This poster analysis document summarizes and analyzes two different band posters: 1) The 1975's 1975 album poster features a black and white image of cars driving at night on a highway, implying their music is the "right choice". 2) Vampire Weekend's poster shows a foggy city skyline, creating intrigue and mystery about why the city is misty. The reception theory and Barthes' enigma code can be applied to understand how audiences may interpret the image.

1. Poster Analysis
By Dani Wilkinson

2. The 1975 poster for their album is a black
and white image of a highway with cars
travelling through it at night. The image
itself is an open image but the border
around the text makes the image closed.
The picture is blurry with just one
headlight in focus pointing directly at you
to catch your attention. The phrase black
and white means when one idea is clearly
right and the other is wrong so it’s easy
for you to make the right decision
connoting that their music is the right
choice and we should listen to them
because their poster is black and white.
The text is very minimalist, it uses as
little shapes as possible to create their
name to make you look at the poster more
closely.

3. This poster for Vampire Weekend is an image of a city taken from high up. The city is foggy and misty
making it seem more mysterious and intriguing. The text is black on white which relates back to The
1975 poster being subliminally telling you to listen to them as it’s the right choice. The name is written
in quite a simple font so The image gives off quite a calming mood but also a curious mood to wonder
why it’s so misty.
The reception theory is present
here because the image isn’t
explained well, we just know
it’s a city and the album has the
word city in it. The audience
would be wondering why it’s
so misty which could be
received in either a positive or
negotiated way. The positive
reaction could be to recognised
that it’s a lovely photo and the
negotiated way is to wonder
what happened to the city.
This poster uses parts of the
Enigma Code, from Barthes
codes, to create a mystery
through the misty image. It
builds tension and leaves the
audience guessing whether it’s
just fog or whether it’s smoke
from something more serious.
Todorov’s theory can be applied
here in two ways because it
could be interpreted, or
received, in different ways. It
could be a scene of disruption
and the smoke is what’s
followed from the event or it
could be a state of equilibrium
and a peaceful view.
The font for the name “Vampire Weekend” is in a clear, easy font with large spaces between the letters
because they’re connoting that they’re not complicated and when you listen to their songs they’re real
and don’t ‘dance around’ the subject. The other writing is in a fancier font that’s harder to read and is
written smaller so you look closer at the poster. The name of the album underneath could be a way to
attract the target audience talking about it being modern and the vampires cleverly relate to their name.