Website
I will introduce greater colour variety to the homepage design in order to make the electronic genre more recognisable by adhering the conventions of sound diversity and excitement associated with listening to electronic music through visual connotation of multiple colours.
I also intend to act on this feedback by replacing some of Ray's photos with images of gigs, nightclubs and DJ mixers in order to communicate the genre of the artist's music to the audience more clearly.
I will also need to reconsider the design of the Tour page to make the information on it more easily readable.
Digipak
Aidan will redesign the digipak so that it would match the styles of the website and the music video, as well as maintain a common theme in its design instead of consisting of thematically unrelated images. The front cover will now feature the same image as the website's homepage, because this photo received a highly positive reaction from the focus group and correlates with the style of the music video.
He will also change the font and the layout of the text, because the focus group members could not distinguish the information that he placed on the covers earlier.
Therefore, the digipak will undergo the most change.
Music Video
Of course, it is now impossible to make any changes to the video. However, I took into consideration that if a video contains a performance element it is better to put more focus on the artist than we have this time.
Thursday, 14 December 2017
Sunday, 10 December 2017
Focus Group Results
Focus Group and Results
After presenting our website, digipak and the music video to our focus group, we received the following results:
Website
Although the group liked the design due to its bright colours and the animated image of the artist, which they thought was successful at quickly grasping the attention of the viewer, they did not guess that the genre of its music is electronic. The first impression was that the genre is rap or pop due to Ray's outfit on the homepage photo, but as I scrolled down they changed their minds and said the genre is indie or alternative rock. The bar chart below below shows the results of what genre each product was considered to be. Yellow colour represents the website, blue the digipak and purple the music video:
The group's favourite page of the website was merchandise due to the way its layout changed as I move the courser and clicked on the page's features. Therefore, I will include more interactive features on other pages of the website.
Another design fault that they noticed was the unclarity of text on the Tour page. I will change the colour and size of the text for it to be more readable on the colourful background.
Digipak
The group thought that the design of the digipak was more suitable for the electronic genre than the website because of the wide variety of colours that were used on its front cover and digits that there were present on all four covers. The former aspect worked because it associates with colourful lighting in nightclubs, while the digits represent programming used for writing electronic music. Therefore, I will need to introduce new generic conventions to my website that would be similar to those presented by Aidan on his digipak.
Nevertheless, the focus group did not think that the design of the digipak looked professional because of the unclear text for the album's and the artist's name, lack of correspondence between the colours and the low quality of the used photographs due to high grain noise levels.
Music video
Majority of the focus group agreed that the video was their favourite element of the campaign. Its concept explained all the elements of our website and digipak designs and clarified the electronic genre by providing the focus group with the artist's music. Therefore, it was the most pleasant for the focus group to observe since the video made the most sense out of our three products.
There was a mix of opinions on what element of the video (the band, the boxer or the ballerina) was the most enjoyable. This was the best possible outcome, because it proves that there are no weak aspects in our video that we would have to modify.
There were no valid commentaries on the video that we could use to refine it. All members of the focus group found to be enjoyable and could not think of significant improvements that we could make to it. Therefore, I consider it to be the most successful component of our campaign.
Overall campaign
According to the focus group, the only component of our campaign that differed it from professional work was the digipak. Although the website did not adhere the generic conventions of electronic, they thought that it matched the style of the music video and was equally engaging, while they considered that the digipak did not correspond with the other products and had to redesigned to be more visually pleasing, despite the fact that it communicated electronic conventions of the electronic genre most clearly.
Therefore, we will make some adjustments to the design of the website and create a different copy of the digipak in order to meet the expectations of our target audience.
After presenting our website, digipak and the music video to our focus group, we received the following results:
Website
Although the group liked the design due to its bright colours and the animated image of the artist, which they thought was successful at quickly grasping the attention of the viewer, they did not guess that the genre of its music is electronic. The first impression was that the genre is rap or pop due to Ray's outfit on the homepage photo, but as I scrolled down they changed their minds and said the genre is indie or alternative rock. The bar chart below below shows the results of what genre each product was considered to be. Yellow colour represents the website, blue the digipak and purple the music video:
Another design fault that they noticed was the unclarity of text on the Tour page. I will change the colour and size of the text for it to be more readable on the colourful background.
