SC How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Deconstruct the band/artist 'brand' image (or anti-brand image!)

We tried to create a fashionable image for our band in order to produce the most successful music video that we were able. The clothing style we chose for them was 'indie' (skinny jeans, chequered shirts) the connotations for this style are quite cool, scruffy, down to earth and easy going about life. Also, indie characters are also known for being passionate about music, which was a point we were strongly trying to portray about our band.
The advertisement was designed to run in NME magazine, due to the genre of the music and style of the band. We chose to design a stylish page advertisement in order to make the band seem successful, glamorous and most of stylish. We used visual motifs to reinforce the individuality of our digipak. We did this by using an abstract image that is the style of artist Gillian Wearing. We main focus of our advertisement is the photograph, followed by the artist name and album name, and the 3rd most prominent subject are the 5 stars. We carefully planned this out so that the consumer would be drawn in by the unusual and abstract photograph, then see the artist and album, followed by the consumer seeing that the album has been rated 5stars.
The digipak also conveys a similar abstract feel as the advertisement. We did all of it in black and white. The front cover was the same picture we used on the advertisement, however we cropped the picture for the advertisement. We did this in order to link both the print works together. The inside covers are naturalistic photographs to reinforce the raw and natural talent of the band and the back cover is a photograph of some feet on some grass in black and white. We also have the album tracks and song producer labels on the back.
Both texts link to the video due to the clothing style worn by the girl and the band members, as this is both indie, and by the use of black and white which is a prominent feature of all 3 texts.

Use Dyer to discuss how the 'star' persona is constructed of your artist/band through the three texts.

'The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer'
'The star must be both present and absent for the consumer'

Music Video
- fast cutting rate meaning that the viewer doesn't have a lot of time to focus on the band members, making them present, yet also absent.
- the music video is predominately made up of performance shots, however there are a few shots of the lead singer laughing/smiling/joking around
-this shows a glimpse of personality and a different side to the band member, also creating intrigue for a viewer.
- using the girl shows the lead singer is a regular, ordinary guy, who has the same feelings as normal people allowing the consumer to relate with him. but the fact he is famous and in a band makes his love story seem much more than a regular person could ever experience, making him seem extraordinary, desirable to both boys who want to be him and girls who want to be with him.

Digipak and advertisement
- no picture of the band on the front cover
- intrigues the consumer in as the band seem mysterious and absent and the consumer wants to see more