1. Lily Wilkinson
How effectiveis the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
As a part of my advanced portfolio I produced two ancillary texts, a CD digipack and an
advertisement poster which both relate to the music video I have created. Both my main
product and also the two ancillary texts I have produced are of the same genre, which follows
the generic conventions which usually are followed within the indie rock genre of music.
When creating the ancillary products it was important to produce a synergy between them
and the final product we had produced, in order to make the music video easily recognisable
and stand out to our target audience. To ensure there was an effective synergy between the
products produced, I used a consistent style in all of the products, and used similar
iconography and imagery which was evident in the music video we had made.
Before creating my ancillary pieces, I researched existing artist digipack’s and advertisement
posters to help me develop an understanding of what typical conventions are followed and
how these could similarly be applied to the poster and digipack I was producing. During the
researching of existing products I analysed the album poster for The Verve’s single ‘Love is
Noise’, which was extremely useful as it showed how the theme is continuous on the
advertisement poster as it is additionally on the digipack. From this analysis it was clear that
the information put onto the poster should be simplistic and rather minimal with the most
important elements highlighted and bolder than the rest, such
as the name of the album and the release dates. When
researching digipacks before designing my own, I focussed on
the various types of images used on the different pages. In
Paolo Nutini’s album digipack for
‘Caustic Love’ it was clear quite bold and
also scenic images were used and were
effective in grabbing the audience’s
attention. The images of the artists
included were mostly close ups or mid
shots of the artists and it was evident

2. Lily Wilkinson
that various techniques had been used such as the rule of thirds, therefore it was something
which I put into consideration when shooting the images for my digipack. It was important
that the images used related to the music video we had produced, in order to create a
synergy between the two. To ensure this we took photos from the location where we filmed
the music video, as we believed the location was a good reflection of the alternative/indie
rock genre.
We followed the generic layouts of both ancillary products created, so they looked as realistic
and professional as possible. In relation to the poster the positioning of the text was fairly
basic and placed in the centre in order to stand out
and make it easy to read, and the most important
information was positioned at the top followed by
the other less significant information which is
positioned towards the bottom of the page. For the
digipack, I replicated the heading which had been
used on the advertisement poster to maintain a
consistent house style. Additionally, I kept the
typography and style exactly the same, as well as
how it was positioned. This is effective as it means
that the text used is instantly related to the bands
album release, and the audience will know that all
of the items are all related. To ensure the digipack I produced looked professional, I
positioned the track listing for the album on the back page of the digipack in a vertical
column, as this is a traditional and effective way of positioning the text.