Unit 54 Agenda

Agenda

Old wave of music: I looked at music from the past to start off with from the 60’s to 80’s. Bands like The Sex Pistols and Pink Floyd. The rebellious teenager on the album cover was something I immediately thought of when looking at the Sex Pistols because of their look and cultural influence they had on people at the time. This was something which influenced me to do the graffiti on the wall. The ‘God save the queen’ banner is now iconic and remembered for being not just rebellious, but openly is mocking the royals. The look of the band at the time also was a big influence. They wore leather and denim which has become more and more popular as the years went on. I decided to make the character spray painting on the front cover of the album wear demin and leather to run in with the theme.

This was an influence for the spray paint on the wall but also the background. Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album is also now iconic because of the King of Pop’s iconic music but clothing also. The writing is typical spray paint and the wall in the background looks dark and dirty, which made Jckson even more popular. This was only a slight influence for me but it reminded me a someone rebelling against a system which they couldn’t take anymore.

The final influence I had was Pink Floyd’s The Wall, which is an obvious influence. The background to my to my album reminded me of the album straight away. I didn’t copy it, I just made my own version of a wall which clearly is influences from Pink Floyd’s 1979 album.

With all these past influences, it made me think about their music. They are all different genres of music but all have influenced today’s music. The music of this time have made everyone that makes music today.

New wave of music: The band I am doing the research for is The Vaccines so I had to look at their music and albums. The Vaccines first album was acclaimed and has heavily influenced from many bands from the 50’s to 80’s. Their quick lyrics and fast tempo has already been compared to the Ramones as well as many other bands.

Their second album was where they really shined though when they brought a completely different genre to the library. They felt a lot more 50’s/60’s style than their original indie anthems. But it was a nice change and they received even more popularity. Their albums were both in my research along with many others in the same genre. The Wombats, Jake Bugg, Mumford and Sons, all bands which fall under the same catogory as indie rock so researching them was not a problem. All of these bands have influences from bands of the past and that’s what made me think of the theme for my album cover. Why not just make it a little old fashioned? So I did, using clear influence from old and new to create a cover which links with both.

Unit 54 client proposal

Client Proposal

Profile of the band:

The chosen band of my choice is The Vaccines. They are an indie rock band from West London who debuted in 2010 with their album ‘What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?’ and their second and latest album is called ‘Come of Age’. The band has been together now for 2 years so their success has hit them extremely quick. The band consists of lead singer and guitarist Justin, guitarist Freddie, Bass guitarist Arni and drummer Pete. Over the past two years, The Vaccines have become more and more popular, especially creating much more mature but wilder music from their second album.

But, the band is looking for a much larger audience by conquering each country at a time. So far, they are incredibly popular mostly in the UK and US, but they want more. So I have ideas to make the band gain more publicity and popularity. I have created an all new advertising campaign for the band including a new album cover and tour poster; this includes a revamped new logo for the band. The new image will hopefully make people want to listen to their music.

Target Audience:

The target audience I am trying to reach is a teenage audience from 15 and over, but also the band play music which compliment to a much wider audience. The music which the band plays is very old 50’s-70’s rock and new alternative indie rock, so the audience is very open to target. This is why I chose to do a certain look for the band which gathers attention. The look is rebellious which can be recognised as something from the 60’s so it identifies with an older audience more, but teenagers these days are also quite rebellious so it fits with them very well too.

The band has gathered a huge fan base over the last 3 years from a wide audience of young and old because they write songs which relate to people. But the band is looking for a new audience to tackle along with their current fan base. The band wants to be known worldwide and be the biggest band around, which is a tough thing to accomplish. They still want to keep the same fan base though, they don’t want that to change, they just want to receive much more attention from more people.

Timings of graphics/schedule:

The schedule for creating all of the graphics and text for all of the graphical products needs to have thought put into it straight away. The album cover needs to be the most detailed product of them all because this is the thing most people will be looking at and buying. The band wants a specific image to follow them which is punk rock with an indie twist which we remember with them.

The album cover for example has elements of specific bands from the 50’s-80’s, with the brick wall looking familiar to anyone that was or still is a Pink Floyd fan, or the rebellious teenager spray painting the walls, looks familiar to many punk bands like the Sex Pistols. The objective for the band is to make an old wave of music hit with a new audience. But the graphic is the bands image. The band will dress and be punk to tie in with the graphics of the cover. This is how the band is taken seriously and makes a mark in the industry they are hitting. Their artwork must link with their image or the whole idea is a failure.

