This document discusses the effectiveness of combining a music album with ancillary texts such as album artwork, music videos, and advertisements. It analyzes the covers, panels, and advertisements created for a pop album. The front cover features a close-up photo of the artist conforming to pop music conventions. Corresponding imagery and fonts are consistently used across elements. Feedback indicates the elements represent a strong brand identity through visual continuity across the album packaging and music video. However, the brand identity could have been more recognizable with additional distinguishing characteristics.

1. How effective is
the combination
of your main
product and
ancillary texts?

2. This is the front cover of our Album
. We used a close up of my artist to
conform to the codes and
conventions of Pop. After looking at
many real life examples, I tried to
make my cover look as realistic as
possible. We branded our own font
from ‘dafont.com’ and used this
consistently across the digipak for
all elements. The artists name is
larger and featured in the top left
hand corner with the album name
featured slightly smaller, just
below.

3. This is the back cover of our Album.
Notice how we have featured the
back of our artists head which is the
reverse of the front cover image,
almost like she is turned around. We
used Photoshop to edit the pictures.
Some of the changes were
brightness, contrast, crop, re-size
and scale. To the right is the list of
songs that are featured on the album
and for this we universally continued
to use the same font and colour.
Other features include the
distributors, copyright date, artist
website, barcode and company label.
It was important that everything on
our album was thought out and
authentic.

4. This is the left pane of the inlay panels. The
image came from the narrative part of our
music video. ‘What went on last night?’ is
written in lipstick on the bathroom mirror
where we first pan to our artist in the bath. The
idea was to not only add to the outrageousness
that was ‘last night’ but also to pose questions
which set up the theme of the music video.
From the start, the audience can clearly gage
the nature of the production.
(Left pane)
(Right pane)
This is the right pane of the inlay panels. This
image also came from the narrative element of
our music video. After the shot of the writing on
the mirror, this is the next image that the
audience sees so it was important to us to
include it on the album as this image from the
clip is a key signifier in relaying the plot.

5. This is the magazine advert
for our Pop music video. The
style of image we used is the
same as the ones featured for
the CD cover in terms of
backdrop, lighting, costume
and colour. We had the
picture at the top to promote
a sense of the ‘star image’ and
then the appropriate text
followed underneath. Things
that we included were The
name of the artist and the
album, ‘including’ list, date of
release, where is can be
found, the website and the
distributor.

6. All of my ancillary texts link together really
well in terms of permanence and
continuity. Moreover, they represent the
strong link between the digipak elements
the music video itself. Collectively, it is an
effective package. We created a strong
sense of brand identity by the overall use of
the same font, photo type and relevant
information. When we created them, we
did not see them as individual elements,
but a contributing area to a larger product.
Critically speaking, a personal strength of
ours was to create a brand identity
however a weakness was that our
characteristics of the product could have
been more recognisable with instigating
factors such as a key colour or a memorable
expression or stance.