Research FMP

1. Research
Tommy Lister

2. Existing Product – Drake album
coverFirstly, the font used gives connotations of
somebody who is in danger or has gone insane and
has resorted to scribbling on a wall like someone in
an asylum. This also infers how famous Drake is as
he can do a plain album cover without putting his
name in as he feels he doesn’t need the exposure.
The distorted style font could represent lyrics within
the songs and gives connotations of a sense of
confusion as well as potentially warning for danger.
The sense of confusion is reinforced by the small
drawing at the bottom as it it hard to tell what it is
and creates questions, al the confusion/ mystery of
this album cover leads to people having questions,
which they may feel will be answered by listening to
the album. The typical audience for this album wont
necessarily have a large majority male fan base,
unlike other rappers may do and Drake in fact has
quite a large female fan base compared to other
rappers, this could be due to his lyrics being more
meaningful to a lot of people in general, compared
to other rappers who may have lyrics that males
would identify with more and also lyrics that can be
seen as sexist, so Drake stands out to a female
audience too.

3. Existing Product
Also, Drake’s ethnicity is mixed race, and the colour schemes of
the album of black and white could represent that and show
Drake being proud of his origins. A ‘parental advisory
content label is also on the album, this shows that the lyrics are
not going to be family friendly and not something children
should be listening to as well as something that would typically
not interest older generations, therefore the type of profane
language used would more than likely interest the younger
audience such as teenagers. ‘The audience age is largely varied
form teenagers to people who are around the age of 30. This
album may appeal to this audience as it’s style of portraying
someone in danger/distress could relate to younger people who
may feel stressed while growing up. This product has helped me
as it has showed that the use of font is really important and the
font alone can say a lot about the album in general/ the lyrics
that are in the songs. This will help my final project as my album
will be about a fictional rapper who came up from nothing and
the style of a distorted type font will fit that well.

4. Existing Product
When looking at the album cover, the part that
stands out to me the most is the text, due to the
font,colours and style of letters used. Firstly the
font used has a hand drawn style to it which
imitates a child’s handwriting, this could link to
the album content and could be a reference to
the immature attitudes presented in the lyrics.
Additionally, the colours used juxtapose the rest
of the black and white theme that covers the
rest of the album. Many of Joey Bada$$’s lyrics
and songs stand for equality and are standing up
against racism, therefore this mixture of a black
and white theme could be there to symbolise
black and white people being together, this is
reinforced as well by the variation of colour on
the album title.

5. Existing Product
The target audience for this is mainly males
aged around 15-30, this album cover can
appeal to men as there is a lot of the colour
black, this colour gives connotations of power
and strength which typically are associated
with masculinity so it appeals to the larger
male audience as power and strength are two
things the majority of males may aspire to
gain. I have chosen to look at this product as I
am fan of this artist and I like what he stands
for and the message he tries to convey to his
audience. I also like the design in general of
this album as it is quite unique in the sense of
the types of themes it uses together. From this
I have researched more about why people
chose to use certain colours and why certain
colours are used. This will certainly help my
product as I can take advantage of this
knowledge and apply it to my work depending
on my target audience, for example if I have a
largely male target audience I will use colours
such as black.

6. Existing Product
The picturesque background
alongside the artist holding a
large stack of money portrays a
life style that is idolised and
desired by the majority of people,
this is there to prove to people
that he is successful after growing
up with “ nothing” Despite some
of the inappropriate content in his
songs, some people will be
inspired by him and how he has
gained success from nothing. Also
the parental advisory content logo
refers to the content of the lyrics,
which generally may appeal to his
target audience of teenagers/
young adults.

7. Existing Product
Something else that stands out is the text
used, both for it's font and colour. The vibrant
colour on the title " the world is yours " match
the encouraging theme suggested by the title,
this is because bright colours, such as this pink
tend to give the viewer an energetic and
generally positive feeling, which complements
the encouraging message given by the title.
This product's audience is typically for male
teenagers to young adults, it appeals to them
by using someone who would fit in with the
target audience ( Rich The Kid – the artist. )
They use his image and portray him being
successful, which shows the target audience
that there is someone like them who has
became successful.

