The Process of Construction

We used the newly taught software Photoshop to create an album front cover. I applied the techniques we had learnt in class and watched further videos on 'YouTube' to help me be inspired. I found gained most interest in the technique of layering, and therefore I embraced this skill in my album cover. 

The process surprisingly planned out successfully. Primarily, I sketched my initial ideas onto paper before beginning to edit on Photoshop. I sketched a few ideas and the idea that was mostly being forced, included the concept of overflowing colours, such as watercolours and interesting shapes. After considering an engaging idea, I started by creating a new document importantly remembering to change the width and equally the height to 8 millimeters.  I also notably altered the resolution to 296 as I recalled a good pixilation and quality of a cover usually falls between the figures of 200 to 300 resolutions.

After creating a blank, new document, I completed researched and explored my initial thoughts on the Internet of watercolours and engaging shapes. I also found it a very important tip to consider a colour scheme at the start, so one knows what they are searching for; for example, I wanted to include neutral colours, such as, beiges, whites and complimentary tones of blue. During the creation of my album cover, I constantly and consistently experimented with the layering technique and finally produced a piece of work I was pleased with and engaged with. I wanted my outcome to look aesthetically pleasing to audience members.

I was determined to follow Negus’ theory; including organic vs synthetic acts in the music industry. I considered this idea throughout designing my Digi Pak and acknowledged the ideologies of each idea. I concluded my album cover most suited the conventions of a synthetic act and followed Negus’ beliefs. For instance, I purposely didn’t include my artist on the front of the pack, as I wanted a healthy growth and a naturally, flowing questionable response from viewers.

Comparing my website with 'The 1975'

After creating and constructing my own website on ‘Wix.com’ for the highly talented English rock band, ‘The 1975.’ I felt it was a crucial element to practice our crafts within creating websites as part of the A2 media portfolio assigns pupils to create their own website.

I also felt it was necessary to compare both my own, crafted website with the official and original 1975 website. Both sources share similar aspects but also differs depending on own taste and choice, such as layout.

Firstly, the official site of ‘The 1975’ immediately brings you to a page advertising the bands newest album but the main element of the page is to allow viewers to purchase their merchandises, tickets and their music through different sources completed in one simple link.  This previous page could suggest the band is awakened and keen on making money and performing sales.

However, my presentation of my website contrasts from the official site as my website directs the viewer straight to the main homepage instead of previous entrance pages to their site. My homepage focuses on the collective, organic act following. Similarly throughout my website, I chose to concentrate on embracing both Negus’ Organic Vs Synthetic Theory and Richard Dyer’s Star theory, through the use of subtle colour, organised layouts and through elements of writing.

Although, the homepage of the official site includes a simple design yet aspects of busyness and compact information appears through the use of photographs. 

However, the home page when scrolled down includes over 100 pictures and words questions engaged with fans, this could highlight the band are relying on as much social media as the can to be successful or popular; as other bands feel one photo of themselves does them enough justice. I chose to produce only one photo for the bands web page. The site covers elements of modern aspects and

positive responses.

The site is straightforward and collective, consisting of clear links to their tours, music, love, videos, store and more. The official site keeps their concentration on maintaining the colour scheme throughout the site. This shows organised artists and follows conventions of healthy organic theories.

From researching and examining The 1975’s site, I feel courageous, confident and reliable in creating my own website for the band.

My Own Website: The 1975

http://hannahbpalmer.wix.com/mysite

I chose to create a website based around the band ‘The 1975.’ When creating the website, using ‘Wix’ site, I was constantly considering the bands symbolic conventions, consisting of an indie, alternative English rock band. I also had the idea of Dyer’s Star Theory and Negus’ Organic Vs Synthetic Theory in the back of my mind. 

My website in which I created, embraced the positives of ‘The 1975’ and emphasised their organic act. ‘The 1975’ are an organic and healthy band as they formed in 2002 when at ‘Wimslow High School’ and naturally grew alone from there. Through my website, I have aimed to exaggerate Negus’s approach by keeping the site’s colours natural with subtle tones. I also kept the style and layout the same creating an organised and organic response.

