Magazine Advert

On my magazine advert I have kept to the same dark tones and themes. Not only will this work aesthetically but it will also make the Digipak more identifiable in drawing similarities with this advertisement.

On the album cover we see Ike with a face that is entirely painted black, whereas on the magazine advert he is only slightly dusted by the black paint – this is used metaphorically, reflecting his written pieces about racism and being ‘tainted black.’ Themes that run strongly throughout his digipak content.

I kept the album cover relatively minimalistic, with monotone like colours and simple bold font – this makes for easy reading. Having the biggest text, in white, being the album title so it is easily remembered. Followed by the artist name in black and only slightly smaller to fit the aesthetic, minimalist appeal.

I have clearly stated the release date on the top right corner. Below is the Digipak title - ‘Waters’, artist name - ‘Ike’, a five star rating and a title of an award the artist is up for. This should work in boosting attention and sales – In being nominated for Best Upcoming Artist and having this stated on the advert, it gives the artist a certain platform. Allowing viewers to assume his music must be of a certain standard and therefore increasing their interest in having a listen.

Magazine Advert Analysis

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1st Draft DigiPak

This is the first draft of my Digipak for the rapper IKE.

I decided to keep to darker tones much like the video, working predominantly with black and greys. This adds a minimalistic appeal popular amongst Underground artists.

I have applied Typical conventions such as having the artist's self-image on the front cover, alongside his artist name and album title - This makes his album easily recognisable by his fans.

However I have changed some other conventions - I have decided to have the track list on the inner leaf of the Digipak and replaced usual placement with a quote from an article written about the album. This means that in order for his fans to know of his track list they have to buy the album first - Not only did I think this looks more aesthetically pleasing but it also adds to the mysterious, minimalistic look and adds and element of excitement for purchasing the album.

In the image's of Ike I had him painted black - This added some emphasis to the racial elements of his album, being tainted black as a metaphorical representation of the pollution within society. This also somewhat works ironically with the title of the album 'The Waters', with water being a source of purity and cleanliness, the imagery reflects almost the opposite.

Also I decided to have a small passage written and signed by Ike on the inner leaf of the Digipak.  Underground artists always have deep appreciation for their smaller fan bases, so in having a personal passage written by Ike it further accentuates his appreciation for his buyers and audience. Finally artists like Ike would usually start by releasing their music online using platforms such as YouTube and SoundCloud, therefore in this passage Ike is thanking his fans for being so patient in waiting for his first, long-awaited project.

Again the back of the case is a quote from the Pitchfork article about his album followed by a five star rating. This works on the back of the album as for artists like Ike it is a huge deal to have your work mentioned by a publisher like Pitchfork and therefore this may attract attention from audiences that have not heard of Ike before but rather appreciate Pitchfork's accurate reviews, gaining some more media attention. Also on the back of the case is a barcode and Ike's record company logo (EMP) The reason why the record company logo is so small, is because much like Kendrick Lamar's Mad Dog Entertainment, the company are not using the artists work for exposure - therefore there is not a requirement for a huge, really visible company logo which other companies may request in the release of their artists work.

Conventions of a DigiPak

Conventions of a digi pak from Ella McLeod

Forms and Conventions of Music Videos

Forms and Conventions

Audience Feedback

I conducted a survey with my own questions and posted it to my social media pages. Surprisingly I received a lot more feedback and praise than I initially thought  I would. However I found that some of the results were somewhat contradicting.