LO1 Task 1: KTA 3: Five Pieces of Graphic Design & Full Analysis

The Stone Roses are an Alternative rock, jangle pop, indie band formed in Manchester in 1983. They target people from the 1960s & 70s who would have been around when The Stone Roses first formed, although older teenagers of 2013 are now big fans of The Stone Roses and their music. The purpose of this advert is to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Stone Roses greatest album of all time. Even though the album is brand new so would be expected to be neat and clean, the colour on the poster has been faded to give it a vintage/ punk feel which connects the colour scheme to the style of music. The 4 badges at the top of the advert weren’t on the previous cover but have been put on the special 20th anniversary cover to advertise the fact it’s the special album but to also change the album cover slightly so that people who have the original album will also want to buy the new album so they have the full collection. The five starts connote that the album is a good quality as seeing an image of 5 starts is know to be seen as ‘top class’ and ‘high quality’. A strap line is used towards the bottom of the poster ‘ Re-Mastered Re-packaged Re-Discovered’. This is placed at the bottom so hopefully it’s the last thing the audience will read so will stick in their head as the text is trying to sell you the album. The use of 3 is a clever technique as it keeps the writing ringing round in your head. The black, white and green tones used for the background are almost reflecting the camouflage print, as the band is known to wear their cameo parkers. The Stone Roses modeled their style around the mods, wearing Ben Sheman Shirts, which could be the main reason red, white and blue text is used a lot over the advert.  The cover displays work by John Squire. It is a Jackson Pollock-influenced piece titled "Bye Bye Badman", which makes reference to the May 1968 riots in Paris by using a lemon in replace of the ‘o’ in ‘roses’

The banner is written in a sans serif font to move away from the traditional writing and represents the solidness of a stone. The mode of address is powerful as the main headline is in a much bigger text than anything else on the page so really stands out. The leading and kerning of the letters are an equal amount of space apart except for the ‘s’ of the end of ‘roses’ but this has be done so the words ‘stone’ and ‘roses’ are parallel to each other. A white space is created at the bottom of the page where the smaller, maybe not so important text is. The white space looks as if it has been scratched away from the background revealing new information about the album but also drawing your attention to the small writing at the bottom. ‘’The greatest debut album of all time’’ is written in gold which connotes wealth and importance but also keeps the distinctive house style of the gold lettering used in the banner. 

Muse has created an extremely powerful logo which draws the audience attention because of the strong colours used on the black background. In each different letter a different album cover has been interpreted which gives the word 'Muse' a personal touch but also telling a story about how the music Muse has produced has differentiated over time. The font is a sans serif font which makes the text modern, powerful and straight to the point. The text uses wide space kerning which allows each letter to be individual and each image inside the lettering have an individual colour scheme with its own meaning. A stain glass window has been interpreted into each block of colour which represents church windows meaning the album may make references to god or the bible. White space is used around the logo drawing attention to the singular word making it strong and powerful. The lines above and below are creating a statement of the bands music from the beginning to the current phase of their development by surrounding the word muse by the story of the band. The kerning of the letters could also be wide to allow the text to stay in line with the lines either side making it look neat. Colour's such as Yellow Red and Blue have been used which denotes the primary colours but with Yellow connoting happiness, Red; danger and Blue depth or coldness using these 3 colours have bought all different aspects of life into the muse album which suggests to the audience that the songs can have many different meanings behind them. Purple tones are used towards the end of the writing which connote power, nobility, luxury, and ambition Deep pink tones are also used showing any anger or violence has been neutralized. 

From muse changing their text from white (previous years) to the new colourful text is suggesting they are more upbeat and have more energy about them. 