From the site I made I have hoped to attract the target audience of the band. For instance, the band’s music covers themes of darker aspects, such as drugs, hope, death and fear and I tried to follow these conventions by using dark coloured tones and subtle styles. From this, I understand these elements are mostly appreciated and takes interest by late  teenagers young adults. Their dark clothing mirror these topics, in which I tried to include. 

Photoshop Tutorials

I carried out some research further from what I was introduced to and found source videos on youtube. For example, I watched many different video on basic, primary tutorials and also the arts of layering. I found this very useful as I aim to experiment with some new techniques.

Do's and Do not's of Photoshop

Photoshop is a massive jam-packed system, with hundreds of elements one can experiment with, however because the program is so free, so therefore there are some do’s and do not’s hidden in Photoshop. Do’s and do not’s are mostly ones personal preference, opinions and experience, however these are the most common do’s and do not’s.

DO

• Firstly, the main and crucial do to Photoshop Adobe is to practice. For instance, “Practice makes perfect” This statement applies exceptionally as there are so many hidden tools and further functions to be found and improved in Photoshop. By practicing a lot, one will figure out their own do’s and do not’s as they will understand the program further.
• A huge do is usually a successful user and editor of Photoshop will understand when editing a photo always use ‘The Rule of Thirds’, also known as ‘Hotspots’ to achieve the best and rewarded outcomes. 
• Also do always use tutorials as many tutorials exist on the Internet and are to be discovered by you. Photoshop tutorials are very successful and effective as they can help anyone to improve. For instance, never place the main subject in the center, if it is then simply crop it in Photoshop and use the move tool to place it in a hotspot.
• Lastly, always save your work, as Photoshop doesn’t save by itself, so always to be sure, save it every few minutes.

DON’T

• For instance, primarily when editing a photo, you can get carried away and in fact ruin your image instead of aiming to make it aesthetically pleasing, to avoid ruining a photo, don’t over sharpen an image. Don’t over sharpen an image, as it will start to become unrealistic and artificial.
• Another simple point is don’t give up. Many people, especially beginners will become either frustrated or disappointed with their initial outcomes, but it will get simpler with practice and sources.

Introduction to Photoshop

Photoshop is a successfully created software discovered by Adobe. Adobe creates many effective software apps, such as InDesign, Lightroom, Premier Pro, Illustrator and numerous more. However, we recently got taught and introduced to the software Photoshop, an image editing and composing system.

Two successful creators, Thomas and John Knoll, invented the program in 1988. Many different individuals use it, however Photoshop is no longer simply an artist’s tool but developed to a versatile program, designed for the works of any creator in any field. For instance, photographers, industrial designers, medical professionals and thousands more.

Photoshop is an empowering system, in which one can achieve many different things. Many users state ideas behind Photoshop and one statement remained in my mind “It is a skill, not a program.” This dominating observation simply demonstrates, Photoshop cannot be taught to individuals, only learned. For instance, like all Adobe apps, one can only be successful with Photoshop through experience and experimental practice. Therefore, from this memorable remark, I will continue to practice in order to achieve the best results I can.

Lasso Tool

Photoshop is so powerful, it can seem daunting to beginners. For example, the program includes many different elements to it, such as functions of tools. For instance, the basic tool we firstly learnt was the Lasso tool. Photoshop allows us to choose from three different variations of the Lasso tool to work with, such as the standard Lasso tool, Polygonal Lasso tool and finally Magnetic Lasso tool. Simply, each of the three types of Lasso tool gives us a different way to draw selections. Usually the standard Lasso tool is mostly used. One can find the Lasso tool, simply on the tool bar, which is usually placed on the left of the program. However, you can also (press the L Key) for a quicker route.  The purpose of the Lasso tool is for one to easily take a section out of an image by simply drawing around the area you wish to select.

Move Tool

Another simple tool we were taught was the move tool. For instance, the move tool allows us to select a layer by dragging it around with your mouse or simply using the keyboard arrow keys to move it. The move tool allows you to place a section anywhere you wish on the page. It is to be found again the tool bar at the top.

