular image of Nia to edit. I used a dark contrast on the image around certain areas to exaggerate a dark feel particularly below the eyes to create a thuggish threatening look ( to show her hard-life on the streets) and also around Nia's face to draw attention to her facial expression. I also used the 'curve tool' to highlight certain features like the fur on her hood to represent light behind her ( a halo figure as it were) because religious themes occur throughout our music video. I altered the saturation to make the image look black and white because it follows most hip - hop/rap conventions .

I (Nia), edited this image using photoshop. The first thing i did was use a lasoo tool to cut around the image of myself to change the layers and add a separate background. I wanted to create an image that reflected our sketches as much as possible therefore i chose to insert a different background. In one of my sketches i used a bright light coming behind the image of myself. Furthermore, i chose a red font which sticks to the conventions of hip-hop and i chose to display this above and below the picture. The expression on my face was supposed to represent hardship and anger. We didn't want this image to come across as positive or happy as hip-hop tends to be quite depressive. I also blurred the edges of the image to make it appear slightly more blended in to the background. Furthermore, i used a burn tool on my hands and face to make the image appear distressed. We wanted the image to encourage people to feel sympathy for the character as well as feeling slightly intimidated by them.

All these images were test shots and we intend to deliver our final digi pak and magazine advert to a higher standard than these test versions. However, it has given us a good insight into particular shots and effects we may want to chose in the final version.

Test images for our own digipak and magazine advert

Once we had decided which sketch to use from our inital ideas for artwork, we set out and shot some images. We practised with different angles and different styles so we could see what worked best.
These images were taken around our school grounds. We took these test images on the stairs because it fitted the forms and conventions of the hip-hop research we had concluded. From our research we found that there was a common use of stairs in hip-hop videos and images, therefore we found it appropriate to stick to this idea.

From these test images we will test some effects on Photoshop and decide what image works best and represents the Hip Hop style for out magazine/digipak in the most effective way. We played around with high and low angles and slightly closer shots.

These images of the crosses were taken as test shots in order to see how clearly the cross would be displayed. It shows how we have developed our ideas into physical products as we have clearly played around and tested with potential locations and styles for our images.

DigiPak analysis- Hip Hop genre

I

I've decided to analyse a DigiPak for Kanye West's 'Graduation' Album. The first thing that stood out to me about this digipak was the colours and design. It is unusual for rap artists to choose such bright, appealing colours and styles for their album covers. Typically, the artists intend to come across at intimidating and aggressive to go along with the careless attitude. However, Kanye has opted for quite a playful theme. All the images involve a bear which Kanye's fans will be familiar with. The bear is a continuous theme that is carried throughout Kanye's music, design and even in his fashion choices he can be seen sporting a bear. By doing this, he is creating an image that people will be able to recognize and associate with himself. The album being usually involves Kanye's name, however in these images they do not.
Most Digi Paks do not include this many images, therefore Kanye has gone above and beyond to create a style of album that is original. On the Digi Pak, a story can almost unravel in front of the viewer's eyes.
The colours are modern and up to date. Ironically, there isn't a lot of writing on the album talking about Kanye himself which is surprising when he is quite well know for his obnoxious attitude.
The design notes ' Parental Advisory, Explicit Content' which informs the audience of the potentially offensive lyrical content in his music. It is quite nice to see such an upbeat piece of design coming from Kanye in hip-hop, when it is so easy to use depressive images.