 Chicago has been around since 1975 and along the way has created a very strong brand, which everyone recognizes. The lettering is a strong sans serif font in red connoting love and danger, which is what the musical is about so its already influencing the genre and audience. The purpose of the advert is to advertise that Chicago is playing in theatres at West End and Broadway. Chicago can get away with creating such a simple advert as when the public sees the font, colours and the main image they will recognise what music it is from as Chicago has created a strong house style which they have kept consistent in each advert. There are large amounts of white space around the advert drawing your attention straight to the text and central image which also gives us insights of what the main character is going to be like so we feel connected with the play. The Anchorage of the text pins down the meaning of the image as the song Chicago by Frank Sinatra is a well known song so when you see the text 'Chicago' and the image of a lady doing the splits you can guess the advert will be a musical involving singing and dancing. The advert can entice all different target audiences from female teenagers up to male and female adults. The basic sans serif font and central image helping teenagers relate to the advert as its a modern text and a central image of someone who they could inspire to be. Men are targeted by using the 'pretty woman' central of the advert so they have something nice to look at and females are targeted by using the red text which connotes love and the flirty woman which helps bring the meaning of the musical togethers- a love, betrayal and dancing musical. The kerning of the letters have been spread out just enough so that the lady's feet reach the letter 'C' and the letter 'O' so that we believe the length of her legs fits with the name of the musical showing us that the two fit together.

This graphic work is advertising Kings of Leon’s new album ‘ONLY BY THE NIGHT’. The central image is a collection of a ¼ of each of the band members faced mapped together to create one, weird looking face. We immediately know that the four faces are the 4 members of the band showing that they have all put the same amount of input into the new album.  An eagle eyes and wings have been interpreted into the photo to connote the power and success of the album but also to show that the new album is strong and professional like. The image also has small crop marks on each side showing the use of a potentially old camera as with the sepia tone also representing the album cover has an old, vintage’y feel. The effect on the background of the advert is old and scratched suggesting it’s an old rock band which adults can relate to as the oldness looking of the album suggests the band have been round for a long time. The text ‘ONLY_BY_THE_NIGHT’ also suggests the theme of old but cool as the underscores show that it could have been written on a old fashioned type written which is representing ‘cool, but a bit edgy’ as in this decade as no one really uses typewriters. The banner has also used underscores but in a bright blue, which makes the title, stand out more as the advert uses quite dull, old-fashioned colours so the blue makes it look more alive. The royal blue connotes urgency in the business sector helping to sell to impulse buyers.  The mise-en-scene of the advert is very basic, header at the top, then the main picture, then any extra information at the bottom making it simple to understand and set out in the way adverts in the 18/90’s would have been set out. The advert uses similar tones of colour but the brightness of the red at the bottom 'OUT NOW' connoting urgency to buy the new album, as 'sale's' are normally in red and this is where people impulse buy. It also shows excitement and passion which stands out to people when they glance at the advert. 

I think the way this Florence and the Machine album cover has been done is very creative in the way the graphics relate to the genre of the music and the soundtracks on the album. Florence covers a few different genres from indie rock and pop too baroque and neo soul. The main header at the top of the CD cover is written in white with a black background making the text really stand out. The logo is written in a sans serif, curveyness font suggesting it was hand written by the artist which gives the album a personal touch. The writing 'lungs' is a formal text in a bold serif font with two lines either side of it ancoring the fact there are two lungs. This text is much thinner that her name at the top of the album suggesting it isn't as important and that the main image is more important as you are immediately drawn to the two huge lungs hung off her body. Because the word lungs isn't as bold and has been written lightly over the top of the picture its as if she doesn't want the title of her album to be seen straight away, she wants the audience to work it out for themselves by reading into the picture. The main image is a picture of Florence her self with the main focus being the two huge lungs she has on the outside of her body. The word 'Lungs' obviously means a lot to her in this album as its the name of the album, her lungs are the main focus of the image and one of the sound tracks makes reference to lungs 'Between Two Lungs'. Lungs denotes one of the main organs in your body and on this album cover she portrays them as very important to her suggesting she sings every song from her lungs and each word she sings is very important to her. They could symbolise her music is her life. There are dark shades on the lungs though connoting death or violence relating to some of the songs on the album. Florence is using an indirect mode of address by looking down towards the floor showing she is in deep thought about her music and these emotions are shown through her songs. The background is a wood or forest connoting nature and life which relates to 'Lungs', the name of her album as shes breathing in fresh air, but also themes of hope, life and peace are shown. 

I feel that the adverts I have chosen would not break the code of the ASA as they are not offensive or misleading in anyway.