2. DESIGN 1
For my first digipack design, I have decided to use both stereotypical and
anti-stereotypical codes and conventions of the rock genre. To recognise the
band, Red Hot Chili Pepper’s (RHCP) identity, I used the logo twice
throughout the digipack; one for the drug design on the front cover and the
other on the CD. I used this so my target audience can quickly identify the
band and their product. I also plan to write the bands name and album name
‘By The Way’ onto the spine, to link in with stereotypical codes and
conventions of digipacks, and also because many of RHCP’s albums feature
this. For the front cover, I drew a close-up of a mouth with a pill resting on the
tongue as my theme for my music video is drugs and its side-
effects/consequences. This is to represent drugs and potentially highlight the
rock culture’s reckless and self-destructive way as hopefully my target
audience will look at the pill and link it to signify drug use.
I also feel it again, links to the rock genre because of the stereotypical, well known motto that
represents the rock culture; “sex, drugs & rock ‘n’ roll”. As an anti-stereotypical code and convention
to rock digipacks, instead of using a chaotic and messy image, I’ve decided to leave it plain with just
the barcode, the producers and the track lists. I did this because I feel it works better when it’s not
too jumbled around and chaotic, unlike the rest of it. For my digipack colour scheme, I am planning
to use stereotypical colours such as black, white, red and grey, however this may change depending
on the images I plan to use for the final product. For the inside cover, I’ve decided to do a cut
between half of each “band members” face as I think it would look interesting and appealing to the
audience as it is different to what RHCP usually do in their digipacks. I have decided to stick to a
messy, handwritten font because, in my opinion, it fits well with the “fun” side of not only the band
themselves but also the rock genre in general, however I will place it down the bottom and move the
image upwards otherwise I feel it will look to hectic and won’t stand out to my audience. I hope to
use a handwritten styled font for the bands name on the CD as well and I have used this layout of
“floating” around the middle of the CD as I really like how it fits with the round shape of the band’s
logo.
3. DESIGN 2
Similar to my design 1, I have kept a similar front cover to
represent my theme of drugs and the rock genre in a
stereotypical way and kept the inside cover the same as I really
like the idea, however I have used more of a person’s face for
the front cover as I was experimenting on whether it would make
it look any different and more “realistic” than a floating pair of lips
in the middle of the cover. I like the idea of having the rest of the
face and then potentially distorting it to highlight only the mouth
area only. I also like the idea of tracing or/and sketching these
images out using digital technologies such as ‘Photoshop’
instead of using images as I think it would be really creative and
link to the original ‘By The Way’ album by RHCP where they
have a painted girl over a photograph.
I also will use stereotypical codes and conventions of digipacks such as a barcode and track list on
the back cover of the album along with the bands name and album name to create recognition and
maintain RHCP’s identity to the audience. I slightly changed the CD to just have the albums title;
‘By The Way’ floating around the middle of the CD. I like the simplicity and how minimalistic it looks,
however, this doesn’t particularly conform to codes and conventions and representations of both the
rock genre and RHCP.
4. Redhotchilipeppers.com
BY
THE
WAY
25.06.02
DESIGN 1
For my magazine advert of RHCP’s album ‘By The Way’, I decided to use my chosen front cover for my digipack as the main image for the magazine to create recognition and identity
towards both the band and the album. I also used stereotypical codes and conventions of a music magazine advert such as the band’s website, an ‘iTunes’ and ‘Spotify’ logo to inform the
audience where they can buy the album from and the date of its release. I had to edit the main image to black and white (grey scale) as when I was experimenting with typography and
colours, the original colours I used for the image did not work with both black and white coloured lettering. Unlike most rock genre magazine adverts that are chaotic, “busy” and “loud” with
lots of information and imagery, I decided to challenge that representation by making a simplistic advertisement that works well and is recognisable to my audience. In my opinion, a busy
looking advert tends to its identity and I felt that if I put so much information on it, my audience would not be able to recognise it straight away. Unlike most magazine adverts, I made this
one landscape, primarily as an experiment to see how it would look and I have came to the decision that I don’t particularly like the landscape look but I will try and develop this into a
portrait magazine advert. The font was particularly difficult as I wanted to keep using a handwritten styled font, however, I couldn’t find a font I was happy with so for my next magazine
advert, I will be experimenting more with fonts and finding one that suits the rock genre.
5. DESIGN 2
For my second design, I did a portrait magazine advert,
however due to the image size and the fact that it is
landscape, I could not fit into a portrait layout.
However, unlike design 1, the font and its typography is
successful in achieving the handwritten and messy look
I was hoping for. Although the font and typography
conform to the stereotypical codes and conventions of
the rock genre, the rest of the advert is really simplistic
(similar to design 1) which conforms to the idea that
the rock genre/culture is chaotic and loud. Although
this does conform to those stereotypes, it can be
interpreted that it still links to the genre through the
dark, atmospheric imagery and lack of colours which
brings an “edgy” and “moody” feel to it.
