Research/Pre-Production: Typography

The typography we tried to go for was an edgy, old-school font as we saw it would be suitable for our R&B genre. However, because we also knew that it was a song about love and the artist was supposed to have a few scenes where she was supposed to be vulnerable, so we had also looked for a handwritten font as it's more personal.  After dismissing this idea, we then wanted to give a stronger approach to the artist because majority of the narrative Jazmyn Rose is to have a confident persona. We did this by searching for bolder fonts to make it seem more powerful and superior, though they seemed quite plain (from examples above), so we scoured through several categories upon the site, Fontspace.com. We searched through; trendy, sans-serif, handwriting, modern, techno and a few others and find the various fonts above.

 After a while we had stumbled upon this font and thought it was perfect for our genre and narrative because it's bold, simplistic in the way that its easy for people to read and identify and carries an edge to it with the lettering being sliced, it gave it an R&B/Dance genre which we really liked. With this being associated with the artist's name it makes her look fun and adds hints of mystery because she is a new found artist, so no one knows anything about her and this font is the first step to reinvent her character.

We wanted to focus on giving the attention to the artist's font because we want the audience to be staring at that and becoming familiar with the artist's name. So even though ‘The Weekend’ dot is still bold, it’s thinner than the artist’s name and has no decorative edge to it. However, works very well in the production and ancillary tasks because they have a more creative background and we just just wanted to keep one thing simple which in this case the song’s font. 





Pre-Production: Team Typography designs

In the picture above, listed is a few designs drawn by one of our crew members, Shannon. She wanted The artist’s font to be pointy so this could connote danger (maybe representing the thorns in the rose). Furthermore, she drew a rose to replace the ‘o’ in the artist’s stage name because it linked to synergy as on the digipak, music video and advert we were planning to have roses in all three so it’s the same and the media products promote each other. Also the rose is also a representation of her last name. Moreover, we went for bolder options because we wanted he artist’s name to stand out and promote absence of ‘confidence’ about the artist. The use of green is for nature, which is a significant part in the music video, and the symbolism behind green is jealousy. The narrative of the music video is all about Jazmyn Rose’ jealous towards her love interest’s girlfriend, so the use of green just made sense to use. Lastly, the billboard sign of Jazmyn Rose was to appeal to Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Star’ theory and just make it seem like the whole show was about Jazmyn.

The reasoning behind the ribbon is because it connotes love and quite personal. This is supposed to link to the romance aspect of the music video and seen as someone who's had their feelings hurt. Even though both colours are an indication to romance, pink symbolizes something quite delicate and sweet, whereas red connotes seduction and danger. These colours contrast in terms of the symbolism behind them, but works strikingly well. Furthermore, the rose petals at the end symbolizes that they are floating away, just how Jazmyn Rose feels in the video as she feels her love interest is pulling away from her.

The record print above is to represent that she is a new signed artist and the type of record used is supposed to indicate that she is quite old-school (Aaliyah being the influence of Jazmyn Rose). The rose in the middle of the record is to link synergy throughout all the media products and promotes part of the artist's persona of being seductive and having power.

Research- Digipak Evaluation

Digipak Evaluation

A Digipak is a type of packaging for CDs and DVDs, and consists of a booklet and plastic holder inside for discs. The purpose of Digipaks is to promote the album and the artist. They can either be new or older artists, the digipaks’ role is to spread the word of their music and face, which would result to their brand identity. The digipak would sell the artists to the audience in hopes that the audience would comply with artist recognition.

The conventions of a digipak are; it will always have the artist’s name and album name, a barcode, information on the back, the record label logo, to which the artist/band is signed to, a website or an artists’ social media account, track list, (inside the pack) vivid background images relating to the theme throughout, song lyrics, booklet insert.

The album ‘LOUD’ digipak represents Rihanna’s love life (pictured inside the pack). It tries to represent her as someone who’s infatuated and loves relationships. However on the front cover, she’s seen as fierce with her bright red hair and lipstick and her facial expression looking down connotes that she’s ‘looking down at you’ almost like she has the power to demote someone or something. The target audience include females aged 15- late 20s (most likely students), all races and with the social grading of an E to C2. Furthermore, reflecting on the album's target audience being of a young audience, the psychographics of the album would most appeal to; Aspirers- they believe in status and what's fashionable and trendy. Another is Explorers because they are all about experience and discovery and being of full energy, this (and aspirers) are the only ones that relate to a younger audience and therefore would most likely fit the album's audience.

The album ‘Morning Glory’ digipack represents the band, Oasis, as an British indie band. The album cover is a picture of two men passing each other on a street. Even though they became a worldwide phenomenon , Oasis was an indie band which the cover promotes as it looks local, making them seem just like everyone else. The location was chosen on Berwick Street in London because the street was a popular location for record shops during that time. Moreover, when the target audience, both genders aged 15-30 and social grading of an E and D, saw the album cover and the street, they are more likely to recognize it as perhaps they'd brought their records there and feel as if they relate to the band and carry on following their music. The target audience are likely to be the working class as they'd relate more because of the band's own similar backgrounds. Following Young and Rubicam's 4C's theory, mainstreamers, aspirers, explorers and strugglers seem to fit this genre. Mainstreamers would tend to do what everyone else does for safety, which applies to Oasis' second album because it was huge at the time, and aspirers are 'wannabes' who would follow the latest trends and celebrities. Engaging the younger audience (students), explorers would appeal to this as they're always looking for the next big thing because they want adventure and discovery. They are also early adapters to technology and seek out ideas and new approaches. I believe that strugglers are another target audience because it is similar to their working class backgrounds. A lot of people struggled during that time, and hearing music from people who also went through it, helps the audience to establish how similar they are which further encourages the fan base.

The album ‘Born to Die’ digipak represents Lana Del Rey to be this strong and resigned.  Her confident pose gives the illusion that’s she’s a ‘beacon of light’, however when you are met with the title of the album, it seems that she is this 'resigned' person. The demographics for this album is aimed at white females aged 15-late20s with the social grading being an E and D. The psychographics would be aimed at (along with Explorers- who aim for experience and individuality), Reformers and Strugglers. Lana Del Rey's album could appeal to Reformers because they're all about independent judgement and awareness and seek enlightenment, which Del Rey portrays through her songs and album title and how resigned she appears to be. As for strugglers, as Lana was a struggler herself... The impact it has on the audience is it gives them another perspective of life from the singer's point of view. Since this album was also a big hit, it also applies to Mainstreamers follow the crowd  and does what everyone else does to feel safe, but are quite domesticated. The roses are symbolic (like any other flower) to life but also romance, which appeals to female's wants and needs.

Shown in the albums Loud and Born to Die, by having the artist front and centre it promotes Andrew Goodwin's Star theory. Using this theory allows the audience to recognize the artist straight away and by making the video about her/him, the audience would then be able to recognise them in general and other forms of media. Furthermore, it gives the illusion that the artist is the 'star' and influence the audience to be just like them, making the 'aspirers' of the world (Young and Rubicam). 


Overall, digipaks are a useful tool to market artists and their music because it sells the artist and what they're capable of. The designs in the digipak sell the image that the artist is trying to create for themselves, including the booklet. The booklet sells their soft side, confident side, any  side that the artist is trying to portray so the audience have a better understanding of how the artist is and what to expect from them. The same with the typography, it can determine the image of the artist and the genre of the album. If the typography is edgy then the genre could be rock, or if the typography is soft and bubbly then the genre could be bubblegum pop. This is why digipaks are so important within the music industry because it shapes the artists reputation and their music choices.