WHAT WE RESEARCHED:

During this research task, we explored the R’n’B genre,  learning about the typical design conventions the demographic expect to see when looking at an album cover. There’s a specific reportoire of elements taken into consideration whe designing the cover, these being: the pose, costume, makeup, colour scheme and lighting. They all collaborate to build a brand and portray the artist in a certain way – this either being ordinary or extraordinary. In the R’n’B genre we discovered most artists are portrayed as extraordinary and the audience expect to see neutral backgrounds in order for the artist to stand out, sans serif font is used to ensure no distraction from the star can happen. The placement of the text is random, we found some brought the artist in front of the text however some text was placed over the artist – mostly the album cover title for clear advertisement.

OUR PADLET:

RELECTION AND FOCUS FORWARD:

As displayed in the padlet, integrated advertising across social media platfroms are commonly used, most young and upcoming R’n’B artist use instagram and tiktok to promote new projects, albums and tours. The benefits of social media for an artist’s publicity is massive,  building an online presence and keeping the style of an instagram feed cohesive to the artist’s motives, morals, personality traits and values is crucial. Preferred reading is how the producer wants the audience to view, read and feel about the text put out, this means that as a producer of a music video and album cover, I will strive to use costume, makeup, lighting and colour palettes to send a message of my star being confident, strong and extraoridnay. This task definitely opened my eyes to the many different versions of album covers that still meet design conventions, an album can be unique and inventive whilst still meeting the target audince’s expectations, meaning they won’t reject the text and adveristement will be successful.

5 KEY DESCRIPTORS TO SUMMARISE OUR STAR’S IMAGE AND BRAND:

• Confident
• Empowering
• Desirable
• Striking
• Innovative