Hip - Hop/rap Digi-Pak analysis

TEXT

Name of the band/ artist: 50 cent 

Name of the album: 50 cent - Greatest hits 

Track listing : 

1st CD:
1. Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
2. Best Friend
3. Window Shopper
4. Hustler's Ambition
5. Pimpin Pt2
6. Ghetto Qua Ran
7. I'm A Rider
8. What If
9. Thug Love feat. Beyonce
10. Too Hot (feat. Nas)
11. Maybe We Crazy
12. Be A Gentleman
13. What Up Gangsta
14. Killa Tape
15. Not Rich, Still Lyin
16. Magic Stick (feat. Lil Kim)
17. Baby Phat (feat. G-Unit)
18. I Run NY (feat. Tony Yayo)
19. When Death Becomes You (M.O.P. feat. 50 Cent)
20. We Both Think Alike (feat. Olivia)
21. In Da Club
22. If I Can't
23. Rotten Apple
24. Whoo Kid
2nd CD:
1. Candy Shop
2. Fuck You
3. I'll Whip Ya Head Boy
4. Just A Lil Bit
5. Blood Hound
6. Hate It Or Love It
7. When It Rains It Pours
8. In Da Hood
9. Get In My Car
10. P.I.M.P.
11. Places To Go
12. U Not Like Me
13. Many Men (Wish Death)
14. Wanksta
15. Disco Inferno
16. How To Rob (feat. The Mad Rapper)
17. Life's On The Line
18. 21 Questions
19. 8 More Mile (G-Unit Remix)

20. Talk About Me

Price : £21.00

Website: On the digipak it has 50 cents main site where it has news and info on tour dates , videos and pictures.

Recording information: His Cd was recorded in 2005, 50 cent and G-Unit wrote the songs.

PICTORIAL

Pictures of the band/ artist: The picture on the front cover is an image of 50 cent the artist himself pointing a gun directly at the camera. On the inside cover there is a picture of 50 cent sitting in a basement writing lyrics this is suppose to reflect on the hard life he's had and how he became a rapper.

CD logo: The font of the artists name and title is in a stamp form this could symbolise a conviction stamp also it could relate to a video game.

DESIGN

Colour and style : The pictures have a dark contrast mixed with a yellow tint which gives it a video game and highlights 50 cents build, it also makes 50 cent look superior particularly because he's got the audience at gunpoint ( similar to james bond), a lot of hip-hop artists relate to their enemies in their songs or on their cd covers because it reflects to different gangs on the streets ( where rap originates from). 

The super- audio cd limited platinum edition is an unfold with 2 discs and only 500 copies were released its also has a booklet inside with lyrics on it and his production team.

The design of the CD itself has a dark colour scheme with a thuggish feel.

50 cent has a threatening facial expression and posture.

Hip Hop digipak

Digipak Analysis Oasis

This Digipak is for the promotion of the band 'Oasis'.
A Digipak can sometimes include a bonus DVD and in this case it does not. The Digipak should follow a particular theme throughout including similar things such as colour scheme, imagery, font, layout.


There are standard conventions that a DigiPak will tend to follow ( can also be found on our other digipak analysis')
To start with this Digipak includes the name of the artist, 'Oasis' and the name of the album. This version also notes the type of CD that it is - acoustic version. The track list is included in this Digipak which is essential for promotion and fans listening to the music. This helps them to keep in order and to decide their favourite songs. Sometimes, the price is displayed on the CD but this is up to the retailers. Here is appears as if there is not a price tag. The Digipak may also include any band information and websites, retailers and recording information.
The image on the front of the album usually invloves a picture of the artist, or an image involving the artist that the audience would be aware of. Here for example, Oasis have chosen to display a picture of a guitar which to their fans would make sense as they are well known for their acoustic guitar playing and tend to involve this in every single song they do. This Digipak, like others, also includes a barcode which can be seen on the side panel.
The design of the Digipak helps display the artists genre and the type of audience they will be going for. Here Oasis have kept to a friendly, approachable design which keeps to the same theme of orange, yellows, browns and reds throughout. The Oasis Logo is also kept to the exact same font and style that they always use. This helps the audience highlight the fact that this is the original Oasis that they are used to. Where the design of the CD is concerned, the tracklists can be seen on the actual CD itself. This again helps people to keep track of particular songs that they may like. Furthermore, it keeps the design of the Digipak flowing when the CD is in place. The booklet and the CD case has kept to the 'Indie' style and acoustic genre that it is used to. This way Oasis are keeping their regular fans used to their normal style.
As a whole, the CD cover flows and is kept to a regular theme which is attractive to the eye.


