The document describes the process of designing posters to promote an album. It discusses 6 different attempts with variations in the layout, images, and use of backgrounds. Each attempt is analyzed in terms of how well it fits conventions and might attract audience attention. Feedback is then provided from a survey of 100 people that identified the most successful design.

1. Posters As can be seen around the outside, there are numerous music posters either just advertising the artist or advertising the artist and the latest album (e.g. Celine Dion, Killers). Generally there is the use of the artist’s album cover used, and stretched, then the details written over it. Other poster ideas include similar images to the album covers, so that it is even more recognised by the public, for instance, in the Kings of Leon poster, the way it has been edited with the four faces is similar to the album cover, as is the image of Madonna, where the disco ball is in every image with her to do with that album. In this presentation you will be able to see my ideas on how I presented my poster and whether or not they fit the conventions. Followed by a survey of 100 people.

2. Attempt 1 Despite using Fireworks in my digipack, there were obviously some avenues I never explored, and at first I had no ideas as to what I could do for my poster design. The first picture on the left shows an image of the female off the internet, as at that stage I did not have my own pictures. With the outside of the first two images, I thought could be like a picture frame kind of feel, and then the colours used in the background I felt were relatively neutral. The spotlight effect idea then originated from my digipack with the image used in the background of my front and back cover (treble clef kind of symbol). I basically blurred this even more and began to mess with the saturation and thought that for my inside cover I might use two of the shapes, crossing over each other and each piece a different colour which created a flower kind of effect by just showing the tops of the shapes. I thought because of using it in my inside cover, the link with the poster would be quite nice, however I felt that the star looked ‘plonked’ on there so I originated back to the navy blue background of the symbol that is on my front and back covers, which I actually thought in the end would be b a better idea as this would be seen by more people and so the link would be more evident.

3. Lighting swapped places. Attempt 2 The reason for the first image being on this slide, than the one before, despite it being the same design (bar the dots around the edge and a little more information), is that this enabled me to carry on with the idea of the colour scheme. These ideas were made a while ago and carried a lot of thought throughout the development. As can be seen already I was trying to design a more unconventional design to attract the audiences view that way and this lead me to the second image. Where before I was trying to link my backgrounds to make the unconscious link to the album, this time I decided to connect the images, however, this was again to the inside cover where most people wouldn’t know the link, but due to Pixie Lott being famous, they should recognise the faces, despite only half being shown. The middle part was then to write in bold the artist’s name and the tour dates, I also added two more ‘spotlights’ to brighten the navy up a little. The navy was only used to link the colour used in the music symbol in the album covers, however after an attempt with her whole body split, I felt it did not reach what I had imagined and that she still looked ‘plonked’ onto the posters and would look ‘wishy washy’ against other posters.

4. Attempt 3 After the disaster with all the other mock ups, I began rethinking my ideas slightly as I still wanted the intertextuality to be seen and evident rather than a hidden link. I then began to link all my ideas so far together, for instance, the smaller images featured in an L shape were the pictures where they had been cut, so only half of her face had been showing in two of the previous designs. First I developed the images on the left, where there isn’t much difference between them bother, just the fact that there is more of a clear gap between the l-shaped images and the main one and that there is a background to the top image. I thought as it looked so busy, that it would attract the audiences attention, and bombards the target audience with images of ‘Pixie Lott’ so could not notice who it was representing (as on some you can’t tell.) Additionally, after reviewing more conventional ideas, I thought the box of details rather than just details floating around looked better, and also gave an indication of where it would possible to download/buy the song. Moreover, to complete this I added a background to the main design and not just a plain colour as I thought it would be more eye catching if there was a pattern or difference, and the maroon colour used is the same as the colour font for my front cover. Also, instead of being completely conventional with my poster and just adding the image of the album cover as the top part of the poster, leaving out the smaller pictures, I decided to add more to the poster as can be seen and blurred all the images. Moreover, the font used in the box at the bottom is the same as the front cover of the album, but then changes into an easier to read font but makes a bigger statement this way. The two posters on the right, though, are the same as the ones they are opposite to, on the left, but with no background which I felt did it more justice. (The pink dotted outline on the posters on the right are just to show that there is a background, as evidently most of the outside of the poster wouldn’t show up on the top right.)

5. Box Nothing Box + background Attempt 4 In these next three posters you will see that there is some link to the last slide what with the bottom parts of the poster. The main reason for changing the layout of my poster (again) was because I felt that although it was unconventional and might be seen over others, there is some doubt as to whether this wouldn’t go the opposite way and people completely bypass it as it is too busy. One of the images that was used on the last lot of posters (in the l-shape) is now the main image, the only issue with this is that there is red eye that Fireworks will not cover up for some reason has it has on other occasions. Overall though, I finally felt as though these designs fit the genre better and although there is only a slight difference between these three, there is a difference. As they are labelled, it shows that the very top image has an outlined box with the information in, and also has a slight background to it. The very bottom, however, has just the outline of the information box and the middle one has no background nor outline. Once again the dotted pink lines around the images are only there to prove there is a background to them. One major issue I had with these designs though, is that with ‘Cry Me Out’ being the album title and this poster is meant to be promoting it, I thought the image could confuse people as if there is a different image used to the album cover, then it usually has some link. For example, on the front page of this slide, Madonna’s shows that there is the disco ball link, like in all of her music to do with a certain album.

6. Attempt 5 Due to my criticisms of the last three designs I then changed the main image over to the album cover to see how well that fitted, and found that I still liked these designs, the only issue I would have with these, is that on the middle one where there is a background and outline to the box, that there is too much of a similar design background as to the main image and makes you want to look away than closer. It is now in the audience’s hands to decide the poster’s fates though as you can see on the next slide. Box Nothing Box + background

7. Poster 1 = lllll lll = 8 Poster 2 = lllll lllll ll =12 Poster 3 = lllll lll =8 Poster 4 = lllll lllll lllll llll =19 Poster 5 = lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll ll = 37 Poster 6 lllll lllll lllll l =16 Survey of 100 Winner Box Box + background Nothing Box Nothing Box + background