Will.I.Am always has the same haircut, which in itself has branded him as a music artist. If a male was to go into a barber shop and ask for the same haircut as Will.I.Am, they would know exactly what they are talking about.

This is the opening page of Will.I.Am's website – yet again another plain and simple theme. It instantly introduces you to his latest tweets, and an enlarged photograph of himself, very similar to the one used on his album cover. Using the same, familiar, straightforward image of Will.I.Am is also a brand in

itself, as it familiarises the audience with him and keeps his image exactly the same: professional.

After opening another page on the website, the same clear, bold, orange theme sticks onto it, which actually shows how he is as an artist – clear and bold with his music.

This single cover also includes Will.I.Am's logo but relates to the

name of the song. A candle is burning on top of the power button

as 'It's my birthday'.

From looking at both the album and single cover of 'Willpower' and 'It's my birthday', it is clear that Will.I.Am has set a theme of his products. Will.I.Am's logo is one which everybody will

recognise as soon as they see it, and is similar to a power button. This may symbolise the fact that his music 'gets the

party started' and that when his music is on, everybody is ready to party to it.

My opinion: I really like the idea of a clear and bold

coloured theme throughout all products that Will.I.Am releases as it shows that he has a clear mindset as a music artist. I will

definitely be thinking about using a similar bold theme in my digipak and

website homepage.

Sam Smith's website homepage gives off a very different impression of him as an artist, compared to how Will.I.Am's does to himself. This shadowed image of Sam

into a black background shows him off to the audience as a very soulful singer, who means every word he ever sings. The homepage itself is promoting where he will

be next performing with times and dates etc. His name is also something that boldly stands out to the audience, as it is white and in capitals, something that you

would never miss.

The album cover of 'In the lonely hour' is very similar to the homepage of Sam Smith's website, with a bold, black background, with him sat down, in a spotlight, looking down and very upset, head in hands etc. This shows Sam Smith as again, a very soulful pop artist who writes songs as though they are to the girl he is trying to get at, not just for his fans to listen to. The tracklist on the back of the album continues to keep the dark theme, with the list of songs shown in a white, capital lettered font. This album cover portrays Sam Smith as a very mature artist, even though he is just 22 years old.

I think that this single cover portrays Sam Smith as the more

’pop’ artist than the soulful that he is. This is a really good way in

which to attract his target audience of older teens, as the bright colours are

more attractive than a black background.

My opinion: I like the idea of the dark colours representing the type of music that the artist makes, and so will keep that in mind.

This is Lorde’s website homepage – very similar to Sam Smith’s in the fact that it clearly states the name of her album, and of course her name. The image of her is also similar, with her lightening the area up, although she is looking down (again, similar to Sam Smith). The font of the website and her name is exactly the same style as the album, which present s a particular theme to the audience. I like this idea because it gives a direct link of the artist to their target audience. As one of Lorde’s songs is the one who I am producing a video for, I believe that this theme should somehow be continued, but in it’s own unique way.

The same plain, bold text is used on the album cover of ‘Pure Heroine’ , the same way that Sam Smith has. As said before, having the plain theme on all products made for the album ‘Pure Heroine’ shows that the artists are more focussed on their music, rather than the artwork of their album cover/ website homepage. However, it is important that the album cover, especially, is still somewhat attractive so that those who aren’t aware of Lorde and her work, would want to buy the album and see if they enjoy her music as much as everyone else does.

My opinion:I think that this is a good idea for an artist who sings a lot more soulful songs, rather than pop, as it does give off more of that sort of impression, rather than a colour pop impression.

This is the album cover of Ed Sheeran’s recent album ‘X’ which is where the single ‘Don’t’ is from. Yet again, the name of the album stands out towards the background colour (big bold ‘X’ against a bright green background). His first and oldest album, ‘+’(artwork on the left) also has this colour theme, but instead shows his face. This theme was purely used to represent the colour of his hair, which is what everybody knows him for – the ugly ginger with the beautiful voice. Like Will.I.Am, there is a clear colour theme going on with the album artwork, which clearly seperates each album produced. There is also a theme between the names of the albums (math signs), with no doubt that the next album will be a ‘divide’ or ‘minus’, which also helps the audience recognise the work produced by this well-known artist.

Unlike the others, this homepage has a very different layout and theme. Ed Sheeran has his own font that nobody else could find on any fontpage, which makes him a bit unique to all other artists. I think this, along with his music, really makes him stand out against other pop artists similar to him. However, I think that the lack of a theme makes the website homepage look a little low quality, compared to others like Lorde and Sam Smith, as there is no organisation. But, I like the idea of having the most recent YouTube video linked onto it, and of course having the promotion of his most recent album.

London Grammar is a band that is most similar to Lorde in terms of music genre (soulful pop). This homepage is similar to all of the above in the way that it clearly states the name of the band, and also shows their most recent YouTube video. The theme of the page is also their artwork (shown on next slide), which shows a clear link between the two products that they provide to their audience.

These are the two most recent album artworks of London Grammar, which are extremely similar. This band clearly has the logo within their name (‘AMMA’ connected together), which is used on both album covers. The only thing that makes the two pieces of artwork different is the background image used against the logo/ name. This is another way in which it will keep the familiarity of the band to the audience, making it a lot easier for them to identify the band whether it is online, or in a music store.