For our advanced portfolio we have to produce a digipak, and also a advertisement/poster in order to promote our band, The Mags.
To do this effectively it is important to carry out research on appropriate magazines promoting bands from the rock, alternative rock genres. To gain a wider understanding of how different artists are promoted, I will also be looking at other genres use of advertisement for promoting bands.
Here are some examples of front covers for Rolling Stone, featuring Oasis and the cover of Mojo featuring the band our coursework is based upon, Kings of Leon.
My front cover is simple but I feel it definitely gives the buyer a feel of the rock genre due to the drum kit illustrated on the front.
This is the CD holder of my digipak. I went for a random design around the holder for the cd because I feel the rock genre can be quite spontaneous and this reflects this idea and could represent the dysfunctional lifestyle of a rockstar.
Here is the other cover of the inside of my digipak. This shows a switchboard that features in the 'She' video. This may look familiar to buyers of the CD from the video.
Here is the back of my digipak. This features the tracklist and the guitar from the 'She' video belonging to The Mags lead singer. The kiss marks around the guitar could represent love towards the band and their music.
Here is the original front cover of my digipak. I print screened a shot from the draft of our charmer that we have recently put onto youtube. Looking at other albums from the alternative rock genre, the front covers are generally quite random. It meant that there was a lot of flexibility in what I was able to make my digipak look like.
I made a few possible digipaks, and after making my first one (pictured above) I realised I could make a much more advanced digipak than what I had done above. I challenged myself more and the result I was happy with was the following:
This looks much more professional than the other front cover I had designed. Firstly it is not blurry in comparison to the other one, the blur doesn't look intentional either so it looks unprofessional.
Following this, I made the back of my digipak, featuring the bands track list.
I then went on to make the inside of the digipak. I tried to make the cd holder quite random as it could portray the dysfunctional lifestyle of a rockstar. The other image is of a switchboard which relates to the bands music.
Last Wednesday I went to see Chase & Status at KoKo in Camden. Chase & Status are quickly becoming bigger and bigger in the music scene. Following a university interview in Birmingham and heavy traffic, I rushed home to get back in time for it.
Chase & Status had been announced as special guest healiners a couple of days before the event so I felt lucky to get the tickets! It was part of the 'MTV's Brand New for 2011' competition. Many artists were competing and votes were taken in a poll. Some of the contenders were amongst those of Jessie J, Labrinth, Mona, Clare Maguire and many more.
Before Chase & Status, the two acts involved in this competition were Clare Maguire and Mona. Though we missed Clare Maguires performance due to myself being a bit late, we managed to catch Mona's performance, but admittedly we were gearing ourselves up for Chase & Status and making the most of the free photobooth during their performance. However, I did know one or two of their songs and enjoyed hearing them get played. Here is one of the pictures from the photobooth of myself, Charlotte and our two friends, Emma and Ellen that we met up with in Koko. Not too sure where I thought the camera was.. seem to be looking up a little too high!
Here is the video to my favourite song by them:
The votes have now all been counted and Mona infact won the competition. Big things are expected of them and I think they've got a good future ahead of them musically considering they were up against the likes of Jessie J who recently did fantastically reaching #2 in the UK charts with her Debut single 'Do it like A Dude.' Following a report on the vote, it seems Jessie J was a favourite and managed to gain 27% of the vote. She was closely followed by Far East Movement, Willow Smith and Clare Maguire. However Mona took 32% of the vote securing a win and taking over the crown from last years winner, Justin Bieber.
Chase & Status put on a fantastic performance and we managed to catch a glimpse of Noel Fielding up in a balcony watching them too!
