Log - Print Based Media

Print Production.  Student log

Student Name: Sarah Innes

Date	Comments on work
17/09/2010	Today we made a collage of picture on the computer to show our new teacher who we are, this includes magazines we like, our favorite DVD and book. After this we learnt what we would be studding in this topic of work. This includes information on semiotics including denotations and connotations.
24/09/2010	Today I found out information covering different types of companies and their logos, we found information on the coca cola brand, McDonalds and many more. During this we got told how they advertised themselves and how they created the brand identity.
01/10/2010	Today I made a PowerPoint on the Dell Company; this PowerPoint describes what the company is about, what it makes and how it started off. All this information helps me understand how different companies progress and develop to become who there are today.
08/10/2010	Today a company called Friday Street Music came in to talk to us about are work in the other class , they gave us information about what type of festival they want, promotional ideas they had and the type of vibe they wanted in the festival. After they had left we wrote up an evaluation on what we had learnt during their speeches.
15/10/2010	Today we learnt about print based media throughout time, this start of it which included cave men drawings to modern day mass production machines. I found this information using YouTube and Wikipedia as some of these websites hold very good information.
22/10/2010	Today we made collage using different magazines to create a images of what represents us, my collage includes actors that I admire, it also includes different colors, patterns and objects which describe what I am about.
12/11/2010	Today we started a power point on printing techniques; this will include information on the advantages and disadvantages on this technique including how the process is made. We made up a word document for a bibliography this is to include all the websites we have looked on to help us with our studies.
19/11/2010	Today we watch a documentary about the world a production; this includes topics such as advertising, different types of business, rebranding and globalization. At the end of the lesson we started typing up what we had watched and did a questionnaire to find out what serotype you fall into in the social class.
24/11/2010	Today I finished the essay about globalization; this information in the essay was gathered by the documentary that we watch which included information on the way products are manufactured and how companies create their brand identity.
26/11/2010	Today I finished the power point on printing techniques which includes different information on each type of hand printing such as etching and screen printing, at the end of the lesson I printed off my essay on the review of the documentary.
03/12/2010	Today I started the extend project of our research into what type of advertising campaign includes any type of the printing techniques, which I research in the previous lesson in their advertising campaign. This was quite hard to find out due to the lack of information I found as many company uses photography for their campaigns.
10/12/2010	Today I finished the extended project included the different types of printing and connecting them with images and ways of advertising a product. In these piece talked about how different brands use this techniques to their advantage and how it made their brand successful.
07/01/2010	Today we looked into food packaging, the idea that companies mislay their costumers due to telling them that their product has less fat then they actually do. The second half of the lesson we when to Waitrose to find out what different products they have and what colours they include, images and were they are place on the shelves.
14/01/2011	Today we made sure our blog work was up to date, so all lesson we made sure that all the work we had been completing from the beginning of the school year was up.
21/01/2011	Today we learnt about our new project which is magazine covers; we researched into two magazines that we are interested in and evaluated them. After this we had a chance to come up with the concept of the magazine that we are going to create.
28/01/2011	Today we started to learn about the software we are going to work with to make the magazine covers; we started making a template of the design of the cover using only Photoshop and in design from adobe.
11/02/2011	Today we looked through our design for the magazine cover; I went around the class to ask their opinions an advice on how to improve the magazine. With that information I updated the magazine to include the feedback and started to evaluate it.
18/02/2011	Today I wrote up my evaluation of my final magazine cover and uploaded the piece onto my blog; I filled out a checklist to see what else I need to add to my project. The rest on the lesson I made sure I had completed it with getting feedback and adding pictures to my post.
4/03/2011	Today I listened to 4 pieces of music by 4 completely different artist, my task was to draw an album cover for each of the to reflect the feeling of the song, for the rest of the lesson I improve one of the cover on Photoshop and analyzed it to put on my blog for marking.
11/03/2011	Today I started and finished research into the different albums covers and how they stand out from the rest; in total I research 6 albums from Eminem to Adele. I completed this research in PowerPoint so I could upload it onto my blog though slide share.
18/03/2011	Today I started and finished my research in album release posters and how they draw the passersby in; I analyzed 6 posters from artist such as Madonna to Green Day to find out what they do to interest the target audience. I completed this research in PowerPoint to upload on my blog through slide share.
25/03/2011	Today I completed research into the law in making an album cover, what you need to include and what you can’t included. This information included in depth rules into names of the album to the pictured uses. I completed this research in Word to put up on my blog for marking.
01/04/2011	Today I completed a practice album cover; this was to experiment with photo shop and the way you can display the different details on the cover. After this I analyzed two album covers that I liked, I did this to explain different techniques they included and to display the type of album cover I want to make for my final draft.
08/04/2011	Today I wrote up the name of my album, the artist and songs that the album was going to include, I continued this by explain why I had chosen the names and what the artwork is going to involve. Both of the mock ups I will produce will follow the vibe of the two covers I analyzed.
06/05/2011	Today Andy Mallon a musician came into the lesson, he gave us a talk on what kind of music he writes and what we could do to him concerning making a piece of work. He talked to us about the idea of make a character for him who could be put into music videos and on Digipacks. After this we got strait to work coming up with ideas for this character, I made two brain storms of two completely different people, I described why I thought of them and why they would be connected with the songs.
13/05/2011	Today I completed target audience research into the type of people who would buy the Digipack/music which Andy produces. This involved looking at radio station website and finding out their audience and looking at the different things they are into. This piece of work included picture and links to back the facts up such as a sistics table from a website.
20/05/2011	Today I started coming up with ideas for the Video Boy character; I came up with three different techniques of this. Firstly making the character out off play dough, secondly out of objects and thirdly out of toys then finishing them off with Photoshop.
27/05/2011	Today I started my first character on paint; this character is going to be the ‘English Gentleman’. I made sure that I had included the ideas I had created in my brain storm by making sue the character fitted the iconic image of the Artful Dodger. After I finished my character I made sure I uploaded it onto my blog and added an explanation.
3/06/2011	Today I made sure that my other characters the play dough and newspaper boy was uploaded onto my blog with a full explanation of them. After this I carried out a class questionnaire to see which character they preferred, the answer was the newspaper boy by a large amount of votes.
10/06/2011	Today I carried out research into what other type of newspaper colleges arts do, I found two examples one of John Lennon and Barrack Obama. I put my research into a word document explaining how they did it and why it is effective, after this I uploaded it onto my blog.
16/06/2011	Today I experimented with different materials in the art room, I using different printing techniques and colors to get different effects. After this I scanned the images and explained them, to put up on my blog.

Evaluation – Digipack and Project

I believe that the Digipack design I have created is very well suited to the brief we were set. The initial brief was to create a character to represent the artist, this character needed to be flexible enough so it could be included in videos and on promotional print forms; this brief got continued into creating a Digipack for the artist including his ‘video boy’ song. I started this by creating a character which was different and eye catching, the aim was to get as many people interested in the album to increase the sales and the popularity of the artist.

After finalizing on a character I started work on the Digipack, I did this by firstly creating a cover, in my early work I focused on the idea of creating a backdrop of a city at night which included a human figure in the centre. I imbedded this idea in the album cover but improved it to make sure that I understood how the different colours would affect the look of the character and righting I would put on top of it. I controlled this by editing the colours of the photo to make it darker so the audience could clearly see the bright could right I put on the cover. The colours of the righting include a set of three, I did this by with each line I wrote it had a different colour, this finished off by being the colours yellow blue and red. I thought that the colours would help bring continuity to the Digipack, I believe this was a good chose as it linked the artwork and righting together, in my feedback people thought this worked well.

I kept the theme of the colours running through the whole of the Digipack, this was included in the background of the back cover. The colours helped create a background to hold a list of songs and lyrics of a song in the album. I believe this continuity of the Digipack helps the audience to connect with the artist as it shows how he has thought of different connections throughout the album process. Including the front part of the Digipack I have designed the back cover, lyric page and the place for the CD. The back cover included the name of the songs, a picture of the artist, bar code, html of his website and details of his production company, this helps make the Digipack more real for the audience helping the vibe of the artist showing he is a very professional person. I am really pleased with the way the Digipack has come out the final piece looks amazing, I say this because I feel the colours blend really well making sure that the audience captures the artistic side of it making sure it attracts the correct target audience.

I controlled my time management by making sure I kept a log of work, writing down the completion of work each lesson to keep on track of what I have done. Additionally I make sure I kept a to do list which included all the required project items, when I was finished I ticked of the activity, if I started to think that I was behind with any piece of work I would set a target date of completion for a few task to get them finished quickly.

The image construction on this album artwork carries a 70’s theme, with bold colouring and sharp imagery, the main character I created for this cover is unique and holds a story of its own by the way it is created out of stories from newspapers. The textures creating this character really stand out from the background, the newspaper textures is rough and misshaped, this represents the artist due to the imperfection of his big hair and unshaven face. The title of this album is very informal, using lower case capitals showing how the artist and the music are very approachable and down to earth, it shows how he is a relaxed character, not showing the importance of the proper use of English grammar. All this contributes to the understanding of how I have represented the character Video Boy; it shows a normal boy expressing his feelings through news headlines, he shows his sophistication by the details of his suit but his relaxed character using lower case letters and bold colours.

The Audience feedback on this Album was very positive I asked a few peer members in my class their thoughts on the album. They expressed their opinion on the eye catching colours on the album, they felt that this was very unique and how buyers would be drawn to the colour scheme of the yellow, blue and red, very happy colours.  Other feedback included feedback on the Video Boy Character, giving feedback on how unusual the character is but how it works well will the intriguing background and the message it sends to the audience about the message of the music and information on the artist. The one negative feedback I did receive from my peers is that they were concerned on the dark colour of the background, this person expressed that they felt that it could send a unhappy  message to the audience about the darkness of the music which would put come people off buying the album.

I believe I have met the requirements to get the target audience interested in the album. I believe this album shows the youth of the artist, expressing the love to show his feelings and disappointments of society today. It helps connect with the public due the amount of people today who want to understand the world, music helps express this and Andy Mallen music expresses this concern. I help show the artist views on this album by the expressive character I created using newspaper headlines. I continued showing the artist views by the conation of the dark background and street theme, a very raw representation on how this music goes back to basics of just a man lost, using music to find himself again. A idea which many the artist target audience relates to due to the time of the finding their first jobs and going off to a new city to study.

In this album cover I made a big statement on society today, the newspaper creating Video Boy shows the world we live in today, full of headlines and breaking news but who is doing anything about the world disasters? Video Boys is a character representing the disasters of the world, using music to try and expresses his feelings just him singing. I showed this on the album cover by showing the character walking through a dark alley, waking to find his voice in the world. I believed I did well to show this in the album cover, but I believe I should have added the representation of music in this imagery; I could have done this by adding in a guitar to show the rawness of the music and its message. 

 To conclude I believe making this Digipack has built my artistic skill greatly, It has shown me that there are other ways around not being able to draw such as using collage techniques and creating items out of different material. This project had been a great success as I am very happy with the final product I have produced, it looks very professional and I believe it has met the brief exactly. The range of colours and textures has brought this Digipack to life which has made this eye catching for the audience as it is completely different to anything on the market at the moment. This is a very good quality Digipack, showing a wide range of features including a lyric page and a place for the CD. This is fit for the current market as people want to get more involved with the music and artist, the Digipack allows them to learn the songs and find out more information about the artist by being given the address for the artist web page. The quality of the Digipack it very high due to the amount of thought which has gone into it, it includes a lot of different information on the pack as well as the amount of colours and the use of images on the CD cover, the target audience will be very impressed with this pack. I have learnt a lot about the process of creating a Digipack, I now understand how the designers try and create a CD cover which represents the songs and the connotation on the artist, this process has made me become a lot more creative as it has made think of new ideas and ways to develop them.

Overall I have managed the project well and developed my ideas using new approaches to solving problems, one example of this is when I found it hard to draw the characters I made them using the PC, play dough and Newspaper. I believe I did enough research for this project as I have create a product which fits the brief, work well with the message of the artist and the connotations on the song lyrics. The research helped me a lot with the final design of my Digipack due to the images I found which inspired me to connote the lonely look of the cover, it shows the artist trying to find himself and the message he represents, this message is in the song lyrics. The item which I am most please with is the end product of the Video Boy character as it shows a good representation of all the message which creates the album. If I could do this project again I would make sure I asked more question when I met with the Artist, I would have like to know a bit more about his beliefs rather than searching through his music to find them, if I ask him about his believes of political issues and the recession I could have resulted in a stronger message which I could have shown more on the front cover.

Feedback - Digipack

I asked 5 people to rate my digipack out of 10 for different aspects of it.

Result
Images: 8, 9,9,7,9
Colour: 6, 8,6,7,7
Layout: 9, 8,7,9,7

Information included: 6, 5,7,6,6
Character: 10, 9,9,7,8
Fitting Target Audience: 9,9,10,8,10

The feedback I have received from my peers has been very positive; the only improvement that they came back with was that it did not include much information about the artist and music on the album. I will not improve my digipack to include the requirements due to the lack of room I have on the pages; I believe that I have done the best that I can do without having the recourses to produce a bigger version.

Digipack - Video Boy