2nd Ancillary task: Evaluation

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2nd Ancillary task: Research and planning a website

I researched into a number of different band websites before beginning my own, particularly focusing on ones in which bands are similar to Delphic themselves. These included, the Klaxons website, the Prodigy and the Courteeners, all of which made use of a black background with white writing. The majority of the sites i looked at kept it simple with little information, focusing on the tour dates of the band as being the most important and obvious information. Most sites also included a style of posts in which the members of the band post themselves, keeping the fans updated in this way, with whatever they wish to inform them with. Although i thought that this was a successful element to include on a website, the one i am creating will be from myself and not the band members themselves, which will prevent me from achieving this. However, i will ensure tour dates are made obvious and the style and success of the band is portrayed, along with including the songs and images of them to allow some interaction to some extent and advertise Delphic efficiently. A comment box will be included in aim of making up for there being no posts from the members of the band, allowing for conversations between fans to take place. Although i found the websites all used black and white colours, i wanted to deviate away from this, looking to make the website noticeable, appealing and unique. I chose to create my website using a piece of software named Moonfruit, after working with this programme and learning what it was able to do, i then went on to design my desired website. I aimed to create a website to educate and promote the Band Delphic to new audiences and fans, rather than those which already existed. Because of this, i chose not to go into to much depth about the band members themselves, as when attracting new audiences, it is important that they are constantly entertained and not overloaded with information. As well as included a page named 'about the band' i also wished to add one or two 'music' pages, depending on how much i was able to fit on to one page, knowing i was using a limited web designing software. I will also add a 'pictures' page, a 'tours' page and a 'contact information' page. There will be a home page used to introduce the sight, which will then take you to the following pages with the use of a link. Once on these pages there will be a menu allowing the audience to navigate between the pages easily. Here is a diagram below, showing the aim at which i wanted these pages to connect with one another and what i wish to be included. I chose the most interesting information to include on the sight, alone with some quotations spoken by the band members themselves. This will give viewers an in site into the band members personalities and exaggerate the closeness they are at with them, making the sight much more personal. The pictures page will be used simply as a gallery, including many photographs which have previously been taken of the band, whether this be of them at tours, gigs or ones of them when they are not working, this helps promote the singers, along with showing their fame and adding some importance to the band. This page could also be used as a method of voyeurism, if relating to Goodwin's Theory. The music and tour dates present on this website are the most important features as this is what is aimed at being sold and downloaded, increasing the popularity of Delphic. Including the videos here will also make them more recognisable, providing a further way of accessing them, along with the other types of media which are used. The lyrics will be included to each of the songs, allowing the audiences to sing along, this will increase the enjoyment of the song, allowing them to interact and feel involved. I chose to add the contact details of how to get in touch with Delphic as having tried to reach them previously, i had real difficulty in finding a way to achieve this. Therefore, including this information will ensure my website is helpful within this scenario. I will also add my own email address, as choosing to base my A2 Media on this band, i found i have learnt an awful lot about them, meaning i may be able to help with some of their audiences questions. A comment box will also be included somewhere on the site, allowing visitors to write and leave openly what they wished. After deciding what will be included within the website, i then had to consider the layout and overall look of the site, as making it look appealing is just as important as what is included, in my belief. Creating a dull, miserable and overloading looking website could cause viewers to loose interest almost immediately, which would make the site seemingly pointless. After much consideration, i chose to use the colour scheme of orange and green, believing that these were somewhat 'indie' looking colours and helped make the pages look unique, deviating away from colours typical of web designs. Although there is a page specifically there to show images of the band, i will include pictures throughout, ensuring all the pages look interesting. However, i will go for a more artistic look here, showing only one picture of the band on each page but perhaps showing more than one of that picture. This also relates to the video we are creating for the band, which uses a lot of repetitive techniques, both in which fit with the beet of the song i am focusing on, showing elements of hidden meanings within the site.

