Poster Designs

Our process of designing the initial ideas for the poster came from my research into existing posters as well as the mind map of how we want to present our artist. My group and I have all designed the following posters and analysed them in order to address the aspects that are positive and negative towards the final design. 

Design 1:

This image is very casual compared to the look of the artist in the other texts. Her position in the image is very laid back. She is leaning against a wall and is looking very calm. However, her eye contact with the camera makes her look more confident and keeps the strong image that has been created for her throughout the other texts. The artist is wearing a bohemian style outfit which shows her as laid back and summery as the outfit conotates summer with the straw hat and vest. We thought that by changing the look of our artist slightly by going with her more casual side which we briefly see in the music video would help is gain a larger target audience and appeal to more. A filter has been placed on the image. It is a sepia filter which shows the image in a vintage tinted colour. It makes the photo more relaxed and brighter than the original photograph which had harsh lighting and shadows. The vintage look has connotations to the past which links with the flash backs in our music video.  This poster is very experimental with text and uses it in cooperation with the positioning of the artist in the image. The vertical font ‘You You You’ is very bold and the dark colour highlights the text against the sepia background. Jessica Drake is written in the same bold font . Both of these have pink tints on the writing. The colour is not really strong but just adds a hint of colour to the otherwise plain image. Also on the wall behind her we have placed her name over and over again as if it is written behind her. This is in a dark beige colour so it fits in with the filter on the image. This image is really nice however; we think the font maybe too complex for a poster.

Design 2:

This is the only design in which we used the greyscale effect. This has a resonance to the music video as the narrative scenes are all shown in greyscale to suggest a change in time but also more symbolically of the 'grey' lifestyle that the artist was living with her boyfriend. This image therefore suggests a more poignant feel as it is captured in her possible reflection of her colourless life with her boyfriend. This suggests why the artist is not looking directly at the camera, depicting a more vulnerable figure that female audiences will relate to within their own past relationships. This design shows a longer shot of the artist as we are able to see from above the knee which exposes her more as a real person. The setting for the shot is identified as a brick wall with terrace. This suggests connotations of an urban juxtaposition with the rural which increases our target audience as the artist depicts a classic yet natural look. This is evident from her costume that is present in many of the posters - shorts, t-shirt, hat. The overall costume suggests a casual, summer nature yet she is also wearing a fairly formal wrap over her shoulders which adds more formality and again this sense of vulnerability. The composure of the frame is effective as the actress dominates around two thirds of the frame and this is the first aspect that grabs the audience. However, her pose is leaning to one side which creates a diagonal line across the poster. Also the artist is looking down which may suggest a nostalgia on her life but the audience is drawn with her to the bottom of the poster. Here is where we have placed the words of the album title 'YOU YOU YOU' which go vertically across the frame. This uses up the space that the artist does not dominate with the words in bold capitals that are also in pink writing. This starkly contrasts to the greyscale image and so the viewer's eye is drawn to this. Finally as the eye is drawn further down to the bottom of the poster, the artist's name is placed which frames with the album name to form a coloured right angle frame. The text 'Jessica Drake' is in white with a pick layering as well which almost embosses the text. The significance of the white and colour joining together may be symbolic of the artist's personal journey bringing multiple interpretations to her life. The combination of both greyscale and colour may symbolise the formation of both stages in her life that make up herself, thus her name. This may even depict a positive image for other females that there is a coloured lining that appears out of a bad relationship. 

Therefore, the poster connects with audiences on numerous levels: not only is the image appealing due to the posed image of the actress but also the deeper suggestion of the artist's vulnerability of her past relationships that will evidently relate to others - particularly our target audience. 

