Question 2

1. Question 2: How effective is the
combination of your main product
and your ancillary texts?
By Niall Armstrong

2. I believe it is integral to have an effective combination with my main product
and ancillary texts as my finished product will appear to the highest standard
possible thus looking more professional, because there are connection and
continuity behind both tasks. I think that having the same theme, colour
scheme and font styles really help in selling the product because it creates a
combined package and it is easier to associate one of the products with the
other.
The house style of my ancillary texts is the colour scheme of black and white
on a yellow background because they compliment and therefore it makes the
ancillary products stand out more as it is an eccentric colour scheme. I have
utilised the ‘Annie BTN’ font as It appears as if the album name has been
handwritten and thus making the album more personal, perhaps resulting in
making it more relatable because it is the artist’s hard work, which is a shared
experience for many. Part of the album name is white and the other black to
aid audiences in reading the album title because otherwise, the text would
blend into the jumper of the artist on my digipak. Furthermore, the image of
the artist is central on my ancillary texts because he is the main focus of my
entire product so it is vital to promote the artist.

3. My main product is the music video of ‘Gone in the morning’ by Newton
Faulkner and my ancillary texts regard my digipak and a magazine advert
which promotes my music video. My brand identity is strong as the colour
scheme across my ancillary texts are matching so this will evoke association
between the two. Furthermore, the fonts are identical across my ancillary
texts, so audiences can recognise the text and associate it with my artist and
this font makes the album name handwritten, which makes it look more
personal. A way in which I could strengthen my brand identity by having more
of the colour of yellow in my music video because it would reinforce the
continuity between the colour scheme of my ancillary texts and my music
video. I have used multiple distinct pictures of my artist to embed the brand
identity and this links to the Folk genre as artists involved in the genre have to
promote themselves because they don’t have massive budgets to advertise
themselves, so they promote themselves by being the star/stars of their
album.

4. My magazine and digipak are in the same format with the same font styles
and the artist displayed on both ancillary texts. This helps promote my
ancillary texts because the connection between the two texts will mean that
the audience will be able to recognise the connection and then they will
associate one text with the other, automatically.
The house style I have chosen to go with is a yellow background in every
section of my digipak which initially creates a link between all of my ancillary
work. Furthermore, in all pieces except the CD, a picture of my artist features
on every section of my ancillary text work and this strengthens my house
style and brand identity because it creates a link not only between my
ancillary texts but my main product – my music video. This is because my
artist is central to all of my work. Furthermore, the typography used
throughout my digipak is the same as I utilised ‘Annie BTN’ for the album title
because it appears to be handwritten and therefore, it evokes the sense that
the artist has put all of his hard work into the album. I used the font ‘Sonic
Xbd BT’ for my artists name to differentiate the album name and the artists
name. A combination of these things help enhance my the brand image of my
artist because the continuity in my typography, colour scheme and pictures of
the artist helps to create a visual connection between my ancillary tasks to
the extent that audience may automatically link the two ancillary texts.

5. The typography of my artists name is consistent throughout my ancillary texts so
the artists brand is instilled in the audiences head. Furthermore, I have also
consistently used the same typography for the album name across both ancillary
texts and it is significantly larger than the artists name so it is very much
noticeable.
I have purposely used different typography on my magazine advert for the
reviews of the album, so it makes it easier for people to distinguish that it is not
part of the artists brand. To enforce this, I have also utilised speech marks and
lowered the text’s size to ensure that people will recognise the difference thus
making the audience read the reviews as well as the other important features like
the release of the album. The connections of typography is what makes my
ancillary texts effective because they are very similar and it would be easy to
associate one with the other. The reasoning behind me placing the song title
larger than other information on my magazine advert is because the song title is
what I’m promoting as this is the product which audiences will buy and for it to
look more important than other information, I had to make it larger and in a
banner which would distinguish it from the magazine advert itself, and thus
attracting the attention of people.
My magazine advert and digipak do not have information regarding where my
album is available because it would be Newton Faulkner’s 6th album and therefore
audiences will already know where to purchase his albums but music platforms
like Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube make it easier to market albums as people
search for new music all the time.

6. • There are some links between my ancillary texts and my music video as
the shots of my artist on my digipak and magazine advert were mostly
close ups which links to my music video because there are many close ups
featured in my music video in order to capture the emotion of the artist.
There are things in my digipak that feature in my music video. Firstly, the
artist on my digipak stars as lead role in my music video and so the
audience can deduce that the artist on my digipak will have a vital role in
my music video. Furthermore, instruments feature in my digipak which is
important because Folk values the use of instruments and therefore the
instruments feature in my digipak and music video.