2nd Ancillary task: FINALISED WEBSITE

The finalised website can be reached via this link: http://delphic-exhilarations.moonfruit.com/

Here are some printscreens of my final Website design:

1st Ancillary task: Evaluation

I believed that the first two album covers i had designed did not portray the professionalism i was looking for and were in fact to simple to create a good enough reaction on the shelf, using these as a slight practise before and complicating my designs. I also understood that the brightly coloured cover i have created, showing a man in a checkered shirt, would attract a more younger audience who would be interested in pop, feeling that this design did not fit either, the genre of the music or the type of audience i want to be addressing to ensure the albums are enjoyed and considered a success.

I am particularly happy with how my Digipak turned out, feeling that it matched with their previous albums effectively. This was important in showing an attatchment to all of Delphic's albums and making the audience clear of this link, helping to participate in the sales of all their work in this way. This will ensure their current audience are able to see the similarity and understand that this is a Delphic album straight away, using it much like a symbol or logo for the band. This will also allow for new audiences to notice the older albums in much the same way. Further to this, i also found that i was able to capture the style of their previous albums well and thought that this album cover looked very professional and well designed.

I was also happy with the colours used, knowing that the members of the band portray themselves as using wishwashy and somewhat dull colours. Although this may mean the album does not stand out as much as others, i feel that the look of the album would fix this, due to it looking very different to any other album cover i have seen in terms of what is included on the cover and how it is laid out. Choosing colours which are not 'in your face' also gives an impression of not trying so hard, and being almost an effortless design which could be to symbolise the fame of the band and that they do not actually need to try very hard to achieve their sales. I also felt this cover achieved a sophisticated look which would appeal to the correct audiences that the others i created did not seem to achieve.

I purposely used Delphics logo here, again to show a clear link between this and the rest of their albums. The swirls used as the backgrounds for both, the front and back cover have also been in aim of representing the patterns on their previous albums, knowing that they have included some pattern on each of their designs which helps hide or mask the other image slightly. I am also happy with my robot like design, which could be linked to my video as the image here is made to look lifeless and could be portrayed as having no emotions, using this as a contradiction between the two. I thought it would be important to include images of the band members themselves on the back cover, to ensure the audience know the artist, again using it as a promotional techigue. Again, a good link can be established here to the video too, as you can see the band members are shown more than once on the back cover in the same pose, which also happens in relation to the editing in my video. I believe this has creatively added an interesting look to the cover, again deteriorating away from what is typically seen. Chosing to show more than one of the same image of the band members can also be used to exaggurate their popularity and fame, by wanting them 'splashed' on show. The lighting i have created in the background of the piece i felt helped portray a professional style to the piece and the very slight element of blue colour on the word 'counterpoint' not only makes the songs name stand out but also provides a link to the girls 'blue face' in the video.

Although i was very happy with the design which used a famous painting, i chose to include this as an inside cover, using it as a booklet instead.

I did feel that this image would stand out when placed against other album covers and attract attention, it also looked like a well thought out design and still managed to remain unique from the rest. The band members heads were placed on the image in an artistic way which i also felt looked appealing and added style to the image. Including the faces of the band members would have enabled people to know who created the music on the particular CD and help with promotion on the members of Delphic themselves, but i did feel the images were a little to small to achieve this and found that making the heads bigger interrupted the overall style i was looking for. In considering the benefits here, I finally felt that relating my album cover to previous ones they had released would be much more beneficial, sticking to the more relatable design as seen in my previous post.

However, due to me still being very pleased with the design using the famous painting, i felt using it as the booklet cover instead did have its advantages in ensuring the inside looked just as professional as the out and allowed me to add some colour to the digipak without adding to much and spoiling the overall design of the package. With this design using the colour orange, this also allowed a link between my digipak and the website design.

When making the actual CD design itself, i aimed to relate it to both, the front and back cover and the booklet cover, using it as a means of bringing eveything together, which i believe to have achieved effectively. I particularly like the lense type effect here, where you are shown the three band members sitting on the wall of the famous painting, using this much like a close up when filming. The swirl taken from the back cover of the digipak is also evident here, along with Delphic's logo, this time written in black.

