A-Level Media Coursework

1. EVALUATION OF
DRAFTS
HannahWicks

2. ■ This was my initial idea for my print productions, here I think I
was taking the theme of broken communications to literally
by disrupting the picture by placing cracks over his face. I did
this through using the polygonal lasso tool and rubbing it out
on Photoshop to show the white background beneath. I
personally feel that this does not construct a strong enough
brand identity through how it could be perceived as looking
unprofessional. In relation to Stuart Hall I think my target
audience and others could potentially decode this in a way
that was not intended.Through the cracks it could be
portrayed to be more of stereotypical heartbreak theme,
especially considering my target age range of 16-24, although
this is an aspect of the music video, it is not the entire
message I want to convey through the synergy of my
products. However there are aspects of this design that I do
like, for example I feel the black and white filter placed onto
the photograph is successful, I want to employ this technique
in my final design as the color symbolism is effective in
communicating the tone and themes of the album; for
example the black and white connotes how heartbreak and
sadness are key themes in the album but overall it does not
communicate my main theme of broken communications
successfully.Therefore, through taking into to account I have
decided to employ black and white filters across all my final
print productions.

3. ■ In this design I have employed the technique of covering his
eyes and mouth, thus I think this is an improvement from my
earlier first design that I have previously discussed as I feel this
is a more subtle way of communicating my theme of
breakdown of communicating, this goes in hand with my
chosen visual style; minimalism as it is not an overly
complicated design. I feel more confident in the photograph I
have I used through it being a more close up shot and I feel
this is a more professional approach.This is a more stylistic
approach to using his portrait on the front cover and is a genre
convention of indie music. Again, in terms of decoding my
productions for my audience, I feel this would be more
successful through the use of the newspaper.This is because a
newspaper is an obvious metaphor for communications, the
way it covers his mouth and eyes conveys a breakdown of
communications, these are the senses we communicate most
with.Therefore, with the newspaper covering the eyes and
mouth it conveys my theme successfully, thus I have decided
to employ these techniques in my final production. However, I
still feel a sense of sophistication is missing from the brand
identity I am trying to construct.

4. ■ This is the third draft of my print production, here it is clear to
see how I have employed the two successful techniques
discussed earlier; the black and white filter and the
newspaper covering his eyes and mouth. I wanted to make a
statement of his name and previously I had not added this
feature, it is a convention of the indie genre to have the name
bigger than the album name.This is to construct a strong
brand identity for the artist.Thus I attempted to do this with
the white bars added below and above his name, I also
thought this would create a strong link with my music video
as in my music video I featured the cinematic technique of
adding black bars to every shot. Upon reflection of this draft I
decided to make the newspaper cut outs bigger as I feel it
would look more professional with the whole of his mouth
and eyes covered.This perhaps would create a larger impact
of my theme which is ideally what I would like
■ Although, I am covering his eyes and mouth I think changing
the original photograph to one that I took that uses direct
address would create a stronger connection between my
artist and the targeted audience as they would still be able to
tell he is looking directly at them where as here he is looking
down and I think the text at the bottom would look better
without his hand behind it.

5. ■ This was my first attempt at a back panel design, you can see
here I have employed the technique of surrounding his name
with white bars, however here I feel it is not successful as it
looks very alike to a front cover as the name dominates the
panel despite having the track list on it. However here you
can see I have added a newspaper border, it is the same
newspaper photograph I used from covering his eyes on my
front cover, I feel this creates a nice flow throughout my
products. I will be using this in my final production as it
establishes a much more professional tone to my print
production, I think it is separated from the other drafts as it
doesn't’t not appear as novice and naive as my other
attempts. Here, in this particular draft I have changed the
portrait photograph to one with direct address of Finns eyes,
as said before I feel this is a much more wiser choice of
photograph.Through the direct address of the eyes,
particularly on the back panel as I have chosen to not cover
his eyes her, creates a much stronger connection between
the audience and artist as through this direct address a
relationship is established. I feel as though some aspects of
this design are extremely successful, for example the font
and border, hence I will be using these in my final print
productions.

6. ■ These are the inside panels I have chosen to use in my final
production, here you can see I have decided to use the same
photograph twice and they do not include direct address. Because
they are inside panels I felt as it was not necessary to include direct
address and may feel a tad repetitive.
■ Especially considering the age of my target audience (16-24), it was
particularly important for me to include social media logos to
highlight to my audience that they could find information on my
artist and his social media on these platforms. For this targeted age
range this would be an extremely significant way of establishing a
relationship with my artist, for example this would be through
following them on Instagram orTwitter and seeing what their daily
life consists of. By giving my audience they option to follow my artist
on such platforms it also constructs a stronger brand identity as it
would be a key element to marketing an artist, social media is
probably the biggest way of marketing now compared to 20 years
ago when perhaps posters andTV appearances would have been the
biggest way to market.
■ I decided to include a personal message from my artist as it is a key
convention of the indie genre because indie artists often want a more
personal and intimate tone to their albums and music more so than
say a pop artist.Therefore by dedicating to his ‘friends fans and most
of all my family’ I believe I have successfully achieved such a tone and
mood.Thus I have concluded that I will be using both inside covers for
my final productions as I think they are both extremely successful.

7. ■ This is the final draft of my front cover, here I have
employed all the successful techniques I have previously
discussed, black and white, newspaper covering his
mouth and yes and using it as a border, direct address
photograph. However I also chose to put the album
name ‘Where DoWe Go’ on the cover, although I chose
to make his name in larger text size.This is a convention
of indie and general CD covers as it emphasizes the
artist name and makes it more recognizable to the
audience. I am happy with this draft as I feel it is
successful in commutating my theme of a breakdown of
communications and constructs a strong brand identity
through the different elements that make my front
cover. I also feel confident in the professionalism of my
print productions, in my opinion I have been successful
by creating a CD cover that does not look naïve or as
though a student has created it.