Menu's

There is also another useful tool we learnt, such as the Menu’s. For example, there is a Select Menu and an Edit Menu, both of which are of importance. The Edit Menu firstly allows the user to copy, paste, cut and more an image. It also allows much more experimental work for example, warping or defining or transforming or many more, these allow you to rotate, enlarge and more. Similarly the Select Menu also allows one to choose between the layers and images to either isolate the layers or deselect them. There are a lot of elements to explore in the Select Menu.

Layers

Layers in Photoshop are another simple and effective use of the program. However, it can be the source of problems for some people as layers build up and sometimes one can be creating many different elements on the wrong layer. For example, I think of layers like sheets of acetate. Acetate is a transparent area, which you can see through, as is a layer on Photoshop.

There are many different elements to layers, such as you can change the opacity and fill of a layer for preferred choice, you can apply special effects to the layers, such as dropping the shadow or increasing the outer glow. You can also add filters to the layers for more successful blending options; you can lock the layers and also do many more.

Layers are stored in the layer panel on the right hand side of the program. You can manage your layers by either placing them in groups or highlighting them with different colours and more. One can either have their layers on show or hide them, by either clicking (Windows>Layers) or quickly (F7) on your keyboard. Layers are usually used to either multiply (duplicate) an image or build up a collage.

Research Musical Styles and Campaigns

Analysis of Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' Video

In this analysis, I will be focusing on elements of Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’ video, aiming to follow codes and conventions of the product. Primarily, the objectified video includes many different controversial aspects to it, raises discussions towards Madonna as an artist and also represents wider affairs as well as concluding her opinions on subjects.

The video summarises Madonna escaping from seeing a women getting abused by two white male individuals. Madonna runs to a church and seeks some religious reassuring help and safeness from echoes and movement in the church. Madonna dreams about discovering her religion due to scenes of previous witnessed mistakes. The female artist Madonna falls asleep and wakes up whilst dreaming, her absent mind finds herself seeing Jesus. The audience rapidly notice, the man in the church is the same man that got arrested and therefore Madonna falls guilty as she realises the wrong man went to prison.

The controversial music video doesn’t strictly follow a narrative. For instance, the artist doesn’t always follow the lyrics to the song; therefore the video is a concept-based performance. For example, Madonna sings to the camera numerous times using close up camera angles. From this convention, we know who the main star is as it is highly and recognisably sexualised. However, at some points she notably reflects aspects of the words, ‘fall from the sky’ and similarly the word ‘dream’ in which she echoes the lyrics with convincing movements. Intertextuality is also seen as a code through the video through references to other texts, such as costumes from ‘Grease.'

Throughout this video, many references are created and made towards religion and Madonna’s opinions on subjects and her representations of them. For example, the clip depicts Catholic symbols such as stigmata, Ku Klux Klan cross burning, and a dream about kissing a black saint.  For example, conventions and codes seek at times when the video shows a scene of burning crosses. The burning crosses are used in this video to show Madonna feels as though she has betrayed her religion by not saying the correct thing or doing the right thing, and she therefore feels as bad as the ‘KKK’ did because she accidently demanded the wrong man in prison. By burning the cross’s, it shows Madonna’s act of braveness but also represents her as a violent and powerful creature. Effectively conventions are also used, such as when we seek Jesus in the cage in the church, it represents a metaphoric convention to show the wrong person getting in prison.

Also, one scene during the video references the cuts on her hands in which she makes using the knife, this can be similar and recognisable to images of what Jesus’ hands looked like when his hands got pinned upon the cross.

Madonna presents herself as a brave creature and her music video is used as a vehicle to highlight and heighten this. For instance, the video was created in 1989 and racism was a big subjective around this time. Madonna confidently aims to stand up for equal rights in this video regardless of race, gender and religion.

This product connotes and audience members gain information regarding Madonna. For example, the video conveys Madonna to be an attractive, pure and promiscuous character as she is presented around white. Contrasting rebellious aspects and anti-authority from Madonna begin to seek. The video almost makes viewers believe girls are empowering and objectified. This is important as this could suggest ideologies within society.  Women being objectified highlight a notion central to feministic theories. Individuals, mostly men sometimes state people treat or seek women as an object. From this aim, it clearly attracts a male audience as well as male’s gain pleasure by seeing women as a sexual object. For example, her hair is messy and her clothes are tightly fitted emphasising this attraction. Actions and connotations shown in the product can raise discussions about the artist.

