Making of Ancillary texts

I have manipulated a range of different photographs via Photoshop to try and gain an image which I feel is best fro my ancilary texts. This was an ongoing proccess for me as I had a range of different ideas of what I could do and what effects I could add to my work in order to get the best quality image. Below are some of the pieces that I have manipulated, which I may possibly use for my ancillary texts.
 

 

This is the first image which I manipulated on Photoshop. At this point I was just experimenting with the different effects and styles which were available to see if they were any that I liked. At the time I liked this edit as I felt it was creative and matched my theme of identity well, although it was just a rough edit. However looking back at the image now I realise how bad this edit actually was and I view it as a learning curve to improve my images and editing further.

 

 

I imagined edits where I have two images of my artist overlapped to create a unque and artist effect. I was pleased with this edit that I created as I feel it suits the genre of my album and my artist. However, at the point of creating this image I knew that I could produce better images for either my poster or for my album cover, thus I made the decision to include the image in my digipak instead.

 

I continued this theme of overlapping images with experimenting overlapping the different layers.

 

I was pleased with the outcome of this image after I had inserted different blur effects and knew that I wanted to improve it further to a higher standard, as I could image the image being my album front cover. Improvements that I planned were to create the centre image of the artist more clearer, so that she was more distinguished and recognisable. Consequently I feel that my final album cover was improves from the image above.

 

Although I was still experimenting with the different effects available on Photoshop, I was not happy with the images I was producing, so decided to do some image research to gain inspiration of what I could produce for my poster. Whilst browsing through the internet I found two images which caught my attention as to the way they had been manipulated. They are below:

 

 

 

I was fascinated as to how these images had been manipulated to create a shattering effect and immedialty envisioned incorporating it into my own products as I feel it would match my artist, genre and theme of identity well.

 

I began to practise manipulating my photographs with this effect to see what the outcome would be. However my first attempts were not very successful and were not to the standard that I wanted, but after some practise I finally was able to create an image which was to the standard that I wanted to achieve:

 

 

This if the final image which I edited in Photoshop CS6 and is one of my favourites. I decided to add the shattered effect to my image as it connotes the inner turmoil of emotions the artist is feeling and what the majority of the songs on the album represent. With the artist directly staring at the camera shows a mode of direct address and represents that the artist is wanting to share her emotions and thoughts in her music with the audience. In addition, this use of editing is conventional and can be seen during post-production of professional music products.

Creating the CD'S with chosen music label
In order to create a professional looking CD for the inside of my Digipak, I carried out research into music labels. I wanted to create a realistic and professional digipak that could be sold in shops, that would also fit into my Indie genre. Thus I decided to create my CD's with the style of smashed mirrors, as not only does this show a new and creative design, but it also creates cohesion with the album cover of my digipak, and also the use of props in my music video with the cracked mirror. This brings all three of my products together and creates familarity for my artist with the audience.

I came up with the idea of my CD covers being an allusion for cracked mirrors by existing artist's CD artwork.

Kanye West - Yeezus

I was inspired by Kanye West's album 'Yeezus' artwork, as it creates the allusion of a clear CD case. Although Kanye does not fit into the 'Indie' genre, this artwork creates originality, and provides the image of a low-cost album, which would be associated with the indie genre.

 

 

I found this CD template on www.wizbit.com it was a huge help for me in the deisgn and construction process of creating the CDs for my digipak because I was unsure on how to create a CD prior to this task. After finding this disk during my research, I knew exactly the layout of one. However, once I had decided I wanted my CD to just be a plain design with no tetxt, I did not need to work into designing the pathways on the disk for copyright, as seen in the image on the right.

 

I am pleased with the final design of my disks, as they are simple which reflects the simplicity throughout my products, as well they create cohesion of not only the use of props in the music videol of smashing the mirror; but it also fits in to my colour scheme of black and white.

 

 

It is typical to have some brand names on album disks for copyright purposes, however, because I made the decision to not include these on the disks, I added them to my back album cover instead. These include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the decision to place the logo's in the bottom right hand corner of the back cover of the album, so that they do not take away the attention of the main artist image and the tracklist. But also I have placed them alongside the barcode, which is conventional to be situated in the right hand corner.

 

Back Cover

Before I consturcted the back of my album cover , I researched existing designs of artist's albums and found inspiration from them. These include:

 

I was inspired by this back cover of Britney Spears as I liked the layout of it featuring a simple close up of the artist and how the tracklist was presented. I knew that I wanted to present my own tracklist in a similar format.

I also took insiration from the album back cover of Lana Del Rey. Firsrtly, I found it admirable as it features the same simple oclour scheme as mine, thus I knew if I portrayed a similar design mine could appear professional. In addition, the artwork also features a close up of the artist, which I have now found as a conventional feature for albums and made the decision to include this cinematograpy into my own deisgn. Moreover, the positioning of the tracklist was also what I had in mind and I would like to design mine in the same way.

 

 Poster

After gaining feedback form my media teacher, I was recommeneded that the image I had created on the front cover of my album was very strong, and it would be a good idea to use the same image for my posterm, as this would create cohesion and recognisation.

 

 

I aimed to make my poster very conventional, thus I included copyright and promotional logo's which were also included on the back cover of my album.

 

I inserted my posters in several advertising locations to see how effective it appeared and to see if it would be eye-catching. This is a conventional proccess for posters to be advertised in public locations. I felt these images were appropraite as it shows globalisation and also creates realistic situations.