Evaluation Question 2, for my A2 media course

1. Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts

2. Brand Identity
 Keeping a brand identity is key for any media product. Some products don’t follow a brand identity, typically having a
random pattern to there work, however usually most media products follow a trend across its work. This may include
a colour scheme, image types, fonts etc. The brand identity I created for my media product was very specific, I
based its meaning originally from my music video. The music video see’s a male protagonist going through a tough
time in his life, not knowing what will happen etc. This theme was clear throughout the video and I decided to follow
this with the music poster and the digipak itself. The black and white effect across the media products created a
sense of bleakness for the character, showing a lack of life and conveying the emotions of the video through imagery.
Another key use for brand identity was the use of smudging, I decided following the music video that the protagonist
finds it hard to see who ’he’ is, therefore by smudging his face throughout the digipak and poster it develops this
idea that he is ‘unrecognisable’.
 Brand identity is key for many reasons, the most important reason is consistency, having an album that follows
random patterns maybe seen as creative, or maybe seen as someone with a lack of ideas. My following a ‘trend’ the
consumer will likely ‘log’ the theme and when they see that later on its more likely to remind them of the artist etc.
For example the use of smudging across my work is likely be remembered by many consumers and therefore when
they see this pattern again they may recognise and therefore think of artist.
On the left our examples of brand
identity I used within my digipak

3. Consistency
 I believe that brand identity is one of the most important aspects when it comes to any media product, In order to keep mine
consistent I had to evaluate and involve many different aspects in order to create the brand identity for my artist. As spoke
about previously I had some similar themes which I had to keep consistent across all three of my media products creating a link
between them, which further develops the ideas and meanings within the album through the artwork so consumers can see it
before they make a purchase. I didn't’t specifically get inspiration from one band, however have seen artists do black and white
themes across there work, and it gives them a sense of brand identity and people think of their album when they see something
similar.
 Mise-en-scene is another key aspect that I kept consistent throughout my media products, for example throughout my digipak
there are images of a lake alongside some shots of the environment. These were all taken at locations from the music video
and keeping this idea of consistency across the album.
 My digipak and advert followed very similar themes, although the music video wasn’t entirely in black and white the majority
of the digipak and advert were, creating this idea of the lost emotions of the protagonist. Both the advert and digipak contain
images of the protagonist amongst woodland, which can also be seen throughout the music video, creating consistency across
all the media products. As can be seen below an image from the Digipak and the image used on the poster.

4. Effectiveness
 Digipak’s are one of the most important parts when it comes down to selling an album, the creation, design and
creativity used in its making all make a huge difference on its ability to sell. The digipak I have created I believe
will be vital in its ability to sell, I have used the protagonist, however hidden his identity leaving enigma codes,
which in turn makes the audience want to find out more to discover the answers, therefore increasing its
effectiveness at selling. The images and colour both are also key to its effectiveness, for example the lack of
colour is used to express the emotions from within the song (sad) therefore using this colour scheme it represents
that in a subtle way.
 Creating the effects for this was simple, however I needed it to be at the perfect level in order to be truly
effective. I did the editing on Photoshop by using the adjustments tab and selecting ‘black and white’, before
then editing the saturation levels in order to change the outputs of colours for example the strength of greens
within the image. This was used on the digipak and advert, however there was a lack of black and white in the
video, however the use of emotions within the video expresses this nicely. As spoken about in Question 1, the
digipak does conform to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of how music institutions use close-ups of the artist in order to
create ‘brand exposure’, however I have tried to limit this by smudging the image on the protagonist, not
specifically to subvert this but to create an enigma code for the audience.
 The advert is used as a promotion tool, by exposing the album to the wider public, people are much more likely to
search for the album, then seeing the digipak, which then leads to a sell. Compared to the digipak the mise-en-
scene is almost identical, which was key as my aim was to produce a consistent media product, same locations,
similar images, same effects applied, smudging etc. The advert also promotes the album, including specifically
‘Drop The Game’, which is the song we have made our music video too, I’ve also used the ’#1’, making people
likely to buy it for that specific reason. Other aspects the advert promote are the recording company, the logo for
MOTOWN is in the bottom right of the advert, promoting the record company to be exposed to potentially new
artist that may be in the same genre, which would then have a ripple effect in the future. The date of release is
also included making sure the consumer knows when its possible to purchase the album, alongside links to
online/digital places it can be purchased.

5. Effectiveness/Conclusion
 The advert is also likely to encourage back catalogue sells, when album’s come out
typically the previous content is brought back, so when a new album is released
promoting an artists back catalogue is also vital and can be very effective in sells for the
artist, although I have no included this aspect in my advert or digipak.
 Both my products were used to show the genre of the artist amongst other key aspects.
The genre being indie means that many creative and ‘different’ ideas are accepted and
are taking on board. The use of the black and white although not ‘original’, is a huge
aspect of the indie genre, alongside this the creativity in the smudging and use of
references between the artwork and the music video are also aspects that have made
the media product in its entirety a huge success
 The way the music video inter-links with the artwork was used well and I believe the use
of smudging disguising the protagonist is adept within the indie genre and the enigma
code it in prints is something commonly loved within the genre. When creating the music
video we decided to add darker aspects to eh indie genre, which can be seen within the
music video, by then using the black and white filter to reinforce this and then smudging
to disguise the protagonist, these are all key aspects that work together in order to
create a relevance to the genre.