Ancillary Task Research - Back Cover of Digipack Inspiration.

After finishing my digipack front cover, I decided to have a closer look at the back of CD's to see how detailed they were and the conventional things they contained. I chose to look at 'The Killers' 'James Blunt' and 'Florence and the Machine' because they all are aimed at my audience.


All of the covers are very simplistic, which I like. However, I feel that my own back cover should have an object / symbol relevant to my music video on it, so it allows the audience to make clear links between the tasks.

I was thinking about doing a shot of the dead plant at the back of the digi-pack, and then having the full and half leaved plants at other points within the digi-pack to create a thematic link.

Ancillary Task Research - Tour Posters - Owl City

I love Owl City's tour poster because I think it's eye catching and quirky, even though the dates and locations of the tour aren't mentioned, the colouring and large fonts used attract our attention. I think how the colour balence of the forest background has been changed to highlight both the artist and text is a really clever idea, and fits the expectations of an 'indie' audience well. The same typography has been used on both CD cover and poster, which is something I'm doing within my own ancillary tasks.

Ancillary Task Research - Tour Posters - Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding is a popular acoustic style singer with my target audience age group, and I thought this poster was particually effective in attracting audience attention. The depth of field in the image adds a level of interest and makes her stand out (even though she is unconventionally not centre frame). The typography used has become instantly recognisable to her, so using it was an obvious choice.

Ancillary Task Research - CD Covers - You Me At Six

You Me At Six never use themselves as their album cover, as demonstrated in my previous research and their new album (left). However, in acoustic genres, having the singer on the album is commonplace (like Ed Sheeran or Laura Marling), and as my song is acoustic, I feel I should stick to this convention. I love the desaturated look on this album and also Laura Marling's. However, what really catches my eye on this album is the use of letterboxing to add interest to the audience and again, defy typical conventions of the genre. This being said, I don't know whether an Indie / Acoustic audience would find the image a bit too in the 'rock' genre.                                 

Ancillary Task Research - CD Covers - The Drums

The Drums are an upcoming indie acoustic band, whi have the same target audience as me. I think their album cover uses colour really effectively, and showcases the laid-back genre well. However, I think the bad name is too big for the image, as consumers of the indie acoustic genre tend to like more intergrated image and text. I like the positioning of the band members (neither of them are dead centre, which defies conventions and adds interest), and how the album title is placed in relation to the image. For my own album cover I will try and better intergrate text and image to meet my target audience needs, and be aware of the positioning of Ben within the frame.