Digipak
The group thought that the design of the digipak was more suitable for the electronic genre than the website because of the wide variety of colours that were used on its front cover and digits that there were present on all four covers. The former aspect worked because it associates with colourful lighting in nightclubs, while the digits represent programming used for writing electronic music. Therefore, I will need to introduce new generic conventions to my website that would be similar to those presented by Aidan on his digipak.
Nevertheless, the focus group did not think that the design of the digipak looked professional because of the unclear text for the album's and the artist's name, lack of correspondence between the colours and the low quality of the used photographs due to high grain noise levels.
Music video
Majority of the focus group agreed that the video was their favourite element of the campaign. Its concept explained all the elements of our website and digipak designs and clarified the electronic genre by providing the focus group with the artist's music. Therefore, it was the most pleasant for the focus group to observe since the video made the most sense out of our three products.
There was a mix of opinions on what element of the video (the band, the boxer or the ballerina) was the most enjoyable. This was the best possible outcome, because it proves that there are no weak aspects in our video that we would have to modify.
There were no valid commentaries on the video that we could use to refine it. All members of the focus group found to be enjoyable and could not think of significant improvements that we could make to it. Therefore, I consider it to be the most successful component of our campaign.
Overall campaign
According to the focus group, the only component of our campaign that differed it from professional work was the digipak. Although the website did not adhere the generic conventions of electronic, they thought that it matched the style of the music video and was equally engaging, while they considered that the digipak did not correspond with the other products and had to redesigned to be more visually pleasing, despite the fact that it communicated electronic conventions of the electronic genre most clearly.
Therefore, we will make some adjustments to the design of the website and create a different copy of the digipak in order to meet the expectations of our target audience.
Saturday, 9 December 2017
Preparing for the Focus Group
The purpose of a focus group is to trial your products on people who have not seen them before to get an insight into whether they are currently communicating the ideas you intend them to and get the ideas about how to refine them to make them more successful.
- Develop the products as close to the final version as possible
- Questions should be as open and neutral as possible
- Show the digipak and website before the video, this will enable testing out whether the focus group can identify the genre the act is working in, which would otherwise be given away by the video
- The questions should be asked by the person who created the discussed product
- Record the answers
These are the questions we are intending to ask. I will ask the questions related to website, Aidan will ask about the digipak and Kristien will interview them about the music video.
Website
- What genre do you think this is?
- Why do you think so?
- What do you like most about the website?
- Does it look like a real website?
- What makes it look professional?
- Is there anything you would like to see more of on the website?
- Is there anything you would change?
Website + Digipak
- Do these two products complement one another?
- What would you change to make them more co-relaing?
- What is your impression of the artist?
- Do you think the red-pink colour works with the artist?
- Why?
- What would you expect to see in the music videos of this artist?
- Why?
Music Video
- What genre would you say this is?
- What aspects of the video did you enjoy the most?
- What aspects did not work?
- Did the compilation of the boxer and ballerina work well?
- Did the video adhere electronic generic conventions?
- Would you recommend this to a friend to watch?
Overall Campaign
- Do you think that the campaign meets the expectations from electronic genre?
- What was your favourite element of the campaign and why?
- Did any elements of the campaign stand out?
- Does the campaign look like it has been done by professionals and why?
- Which product would you purchase most likely?
- Did the campaign make the artist memorable?
- What aspect of the campaign would you change?
These are the rules of getting the most accurate feedback from the focus group:
- Develop the products as close to the final version as possible
- Questions should be as open and neutral as possible
- Show the digipak and website before the video, this will enable testing out whether the focus group can identify the genre the act is working in, which would otherwise be given away by the video
- The questions should be asked by the person who created the discussed product
- Record the answers
These are the questions we are intending to ask. I will ask the questions related to website, Aidan will ask about the digipak and Kristien will interview them about the music video.
Website
- What genre do you think this is?
- Why do you think so?