8. Existing Product
I chose to look at this as this is also a product I
am interested in, as well as this I like the
design and colours used as I think It is eye
catching and has multiple elements to it that
draw attention to it rather than just one thing.
additionally it is currently popular and trending
so it is useful to see what techniques it uses as
I could try emulate some of these for my
product, also it's target audience in terms of
age is similar to mine. I have learned from this
that brighter colours are effective in creating a
positive feeling for the viewer. This has helped
me for my project as it is something I will want
to add into mine as that is a feeling I also want
people who look at the album cover to get.

9. Existing Product
Immediately when looking at this track list graphic,
what stands out is the largely black theme. This theme
complements well with the title " revival" as both the
title and the colour scheme have the same
connotations of negativity to an extent, as to be
revived, initially something bad must have happened.
However, the small amount of red, which stands out
even more due to the use of black also fits with it as it
is a more positive colour which matches well with the
thought of something being " revived”. Other than the
large amount of black, the other colour frequently
used on this graphic is white, after researching in more
depth about " colour psychology" I have learned that
white is associated with being " pure and clean and
good" this also corresponds with the title as it could
infer of someone changing themselves and bettering
themselves, and in the context of this album that is
quite relevant as it is trying to suggest a career revival.

10. Existing Product
The style of this design is very simplistic and
does not include a lot of colour or images, (
other than the small R logo that represents the
title. ) This simplistic style suggests how
maybe the artist doesn’t want to create a large
colourful graphic, as he feels the content acts
for itself without the colour advertisement.
The target audience for Eminem is quite broad
compared to some other rappers, however a
large percentage of his audience is male and
are around the ages of 16-35. The bold and
dark theme of this graphic appeals to the
typical male audience, for example the colour
back has connotations of power, strength and
authority, which stereotypically are things men
strive for

11. Existing Product
I have chosen to look at this product as it
currently is one of the biggest albums to be
released in the last year so I wanted to
research it and analyse features of it to try
understand parts of it which may have
influenced it’s popularity, consequently,
following some research and analysis I have
learned that one factor that may have
contributed is it’s colour schemes and what
connotations they have and how they appeal
to a large part of his target audience. This has
helped me for my FMP as it has reinforced the
importance of colours in advertising as well as
showing me, unlike the other products, that it
isn’t necessary to have lots of colour as well as
images.

12. Existing Product
The first thing that stands out to me is the large
image of the artist advertised in a cartoon style. This
stands out because it is not necessarily a
conventional way of advertising something on a
poster, as well as this it is centered so it is
intentionally the thing the person looking at the
poster sees first. This unconventional cartoon style
of the poster may have been done to represent the
concert and to suggest it isn't like any other concert
and to intrigue the people interested in the event.
The other main feature of this poster is the text
beneath. The text of “ Jay Z” is in a very large sized
font, and the style of the font is just like block
capitals in a simple colour (white.) The reason
behind these styles of font is to highlight the
importance of Jay Z being the headline act and so it
shows how he is more popular than other acts. Also
the colour schemes used throughout the poster
represent his African American heritage, this also
explains why the other artists at the concert are of
the same ethnicity.

13. Existing Product
The typical audience to this is likely to be targeted towards
males as well as people who are around the ages of 16-30.
The dark colour scheme appeals to a largely male target
audience as the colours such as black can be associated
with power and authority, which culturally can be seen as
something men strive for so these colours may naturally
appeal to men without them realising. I chose to look at
this product because I plan to do a poster myself for a rap
concert/tour and this one appealed to me the most visually
due to its uniqueness in terms of the cartoon style
compared to the other ones. I have learned from this that
the colour schemes and their reasoning for being there go
much further beyond just simply looking nice but also
people chose certain colours and themes because of a
deeper meaning/ also a colour that relates to the product
in some way. This will help me as originally I would
probably have chose colours and fonts that look quite well
without necessarily thinking about what connotations they
give off, however now in my project I will think about the
type of things I want the audience to get connotations of,
and then work backwards and chose a colour/ font that
denotes what I want the audience to think.

