The candidate created various promotional materials for an artist named Tia including a website, single cover, and album front and back covers. [1] In designing these materials, the candidate took cues from the indie pop image created in Tia's music video including romantic themes and close-up shots. [2] Both the single and album covers featured close-up images of Tia to promote her star image and the materials were designed to stand out to their target teenage-young adult audience when viewed as thumbnails online. [3] Social media accounts and a website featuring images and video from the music video were also created to help build Tia's fanbase through connecting with her audience.

1. Sarah’s Evaluation
Candidate Number: 0050

2. Q2. How effective is the
combination of the main project
and ancillary task?

3. For my ancillary task I created a website, a single cover and an
album front and back cover. While designing these I made sure to
take into account the image created for the artist Tia in the music
video.
The image we had created in our music video I would describe as an
indie pop image, as we used a lot of close up shots and had the main
focus on Tia but also created distance by not using lots of
performance to camera and also the music itself would be classed as
indie pop. I also kept in mind the romantic message the song had
and the romantic theme that in the music video through the use of
heart themed cut-aways and the candle scene.

4. When I designed the single cover I took into account that in our
music video we had begun to create a pop star image for Tia.
Keeping that in mind, I used a close up picture of Tia as the art
work to continue the image. I also used this as the main focus that
on Tia in the music video is done to sell her image, similar to Cheryl
Cole’s for The Flood. In her music video the main focus is kept on
her as she is the only character/ singer in the video and on the
single cover her image is the most prominent, as the background is
kept dark and the logo is small and simple. In this way her Star
Image is used to sell the music.

5. To create the single art work I used Photoshop to lighten a picture
we had taken during the shooting of the candle scene. I added
effects by changing the contrast to create a soft focus. I feel this
represents the artists image as a indie pop artist and also enhances
the romantic and soft image she has too. I made Tia’s logo bold and
black as I felt it was important to make the logo and the image
equally eye-catching and easy to see. I also feel that particularly for
a first single making the artists name stand out is particularly
important. This can be seen on other artists debut singles such as
girl band Parade’s first single Louder.

6. When designed the album cover I again tried to keep some continuity and
make a connection between the first single and the album cover. To do this
I used a long shot picture from the candle scene. I used this image as I felt
it was eye-catching and had a soft look that worked perfectly with the artist
image. To make the album cover stand out I used a red colour block to
make the logo stand out and also to put some bright colour in to it. I also
used Photoshop to lighten the picture and didn’t stand out enough.
However after lightening the picture and changing the contrast to make it
look natural it is eye-catching and I feel it represents the image I am trying
to create for Tia of soft romantic innocent perfectly.

7. When designing both the album and single covers I knew that the target
audience for Tia would be teenagers to young adults (15-25 year olds). As
this age group are most likely to buy their music online I wanted art work
that stood out and that the logo was bold, so that the thumbnail picture
that would be shown on the screen would still attract attention and be able
to compete with other albums on the market. For example if the album was
advertised on the iTunes homepage the small thumbnail picture would be
competing with the others being advertised. This influenced my decision to
choose the colour red as the block colour as it is bold. I also chose red
because it suited the romantic themes of the music and the image Tia has.
The album art for singer/songwriter Kate Voegele’s album art for ‘A Fine
Mess’. The bright image and the luminous yellow font colour makes the
album stand out and this was an effect I tried to create for my album cover.

8. I also made a poster to advertise the album. The poster is similar to the
album art, as it follows the same colour scheme and has the same art work.
As the image is also from the music video, it also advertises the music video
and also has more chance of the audience recognising the artist or the
music video/music. This is done so that people will identify and recognise
the album and see if they remember it even if they do not remember the
name of the artist they may remember the art work and would be more
likely to listen to the album or preview it. Ed Sheeran’s album poster was a
big influence on my poster design. I really liked the simplicity of it and they
lay out and I tried to create this in my own poster.
The Album – I’m Still Here
Featuring the singles
‘I’m Still Here’ and
‘Butterflies’
Out 17/04/12

9. The target audience Tia appeals to is also likely to follow the star’s image
as well as the her music. In our video we created a strong star image by
using a lot of performance and having a main focus on the artist. This helps
to create a image that people can follow and become interested in. Taking
this into consideration we decided to create social networking accounts for
Tia. With the huge popularity of social networking sites particularly amongst
the younger generation that Tia appeals to, an artists personality is now
often a key to gaining fans and expanding popularity. When I was
researching other artists I found that many modern artists use sites such as
YouTube and Twitter to interact with fans. British band The Wanted are a
prime example of this. When they first started out and were touring schools
and clubs they used twitter to talk to fans and interact with them. This
helped to gain them dedicated and loyal fans who were all spreading the
word about the band by getting the fans to try and trend
#WantedWednesday. They also upload a video to YouTube every week so
that fans can see what they are doing and get to know their individual
personalities. In this way by creating these accounts it is possible that an
artist could obtain a global fan base, and the power of social networking
sites in bringing an artist into spotlight can be seen.

10. We also created a website for Tia using Wix.com. This
worked well with the music video as it uses images from
the music video. On the homepage the shot where the
candles are in the shape of heart are used, and the
music video can also be view on the homepage. This
means that anyone visiting the site can automatically
watch and listen to the music video. It i
Overall, I feel that our combination of ancillary text and
main product is effective. They both work together to
create a strong image for the artist.