Digipak and Magazine Ad Questionnaire

An audience feedback questionnaire concerning the fonts and colours for the digipak, and text to image ratio on my magazine ad can be found here.

Music Video Questionnaire Results

This shows that my audience would like the amount of lip-syncing in my video to be low, perhaps as it is known to be done badly or be too cheesy. I will try to keep my lip-syncing minimal.

This shows that the most popular filming locations amongst my audience for an indie pop video are urban outdoors such as busy streets and studio sets. These are relatively modern options and so fit with my younger target audience. The popularity of the urban outdoor option suggests that an indie pop audience likes relatable and familiar settings and themes.

As suspected, the audience wants a mix of both mounted shots and steadicam. I bore this already in mind as I myself think too much steadicam can be sickly, even annoying whereas too many still mounted shots make the video devoid of action so a balance in my video is necessary.

This result shows a preference for the video to mostly follow the lyric. I will, for now, bare this in mind for my video.

As expected the cut is the most popular edit, probably as it is most familiar to the audience. It is somewhat surprising that the challenging, creative indie audience didn't opt for the graphic match. One respondent gave an open answer which I don't fully understand and sadly I cannot track down the person for clarification so I will have to disregard this.

I am still unsure as to whether I want to include a scene like this but if I do, it will be short.

Moodboard

This is a collection of visual references I have taken from the internet to inspire the look of my promotional material.

There is a mix of new and old references, as well as modern material in a retro style. This is a current trend in indie design. My choice of font reflects this style with its vintage look, designed in 1905.

I have also noticed a trend for having images set in boxes, not filling the page. This is a trend I am keen to get into my digipak design.

There is an overwhelming trend of having the artist and title name centred in the top of the panel. My design will follow this.

The colours I have chosen come from an H&M t-shirt as part of one of their artsy collections. I thought the colours satisfied the brief of the audience questionnaire (a mix of dark and vibrant), as well as standing out from existing products.

Ad Inspiration

Inside a copy of Rocksound magazine I found this poster advertising the then new Artic Monkeys. This is the design I will base my poster on. I think it reads in a very logical way with the artist name at the top so it's the first thing the audience reads, followed by a large image to portray the artist in some way, then the album name and release dates, and finally the record label logo.

Following the trend of my questionnaire and digipak however I will implement brighter colours to reflect more of the whimsy of the indie genre. The contrasting simple text will be a feature I maintain from this design.

Album Back Inspiration

Whilst researching album packages on Google, I came across some back covers (tracklists) that I liked and appealed to the tastes of the indie pop audience.

This design will serve as my basis. I love how the list is centred on the page with bold track names and small numbers. I also like that it is less cluttered and I like the way the copyright info and barcode line the bottom snugly.

The bleed of the cover image onto the back is usually seen as a no-no or mistake so the intentional use is interesting as it creates an almost disorderly, rebellious feel which would suit my artist and genre.

For my design I would use much brighter colours to suit the whimsy of indie. The track list will be conventionally centred and the copyright info and barcode along the bottom.

Album Cover Inspiration

Whilst listening to indie music on Spotify, I came across an album cover I thought was aesthetically pleasing. I like the minimal design of Perry's cover and that it features pastel colour which is very conventional to the indie genre. The large artist name immediately stands out with its bold type also.

In terms of image, I would prefer a photo rather than a sketch as it clearly showcases the artist on their own, drawing attention to them as a commodity and sales point- the basis of music promotion material. I would utilise the same medium shot but perhaps with a more varied colour palette like in this image. I think I would have my artist looking away from the camera to create a disconnection and mystery common to indie artists.

Music Video Pitch

Scene Ideas Mindmap