The student created a music video, digipak, and advertisement for a record label called Ruby Records as part of a course. The logo, featuring a dispersing rose, was used consistently across all products to create a unified brand identity. Photoshop was used to design the products, ensuring consistent font, color scheme, and imagery like tree branches and paint splatters. The digipak and advertisement featured the same black and white portrait of the singer Matthew to reinforce the star image. Reviews were included in a different font to distinguish outside opinions. Overall, the consistent design choices across all products helped create synergy and link them together with the music video as the core product.

1. Question 2:
For the course I didn’t just have to create a music video, it was the epicenter of
the three media texts: Digipak, advertisement and the music video. By doing this
everything had to appear as aprofessional media productas each text had to
come together to produce a sense of brand identity and synergy. My record label
was named Ruby Records with the logo of a rose falling apart – an image that I
Photoshopped using a technique called dispersion. This logo can be seen on the
back of the Digipak next to the disclaimer message, as well as the background o
my blog. It is important that the audience can always refer to the record label so
that the products are always under the same name and not scattered and
unorganized, but iconic and gives a visual reinforcement of my institution.
Another way this can be done is by keeping the same design throughout the
products down to the smallest detail. Before deciding these details, however, I
had to give it a lot o thought in the content of what would be expected for a
product of my genre?
I used Photoshop for both the Digipak and the advert, just as I did for the record
label logo. By doing this I could make sure that aspect such as font, colour
scheme and patterns stayed the same – allowing each of the ancillary text to be
familiar to each other. For both the Digipak and the advert I first did a Photoshoot of Matthew, who plays he signer and protagonist, in the studio. I had him
in a number of poses that I had taken inspiration from in other albums that
matched my genre, in different lighting and camera settings to see every
alternative. After finding the one I liked I preceded to Photoshop it using a
number of brushes I had downloaded specifically for this. I made sure to save
these to my folders so that I could use the same brushes again when it came to
other parts of the ancillary texts. I wanted to use the colour scheme of black and
white that is well known for old rock albums. I felt that it fit quite well with how
the song was both slow and sad, yet proceeded into a faster, louder chorus with
more emotion. This is associated with the colour’s that represent depression and
loneliness – the two main feelings portrayed in the song.
For my Digipak I used the four-panel template, for the front and back cover, the
inner front over and the CD panel. The song list was on the back, the title and
main image on the front, and the CD design on the inside matching with images
that were used for the background. The two main designs were trees branches
and paint splatters. I believed this went well with my music video as the two
main setting were the fields that were surrounded by trees, and the art
classroom were the video finished with the paints falling.
My magazine advert used the exact same themes, creating a collective identity
for my products and helping it to be recognisable to the audience. As with many
other commercial aspects of the music industry star image has been used in the
same genre: Rock, were the main singer is the main member of the group shown
– again, to help their star image more iconic to the audience. I used a different
image of Matthew for the poster that I felt would fit with the design I’d sketched
out. I then continue by adding the paint splashes and tree branches after turning
the images black and white. I also made sure to use the same font as I did for the
Digipak for the title of the group and album name – again for collective identity

2. and recognition. The reviews for the album were in a different font to help
separate the outside opinions from the record labels creative control decisions.
The names of the reviews were used as they were well know as music critics and
even institutions that have their own music channel – therefore deciding further
the ease of access the audience would have to the products.
I believe that the design choices for all parts of my product have went well as
they all have important and easily noticeable links to each other, again
reinforcing synergy. But the most important part is that it all comes back to the
main product, the music video, and the codes and conventions shown through
both the visuals and the music.