1. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? ARFA SHAH 4739

2. Getting started… Before starting on our main product and ancillary tasks, my group and I sat down and thought of some ideas that could link all of our products together in order to establish a recurring motif that would link the whole project together, which in turn will create familiarity amongst the target audience for the group. We hoped that this binding motif, this link that makes the foundation of our project will make the group’s fan base and identity stronger and encourage their indie band image- a relaxed, cool and dynamic image.

3. What next? After establishing the fact we need a link to bind the whole project together, we brainstormed ideas and came to two conclusions. The first, that we could use a colour motif to bind the whole products together, and the second that we could use a font motif that would give structure to all of the products and essentially, create the band. A colour motif and a font motif was chosen in order to establish consistency with the main products, vibrancy and a brand image.

4. The font… Whilst conducting my research on digipaks and magazine advertisements, I personally felt that album covers and magazine adverts are only snapshots of what a band could be. I felt that we needed a font motif as it would establish our group as performers, artists and creators. Without a unique font, our band would have just been like any other indie band, and we didn’t want that to happen. Therefore in order to create a band image, I went onto www.dafont.com and spent two lessons trying to find the perfect font for our band. As I went a long I asked my group for their opinions and put a black star next to the fonts that were in the “maybe” category. However, I did not want a “maybe” font, I wanted a font that would make us go “that’s the one” without any hesitation. After going through many fonts, my group and I narrowed it down to 4 fonts and ended up choosing “Planet Estyle”. “Planet Estyle” was different, it was sharp and had an edge to it unlike the other fonts and when I saw it, I felt that this was the font and luckily my group went along with me.

5. Font motif… As you can see from the embedded images below, the “Planet Estyle” font was used consistently on all of our media products. We used it on the titles of both the magazine advertisement and digipak, on the introduction of “The Dykeenies” and on the music video.

6. The colour… After much research, we all came to the conclusion that the colour blue would work as the best motif as it represents hope, dreams and happiness. The colour blue represents a new, fresh beginning- clearer skies. We deliberated on using many other colours however we did not want to follow any sort of convention. We wanted to go with our instinct and came to the conclusion that blue was the best colour for our products as it was natural and light, not artificial Colour swatch of blue The next slide will demonstrate how the colour blue was used on our products.

7. Colour motif… As you can see from the images below, the products have a recurring colour motif of blue. For example on the magazine advertisement, the font is blue, the record label logo is blue and the advert has a slight blue tint to it. Similarly, on the digipak the album title is blue, the logo is blue, the band’s introduction is blue and on the back cover of the digipak the background is black and white and the jean colour of some members of the band is blue. Also, in the music video a blue scarf is included towards the end of the music video where someone gives the girl the scarf which represents a fresh start, new hope.

8. Is the combination effective? I believe that the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks are effective because it created a link between all of our products and created a successful band image. Without the font and colour link, our products would have been fragmented. One member of our target audience stated they would expect to see our products in HMV stores which implies that our products are professional and appealing. The binding of the music video, digipak and magazine advertisement enables our audience to recognise the band and associate certain themes with them. For example the colour blue is now associated with the band along with cool and edgy fonts- this combination is what makes our band stand out. “It just looks so amazing, it’s like something I would expect to see in HMV” “The font is good..it gives a youthful feeling”