Q.2 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In our music video we obviously have a majorly repetitive image and motif which is the eery white mask. As this was such a massive thing to the video we decided it would be best if we used it in our print work as it would have a strong link to it. The front cover of our CD is a normal photograph of the mask taken from a slanted side angle and our poster is also of the mask. Our poster's image is of the mask from a high angle so you can see all of it. We used two different angles and photographs because we didn't want both the CD three fold case and poster to be the same because that's boring, unimaginative and lazy so we were quite against that idea and by using the mask motif on all three of our products it links them strongly together.

It's important to make sure that all our products link together and are cohesive because essentially it's a marketing technique. For example if an individual sees a magazine poster advertising an album, if the poster and album are cohesive then they will be able to find it and purchase it. If they want to buy it but have forgotten the name of the album/CD, then the picture on the CD will help them recognise and remember the picture on the poster. For example the Gorillaz have cohesive albums and posters like their album Plastic Beach. Here are examples of the CD album cover and a poster advertising it:

Another album that they've also done this with is thier album Demon days. Both the poster and album cover have the same image on: 





Although the Gorillaz aren't a metal/rock band, they are part of the rock genre and we took inspiration from their album cover/poster idea of having the same or similar image for both.



Another thing we did to make sure that our main product and ancillary texts were cohesive was that we used the same font on all three of them. We did this because some bands have a certain font associated with them or use the same font; even if it's just their logo. For example the Red Hot Chili Peppers have their own font for the title of their albums and also their logo too. Here's some examples:

Logo 1

The font is all the same on the album covers and logos. This is where we got the inspiration from to make the font the same as it's a direct tie in to all the products.



Album



Logo 2



We asked an audience if they thought our print work was cohesive and one person said: 'The poster's picture relates to the CD case and you can obviously tell that it belongs with your music video'. This is such a relief to hear because we've tried to make our main product and ancillary texts cohesive and we thought they were but it's such good feedback to understand that what we think is also what our audience thinks too.

Another thing we used to make our media products cohesive was was the colours of black and white. Both the advert and CD case have white writing (in the same font). This relates to our video too because the mask is white so we felt that the white writing would be easy to see and would be a reminder to the viewer of the mask. We feel that this is cohesive as all three media products have a lot of the colour white in.