Evaluation of an Ancillary Product

Evaluation of CD cover

What are the conventions of print products in the techno pop genre?

•The generic conventions of the Techno Pop genre have not been pre-defined. This is because the genre encourages a style that incorporates unusual colours and styles that wouldn’t normally be seen on a CD cover. An example of this is the cartoonist style that is shown on these CD covers. This style is used because it makes the genre appear unique. One of the other major conventions is that bright colours/colours that clash are used throughout. This is shown in Kraftwerk’s Electric Café in the blue faces with the bright red lips. The colour clash helps the CD cover stand out from the other CD’s on the shelf and because of this also helps techno pop stand out as a genre.

There is an emphasis on movement. This is shown through the bear having a colourful trail behind him showing where he has been.

There are very bright colours shown. This shows the generic convention of colour clashes/bright colours.

The sky in the background shows a very unnatural colouring. This will help to add to the unrealistic nature of a bear flying through space.

The important details (e.g. parental advisory and name of the artist/CD cover) are shown in opposite corners

The main feature of the CD cover is the bear that is dressed in human clothes and built as a human. This helps to emphasise the lack of realism

The title is the only thing that really blends in with the background (pink on a purple background).

How does our CD cover fit in with the generic conventions of Techno Pop?

Emphasis on movement has been shown by the minivan. Fitting in with the idea of movement featured in the earlier cover.

Wings show that there is a lot of potential behind the artist and that he is soaring as if he had wings.

The lizard shows the unconventionalness of the CD cover. This also fits in well with the genres tendencies to be unexpected and unconventional.

The van symbolises the culture behind the artist and his songs. This is because a VW van is a cultural symbol that is known to many different people.

The lizard is shown wearing human clothing that suggests that it has human characteristics. It is pictured in front of the wings and is shown to represent the artist. This helps us to visualise the artist soaring and having a high self esteem.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

•It has used existing media styles (cartoony look) to create its own unique look that has inspiration from other existing media products

There is a style that has been encouraged by these images combining the cartoonist style with the hints of travelling (shown by the road and the bus).

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Both images have movement involved (image of a car helps to hint at movement and Ben is walking along) helping to show purpose.Dark colours feature prominently but are interrupted in both images with clashing colours (the lights and the main Slimist logo)

I feel that the combination of the feeling of movement and the dark colours and low lighting helps to associate the music video to the CD cover and vice versa. This means that we create a brand for the artist Slimist and this means that we can directly target our target audience by changing these key features.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

One thing we have found is that newer technologies (special effects etc) have enabled the production of better looking music videos. We found this by asking our questionnaire to several participants. This has encouraged us to use a more technologically-advanced approach to the production of our music video. We have done this by filming everything in reverse and then playing it in reverse to make it appear that everything is normal.

Another thing that we have discovered through our audience research is that the image is the main focus of any CD or album cover. We have used this idea in our CD cover by making the central title (slimist) also the central stylised image. I feel that this has come off very well and looks very professional. This is shown below:

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used Adobe Photoshop Pro. This enabled us to edit our creations to make them appear more visually effective.

This helps us to show the construction of our ancillary product. We created it in various layers and used the tools on the toolbar to create our own images from scratch.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We then created a series of similar shapes to go on top of the base layer.

We found a base layer and based our image on it.

We then removed the base layer and had our image for use on our ancillary products.