Question 2
- 1. Question 2 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
- 2. Brand Identity • When considering brand identity for our products, I looked at other artists such as TheWeeknd and Drake and saw that they used the same font and similar imagery on a lot of their work, making their brand very easily recognisable. For example, on Drakes “Nothing Was The Same”, the image of a baby is used on all aspects of his ancillary pieces. When considering this, I decided to make the front cover of the album very similar to the back cover, with the only notable difference being that the front cover image has our artist wearing a balaclava and the back cover has him without it. This helped us to create a brand identity for our artist, as through the album artwork he is very recognisable.
- 3. Identity through video and ancillary • The album cover and our music video feature the same location, which creates brand identity as audiences would recognise the album cover through the shots in the video and vice-versa.
- 4. How do you think your ancillary task design will “sell” the main product to the audience? • Our ancillary task fits our target audience of teenage boys well as it is relatable to them, as the imagery of the alleyway and the balaclava are seen in British youth culture frequently. The juxtaposition of the front and back cover also shows the two sides to our artist, and people would be intrigued into finding out about his life through his music. • The simplicity of the ancillary products is also inviting, as it shows that our artist is homegrown and doesn’t need a record label to promote his music. This is a feature of British Rap that is seen as good in the culture as it promotes the artist as self-dependant and that their music alone can bring them success rather than needing a label, which the audience will appreciate.
- 5. What elements of your ancillary tasks communicate the genre you were working in? • After researching the conventions of British Hip-Hop ancillary pieces, I made my ancillary tasks as true to the genre as possible by making them simplistic but powerful, with bold lettering and imagery that is striking to the audience. I looked at album covers such as “J Hus – The 15th Day” for inspiration and saw that a lot of album covers feature the artist as the main focus, so I took this convention and incorporated it into my work, featuring the artist at the centre of the cover.