This poster advertises the album "Skying" by the band The Horrors. The majority of the poster consists of the album cover artwork, shown in vibrant colors with overlaid translucent images to create an abstract psychedelic feel reinforcing the band's genre. Reviews from top music magazines at the bottom add credibility. The poster uses the album art as the central visual element to create an association with the release and features conventions like the band name and release date to promote the album.

1. Ancillary Task Research – Poster
Advert Textual Analysis
Kieran Panchal

2. Skying – The Horrors
This is a poster for the release of the album ‘Skying’ by the The Horrors, which was released in July 2011. The
majority of the poster is an image of the album artwork, which would create a link with the album itself and
allow the audience to identify ‘Skying’ upon it’s release in a shop or online. A psychedelic theme runs
throughout the poster, reinforced by the use of bright colours and abstract imagery, created using overlays with
images with low transparency. The reviews at the bottom end of the poster are a convincing aspect that shows
the credibility of the product, especially due to the reviewers being top music magazines.
Wide kerning between letters
Album cover used as
the central image
Vibrant colour scheme
reinforcing the psychedelic
genre of the band whilst
being visually attractive to
the audience
Overlaid images using high
transparencies to create
abstract effect
Consumer access point –
iTunes
The prevalent colour of blue
connotes the sky. ‘Skying’ is the
album name.
Reviews of the album from
contemporary music magazine,
adding credibility. The use of ‘stars’
is universally recognised and allows
for quick reference.
Rounded Sans Serif type face –
same font used for all ‘The
Horrors’ publications.

3. Don’t Look Back into the Sun – The
Libertines
The Libertines Logo has been
Used. This is a typical Brit-pop
typeface
creased and ripped effect
on the central image
reflecting the band’s
rebellious style and genre
White text, contrasting and
standing out against the black
background
The text is tilted a small
amount, further reflecting the
non-conformist attitude of
the band.
The single cover is used as
the central image on the
poster, allowing the
audience to make an
association with the album
upon its release
An orange colour overlay has
been used over the image,
as well as a circular filter
effect on the outside of the
image
Beneath the orange filter,
the main image appears to
be a vintage style black and
white image
A black background has been
placed behind the white text to
help it stand out
The overall style of this poster is very messy and erratic, representing the eccentric attitude of the band. This
inconsistent style is achieved through the use of bright contrasting colours (many of which carry negative
connotations such as fire and danger) such as red and orange and tilted text. This poster contains many of the
conventions of an album advertisement that would typically be found in a magazine such as the the date of
release, the album artwork, the band logo and the track listings.

4. The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die
Jagged capitalised typeface which has
the appearance of being etched into the
page with straight lines. This reflects the
rebellious and unruly nature of the band.
The typeface has been used later in the
advert also which brings an elements of
style and fluency to the page.
The HMV logo is an access point/point of
sale allowing consumers to take action
and buy the product in response to this
advertisement.
Prevalence of black on the page
connoting death, evil and mystery. This
again reinforces genre.
Lightning bolt style graphic used
within the font, rebelling against
normal Sans Serif font conventions
The main central image is an abstract
image the audience would be
unfamiliar with and therefore may
have to make their own
interpretations about – some form of
aircraft with people boarding
perhaps?
The background colour is not a pure tone of
white, and instead is a more dirty and gritty
shade. A vignette has also been used, giving
the impression that darkness is closing in.
Secondary information is placed
towards the bottom of the page.
Hierarchically this information is less
important, hence why it is positioned at
the bottom in the page and in a smaller
typeface. The most important
information that the band are trying to
get across is the name of the band and
album. Graphological Symbols (arrows) used
repeatedly, suggesting widespread
action
This poster advertisement is particularly successful due to the way in which it accommodates its target audience (rock fans), such
as through the use of rigid typefaces, gritty colours and textures and dark imagery. The way that the graphology within the advert
is so open to the audience to interpret meaning is also effective, as each a consumer can take the poster differently. As well as
this, the poster incorporates all of the key information and conventions of album posters, such as the release date, website
address and point of sale. It has most likely been created through a design software such as Photoshop using a layer-style
approach, perhaps with colour washes to create the unique tones.