Evaluation: Question 2

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

For my media coursework I had picked to do a music video, digipak and magazine advert. All three were linked together because the magazine advert was an advert for people to buy the digipak, and the music video was the showcase of a single from the album. I think the combination of the three tasks worked very well together, and the in-house design was consistent through out.

During the research and planning stage I had decided on a simplistic premium design. This is because I found many designs that were very overcrowded and the information on them was hard to read or understand. I wanted to avoid this by making it simple and modern. This would help my audience identify and understand everything on them. I had also realized that the main objective of my task was to sell records, this is the priority of any product produced in the music industry, because of this every element included in my design was more or less positioned to help sell records. In doing this I hoped that I could optimise sales as well as provide a quality product for my audience.

The main color scheme of my overall design was black, white and red. The black and white elements of the colors, I felt, helped keep the masculinity of the design, and reflected the modern man. This was contrasted by the color red, which is synonymous with the theme of love, which reflects the issues raised in the album.
I kept this color scheme through my digipak and magazine advert to create a link between the two. This kept my design consistent and recognizable , and gave it a personality and image of its own.

In my magazine advert I had employed a number of methods to help sell the digipak. Firstly, the main image seen on the advert is the front cover of the album, as it is the most important thing in the advert. I also included magazine reviews, which would help persuade people who do not usually listen to my artists songs.
During my research I found that an album's popularity is based on its first week of sales, which is a critical statistic, something I wanted to ensure I could maximise to take advantage of things such as Top 40 Album Charts, because the more popular the album is, the more people that will buy it. To support first week sales I placed a release date in the magazine advert, this would inform my audience as to when they can purchase a copy, and hopefully encourage them to buy sooner (i.e on the first week).