14. Research Analysis
• •I will include the majority of the aspects of my research in my production work, to start with
I will include the research I did on colours, for these I will specifically chose each colour for
reasons that go beyond just standing out, I will try use colours that represent the artists
background but also ones that fit the theme of the genre. Another important aspect of my
research I will include is the research I conducted on the fonts, this is very similar to the
colours. I will need to consider multiple fonts for each product, for example I want to use a
similar distorted font that can be seen on most of the existing products as it represents the
rap genre well. I also want to use a bold font for the main piece of text on my poster. From
my research of the Eminem ‘Revival’ existing product, I want to emulate how he keeps a
consistent theme across his track list and album cover, I will include this in my own work by
creating a logo for the title of the album cover, and I will also use this on all my other
products. The aspect of how they appeal to their target audience's’ is something I will
include in my own product. I will do this by considering all the things above but in relation to
the audience, for example like on the Eminem one, the bold, dark theme is used as it appeals
to men, so if I had a large male fan base I would replicate that so for my work I will use
colours that are popular amongst the age and gender of the majority of my target audience.

15. Questionnaire Analysis

16. Audience research
• Observation:
The entire audience are of the ages of 16-19.
• What this says about my audience:
That they are all teenagers.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
As they are all teenagers, I will make sure ( when doing my
merchandise) that the colours on the clothes will be more darker
colours, like blue and black as it is uncommon to see teenagers
wearing brighter colours like yellow for example. Also the images I will
use on my album cover will appeal to teenagers as the photos used will
be of a teenager so they can relate to him in terms of age, additionally
I can use the track list to name songs after things that the audience
should be able to relate to.

17. Audience research
• Observation:
That 2/3 of the group are male, with a
1/3 being female.
• What this says about my audience:
That a majority of them are male,
however there still is quite a lot female
audience members so it can’t directly
only appeal to men.
• How will your product appeal to
this audience:
For the largely male target audience
they will be able to relate to the main
image of the artist who is a male of
their age on the front cover, and for
the percentage of women, they may
be attracted to the artist and like the
image of a young and healthy man of
their age.

18. Audience research
• Observation: The answers have quite a bit of
variation although generally at least 10 is the
minimum that should be included as the majority
of people want between 11-13, however there is
also a reasonable percentage of people who want
more than 15, I think as an average the amount
that would satisfy the largest number of people is
probably 15.
• What this says about my audience:
As it is mainly the larger numbers that the audience
would want, it suggests that the audience has generally
got a strong interest in music which is not very
surprising as teenagers stereotypically get associated
with music so this suggest that my audience generally
follow the cultural norms that are expected of
teenagers.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
On my track list I will include 13-15 songs as that is the
best way to satisfy the most people so it will appeal to
the audience as it has the desired amount of songs.

19. Audience research
• Observation:
I can see from this that most people think that the most influential part of a poster is the
design/ images that are used, however that is only marginally viewed the most influential
compared to people thinking that they’ll go regardless to the poster and those two points of
view are fairly equally shared. A small percentage of people however did find that fonts are
the most influential part of a poster so I cant entirely disregard that.
• What this says about my audience:
This does not really show a definitive answer about my audience as the design/images used is
not too much more popular than people who will just go to the concert regardless although it
does show that people do see importance in the design as well as some people finding the
fonts important.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
• Because I will make sure the images and graphics used are ones that would appeal to
the audience and I know from a future question that the audience likes a picturesque
background witha photo of the artist and that is what I will include.

20. Audience research
• Observation: The most popular types of
merchandise are a t shirt and a hoodie.
• What this says about my audience: That they
would most prefer clothing and something
that they can get more use out of for their
moneys worth than just an everyday object.
• How will your product appeal to this
audience: I will choose to make clothing as
the merchandise, the colours will be darker,
like navy or black, or a simple brighter colour
like white as typically teenagers don’t wear
brighter colours like yellow or pink.

21. Audience research
• Observation: The most popular themes are
brighter colours/ a picturesque
background with the artist.
• What this says about my audience: That they
like the thought of the idyllic front cover such
as a picturesque background and the artist as
it shows a good lifestyle and a good role
model
• How will your product appeal to this
audience: I will make my front cover have the
artist and use the greenscreen to put a
picturesque background.