Considering the video was created in 1989, the product is modern due to her futuristic opinionative impacts. The video shows she is ahead of time and this shocked viewers with some scenes at the time the video was made. Her product isn’t that dissimilar to modern videos nowadays; this can also connotate she is a brave and controversial artist. This could also suggest, Madonna is also trying to raise various points about stereotypes before several others comment. The music video, was directed by Mary Lambert and personally, I feel Madonna and the creators of the video realised the genre pop was a mainstream genre and wanted to distant their self from the current style.

Overall, ‘Like a Prayer’ was released to re-establish her brand image and to allow a new target audience to be aimed at older viewers. The target audience are older and more mature as a younger audience wouldn’t necessarily understand or handle the scenes. Previously Madonna created songs and music videos for a younger teenage audience using her fashion icon, however she wanted to change her image and engage a wider matured audience. Male audiences are also engaged as they gain pleasure from seeing women as a sexual object. However, women are also attracted as they appreciate the empowering and brave, equal position Madonna is standing for.

The video is a successful piece of work and Madonna gained many popular comments follows, both positive and negative raisings. I personally think this video is a successful example of a promotional campaign as Madonna has used a series of advertisements using marketing tools that provoke messages and subjects.

Comparing two websites: Låpsley Vs Disclosure

Websites and home pages are both of significant importance to some artists but also to others they are of deliberate subtlety. For instance, a website and homepage can reveal crucial information about the artist, for example through their website and homepage it can suggest who the target audience are and their needs. This becomes of high importance, as the website and homepage products need to be successful in order for fans to be attracted and engaged to. A website is useful for fans as it stereotypically should and needs to include regular updates on relevant information, such as tour dates, merchandise, images and it keeps people educated with artist’s new music.

However, some artists are so engaged with the echoes of their music, some deliberately don’t spend ages on designing or creating their websites or homepages. For example, some artists have a very simple and basic webpage, including quick and relevant information where necessary. This can show some artists spend more time or prefer to spend more time on making their music instead of attracting viewers through their website, as some artists believe its music people are more attracted and engaged to and not their website.

I wanted to focus on comparing two different artists, who hold two different music genres. For instance, comparing a synthetic act and an artificial act, following Negus’ theory. Both Disclosure and Låpsley follow very different styles of codes and conventions; we can clearly see this through their websites and homepages.

For example, primarily Låpsley is a singer/songwriter of electric, ambient and alternative R&B. Låpsley’s website visually focuses on creating positive responses through the light, clear and mature site, this could connotate a younger more youthful audience. For example, I feel through the use of the clear, basic and neat site of the artist could suggest to audiences she is concentrating more on her music rather than making her site extreme. It could also suggest Låpsley spends more time on writing and singing her music, and therefore I feel this is shown and communicated through her website, however other artists could be different. Through the website design and layout, I feel Låpsley’s audience would be aimed at all ages of girls, ranging from teenagers to young adults. For example, the use of complimentary blues and whites force this aesthetically pleasing site.

However, in comparison to Låpsley, a singer/songwriter, the duo Disclosure is a combined Brother duo fitting into genres of house, synthpop, future garage, UK garage and UK funky. Disclosure’s website and homepage is visually demonstrated and successfully communicated. For example, each element to their website is carefully thought out and considered, showing valuable time was spent on creating their website and homepage. 

Although Disclosure spends a lot of time on their music, they successfully also spend time on creating their homepage. However, some aspects of the site can be quite overwhelming for users. Disclosure’s homepage and website uses darker colours and the site tightly fits the whole space, holding close and enclosed proxemics’, compared to Låpsley’s use of positive colours and space. I also feel viewers that would visit Disclosure’s site would be both female and male, ranging from teenagers to adults through the use of their conventions for instance, the diverse colours and layout.