Design 3:

This poster has a very girly and warm feeling to it unlike some of the others. The image sticks to conventions of posters as you can see almost a full body shot of the artist. However, she is not looking as the camera as artists do such as Adele and Katy Perry. Also, the pose is very casual unlike other posters. The brick wall background seems rustic and casual which does not really fit with our music video and digipak but, by using this we may be able to expand to a wider audience and may attract women of an older age that our previous demography. The outfit in this poster is very casual and girly and is very summery. The artist looks happy and this is very different from our music video as that has a very serious tone to it. However, once again, using this poster could expand our audience. The font fits with the poster and the laid back feeling of it but it lacks synergy with the rest of our media texts and therefore if we use this poster we may have to change the font to arial and keep it similar to the digipak. Whilst editing this image, we changed the contrast which made the colours of the outfit stand out more, especially the white of the t-shirt and this has a link with our music video and the strong and powerful lighting during the studio scenes.

Design 4:

This design intended to emphasise the more informal appearance of our artist. The main focus of the poster is on the image of the artist in a Bohemian style outfit. The costume connotes a summer feel with the straw hat and vest top. The artist has a casual pose as she is leaning against a wall with her arm up to her head which suggests a laid back personality. Our intention of presenting our artist in this way is to increase the target audience by having little synergy to the digipak. We found in our research that this was an effective technique in showing a different side to the artist so that other audiences will be attracted to her music rather than soley those who liked the digipak. Therefore although the different image of the artist loses the iconography, we wanted to experiment with a poster that purposely deviated from the digipak and music video, like we have in the other poster designs. Thus we wanted the lighting and colour scheme to reflect a more casual representation and so we used a filter effect during the photo editing which gave the image a more rustic tone. The filter makes the image not too colourful and bold yet makes the image attractive and calm. However the artist is still looking directly at the audience which still conveys the artist's confidence which is a personality trait that we have maintained throughout all our products. Ultimately, we wanted to reflect another aspect of the song that we used for our music video that was the sense of woman empowerment that will particuarlarly appeal to female audiences in relating to a genuine artist who has had bad past relationships. Therefore the artist's appearance and the rustic effect suggest the idea of reflection on the past. 

We also wanted to make the poster more interesting by experimenting with the text. The eye of the consumer is firstly drawn to the image of the artist that dominates the left side of the frame but we tried breaking the verisimilitude by placing the artists name across the wall behind the artist. We wanted to use a colour that did not stand out too much but one that was visible on the background so we used a beige that was a few shades darker than the background. The text of the artist's name is then visible in a larger font to the right of the artist in a darker pink. This shows that we have tried to create some synergy between the poster and digipak as the pink colour scheme is still present even if it is presented more subtly. There are also two tones of pinks which may suggests more than one side of the artist with the purple connoting confidence whilst the lighter pink connotes femininity. The eye is finally drawn to the name of the album 'You you you' that is written vertically across the right side of the frame. This pronounces the line of the artist and uses more of the space not taken up by the image of the artist.

We liked the colour scheme and image of the artist however we were concerned with the complexity of the design and that it was too busy with all the text. 

Design 5:

This poster uses typography to enhance the mise en scene of the shot. We decided to use the font Ariel as it is what we used on our digpak- thus creating synergy between them. The top band of repeated 'You you you' imediately draws  the eye's attention to the album title. The central blue title creates yet more of an attraction, thus alerting our audience of its name and presence. The name of our artist, Jessica Drake, is written in the font as the album name and the digipak cover. It is situated in the bottom right corner which connotes her shy nature which could be due to how her boyfriend treated her.

The pose that we used for this poster is suggestive of the emotions behind her album. Having the hood up could connote the fact that she is trying to conceal or hide her face, suggesting shyness or fear, however hoodies are stereotyped as being mischievous and cheeky. Another aspect of the pose that connotes a shy nature is how she is using her legs to shield her, this could also connote her being defensive, as the song suggests that she has been let down by her boyfriend, therefore her legs up and crossed might be representative of a shield. Furthermore the cross created by her legs connotes danger.

This photo was set on rustic style backdrop with a creased painters sheet on the floor. This helped us keep with the casual look that we were aiming for. The unpainted wall could also be a metaphor of the artist's heart as it is not yet complete, just as her heart isn't without her boyfriend. The lighting in this shot is simply used to enhance the features of the artist and to make the shoot look more professional. Half of the artist's face is in shadow which could connote a darker side to her thoughts.