media evaluation question 2

1. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary
texts?
We believe that there is an effective and clear combination between all three of out
products that we produced. A combination between the products helps to improve the
exposure as the public would see the certain aspects that are spread across the three
items, the music video, the advert and the digipack, helping to create an identity to which
the artist himself can become recognisable.
Through doing research and looking at existing products it made designing our own
products much easier as we knew what to include to make them recognisable as the indie
genre, this meant that it was more likely to attract and appeal to our audience because
we had followed the common conventions of real media and edited them in a way that
made them look more real and professional.
The research into exiting adverts showed us that commonly the photograph used is the
album itself and that this aids the viewer in being able to establish the album when in a
shop and also familiarises the audience with the new product being released by the artist.
Another thing that it showed us was that additional things such as background images
and the font style are often kept quite simplistic and clean so that the advert itself is more
likely to stand out amongst a crowded newspaper/magazine.
For the digipack we found that for the front cover there is often no relevance to the album
and the content itself and that the setting used is quite different and unexpected and not
what you find from more main stream artists - muted or dull colours are often used as this
is conventional of the genre.

2. The back covers are often very empty and only include a tract list, companies used, laws
etc, also the font for both front and back is the same as this helps to build synergy and
continuity throughout the product.
When looking at how effective and clear the synergy is between the three products, we
believe that there is strong connection between the advert and the digipack as they both
contain similar things, the main one being the picture that is the advert on its own and the
front cover of the digipack. By using the same image it will allow people to easily
associate the two together on its release and would allow instant recognition for the artist.
The image itself is of a broken/shattered heart with a section on fire and other sections
that have been burnt and are now ashes, it is laid out in columns and this was to help
relate it to the name of the album ‘Pillars’. The colour of the text is orange to make it link
to the flames but to also show a softer kind of love, as we did the in the music video, the
rest of the image is back and white and this makes the flames and the text stand out and
makes it more eye catching.
On the advert image there is the addition of reviews made by Virgin Media and Zane
Lowe, we thought it would be effective to use these as it shows an audience that what has
been produced by the artist is worth buying, it is a persuasive angle for purchasing the
album and encourages people to buy it. We think that the advert is very effective as it
promotes the album, it’s clear what it is and who it’s buy and it informs people of when it
is available for them to buy.

3. Also on the advert we included both Josh Records’ Facebook and Twitter pages as this
will inform people and listeners of the social networking pages that they can interact with
him on, they can also be used to promote the album being released and increase the
awareness of it.
The digipack fits the theme of the indie genre in that less is more, there is continuity
throughout both the advert and the digipack helping to form brand identity. To continue
the theme of orange it is included in some way in every section of the digipack helping to
link them all together,
we found that this also
helps to connect it to
the music video as
within the video there
are scenes that we
edited to make them
have a vintage/worn
tone to them. By using
the same photo makes
the products easily
identifiable as one
brand, the shattered
heart helps to connect
the two products to
the video as the
narrative is about the character fixing what is broken, even though it is hard to accept that
you have done wrong, it is well worth fixing and making it right - putting the ‘Pillars’ back
together.
The top section of the digipack features the CD in the middle and two images either side
that have been taken from the music video itself. The CD is covered and layered with
Josh Records lyrics from various songs, we thought this would be an effective thing to do
as it is common within the genre and also other products from the same genre, making it
again easily recognisable as an item of the indie/alternative genre - the colours used for
the text are black white and grey to help link it to the colour scheme of some sections of

4. both the poster and video. The pictures either side are taken from the video and include
aspects from throughout it, this will increase the connection between the digipack and
the video as they are actual scenes from the video, allowing people to get an insight to
what the entire video is about and the story behind the song. They also feature the
character and artist himself making it clear that what has been produced and created is by
him, also allowing people to know who this album is by and the new products that he has
released.
One section of the digipack includes another image from the video, where the character
is holding the figure of the mother and son, we
thought it would be
good and very
effective to include
this as it helps relate
the digipack to the
video and that when
people either watch
the video and then
look at the digipack
or vice versa they will
see the relationship between the two.
The font used within all three of the products is very similar to one another and this is
beneficial to the artist as it helps to increase recognition as they can be recognised by the
font used now and in the future with different products that they release - also helps an
audience to see that all three are connected and have been produced by the same
person. We found this to be a very common factor of products produced by other artists
of this genre through our research into existing products, we believe it is very effective
and beneficial as it builds a relationship between each of the items that have been
created.
Overall we believe that the three products that we have produced ourselves, collectively,
are very effective in promoting what we have designed and produced. However saying
this one thing that would make it even better would to have included more of the artist
himself in the ancillary texts, since he is a prominent character in the video, including him
in the other products would have made him even more identifiable and would increase
his recognition massively - despite this though we still think that what we have created
serves its purpose well and suits the genre that we chose in the beginning.