The document provides details about several existing album cover designs that could provide inspiration for a new music-related product. Key aspects mentioned include retro/futuristic neon color schemes, simple yet creative designs, and themes that relate to the genre of music. Audience research through surveys found that most people responded positively to the proposed band name and were willing to pay £50-£70 to see a live show. Respondents also identified as relaxed/chilled out, suggesting the music would appeal to those seeking a balanced listening experience.

1. Research
Chris law

2. Existing Product
This style of font is always popular among EDM, House
music and Retro musicians since it shows the style of
technology the music is meant to themed and set in,
the musician VHS Dreams does electronic music you
would hear in the 80s in retro games or arcades.
The wavy lines on both sides of the circle are indicating the
volume or music, similar to arctic monkeys. The dark purple
doesn’t make them stand out as they blend in with the
background but it still looks cool. Personally I wouldn’t include
it in my product because I think it would look better with them.
I love the color contrast in the circle and it makes it
more unique and different compared to most other
album covers. I also like the Bahama trees that kind of
make eyes in the circle and their for makes a face.
The colors corresponding so they look good together
and makes the general person think of a party abroad
like in Ibiza where those colors are most associated.
The black background surrounding the orange circle. It
reminds me of several other EDM albums like DJ
Snake, deadmau5 there are hundreds of other artists
out their that have similar album covers. The best
thing I like about this is the simplicity, and easy going
attitude about it. Where as a lot of other covers just
have a letter in a black background with zero
creativity.

3. Existing Product
This design is amazing and is exactly what I want
my products to be made from since this style is
so unique and is an amazing example of
graphical art, visually its breathtaking and
considering that this is just an album cover it
brilliant. Some movie posters don’t even surpass
this quality and creative genius.
The bright neon colors in the background luminate the entire
cover with three colors blue, green and orange these colors
each create other colors in the cover image like yellow, purple
and red. The un-textured background gives it a retro
unfinished part of a game. Not only that but the white spots
give it the illusion that the cover looks over the edge of the
Galaxy. This attention to detail is stunning.
The terrain on the platform all has unique and
different shapes most of them taking the shape of a
Pyramid all of them are taking the surface of a metal
like a shiny aluminum. The person that’s standing
beholding what lies in front of him, this could be a
metaphor for the audience viewing the best of the
band, making them speechless. It is also surreal with
the visual perspective created by the designer.
The name of the album also helps to make this a
complete piece of art, the name is normally what you see
first. If your on a website like Spotify or YouTube and
come across an album called Believer, you would think of
hope and possibly implying how we should all believe in
what we want, such as getting a good job or believing that
the world will be a better place some day without war or
conflict between countries.

4. Existing Product
This album cover is possibly the coolest and most
recognizable among cyberpunk genre with an iconic neon
soaked album cover. This theme that the album cover
imitates is exactly what I want for my products. The beat of
music is also similar to how I would depict the “Blue Lava”
band’s music. The background is an empty space with few
stars shining in the distances. This makes the neon color's
stand out compared to other albums covers.
The ominous orange and pink ball or moon is in the
background as well, almost casting a shadow over the blue
mountain, as orange signifies as a warm color and blue is
considered to be a cold color. Just the use of these colors
shows an alternative form of creativity and indignity.
The title and name of the band is highly visible
and colorful. The font they have used is a retro
futuristic font used to imply the heavy 80s
influence on this album. The font has the same
color scheme and pattern to the moon with
orange turning into a shade of pink.
The main reason for the image on the album, I think
its based on one of the songs as one of them is called
“The Mountain” so the image will be based off that
song. The floor is also filled with squares that is
common and used in 80s themed images. It could just
serve as a platform for the other things in the cover
image like the mountain or the mystical orb hovering
above the mountain.

5. Existing Product
This album was created by the band “Europe” famed for their
number 1 hit single “finale countdown” this album was released in
1986 a very long time ago and is pre 1990, the that reminds me of
what I want for my project is the background with space and the
stars. Plus it does just scream retro 80s to the audience, the music
as well brings back old memories for most people since just about
everyone has heard it before. The album illustrates the band on
playing cards coming from earth and into outer space.
The font style they chose was used throughout
their other albums and was an iconic font for the
band. The colors did change from album to album
a few are just white and outlined with red. Another
album had a silver font color. On the top of the
album it displays the name of the best song inside.
The other cover image is laid out the same way
with the title of the band and the main song for
that album

6. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched
products have?
They are all in the same genre pop/EDM these genres are some of the
most popular compared to others like reggae or blues.
• What aspects of the research will you include
within your on work?
I will use the different colour schemes like neon soaked, these
variations of colours can change the entire project and how the
audience’s perspective views the band. I would like to keep the
theme of the retro neon 80s into my products as all of these
existing products are all based on the visual genre.