Låpsley’s homepage echoes colours of plain whites but also contrasts with complimentary tones of blue, this differs to Disclosure’s use of dark colours. By including a large 600 pixel image when immediately entering Låpsley’s site, viewers can instantly recognise Låpsley is a solo artist and this can connotate an understanding of the synthetic act against the pure white background; by using colours of pure white it can connote she is aiming to project characteristics of an empowering, strong and innocent feministic creature. The homepage has clear direction to the top right hand corner, including relevant links, such as recent albums, videos, live and also ideas to connect.

However, in comparison to this, Disclosure’s entering homepage is very different to Låpsley’s as Disclosure’s site directs you to purchasing their music before you have to click to enter their official site. I feel the purpose of their website is for individuals to spend money, however I feel Låpsley’s site is more organic and follows of conventions of a naturally flowing site, for instance, not set up web. Disclosure’s homepage is jam-packed with 6 accurate boxes, overflowing with linked relevant content.  The layout is very different to Låpsley’s site and therefore this differs and separates their different genres. As Disclosure has many different images as you enter the site, it reflects there is more than one artist in this group and it could suggest the artist is leaning on the artificial side of the industry. Also as Disclosure doesn’t have a single large, dominating image on the homepage, this differs from the solo artist, Låpsley.

However, both sites include relevant and aesthetically pleasing images and clear links. For instance, Disclosure presents links both across the top of the page and through the boxes, including their blog, music, photos, live, store and video. 

Therefore both sites include links to live, videos and their music. However, from the information presented, I can clearly tell Disclosure cares more about the money they get then Låpsley, as Disclosure takes you to a purchasing links for their music before you reach their official website and also has clearer main links to their merchandise then the solo artist does. Although Låpsley has links to her debut album and access to where a fan can purchase it, the information is not stored as a main element in the site.

Overall, I feel both Låpsley and Disclosure follows typical conventions of a successfully communicated website and homepage, however both achieved in a different way. It is effective for artists to present their products in a particular way, as it differs them from other artists and through symbolic codes and conventions it spills further information and representations about themselves.

Your Music : Hippie Sabotage

Hippie Sabotage - http://www.hippiesabotage.com

Your Music : The Chainsmokers

Music comes in many different types and styles and has a huge impact on many people’s lives. Genre plays a big role in the music industry. For example, music ranges from multiple various categories, such as types of alternative music, classical and dance to indie pop industrial and rock traditional rock and many more. Personally, I enjoy echoes of the genre pop, reggae, singer/ Songwriter and aspects of Electro house.

I most appreciate the genre pop as the term was firstly used in 1926 embracing the sense of a piece of music “having a popular appeal.” There are many different styles of pop, including Britpop, Pop/Rock, Teen pop, Bass Pop and many more. I listen to pop regularly as I like most chart music in which many pop songs are aired on, however I don’t tend to enjoy some pop as pop can sometimes fall into the idea of mainstream track, as I appreciate and prefer less known artists.

I created a collage including inspirational album covers by 'The Chainsmokers'

‘The Chainsmokers’

I appreciate elements of the genre Electro house as the successfully talented American DJ duo ‘The Chainsmokers’ effortlessly fit into this genre, however due to some songs of theirs, individuals arguably state the sound is future pop or future bass. Due to their success, the duo expectedly gained the most popular tracks on many different social media networks and therefore is appreciated by many different individuals due to their success. I found the successful artists when exploring and discovering new, unheard and less known songs, although ‘The Chainsmokers’ are quickly becoming popular to many ears.

‘The Chainsmokers’ created a highly liked song of mine, ‘Roses’ which helped them with their fame. ‘Roses’ ticks boxes of maturity in content but contrastingly differs from the duos usual fast paced previous tracks. I own their album as I particularly enjoy listening to their music in which I share this enjoyment with many others. I also draw close attention to their music, as I am engagingly attracted to their creative yet original album covers and am inspired by them. I have never experienced the fascination and desperation of seeing them live, but hopefully one day in the future I aim to access their music live and gain memorable, inspired experiences. 

http://thechainsmokers.com

Introduction to the A2 year