22. Audience research
• Observation:
• The large majority of people see the song
title as important.
• What this says about my audience:
They like to have a connection with the song and if
they can relate to it they'd be more likely to enjoy i
• How will your product appeal to this
audience: When doing the track list I will
make up song names that can be related
things that appeal to teenagers.

23. Audience research
• Observation:
• People like to support the artist but mainly people
will just wear what they like because of its design.
• What this says about my audience:
• That people want to wear whatever looks nice more
than any old thing that is only there to help the artist
so it is important to design something that looks good
rather than is just focused on the artist.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
• I will carefully think about the fonts and colour
schemes used and I will use ones that appeal to the
audience such as darker colours and not bright
colours.

24. Audience research
• Observation:
• It is fairly even but more people would prefer the
standard edition.
• What this says about my audience:
• They generally would rather just have a standard
edition but some people do also enjoy having a
special edition, this could be because some people
just are interested in the music alone however
others want more from the artist that isn't just
music.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
• I will make a standard edition only more than
likely but the other products will include extra
things about the artist so he can still be supported.

25. Audience research
• Observation:
• The majority of people have bought
merchandise.
• What this says about my audience:
• They want to support the artist and would be
interested in buying merchandise again.
• How will your product appeal to this
audience:
• I will make merchandise that appeals to the
audiences.

26. Interviews

27. Interview 1
• What style of album cover appeals to you the most, and why?
Colourful ones with a catchy title because they will stand out the most in a
shop.
• Are you more likely to listen to a song if it’s title seems relatable, and why?
Yes because if you can relate to the song, the song becomes more enjoyable
and has a meaning to you.
• What is your opinion on merchandise for an album?
The merchandise should be at an affordable price and have a colour scheme
that links in with the album cover.

28. Interview 1
• Observation:The interviewee is mainly interested in the colour on the
album and finds relatable songs ideal in an album, they also feel that merchandise
shouldn't be expensive and should be relevant to the original artist/album it is
made because of
• What this says about my audience: I think this suggests that
these types of people in terms of lifestyle/psychographics are needs driven people, this is because these
types of people act upon impulse and instinct, and this matches well with somebody who finds the colour
and title the most important.
• How will your product appeal to this
audience:
• My product will appeal to this audience in one way as I will try have song titles on my track list that are
relatable, I will also have appealing colours that are fairly bright, also the colour scheme/ logo I create will
link with the merchandise.

29. Interview 2
• What style of album cover appeals to you the most,
and why?
Something simple with just a logo and perhaps the band name, which tells the
listener what the album is like and who the artist is.
• Are you more likely to listen to a song if it’s title seems
relatable, and why?
Definitely, because I am more likely to enjoy a song if I can relate to the lyrics and
the story it is telling.
• What is your opinion on merchandise for an album?
I think that merchandise is good because it provides fans of the music a different way to
show their appreciation for the artist. It also helps the artists to gain more money, because
typically albums alone doesn’t pay that much as a lot of the profits don’t go to the band.

30. Interview 2
• Observation: They feel that merchandise is important and a positive thing in
order to support the band if that is how you feel. They also feel like being able to relate
is good and they seem to like simplicity.
• What this says about my audience:
• When researching lifestyle/psychographics, this observation suggests this part of my
audience may be ' socially conscious type A ' I think this because this group of people
are concerned about how their own actions effect the world around them, and this
shows selflessness which I think is represented in the comment above. This is
highlighted from them wanting to 'support the band'.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
• My product will appeal to this group of people as there will be merchandise available
which would allow these people to support the artist. My merchandise will also have
fairly simple designs and not be over complicated which will appeal to my audience.
Lastly, I will include song names on my track list that sound relatable to people of my
target audience.

31. Bibliography

32. Bibliography
1. Lister, T (2018) Target Audience Research Survey (conducted on
13/04/18)
2. Gibson, T. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 13/04/18)
3. Thirlway, W (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 13/04/18)
4. Drake (2015) If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
5. Joey Bada$$ (2015) B4.DA.$$.
6. Rich The Kid (2018) The world is yours
7. Eminem (2017) Revival
8. Jay Z ( 1999) Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford NJ