7. Questionnaire Analysis

8. Audience research
• Observation: By observing the responses I have received from my “Survey
monkey” survey I can take educated and certain estimations on peoples opinions
on my project. Most people for question 1 wrote good responses to the name of
the band and 8 out of 10 people would like a band with that name. the other 2
responses was uncertain about the name.
• What this says about my audience: This implies that the audience is open minded
and are willing to give things a chance, the two responses that were uncertain
could have been made by people that like a certain genre like soul or reggae
people will always have their own opinions and have their own likes and dislikes. It
could be viewed as “judging a book by its cover” but people have their own
preferences.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to those
who like rock, pop and EDM. And other bands like Imagine Dragons, Coldplay and
fall out boy. These bands are the inspiration for Blue Lava.

9. Audience research
• Observation: My second question was the price to see a band live, and how much
people are confortable paying. The options were £100+ £70, £50, or £30 these
prices would vary depending on how famous the band is and how popular their
live concerts are. But most people were confortable to pay £50-£70 this told me
that my audience were understandable when it came to money because you never
want to pay too much even for tickets for a famous band or singer. someone said
that they were willing to pay £150 to see their favourite band play as long as they
were front row or as close as possible to the concert.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that my audience are some what
willing to do whatever to see their favourite band, not only that but they are
cautious with their money and that can be respected since a lot of companies and
investors will only care about money and not the customers.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My band/ Project will appeal to my
audience because the bands priorities will be the fans not big corporate
businesses tycoons, since the bands passion is to make the world a better place by
being more loyal and truthful to their fans. A lot of other bands and solo singers
are already doing this by rejecting to be sold by big record companies fearing that
they wont consider their side of the quality of the music.

10. Audience research
• Observation: The next question was to understand what type of a person they were in the sense of
if they were relaxed, happy, funny or stressed out, this was to see who would prefer this genre of
music. Most people relaxed would prefer this band since its awesome to listen too not its just a
good mixture of genres so it will appeal to a wider audience, this can increase the bands popularity
and reputation as they can bring psychographics from these three individual genres and combine
them into a new genre.
• What this says about my audience: This tell me that the audience is could like my band for one
genre or another but over 70% thought themselves as relaxed and chilled out. This helped me
understand what they were like and how they dealt with stuff, people who are more chilled and
less stressed compared to other people but they listen to music more than any other
psychographic. The groups that I would associate with my audience are; Balanced and type A
people as balanced people have a mixture of achievements and are socially conscious and believe
in benefiting mankind. The type A group are all about making the world a better place by recycling
and will respond to messages on making a difference in society and the environment.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: my product will appeal to this audience because I
am making the band to be about changing the world for the better, so helping to raise money for
charities like to cure cancer and to help starving people in corners of the world that don’t have
access to fresh food or clean water. This would instantly gain support from these Psychographic
groups since they are more caring and thoughtful.

11. Audience research
• Observation: The next question was about the audiences gender, their were more
males then women and no other gender. This isn’t anything to drastic so I don’t
have to make it appeal specifically to one gender or one that was invented
recently, where as I can focus on the two original genders Male and Female. This is
easier to do instead of combine what different gender people will prefer.
• What this says about my audience: this says that so far my audience are men and
women, this can help me narrow down my overall effort on making it an all round
gender friendly band but now knowing out primary audience is female and male I
don’t have to worry about pleasing other gender people. I wont dis them but I
wont priorities them when making my band.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: my target audience has been made
clear and obviously likes the idea of my project and the concept of the band. This
will make me work harder on understanding what appeals men and women to
albums and bands. It is theoretically their preference if the music is good or not
but I will try to make people like the band before they listen to the music.

12. Audience research
• Observation: the next question was the audiences age and a majority of the audience are in the late teens to early
20s these age groups are typically either students or young adults trying to make their mark upon the world either
by exploring the world in search of experience, knowledge and wisdom. This is what most young adults do when
they are not sure who they want to be in life they will go to explore in other countries to see if they can find any
hidden talents such as acting, sport, art or musician. These are the types of talents that people search for out in
the world, another one that would be great is Photography since the person could make a collage of all the photos
of landmarks across the world.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that the age groups are on a similar age to me but I cant go off my
own ideas alone otherwise I would be the only one liking it. I would require what other teen and young adults like
when it comes to music an merchandise from musicians. And 10% are 40+ so this could mean that I’ve got an
older audience that likes the thought of my band idea.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will consider the age groups that have made themselves known
with a large majority between the age 25 and 15, the best thing I can do to influence this is by making it appeal to
the age groups by understanding what people these ages are into but adding my own twist with a retro 80s style.