If i were given the opportunity to complete this task again, i may wish for a more noticeable link to the video. However, i would not want to take away the style of these covers in achieving that. I also would have planned my design more effeciently in which would have saved time and prevent me from having to create a number of album covers, although i felt that this was still beneficial in allowing me to gain some practise and realising interactively hat would work well. After completing the back cover, booklet and CD, i was happy with my design and felt that it looked very professional and unique, relating well to the right audience without narrowing the appeal of the CD down.

1st Ancillary task: FINALISED DIGIPAK

Front cover:

Back cover:

Inside page/booklet cover:

CD design:

1st Ancillary task: Digipak ideas and designs

Knowing that we would have to complete an ancillary task to go with the music video, I chose to create a digipak, followed by a website for the band 'Delphic'. I first aimed to focus on the album cover, knowing the importance of ensuring it looked professional and would stand out when placed with other music albums in shops etc. The front cover of the digipak would be the point which would be seen first and must therefore offer appealingness along with being noticed. This would be particularly influential on the sales of the songs and the success of the band. Firstly, i visited a number of shops which focus on selling music videos, such as HMV.

I looked at a range of album covers in more detail, viewing ones that i found successfully caught my eye. I did this in trying to grasp some inspiration of what i want mine to look like, along with viewing them as a whole and thinking about what would stand out when placed against them. Viewing 'Delphic's past album covers was also important, as i would have to establish some link between them to ensure the audience became noticeable of this, this will not only cause people to buy this album because they enjoyed those previously done by 'Delphic' but will also help promote the older albums through this one. I went on to focus on albums from bands similar to Delphic such as those categorised as 'indie' bands. This helped me to get a sense of what would be appropriate and typical of their style and genre. I found that an album cover could be successful using a number of different techniques and because of this, i chose to experiment with a number of approaches by creating four or five different album covers before deciding or adapting these to a final design. Knowing that the majority of album covers place the band members on the cover, i began looking at pictures of Delphic which i believe i could include in the designs. Placing the band's faces on album covers helps promotion, as the audience know who they are listening to and can often be linked to voyeurism, explained when looking at Goodwin's theory. I chose the picture which i felt was most successful and cut out the images of the band members before placing them on alternative backgrounds. Although this was a simple approach, i was unable to reach Delphic in asking if i could photograph them myself. Here are some examples below:

The first album cover here uses the colours orange and green, this related well to my second ancillary task when looking at my websites colour scheme. Te background contains images of tools in which i draw myself with the use of a pen, this could be used to symbolize the creativeness of the band, along with adding an indie and different style to the album cover. The second is much the same, although i chose to use the colours typical of 'Delphic's previous albums, i placed the members of the band against some ink splashes, knowing that they were often referred to as 'inklings'. Again, i chose to place the title in green, ensuring some colour was added. I found myself preferring my second design, however, i still wished to experiment further. My second approach focused on a painting i knew well which has become very famous overtime. I again, used the same technique as above, going on to adapt this idea to just using the heads of the band and placing them within this famous painting, making it look like their heads were part of the bodies already painted. However, although this painting is in black and white, i chose to keep the heads of the band in colour and slightly bigger than the bodies to add some distortion. A message behind this could be showing how success the band are or are going to be, allowing themselves to be placed in the famous image. Representing their fame like this could also create a slightly cocky outlook on the band, in which i have found audience can appeal to, adding some personality to the cover, rather than it being meaningless. I was very pleased with how this idea turned out, believing it looked very stylish and unique. This is shown below;

Looking at Delphic's previous albums, i found that they used dull colours and their logo was contained in each.

The images are not completely clear and there is an element of 'wishwash' and style involved in them. My aim was to include all these elements in this design, ensuring a similarity could be seen between them all. Here are images of Delphic's album covers, followed by my own.

I was really pleased with how this design turned out, believing it shows a clear resemblance with the others and also shares the professionalism and style.

My final idea was a much brighter approach, aiming to use a number of photographs taken of Delphic throughout their giggs and tours and working within the studio as the background to the album. I would then take some photographs of a man infront of these photographs in an indie style shirt, or one in which i believe the band members of delphic would likely wear. Having to hide the knowledge of the person in fact, not being a band member, i will only include the chest in the shot, this also adds an element of mistery in the cover, along with giving it a unique feel.