When researching and from my own experience of Oasis fans, there appears to be no particular 'type' of fan. If Oasis are aware of this, then they are being clever in the fact that they are not excluding any particular audience type and keeping their image open for anyone to interpret. Oasis reach out to a large range of ethnic groups, age ranges, class ranges and gender groups.

Sketches for our Digi Pak

I've created 3 designs for our DigiPak. They show the experimentation we've used where we've been considering using an image or a person, and how this fits in with the conventions of hip-hop.
The first picture is of the main actress ( myself) looking down using a distressed expression. This is a common convention in the hip-hop genre, to show some sort of anger or sadness on the cover. Furthermore, it is quite common in modern day today that an artist use an image of an actress from their music video, or themselves on the front of their CD cover.

The second picture is of an image of a cross which fits the convention of hip-hop again as we have highlighted a lot of music videos using religion. I've added black and red colours to the image as again this fits the convention from our research. Also, this maintains the religious theme that we have consistently used in our music video.

The third picture is the track list which again continues the theme of the red and black through the font . I've Incorporated the same cross from the first image into this last image to keep the theme the same. The same colours of red and black are used as a majority of hip-hop artists tend to use 2 main different colours when producing and album cover.

As you can see the possible retailers are included here, we've included the artist's myspace name and the date of release. Our artist's name is also on the album cover.

Sketch ideas for our own magazine advert

From looking at three separate magazine adverts of three individual Hip Hop artists, we have come up with a few sketch ideas of what our magazine advert could look like.

Once we have decided on which sketch to use we will then be experimenting with Photoshop and colours.

We have decided on three inital sketch ideas, all with certain elements and conventions linked in with our own research we have done by looking at different magazine adverts.

Sketch 1

In this sketch the main character (the same one from our music video) is seen in a hoody holding a cross. There is a glowing light behind her and her knuckles are bruised. All of these factors are seen as contradictory, which was our aim. We wanted the audience to feel sympathy for the character, and yet still remember she is 'from the streets' and does not lead a very positive life. This is portrayed by the style of her clothes being quite thuggish contrasted with the person holding a cross. This shows both her 'street' side which is harsh and cruel, and also her religious side in which she prays and hopes for something better. The bruised knuckles show that she has gotten in fights and lives it rough, whereas the glow in the background acts as a 'halo' type effect and gives the impression that she is actually pure and holy. We liked this idea a lot as we felt it portrayed the image we were going for well.

Sketch 2

This idea contains a gang member sitting on a staircase holding a baseball bat. Each of these aspects link back to our genre. 'Gang members' were mentioned to be related to the Hip-Hop genre when we first asked for feedback to the class about what they expected to see in a Hip-Hop music video. The staircases were found as a convention through my own research whilst looking at videos such as 'Word To Ya Mutha'. And a baseball bat is seen here as a weapon, which links in with gangs and crime, another common convention of the genre. Although it includes many common aspects and elements, we found that there was a lot going on visually in this advert, which mean there was hardly any room for text to provide information about the artist.

Sketch 3

This idea consists of a red cross on a plain background. The use of the colour red symbolizes blood and death, which is a reference to our music video. The cross is a religious reference, which was a common theme in the music video that we intended on carrying on to both ancillary products. The plain background allows the audience to mainly focus on the red cross and emphases its importance. There is not a lot of text, but there is enough for the audience to get enough information about when the album is released and where it is available.This idea would be easy to produce on Photoshop as it is a very simplistic design.

As a group, we have all decided that sketch 1 best represents the style and genre that we are working with (Hip Hop). We tried to hit the main conventions and to make it as realistic as possible.