- What do you like most about the website?
- Does it look like a real website?
- What makes it look professional?
- Is there anything you would like to see more of on the website?
- Is there anything you would change?
Website + Digipak
- Do these two products complement one another?
- What would you change to make them more co-relaing?
- What is your impression of the artist?
- Do you think the red-pink colour works with the artist?
- Why?
- What would you expect to see in the music videos of this artist?
- Why?
Music Video
- What genre would you say this is?
- What aspects of the video did you enjoy the most?
- What aspects did not work?
- Did the compilation of the boxer and ballerina work well?
- Did the video adhere electronic generic conventions?
- Would you recommend this to a friend to watch?
Overall Campaign
- Do you think that the campaign meets the expectations from electronic genre?
- What was your favourite element of the campaign and why?
- Did any elements of the campaign stand out?
- Does the campaign look like it has been done by professionals and why?
- Which product would you purchase most likely?
- Did the campaign make the artist memorable?
- What aspect of the campaign would you change?
Friday, 8 December 2017
What is a focus group
The purpose of a focus group is to trial your products on representatives of the target audience. This way the record label can get an insight into whether the products currently communicate the ideas they are intended to and get ideas of how they can be refined to become more successful. The useful feedback can be divided into two categories:
- Observations that one is unaware of before about how the product
ts may be interpreted by the audience.
- Suggestions about how the products might be further refined to make them more effective
It is important that the focus group is an accurate representation of the audience. For example, if it is created for a children's product it should be made up of both kids and their parents to ensure that the feedback includes opinions of everyone who contribute to its purchase.
In the class we watched The Apprentice episode to infer what are good methods of communicating with a focus group:
These are the aspects that we thought the host was successful at:
- Targeting: the audience representatives included all parties that participated in consumption of the researched product. In this case these were children, who create demand for the good, and parents, who provide finances for its purchase. Thus, the producer received accurate information to work with.
- Depth of details: Because the focus group was small, there was the opportunity to record the feedback with individual details. Thus, the quality of information was higher than it would have been if the firm chose a higher number of focus group members.
- Interaction: the host was friendly in his language and gesture, making the focus group members more open for communication.
- Precision: host did not ask general questions that would not provide him with unclear data.
There was only one aspect that in our opinion would improve this focus group:
- Diversity: the researched product is consumed by children of all ages, thus there could be a greater range of ages among children.
- Observations that one is unaware of before about how the product
ts may be interpreted by the audience.
- Suggestions about how the products might be further refined to make them more effective
It is important that the focus group is an accurate representation of the audience. For example, if it is created for a children's product it should be made up of both kids and their parents to ensure that the feedback includes opinions of everyone who contribute to its purchase.
In the class we watched The Apprentice episode to infer what are good methods of communicating with a focus group:
These are the aspects that we thought the host was successful at:
- Targeting: the audience representatives included all parties that participated in consumption of the researched product. In this case these were children, who create demand for the good, and parents, who provide finances for its purchase. Thus, the producer received accurate information to work with.
- Depth of details: Because the focus group was small, there was the opportunity to record the feedback with individual details. Thus, the quality of information was higher than it would have been if the firm chose a higher number of focus group members.
- Interaction: the host was friendly in his language and gesture, making the focus group members more open for communication.
- Precision: host did not ask general questions that would not provide him with unclear data.
There was only one aspect that in our opinion would improve this focus group:
- Diversity: the researched product is consumed by children of all ages, thus there could be a greater range of ages among children.
Monday, 4 December 2017
Music Video Rough Cut
(created by Kristien Alexandersen)
This is one of the stages just before we finished the final cut is involves all forms of elements such as the boxing, ballerina and the performance. I really like this because it shows the tempo correctly sadly I feel the variety of shot aren't good enough so I added more as we got closer to the final outcome. But overall i think there was a good progression throughout the video and told a story well.
This is one of the stages just before we finished the final cut is involves all forms of elements such as the boxing, ballerina and the performance. I really like this because it shows the tempo correctly sadly I feel the variety of shot aren't good enough so I added more as we got closer to the final outcome. But overall i think there was a good progression throughout the video and told a story well.
