Tom Walker is a British singer-songwriter from Manchester who released his debut single "Sun Goes Down" in 2016. His style falls under the indie genre, blending indie rock, pop, and folk. His most successful release so far has been "Leave a Light On" from 2017. The CD cover for his album "Play Dead" depicts the artist cut into red slits, portraying a breakdown in communication and relationship, suggesting a breakup has left him feeling "dead." The minimalist visual style and placement of text elements create a complicated characterization of the artist's personality. The tour poster reinforces indie conventions through its simple, personal design that lets the music stand out, with the artist's name and tour locations prominently

1. CASE STUDY OF
PRINT PRODUCTIONS
Hannah Wicks

2. Tom Walker
Tom Walker is a British singer songwriter, originally from
Manchester. He is signed to the label Sony's Music
Relentless Records. He only recently released his debut
single ‘Sun goes down’ in 2016. In may 2017 he released his
EP ‘Blessings’, but his most successful release has been
‘leave a light on’ after it commercially hit in 2017. He falls
under the genre of indie, with a blend of indie rock, pop
and folk to make his particular sound.

3. ◦ A similar theme to what my own print productions have achieved
is a theme of broken down communications. The slits created on
the CD cover portray a breakdown of some relationship, this is
especially illustrated through the artist being cut into slits as well
as the red square. It can be suggested that it is a break down of a
romantic relationship through the connotations of red. Red
conveys anger, love and possibly heartache. How the slits don’t
match up into a regular square could be highlighting how the
pair that have fallen out of love are not a good match and that
they are not right for each other. This narrative of a broken down
relationship is further created through the albums title, ‘play
dead’, suggesting that without his partner he might as well be
dead and he struggles to do anything right. This could go hand
in hand with the red square unmatched up as it almost has a
hand drawn effect like the artist has not done this right either.
The matter of being dead is also heightened through the colour
connotations of black and red together, this is a popular colour
combination to convey the theme of the dead and therefore the
artist is not challenging such stereotypes. For example it was
used in the costume and poster for the ‘Dead pool’ movie.
However, it is clear that the white text is produced to stand out
as it is his album and own name. The font strongly resembles a
masculine handwriting through it almost looking slightly messy
as it is a stereotype that feminine hand writing is typically more
neat, this could also suggest that since his heartbreak his life has
become messy as he struggles to adapt and grip back onto
single life after a long term relationship.

4. ◦ This CD cover creates a complicated character
representation which seems to the juxtapose the
minimalistic visual style. This is portrayed through
the red slits not joining up as I previously
discussed this suggests a broken down
relationship. However, it also suggests a
complicated persona by his portrait being ill
aligned, almost as though it was his own
characteristics that did not fit to the other person,
rather than the other person being the problem
in their relationship. Hence why his complex
personality can be seen through this CD cover,
this could be relatable to a young audience in
their teen years as it often a stereotype in music
that teens are particularly misunderstood. Thus
Tom Walker is complying and reinforcing such
stereotypes of young people being complicated
during a time of change in their lives.

5. ◦ This tour poster shows effectively the techniques to get a readers attention,
especially as that is the purpose of a tour poster. His name is the largest text
on the whole of the poster, this is a genre convention of CD covers, it gets
the audience to recognize the artists name and makes it stand out against
the rest of the text. How his name is also above the slits suggest a level of
importance by putting against the black in white font, a similar technique has
been employed with putting ‘European Tour’ in the same slit as his face,
again suggesting a level of importance by putting it in line with the artists
face. The same font has been employed across all of the texts creating
synergy and a strong brand identity. By using this font that resembles a
males handwriting it conveys a very personal image to his brand, this is a
genre convention of indie as they purposefully employ personal looking
techniques such as this font to illustrate how emotional and close to them
their music is. It is often that indie artist go for a minimalistic approach to
their posters and CD covers. This conveys that their music is to do the talking
for them, rather than pop artists who tend to go all out with glamour and
extravagance, therefore this tour poster falls exactly in line with indie
conventions and reinforces such stereotypes. The use of social platforms has
been used at the bottom, this suggests that the artist is attempting to reach
a young audience, as young adults are most likely to be on social media
themselves and follow music artists they enjoy. It also suggests that this artist
enjoys connecting with their audience by giving them the ability to message
or follow him.