13. Audience research
• Observation: My next question was the audiences favourite colour this was to determine the colour
of my album cover, t-shirt and poster. Since their was multiple options the majority was blue and I
am happy with those results as It was my primary goal to use blue for my products. The second
most popular was green, which I wouldn't of minded if I did the products in a bright vibrant green.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that 5/10 of the audience likes blue this can help
me implement factors such as the colour scheme into my project, hopefully by using the scheme I
can get other audience members to like the products. If I tried to add glazes of green I could secure
support from the other audience members.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will insert people favoured colours so I can count
on their support throw-out my production. I can guarantee this since most people are attracted to
colours that they count as their “favourite” the use of their favourite colour will immediately make
it intriguing and make them want to look at my products. Possibly gaining supporters if they like the
idea.

14. Audience research
• Observation: My next question was to understand the style of my audience,
specifically their clothing style. The feedback I got back was good and helped me
reconsider the style of the band through the audience’s input. A huge majority
chose casual so I reckon it would be good for the audience to see the band in a
similar clothing style, I don’t know how I could use this in any of my products. I
could try to make the T-shirt a casual shirt.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that they could be viewed as the
cliché teens and young adults that just dress casual, this isn’t a problem as it
doesn't matter too much what the audience wears.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: But I will definitely implement this
factor into my project when creating the bands profile and background in the
proposal, this detail isn’t crucial but is necessary to understand and get an idea of
who the band members are.

15. Audience research
• Observation: My next observation on the audience is the preferred instrument between 5 different
instruments like guitar, violin, drums, trumpet and piano. This list of instruments can tell me what
type of a person you are and what genre of music you like, such as. If you liked violin I could make
an accurate guess that you like classic music, or if you prefer drums I could presume that you like
rock music. A majority of people preferred Guitar over any of the other instruments, the second
popular instrument was piano, I will try to insert the bands instrumental profile that they primarily
use guitar and use piano for back notes.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that my audience could come to love retro music if
the two majorities like guitar and piano. These two instruments incorporated together could make
some great 80s futuristic music. This has taught me that my audience can be persuaded into loving
my genre of music and my band, if done correctly.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: the way I can do this is by hinting what instruments
will be used in the album or poster images with either the instrument blacked out or I could just
write it up on the proposal so the band will have a profile and will be known with a piano and
guitar.

16. Audience research
• Observation: my 9th question was about how much the audience would be willing to pay for
merchandise like the poster, CD album and T-shirt for £39.99 and I got good responses since 8/10
people would actually be happy spending that money on those items, on 2 people wouldn't. I could
change the price but I think that is reasonable fro the CD album a custom T-shirt and poster
possibly £35 would be reasonable.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that my audience are willing to pay high prices for
merchandise but some people are more hesitant to spending a lot of money on a bands
merchandise. I could try to convince these 2 hesitant audience members by comparing other band
merchandise and their prices compared to mine.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I think I will lower the price of the merchandise so
people don’t feel cheated or scammed even though it would be made out the best materials like
the T-shirt would be made out of top quality cotton. By reducing the price of the product it will
hopefully be popular as it can now be viewed as more affordable.

17. Audience research
• Observation: My last question I asked the audience was what were there job profession. The reason
why I asked this question was because I thought that if they had a more formal job like banking or
government professions then they wouldn't really be interested in the band idea or project.
Because my understanding is that my project is aimed at the younger generations and I think the
older generations have less interesting jobs and have a different taste of music so they wouldn't be
interested in a 80s retro themed pop band.
• What this says about my audience: only one person said that they worked for the government and
another person said banking was their profession. This made it slightly more clear since throughout
most of the questions 2 members of the audience have been ticking opposite boxes to the majority
of the other results. And on the Age question 2 people ticked over 40
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I'm not sure if I can even persuade the older
generation in liking my project and product ideas. I think I will just try to focus on the younger
generation since I can relate to mostly everyone in that demographic. The majority of the audience
voted Retail and Business owner these both are good careers especially being your own boss but
most people in retail are part time and most people in part time work are young adults and
students.

18. Interviews

19. Interview 1
• Do you like the idea of a band called Blue Lava, also what genre do you think this name would
reflect?
I like the name Blue Lava I think it suits the era of 1980s and fits in with the neon design you are
going for on this production. As well as the types of music we have discussed it also reminds me a
bit of house music.
• This is the music that will be played by the band do you like it? (click icon to the left)
Yes I really like the music that will be played by the band I think it will fit in well with the design of
the album cover you are going for and the neon retro theme.
• What out of 10 would you rank this music, and why?
I would rank this music highly as a 9/10 because this is the main genre I listen to however, with
the younger age group and age range considered this may go down.
• What do you think of the visuals of 80s Retro style, and why? (The image on the right)
It reminds me a lot of the earlier Grand Theft Auto series such as Vice City. This shows similar art
work on both the game cover and promotional material.
• What kind of instruments would you expect to hear in this genre of music?
I would expect to hear the saxophone, drums and lots of guitar from this type of music.

20. Interview 1
• Observation:
The first interview went well and got a lot of good feedback from the reviewer,
they gave me a lot to think about and made me understand that I must focus on
the younger audience then the older generations since they don’t like this type of
music. They also gave me a lot of pointers on what the visuals remind them of in
their perspective, one of them was promotional material for an old GTA game
called vice city which has a similar theme to the example picture on the right.
• What this says about my audience:
This tells me that my audience likes the thought of a real life band with the
same prospects as mine. I will try to make the products as realistic as possible
so people will really believe the band is real.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
I will stay consistent with the neon 80s theme when creating the products so
it is not to dissuade the audience I have gathered for this project. My target
audience will continue to be 16+ to mid 20s since these generations are more
enthusiastic for this band.

21. Interview 2
• Do you like the idea of a band called Blue Lava, also what genre do you think this name would
reflect?
I love the idea of a band called Blue Lava, it reminds me of an electronic music band. I think it would be
approved by most music enthusiasts. I would ideally go to a live concert if this band was playing because
I know just based on the visual examples.
• This is the music that will be played by the band do you like it? (click icon to the left)
I like this style of music, the visuals are amazing and if the production is even half of what these
examples are I will be happy. The music is really retro and electronic, it reminds me of the Tron movie
and the overall theme in that movie.
• What out of 10 would you rank this music, and why?
I would rate this 9/10 because I think it sounds amazing and I also listen to this style of music so I
automatically like anything with a 80s retro electronic theme into it.
• What do you think of the visuals of 80s Retro style, and why? (The image on the right)
I absolutely love it and the entire concept of this band and the genre of the music they would produce.
It reminds me of the band imagine dragons even those they aren't seen as retro, I personally think they
have all the characteristics of this band.
• What kind of instruments would you expect to hear in this genre of music?
I would expect to hear guitar, piano and some kind of a Launchpad with multiple sounds and beats. This
is what I would expect for the sound to come from these instruments.

22. Interview 2
• Observation:
The second interview was similar to the first one. They gave me a lot of information and good
details that I can use for my pre-production and for my products. The second interviewer was
just as exited about the concept, and would love to see the band play live. Similar to the first
person to be interviewed they were reminded of EDM and retro music when they heard the
name. They also said that the colour scheme would go so well with the 80s retro visual
imagery.
• What this says about my audience:
This tells me that my audience that like the idea of a 80s retro themed band would be widely
accepted and that most people would like their music. This also tells me that my audience
likes visually seeing things, and that they are appealed through the use of visual
representation. Such as the image used to show what my original idea of what I wanted for
my products.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
I will make sure that when I make my products, I will do everything to make it look the best
that it possibly can. I will google for other images and use as inspiration to creating the perfect
album cover. By doing this I will guarantee that the audience that likes the visual effects will
like the concept of the band. With the visual imagery I hope that I can produce an almost
perfect album cover with a retro theme, if I can then I will be able to extend my audience and
gain more fans for the band. Just through the visual effects and products such as T-shirt and
poster. These products are what fans like and will pay for, this is how I would make these
products appeal to my band.

