The document provides details for the design of an album cover, sleeve, and related marketing materials for a fictional debut album called "This Is Gospel" by the band Broken Robots. The front cover features a black and white close-up photograph of a woman's face with red lips and a cigarette, intended to convey mystery, rebellion, and intrigue. The tracklist and album details continue this alternative style and theme. A magazine advertisement is also designed to promote the album, featuring the album art and details in a style reflecting common conventions for advertising music releases.

1. Drafted Ancillary
Task

2. Album Sleeve Cover

3. Front Cover
The writing on the front cover wont
obscure the face of the woman, it is
against a fairly simple light
background with a contrasting dark
coloured text, this will make it easy
to read. I named the album ‘This Is
Gospel’ after the main song on my
album. This makes that track stand
out more because it is the album
name as well. Below it says ‘Debut
Album’ which means it is the artist’s
first album, this implies that it is a
new album and a new artist so
people may be more likely to buy it.
This cover does not fit with the
conventions as it doesn’t have the
name of the artist. This is because I
wanted to minimise the amount of
text on the cover but I may change
this later.
The main image on the cover is a
close up of a girl’s face. Only half of
the face is showing; this is to add a
sense of mystery and intrigue as it is
not clear who the person is. Also by
not showing the eyes it has
connotations of hiding a secret as the
eyes are said to show truth.
In the photograph, the lips will be red. The rest of the image will
be monochrome so they look much more vibrant and stand out.
Red lips also have connotations of being sexy or seduction, this
could support the voyeuristic style of the music industry in their
portrayal of women. The black and white style with a splash of
colour is also found in the Panic! At the disco album that I looked
at in my research, so it reflects that alternative style
I have also included
her smoking a
cigarette which has
links with rebellion
and reflects the
alternative genre.
The use of smoking
and fire is found in
several pop-punk as
well as alternative
genre music videos
so it suits the genre
conventions.
Behind the main
portrait will just be a
plain dark/black
background. This
adds to the idea of
mystery and it also
makes the portrait
stand out against
the black.

4. Side
The smoke from the front cover will trail
across the side of the album sleeve and onto
the back. This will help to link the front and
back as it will also have a black background.
The side of the sleeve will have the album
name: This Is Gospel. It will also have the logo
for the record label on it at the bottom; this is
a prime convention of album covers and is
found on most of them. On the side I will also
include the artist’s name as that is a common
convention of an album cover. The font on the
side will be the same as that on the front to
keep with a house style. It will be white
writing on a black background; this strong
contrast makes it easy to read.

5. Back Cover
The back cover will
be a very simple
style. The
background will be
black with white
text over the top
making it easy to
read. The main font
for the tracklist will
be the same as that
on the front cover
and the side. This
joins it together
and suits a house
style. This simple
style of the back
cover is so that it
doesn’t look too
cluttered and
messy.
Here I have included a
barcode which is found on
the back of most album
covers.
This is the institutional presence
on my album. It is the logo for
the record company that would
be best suited to produce my
album, most albums have their
record company logos on the
back of the albums.
At the bottom of the back cover
I have included the year of the
album (2015), the name of the
record label, and two websites.
The websites are that of the
record label and of the artist’s
album. This cross media
convergence allows easy access
to several platforms that a
consumer could access
information about the artist
and the album.

6. The Tracklist
The main idea with the tracklist were to have
songs that relate to the themes in the song and
the cover art. This helps to link it all together.
Most of the song titles relate to fire, smoke, and
night time. They are all things that will feature in
my music video as well or my album cover.
When I edit the real ancillary task I may also
include song titles that have religious
connections similar to This Is Gospel. I have
included 10 songs on the album; it is an even
number and about the average that most
albums have. Several of the songs have
‘(acoustic version) written by them; this
supports the alternative/acoustic style of my
own song so the album would focus on this
alternative acoustic genre.

7. Record Label – Hopeless Records
‘Hopeless Records is an American independent record label located Los
Angeles, California. The label was started in 1993. Hopeless's artists are
generally considered punk rock, pop punk, post-hardcore, or alternative rock.
Some of their most well-known artists include or included Avenged Sevenfold,
Thrice, Yellowcard, All Time Low, There For Tomorrow, Silverstein, We Are The
In Crowd, The Wonder Years, The Human Abstract and Enter Shikari.’
This would be a suitable record label for my album because they have
experience with pop-punk and alternative rock. The alternative genre as well
as pop punk are the main ones that fit my song.
The band that they produce ‘All Time Low’ has done several acoustic covers of
their songs on a number of their albums. This means it would work well for my
album that focuses on pop punk/alternative songs with several acoustic ones.

8. CD
The CD will have the
same image as the main
image on the cover of the
case. This supports a
house style and creates a
running theme across the
CD and case. This
minimalistic style means
that the only thing on the
cd is the photo, creating
an alternative aesthetic
to the CD that breaks
common conventions;
most CDs have the
artist’s name and album
name on but this just has
a photograph.

9. Magazine Ad Conventions
Here are two examples
of magazine adverts for
albums by Panic! At the
Disco and All Time Low.
Both have the band
name in big letters on,
they also both have an
image of the album cover
on as well as the release
date for each album.
They also both have the
record label on the ad.
They both stick to
respective colour
schemes throughout the
advert. They also have
cross media convergence
with links to their
website or links to the
record label’s site.

10. Magazine Advert

11. I decided on a band name of Broken
Robots. This is because I couldn’t use a
band that was already formed as the
album is a debut album. The band
name is different and unique which fits
with the alternative feel and genre of
the album. Where their name is written
here I will use a different font that
could be their logo.
The main image in the magazine
advert is an extreme long shot of a
woman standing under a lamppost.
When I take this photo, the woman
will be wearing jeans and a leather
jacket to fit with the punk genre as
many of the pop-punk videos I have
looked at have the artists/actors
wearing dark, simple clothing. The
figure will be in focus with the rest
out of focus, creating a main focal
point. The lines along the road are
leading away to add a depth of field
and also towards the album cover; to
direct the viewers eye towards it. The
lampposts will be the main sources of
light and there will be a lot of black as
it will be night. This fits with the pop-
punk genre characteristics of strong
use of lighting as well as darkness;
both are used here to add mystery as
we do not know who this woman is.
I have used the buzzword ‘new’ at
the start of the ad; people read from
left to right, top to bottom so the
word ‘new’ will be the first thing they
see and will capture their interest.
Below that I have a release date in
October. This is because many of the
songs and themes running through
the album relate to autumn season
(darkness, fire (bonfire night) etc.).
The advert is landscape because it would take
up half a page of a music magazine rather
than a full A4 page. This is because this is the
band’s ‘Debut album’ so they would likely not
be able to afford a full page spread. The type
of magazine that would publish this ad would
be one that often discusses the alternative
genre of music such as Alternative Press.
Here is a space for where the album cover will
go. It is quite large on the page because if it
were too small then people that may want to
buy it could not recognise it in the store.
Below it I also have the Hopeless Records
label as well as a link to their website. I think
in production of the ad I will also include a
website link for the Broken Robots band.
I have used another
buzzword here of
‘exclusive’ when I
mention which tracks
are on the album. This
captures the viewer’s
interest. I have then
listed three of the tracks
on the album, including
This Is Gospel which is
what the album is
named. I have also
written that it is a debut
album; this should make
people interested
because it is a new artist
that they wont have
heard before and my
target audience would
like to be up to date
with new music artists
and trends.