Sunday, 3 December 2017
Process of Creating the Digipak
(Created by Aidan Murphy)
These are the designs that I first started off with I had the pink background and the black (stand out) patterns on all of the parts of the album. I originally started with this and I thought it was good as it worked very well with the website and the fact that it was very minimalistic was also good as it suited the star image of the artist, however I was later on informed that we had to use our own designs and take our own pictures. Having realised this I had to change the design of the album and prepare a shoot with our actor- Ray. On completing this I definitely did not think it matched as well with the webstite and the style of the artist as the other one did.
This is the final version of the Digipak that I came up with and I presented this to our focus group and they did not like it. They thought that it did not flow well with the website and looked a bit dis-jointed which I totally agree with and I plan on going back to the original design with the pink colour scheme and the more minimalistic approach as it suits the style more and looks visually nicer and more professional and it links in with the overall campaign a lot better as well.
Saturday, 2 December 2017
Design Process of the Website
Because I approached the task of creating the website incorrectly the first time, I had to twice. Here is the first website I made which proved to be insufficient:
Because the layout was automatically generated the website did not match the mark scheme requirements. Thus, I started again. The first step was to choose a different template:
I then started modifying it by adding images of the performer and other components, such as playlists and videos, that would make my homepage unique:
After finishing the homepage, I moved on to constructing the other pages of the website. The first one was music, where I had to create folders with my own audio files and images, which then became albums:
The next one was Tour, where I typed made-up dates and locations of our artist's performances:
Merchandise section was the most challenging, because apart from making the layout I also had to create the products. For that I used Photoshop, where I compiled images from my own photographs and then uploaded the results:
Contact and Newsfeed sections were the simplest, I just had insert two interactive tables. One allows the user to type in information:
The other expands as as the user clicks on the blogpost that he or she would like to view. I also added some images and text for the blogposts to look realistic:
This is how the website currently looks, laid out page by page:
Homepage
Music
Tour
Shop
Contact
Newsfeed
Friday, 1 December 2017
Comparing homepages
Prior to creating our own website we were tasked to research on the webpages used for distribution by artists of the same genre. I now will compare websites of Martin Garrix, Chainsmokers and Steve Aoki to distinguish the most effective generic conventions and include them in my own product.
Steve Aoki:
The first focal point is the artist's name. The custom font adheres the generic convention of the artist's independence and exciting lifestyle, because electronic genre associates with the nightlife and partying. The light-hearted attitude connoted by the custom font would be admired by the young target audience, who are interested in the fun lifestyle that the artist's ideology promotes.
Below the title is the artist's image aimed at increasing the public awareness of him. By reinforcing the visual recognition, his record label aims to raise the demand for his texts and merchandise. On the right side of the page one can see his logo, which also raises awareness for the label's products by advertising the star as a commodity and his label as the brand.
Scrolling down one fonds the latest video content aimed at raising awareness and demand for the star, and the section that allows one to purchase tickets - the main source of profit for the record label. The right side provides additional information to social networks that promote the artist, as well as an opportunity to try his products on Spotify. This leads to greater consumption.
Martin Garrix:
Martin Garrix's website contains more artwork than personal images, thus connoting that he prioritises the quality of music over his public appearance. This attitude may appeal for the young target audience,
The Chainsmokers:
Steve Aoki:
The first focal point is the artist's name. The custom font adheres the generic convention of the artist's independence and exciting lifestyle, because electronic genre associates with the nightlife and partying. The light-hearted attitude connoted by the custom font would be admired by the young target audience, who are interested in the fun lifestyle that the artist's ideology promotes.
Below the title is the artist's image aimed at increasing the public awareness of him. By reinforcing the visual recognition, his record label aims to raise the demand for his texts and merchandise. On the right side of the page one can see his logo, which also raises awareness for the label's products by advertising the star as a commodity and his label as the brand.
Martin Garrix:
Martin Garrix's website contains more artwork than personal images, thus connoting that he prioritises the quality of music over his public appearance. This attitude may appeal for the young target audience,
The Chainsmokers:
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