The bands graphics must be finished by the time the album is released, so the graphics must be completed by the 18^th of February and no longer after because the tour starts very soon after. To ensure that the graphics will be finished, the main focus for now will be on creating and making each of the graphics.

Ideas:

Research was a big part of coming up with new graphics and material to make an entirely new image for the band. I had to look through old and new bands of the same genre to think of what would look ideal for an audience. I looked at bands like Pink Floyd, The Jam and The Sex Pistols to gain some inspiration to what made them so globally known. The old theme of being rebellious to everything came to mind, which was a theme which still balances today. Then I looked at new bands that run with the same genre of indie rock. Mumford and Sons, The Wombats and of course, The Vaccines current material all ran into my head. All of them had their own sound but they all had inspiration and help to get where they wanted to be. So I came up with the concept of adding some old to new.

Format of the graphics:

The format of the graphics will be in the highest standard using vector graphics, but the graphics must be exported on Adobe Illustrator. This is so none of the pixels will be visible when the poster is being looked at, this will make the promotional material look sloppy, but also so when the file is ready to be put onto the album case, it can exported from the normal A3 size standard. The colour usage will be CMYK. I believe this is the best colour option to use because it makes more shades and vibrancy within the picture which stands out. The file will be saved as TIFF because this type has lossless compression which is another reason why the pixels won’t be seen with the graphics on the material. The TIFF file format is also 300dpi, using CMYK, so it’s to the best standard.

Developing the image:

The image we are creating fits completely with the band’s music we believe. I looked into different bands of the same genre and looked at their music compared to their artwork. Jake Bugg was an artist which came to mind which is a perfect example. Bugg’s artwork is very 50’s rebellious teenager look, a bit like Johnny Cash, and this was exactly what it is. So the Vaccines new image had to reflect their music which it does we believe.

The artwork isn’t hard to understand either; it paints a story which we want customers to understand as soon as they see it. The message is simple to understand too, it’s not hard to get with, and that makes it a successful image for us.

Copyright issues:

This is one of the things we took into consideration when making the artwork for the band; copyright issues. The bands artwork had to have themes of older music but still look original. The copyright agreement will be signed and proven that all artwork which we have created is completely original and none of it is stolen from another source. No copyright rules will be broken when the artwork is sold to the CD covers and tour posters. This is a promise; all of our artwork is ours and will be copyrighted so nobody can steal our image for their own gain.

Legal and Ethical issues:

Through the creating process of the artwork of the bands new promotional material, no laws will be broken and all ethical issues will be kept in place; none of the artwork will be to a high standard and will not contain any inappropriate material which might offend anyone. As the promoter and creator of the artwork and promotional material, this is a promise. No religious issues are being prompted by the artwork. No religious subjects are even in the album. As well as this, there is no explicit material or sexist issues which someone might find offensive. The album does not discriminate any race either, it’s too the highest of standards. The artwork will be to the highest of standards and no one will be offended by anything.

Unit 54 assignment 2

 Diary for Unit 54 Assignment 2

10/01/13: the first thing I looked at to start this new assignment was CD covers. I started looking at my favourite bands and artists from a broad range of things including album covers and tour posters. The first band I researched was The Wombats, which was a good band to research from since I knew a lot about them already but also they’ve released lots and lots of material over the years. Their logo was very pop in my opinion. It’s the image below, and my first thoughts were just fun and upbeat. I didn’t even need to listen to the band in the first place to even know what their music is about. By the cover, it looks like a band that doesn’t take themseleves very seriously, they’re just out to have fun about things.

I then looked at the tour posters for the band because they seemed to be on tour all of the time. The tour poster (which can be seen to the right) is advertising their second world tour of their second album, This Modern Glitch. The poster is interesting because of how everything goes together. Obviously, the bands trademark logo is the biggest thing on the page so it catches your eye straight away, along with the bands album name. The albums cover mosly takes up all of the poster. This is so someone will recognise the album to the poster. As soon as the band released the album, its instantly become iconic as their album cover. Nobody else can use it apart from them. Also on the poster is the special guests who will also play live with The Wombats at their shows. The reason why they are on the poster is to publicise these bands too. Other people might come and see the shows with the support bands being along side the main act. The final thing which is added on the poster is the information about the tour and when they go on sale. The dates are always added on the poster to advertise to people to buy the tickets for their show, its all about publicity. The final thing which must be added on the poster is the bands album advertisement and the companies that are providing the help for the tour.

