ANCILLARY TASK 2 - PROMOTIONAL POSTER
Shown below are a selection of the texts I will be going back to in regards to my own work. I will perpetrate each of their codes and conventions such as: where the artist's name is put, the album name and release date alongside brand-specific and easily identifiable images that often audiences receive a message from them without any text for an upcoming album release and even as some of the only professional PR and advertising work that is released before the digipak itself in the print format.
THE 1975 -
Like all the other ones I will write about, the reason for the poster is to advertise and promote the album and the artist themselves. The font used highlights the band as a whole and relates to the album cover and creates continuity between products to help an audience identify with the band just by looking at the poster. The thing that people will most likely see first would be the name of the band as it is written in very large text, this is effective in letting the audience know what they are reading about. The primary image is the band themselves with a black and white filter kit by white light on a plain black background that helps to highlight the primary image, the negative space in the image is used to their advantage to really make them stand out. As they are in black and whit this can link to the alternative genre being more edgy and can link back to the aesthetic of the band that is also “edgy”. The digipak is also black and whit to create an image for the band so audiences can quickly identify that it is them. The mise en scene is aimed at a younger demographic but still mature such as 16+. The poster may seem less interesting to younger audiences as there is not a lot going on and is quite plain with dull black and white tones, and a font that is very mature and bare. I would like to use the codes and conventions of black and white when completing the task as it shows the alternative genre very well. Because the album cover is not featured on the poster it leaves the audience more intrigued and they will more likely than not look the band up and then possibly start listening to them. The poster has a very realistic feel to it as the main focus is people, however as they are in black and white this contradicts the usual codes and conventions from a promotional poster which makes them stand out from a crowd.
ALT J -
Alt J’s poster would be used to promote their new album and to get recognition as artists themselves. The primary image for this poster is a white translucent triangle with a black translucent swirling circle inside of it, this is eye catching as it uses unconventional shapes and patterns. This eye catching effect is helped by the secondary image which is a colourful background which starts from the bottom with a mixture of colours such as green, blue and purple, the image then continues upwards looking like either rivers or roots from the ground becoming more green and losing colour, intertwining between blue/grey blocks of colour that seem to be either cracks in the ground or possible various countries or landscapes between rivers. This colourful background juxtaposed the primary image by using all of these colours that clearly contradict the plain tones of white and black. The mise en scene seems to be made to attracted both male and female audiences as they use a variety of colours like pink which could be for girls and the green and blue for boys. The range of colours helps to attract the widest range of audiences possible maximising the sale of their album. The font for the poster again does not attract a specific gender as it is plain but still bold to attract both genders, but it still may attract more males than females as women are stereotypically attracted to rounder fonts. But the fact that it is again mostly gender neutral helps to attract wider audiences as mentioned before. What I will take from this poster is that I should use a plain and simple image that can be juxtaposed by the background to make my poster more eye catching and maybe use gender neutral colours and text.
LANA DEL REY -
The Lust For Love poster is used to promote the song, album, information about the album and to promote Lana herself. Lana is the primary image so audiences are immediately informed of who the poster is about, or if you are unaware of who she is, you then know as her name is on the poster. In he poster Lana is depicted as holding the world in her hand which could be seen as showing that Lana or women in general are more over powering than men and they run the earth as she is shown to be a god like figure, or you could analyse it to show that it delineates that she is powerful in the music industry and that she is very famous. Lana fits into the alternative genre and this can be shown further by her unconventional text fonts as they are all different which is unusual to see but it works for her as each phrasing can then stand out on its own. These unconventional fonts can then be used to attract her target audience of older and mor mature people who can be more responsive to the confusion of fonts. In terms of the size of the text, “Lust For Love” is the larger text on the page to tell that audience that is the name of her new song, it also shows what they could expect from the rest of the text on the poster. For mise en scene the target audience would most likely be older audiences, such as older teens as her make up, clothing and colour (black and white) of the poster show a more mature theme which would appeal most to this aged audience. The chaotic background imagery juxtaposed the simple image of Lana, however this helps to allow Lana to stand out from all of the imagery around her. I will use this style in my work to make sure I am attracting the correct demographic to the artist.
HALSEY -
Halsey- this poster was created to promote and spread the word about Halseys new album and herself as an artist. The first image you are drawn to is Halsey herself (primary image) and the second image you are drawn to is the background of the poster (secondary image. This abstract and unconventional album is further delineated by the secondary image as it uses unconventional and abstract colours to add to the over all effect of the poster relating to the music. There is a use of juxtaposing colours between the primary and secondary image aiding each image to stand out but still allowing the primary image to stand out over the secondary image. The miss en scene for this poster is directed at women because traditionally the colour pink, used as the primary colour for the poster, is associated with the female gender. Halsey stand out even more as her hair is blue in the poster to help her stand out from all of the pink and duller colours. The pink colour scheme helps to refer back to her digipak which helps the general public to identify her just from the image she has built up about herself. As men are stereotypically masculine we know that they respond better to sans serif font, rather than the font used at the bottom of the poster which is thin and dainty font so most likely to attract women over men.
The hUNNA -
The poster’s for the Hunna, are again more simplistic in photography composition with a single image used, but are more textually complex, with the first poster featuring band name, uk tour dates, 4 symbols, 6 lines of dates, locations and venue, and the record label, this is layed out in a more formal font, contrasting with the bands logo which has had digital editing done to create an eroded effect to it.
The four symbols featuring a pill, flower and lightening bolt, add character to the poster, making the viewer think about a deeper meaning.
the background image of the poster, is of roses, these roses are decompositioning showing age representation and following convention with the eroded font to its genre, the colour scheme used matches the digipak again adding continuity through the branding of the band along with the logo. As a smaller band having the tour dates on the poster would be more beneficial than a more generalised poster like del rey who is a bigger name in the genre, where as del rey’s poster features herself with little writing evident the hunna’s writing helps to add recognition and identity.
The second poster, follows a similar format to the first, including the name, symbols, tour dates as well as adding in album name, ticket websites and Facebook and twitter names. this is a earlier poster than the previously spoken about, here we can see that as the band gets bigger and more recognised the less is featured on the poster, these conventions are usually representative of a smaller band. The background image shows the band performing from a sort of behind the shoulder shot of the band, looking out onto a big audience and venue whilst performing this shows the popularity of the band and performance images are a big part of alternative genre culture as they rely on these types of pictures rather than fancy editing and special effects as they are lower budget.
