Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

My Magazine Advert:

I spent some time researching magazine adverts in order to discover the conventions. I came up with a few different ones such as:

• They all have the name of the artist and the album in a bold font.
• They all have the release date to tell people when the video is coming out.
• They all include reviews from popular institutes such as Kerrang, Daily Mirror etc. 
• The record label logo
• The web address for the artists official website to allow fans to know more about his music or his personal life.
• A genre defining album.

My Digipak:

I have followed as many conventions of a digipak as possible. 

Front Cover: 

I tried to use as many of the conventions of a front cover for a digipak as possible. Some of these include:

• The artist name has to be large and clear enough to be recognised by the public and mainly fans that will be after his new album
• The album title is clear and bold for everyone to read and understand although it ties in with the colour scheme of the Magazine Advert. 
• There is an image of the artist that reflects on his genre of music. I chose to use an image of him with his guitar because I felt that best represented him as an indie rock artist and his straight face shows his focus on his music.

Back Cover: 

I followed all of the conventions for a digipaks' back cover in order to make it look more authentic.

• The song titles are in order and in the same size and font to keep the continuity between the magazine advert and the digipak
• I have put the bar code at the bottom to sell to retailers
• The logo for the record label, record label website and record label postal address to be able to contact them for any enquiries
• Copy right information
• This has a continued theme of the front cover of the digipak and magazine advert with the same fonts, colour and background. 

Here is an example of Rihanna's back cover with annotations as to what should be included and where. I particularly like this image because it is very clearly presented and very well explained.

Inside:

Here are the four panels inside my digipak which all follow a continuous theme to make it look like its all for the same artist.

I have created a space for the CD to go by using a transparent image which also reflects the theme of the digipak being fire. This creates easy access for the audience to take the CD in and out. I have also used the background texture again here to signify the similarities.

Image of the main artist with a message to his fans, thanking his fans for the support they're giving him. This is usually what upcoming artist do to gain supporters love. I used a different font for the signature to make it look like he had signed it himself. Also the bright light on him shows the fire in him and his music as well as his recent progression from a niche artist to a star.

A panel with an image of his guitar to further highlight the significance of his guitar in his music. This shows him being a passionate musician. I have chosen to leave the backgound clear because most digipaks do not fill every space and I felt it looked better without anything as it shows my artists mysterious side.

Another close up image of the artist posing with lighting exposing his features. In my case I have used the fire theme to expose his features through lighting so that I can maintain the theme at the same time. I chose to use an image of my artist pointing at the audience to show his confidence in his music.

The Spine:

• The spine has to clearly have the artist name and the album name clearly
• They also include the record label logo and possibly a CD number

Examples of spines on a digipak: