Existing Posters Analysis

After conducting research into existing album covers, we have established common conventions. However our task for the promotional package is to also create a poster to advertise the artist's CD. 

Katy Perry
Katy's Perry's poster for her album Teenage Dream is similar to her CD cover that I previously analysed. The artist is wearing the same costume of a futuristic look with the bright neon colours. Also her hair is purple which coordinates with her outfit and emphasises the bold aesthetics. Katy is shown to represent her femininity due to her lack of clothing and the advertises have tried to promote her looks to increase her target audience of a role model and admirer. It seems important to note that the poster is portrait which allows a longer shot of the body, showing her shape and appearance as the main part of the promotional package. It is also evident that the poster deviates from typical conventions due to its bright background. However this attracts the consumer's eye by being so bright and gives an overall pop image of her album. Katy's stance like on her CD is an important factor in gaining the general personality of the artist. Her stance is confident and comfortable and she is looking up in this poster as opposed to the artist looking directly at the camera in the album cover. As Katy is looking up rather than away, there are connotations of the futuristic feel, supported by the name of the album Teenage Dream connoting dreams and imagination. The text adheres well to the colour scheme yet is eye catching as well as Katy's name at the bottom of the poster. It appears that the difference between poster and digipak lie in the main focus being Katy's appearance than the promotion of the song. This is shown as the text is a lot smaller in comparison to Katy's figure which is intended for the consumers who by the poster will want a picture of the artist rather than the text.



Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson's poster for her new album Stronger is interesting as it shows little resemblance to her album cover. Unlike the CD cover, the poster has a dark background and portrays a different image of the artist. Due to the portrait orientation of the poster, the frame allows a longer shot and here like Katy Perry's there is a shot roughly from the waist upwards. The black background gives the impression of opposites which may link to the album named stronger. The synergy is identified in the artist's name which is the same colour as the digipak. What is interesting about the poster is that the name is written vertically across the poster. This shows the lines of the frame yet it also suggests that consumers will be able to identify Kelly from the image; thus it is not necessary for such a well known artist to emphasise the name. The image of Kelly is a professional one which captures another side to the artist. Here Kelly is wearing a statement dress which connotes more formality and the low cut dress portrays the sex appeal of the artist, attracting a larger audience. The evident fan which was used give a professional look to the image yet also shows some action rather than a standard still photoshoot. The stance of this poster appears to be most interesting to me as the angle is not definitive in knowing if Kelly is lying down or if the shot was taken from a low angle. Either way the advertisers have created a diagonal eye line by the slight tilt of the image showing more sophistication. Therefore I think this poster is effective in showing another side of the artist. 


Adele

Adele, being a less mainstream artist, has a different style of poster. Again like both previous posters it does not conform to the album cover, enabling more attraction from different audiences. The dark background again is used which is better for a less well known artist to establish the image as the central focus. Likewise a portrait orientation is used however unlike the American artists, Adele's poster connotes a more genuine image as she is not standing in a certain pose but merely facing the camera. This will appeal to audiences who admire her as a down to earth artist who does not follow mainstream conventions. In this way the poster is also quite bold as Adele has a serious expression yet with her eyes fixed on the camera she almost challenges consumers to address her as an artist. Her appearance suggests a more subtle genre of music. Her hair and make up conveys a typical female of twenties which some audiences may look up to. Roughly under a third of the poster is layered with a white strip boldly showing Adele's name in block capitals. Although the poster does not really show a synergy with her album cover, the font remains the same. This means that it is identifiable to audiences who can see the synergy between products.