The album cover is very clever because there are hidden things behind it. The people on the front cover are no one special whatsoever apart from three of the people who are the band members of The Wombats. This isn’t something which most people will care about but it’s just a small fact about the cover. The Wombats genre is very indie/rock/pop

11/01/13: the genre I am going for has already been decided. I want to do indie rock because it is my favourite genre of music, but also they have very unusual and different album covers. I first researched The Wombats current album cover and tour poster. They used the same insert from their album cover on their tour poster. This was mainly for recognition when people look at the poster, they will just know who it is from the cover.

The next band I looked at was Mumford and Sons. Their logo is shown to the left and it isn’t actually their final logo, but the writing is. They use the writing on everything; from their album covers to merchandise they produce. Comparing this to The Wombats form of logo is much different because Mumford and Sons produce a different kind of indie rock. They mainly make music which fashions towards the folk side of indie, so they use a lot of old fashioned instruments and present themselves in an Victorian manner if that’s the best way to put it. It all goes with the image of the band which they must keep up for their musical purposes. But the album cover on their latest LP is very similar to The Wombats.

Just like the album cover for The Wombats, Mumford has used the approach of using people on their cover but covering up their faces. Obviously it’s different on each one but they are very similar if you look closely.

These two bands have completely different genres but they do use similar themes. Both albums have very unusual albums covers which don’t make any sense when you first look, but it’s looking through the front cover and listening to the music which changes your perspective.

The tour poster for Mumford and Sons is very unusual compared to The Wombats though. Mumford chose to do a poster which looks very old fashioned, maybe war-is like posters from the first and second world war. They even changed the name of the tour to something completely different from the album. A daring move as some might not know that this is Mumford advertising a tour, but it does look professional and effective.

The final bands I looked at from the same genre, I mainly looked towards the logos for the bands.

This is the album cover and logo for Jake Bugg’s self-titled debut. The album has been compared to using influences from Johnny Cash and many 50’s country and rock singers, so no wonder the album looks very dark, old fashioned and straight to the point.

The logo is simple, it’s just Bugg’s name written in block head writing, which doesn’t get easier than that.

17/01/13: Today, all I am looking at is one more band at their promotional material for albums, tour posters and a magazine advertisement. I decided to look at a popular band at the moment which is The Vaccines. I decided to choose The Vaccines because I really enjoy their music, but also because they are extremely popular so it’s easy to find promotional material for them.

I started with their logo which is just like Jake Bugg’s, it’s a simple block text but The Vaccines use various colours on their logo, which has changed from black, to red, to pink. But the block text seems to be very popular to use. It seems if a band uses a block text that they are a serious band which plays very serious music, which The Vaccines do. All of their music touches quite serious subjects like failing relationships, and this is the same with Jake Bugg, who talks about leaving his home town because he can’t handle it anymore. So I’ve noticed that the block text means that the artist/band means business and are very serious about their music.

The next thing I looked at was albums from The Vaccines two busy years. The first albums cover was simple to say the least. The cover is built like a vinyl cover. I don’t know why they decided to make the cover like this, but it works. The only thing I can say about it is their trying to bring back a lot of old music like punk and rock from the 60’s like the Ramones. But the picture explains everything to do with the album, which as I’ve said is failing relationships, which as you can see by the picture is a girl hugging a boy but he’s not hugging her back. And finally the block text that stands bold. What makes the album most effective is the fact it’s the only text on the cover, so you immediately draw your eyes to this.

The second album does the same as the first; simple yet effective. The block head once again stands bold and tall on the cover, and it’s the only text once again. This time around, the album is about coming of age and growing up. The front cover has an image of four women and these are supposed to be The Vaccines if they were women. The reason the cover is black and white is to represent the quite old themes that the album plays around with. A lot of the sounds on the album are very 60’s/70’s so it’s playing with a time when women didn’t have the rights that they have today, so growing up in this time was difficult. But once again, these similar themes between this genres show that it’s quite a serious genre which takes its music seriously.

The final thing I looked for was The Vaccines tour poster and magazine advertisement. There wasn’t a tour poster for The Vaccines that officially gave dates to when they were touring so I ignored them and decided just to look at a magazine cover for the band. This is a cover for the magazine NME, which is a magazine I really don’t like but it’s the only magazine that fully showed the band advertising their latest album. Once again, the block head text has been used and is the biggest text on the page so your eyes immediately get attracted to this straight away. The tagline right above it saying ‘Older. Wiser. Wilder.’ Along with the pictures show that they are a serious band and they are here to show their new album. As much as I dislike NME, they have made a very good cover for their magazine because it makes me want to read this particular issue.

So to conclude, indie rock is a genre which I personally think takes its music quite seriously but comes in many different forms. Indie rock is a sound which is different to every artist but it’s an individual genre which stands out from the rest, but to conclude the material the bands let out is always something that interests you and makes you want to know more about the artist/band. But even sometimes, a band can produce something which is completely different to the rest (The Wombats; Mumford and Sons) but still fall into the same category of indie rock.  

Assignment 1

Unit 54 Assignment 1

File Formats:

Raster: a raster graphic is a file format which has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to being used to create images through different programs. Raster images are images which are made up of tiny coloured pixels which are all built together to build an image. The advantage of this file format is it creates an image which is detailed and looks good when it’s zoomed out. The image looks great to look at but it’s full of disadvantages. The image can’t be zoomed or compressed because once it is zoomed; the image loses all of its quality. I’ll give you an example;

The image to the left is an image which uses the raster file format. It shows what happens when it is zoomed. All of the pixels are shown for how they really look when the image is zoomed in more. Although the raster file format is an acceptable format for images on several programs, it has so many problems. The main thing is that the quality just isn’t good enough to hold an image together. It’s not sharp or crisp enough to make it an image to be used, but it’s simple enough if you’re just using it for a simple task.

Raster based applications: most image based editors started off by using raster because it was near enough the perfect image from a far.

MS Paint is a simple program on any Windows computer for anyone that just wants to mess around with. The basic controls and easy layout make it a fun exercise. The problems with MS Paint are it’s in no way as sophisticated as any other image based program on the market. Way too simple, and boring to use, it doesn’t even look remotely realistic when an image has been produced.

Photoshop is the only program on the Adobe package which uses raster. The rest of the programs only use vector. Photoshop has always been the favourite though because of how easy yet extremely advanced its editing can be. Photoshop is a program which uses both raster and vector though. This is something you can change in the options of the programs, but the difference is eye opening.

Vector: a vector graphic file format is what makes raster look so poor in comparison. Vector is the file format which makes images look at their best. The images look crisp, clean and cut to perfection.  The difference which makes vector so much better is you can zoom into an image and the image won’t pixelate whatsoever. The image to the right shows exactly what I mean. The top right image is the vector image when it’s zoomed in.  The writing which is at the top of the bottle is too small to read so it needs to be zoomed in.

Vector based applications: the vector graphic has become the most popular graphic on any computer based program and it’s not surprise.

Corel Designer is one of the earliest programs that use the vector package. The program is mainly used to create engineering drawings for engineers to keep track of the work schedule. Corel Designer is flexible enough to be used in most vector graphic designs anyway.

The Adobe Package: most of the Adobe programs such as Fireworks, Flash and Freehand use the vector graphic too. Fireworks is a program which uses a vector editing software with bitmap editing

Vector is not always useful when it comes to graphics. Cameras and scanners all use Raster graphics. This means the images cannot be edited using vector.W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard for vector graphics and images is SVG. It’s a very complex standard and extremely slow, but many web browsers have support programs for rendering SVG but are still very rare.

Metafile: a metafile is a term for something which can store multiple amounts of data, its specific types of data though. A metafile includes graphic file formats which contain various amounts of graphic files like raster and vector. A metafile is mainly used to support operating systems on computer graphics.

File Extensions: File extensions can be considered types of metafile data because they contain many types of files just like a metafile but they can also hold more. This means that the file can be extended to hold more onto the device or computer could be anything with a memory. Some file systems limit the length of an extension such as the FAT file system. When the file extension was first created, it was only used to determine the files type and nothing else, but since has improved and been upgraded to something which is much more productive and useful.

Different media formats: most think that formats like raster and vector are only used for image based applications. They actually couldn’t be more wrong. Image formats are used in a various amount of media devices, outlets and others. For example, video games these days are full of beautiful and colourful imagery which must use an image based application. It isn’t something which gamers consider most of the time but it’s everything which makes a game work. Most games use vector these days because it is the best application for higher graphics.

Films are another format just like video games which use graphics to achieve the perfect look. Obviously I’m talking about animation when it comes to film, which produces billions around the world each year. So applications for image editing doesn’t just come from image based programs. The obvious part about it is, most things that are made with vector and raster like films and video games, actually are produced from computers.