Researching fonts for the Digipak: Finding the font.

These were some of the possible fonts that I found on a free font download website (1001 free fonts). I liked the 'typewriter style' fonts best as I thought they were cool and I have seen this style beiong used within the 'indie pop' genre.

I like the 4th one the best as it was the most minimal one, I don't want something too over the top and flashy.

The reason I don't want anything too fancy was because the style of our artist is more 'grungy/cool' and swirly fancy font would't rreally fir with this image.

It is important that every aspect of the branding for the artist matches so it becomes a recognizable brand that any fans and supporters can relate to.

Researching fonts for the Digipak: artist research.

  

 I researched some quite iconic and well known album covers to see what fonts are common/look unique and stylish.

The first one I looked at is Patti Smith's iconic album cover for 'Horses'. She uses just a simple black and white image of herself, with her same written small in the corner. I really like this font as is is classy and understated and fits in with the vibe of the album cover image and also the cool punk 'I don't care' vibe.

The next one I looked at was Chance the Rappers 'Acid Rap' album cover. The melting letters fit with the 'trippy' artwork for the cover, also with the name of the album, which has links with the hallucinogenic substance LSD, also the 'acid' could have melted the letters.

Jay-Z, for his album 'Reasonable Doubt' went for the 'old style gangsta' vibe and used a font that matched that perfectly. This is probably not something that I would do for my Digipak, as it does not fit in with the genre conventions, however, I think that is is good to consider and research all aspects of genre within the music industry.

Finally, I looked at Grace Jones' Iconic disco
album 'Nightclubbing', which has a simple powerful image of herself with simple text going along the top. With album cover's, I am uner the impression that 'less is more' and it is possible for it to be more powerful with less going on. However, at the same time album covers such as the one for 'Acid Rap' has a lot going on and it still powerful, engaging and interesting.

Researching fonts for the Digipak.

From looking at other digipak's and past A-level work, I discovered that the font can make a huge difference to the professionalism of the Digipak.

The font can be the difference between something looking amateur and something looking of industry standard.

Here are some examples:

 Here is an example of an A level digipak. while the photography and artistry looks professional, the font clearly sets it apart from the industry atndard, as only a basic times new roman font is used.

Next to it is the digipak for the Killers album 'Sam's Town', using a small neat font which doesn't just look like a basic word font.

I will need to take this into consideration when making my digipak, as I want it to be convincing as something that could exist in the current music market.

My next bit of research will be to find some possible fonts for my digipak.

Album cover research.

When researching album covers I realized that many of the album covers from within the 'indie' genre don't actually portray an image of the performer.

I am concerned that if I use a picture of Jem on the front cover, it will be a convention that is more associated with the pop genre. As the artists sound is quite 'poppy' we wanted to steer away from any pop imagery as we want it to appeal more to the fans of the 'indie genre, as we believe that this is the genre that fits best with our song, and we need to have a clear direction with our branding.

As most of these album covers show, most indie artists use some sort of logo or piece of artwork, which is something that I think i will include in my front cover. I also want to include images of Jem somewhere else in the Digipak, perhaps in the inside cover, to appeal to the 'teenage fangirl' audience. However, to appeal to a wider audience, I think that having artwork on the front is more appealing and aesthetically pleasing.

Initial moodboard for the album cover.

This was my first attempt at researching ideas for my Jem's album cover.

I put together some of my favorite album covers that are in a similar genre and have a similar target audience to our artist, along with some other visuals that I like.

I will use this when doing further research and when designing my own album cover.

What we did in today's lesson: 6/1/17.

Today we began our initial research into CD covers. In our groups, we discussed the different album covers from within the genre of our artist. We then discussed how we wanted ours to be unique from the others while at the same time fitting into the genre and therefore appealing to our target audiences.

We also started discussing our websites that we are going to make for our artist. I stated by looking at other 'indie' artist's websites to get the general vibe of them.

I noticed that they were all quite minimalist and artistic, which is something that I shall take into consideration. An example is the Alt-J website (pictured on the right).

We looked into the website tool 'Wix' which is what we will be using to make our websites. There are many templates, but I decided I wanted to design mine from scratch in order to have full creativity over it, and to make it more unique and personal.

We then discussed our Digipacks, looked into others and discussed our own ideas. I would need to link in with the design of our websites to create a recognisable brand that people can relate to.

 



The Hypodermic 'Syringe' Model.

The hypodermic needle theory implies that the mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences.
The mass media in the 1940’s and 1950’s was perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change. 
Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including:
- The fast rise and popularisation of radio and television - The emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda 
- The Payne Fund studies of the 1930’s, which focused on the impact of films on children
- Hitlers monopolization of the mass media during World War II to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.