23. Audience Profile
Category Demographic Content to appeal to this audience
Age Range
16-25
• This is the ages of which the music is appropriate and understand, the
reason is because the music relates to the younger generations because
the music is a mix of vibrant and cyberpunk retro music.
• This age range grew up when retro style was modernized and that music
was being created by younger people like famous EDM artists has taken
inspirations from their childhood memories of music. Most of these are
retro and pop as they were highly popular in the last 30 years.
Gender
Male/Female • Going off the results on the survey it was understood that only males
and females were my audience and the gender was split so half were
boys and half were girls. This, I think I will keep my content the same in
this aspect as the audience have not shown that anything is wrong with
the idea or project.
• Other people from other genders are always welcomed but in my
audience their was only Males and females, no other gender was
selected, basically everyone is welcome and are accepted at the bands
fan base.
Psychographic
Balanced/Type A • These two psychographics are very similar and that is why I have chosen
both since they are both linked to my audience. Basically the band are
caring and generous.
• Since the band donates 30% of all profits to go towards a charity of the
audiences choice, this separates them from most other bands or
musicians, since so many people in the industry take their money for
granted and doesn't donate any money to any charity.
Social Status
C1,C2/ student • I think these social statuses are accurate since my audience are not lazy
or foolish, they are inelegant and creative people, that’s why they like
the band.
• Since I think they are able to afford things because they are students and
young adults with an abundance of time on their hands.

24. Research Evaluation

25. Research Evaluation
• Give an overview of how you conducted your research. Discuss the
strengths and weaknesses of each method
– Product Research: Being able to research other products has definitely helped me to understand the importance
of visual effects and how the audience would react to it. Since the entire production is about appeasing the audience
for their approval of my production idea. The strengths of this section is that there is and abundance of products out
on the internet, and easier to access. The only disadvantage is that there is a lot of sources and it was hard limiting my
research with such a wide variety I could of chosen from.
– Questionnaires: I also got a lot of information from this section as I was able to understand what the general
public liked and disliked about my ideas, this method helped me to narrow down my products options because some
were just shutdown by the audience. Others were encouraged highly such as the colour schemes for each album, but
for the only one that I'm creating would be the first album. Some of the other questions, like how much people were
willing to pay to see the band live at a concert, the most popular option was a reasonable £30-£40 since people don’t
want to pay too much and people don’t want to pay to little so its not realistic. This was a disadvantage since I
couldn't’t ask personal questions in my questionnaire I needed these answers to understand the type of person they
were.
– Interviews: The interviews went well and gave me an opportunity on what people thought of the product and
trying to dissect the true reasons why they liked the concept and what they thought made it a great idea. It helped me
get a lot of information on my audiences opinions and what they liked about it personally. The people that I
interviewed were huge fans of the multi genre idea so their opinions could be viewed as bias, but they do speak
honestly and prefer the idea to most of what we've got now on the music platform. One of the questions that I asked
was if they liked the bands name “Blue Lava” they responded saying that it visualizes the 80s retro theme making
them think of Neon Blue colour replacing the classic red/orange lava colour. He said that when he hear the bands
name he thought of a Tron surroundings but with a volcano spewing out Blue Lava. This is what I wanted, by using
Imagery I could make people instantly recognise the band without even hearing the music. This makes them stand out
from other bands and musicians, since most other names are either just the artist or something that was made out of
random and has no meaning to it. Where as “Blue Lava” is unique and creative compared to others.

26. Research Evaluation
– What sort of a response did you get from your survey?
I got good responses from the survey and helped me go in detail about the target audience, the primary
audience that I am trying to convince in liking my idea and production concepts. A lot of people gave as
much detail as possible when the question was multiple answers, but when it was tick your answer the
majority of the choices were my favourites and my personal choices, like for the colour scheme most
people wanted blue as the primary colour, and this would go well with the bands name as well. There was
2 people that were 40+ and to no surprise to me that they didn't like the idea of the band or products. I
was not surprised because older people don’t like modern music and prefer music from their time. This is
most likely classic or old rock like Elvis preisly or Elton john. Modern retro EDM band wont be popular with
older people just because they don’t like these genres of music and they’re too eccentric and modern for
them. There were different views and styles of people, so a handful of people and characteristics.
– How did you distribute your survey? Give an advantage and a disadvantage?
I sent the survey to some of my friends and asked them to give their honest opinions, I copied and
pasted the web link to a messenger group. That way I could get loads of answers at the same time. I
also sent it on texts to other people so I can get as many people to see the survey in case some people
decided not to do the survey, I think I sent it to 14 people but only 8 actually completed the survey.
The main disadvantage is that there was hardly anyone else replying to the survey by reviewers like
people on the website looking to give reviews and give feedback, kind of like yahoo answers. But
literally only two older people reviewed the survey. This was slightly disappointing since I wanted more
feedback and criticism. This could of helped me to ilastraight some of my reasons for making this
production and making good arguments so I could add extra detail and try to turn critics into fans.