EVALUATION - Comparison of Completed Ancillary Products

Magazine Cover and Website:



This is an image of the magazine cover and a page from the website. These two products are very similar as they share the same colour scheme of grey, black, white and red. The colour grey is used as the base background colour on both products, but on the website a block colour of black is placed over the top with the layers of text and images on top. Both pieces used the colours red and white for text and headings. The masthead on the magazine and the heading on the website are both positioned in the top left hand corner. Both products use a similar key image of the band with the lead singer in the foreground

At the bottom of the magazine cover there is a white stroke around the banner to highlight this section. This is similarly done on the website as a white stroke has been added to the text box at the bottom of the page to highlight the 'Social feeds' information. On the magazine cover down the left third of the page are coverlines highlighting major articles inside. The layout of this is also done on the website as down the right third of the page is the heading 'Tour dates' with a list of dates and venues. This is another similarity between both products.

The positioning and layout of both pieces are very similar. Each text box and image are carefully and precisely lined up to the side of the page . This gives the product a professional look and makes the information easier to read and follow.

The only thing that is different is that the website uses the font 'Skin & Bones' whereas the magazine uses the text 'Impact' for the headings. However, this is not a criticism of our house style as the conventions of a magazine cover do not have fancy fonts for headings they use bold fonts that will stand out on the page and match the rest of the text on the page. For example, the NME masthead is written in a basic font, similar to 'Track'. 

Digipak and DVD:

Front Covers:

The band name 'Kings of Leon' is positioned at the top of the page on both products. Both headings share the same font 'Skin & Bones' in a black font. This, therefore, shows consistency between both of the products. Even though the digipak heading is placed on a white background, the DVD cover doesn't need to do this as well. This is because each product doesn't have to be exactly the same, just as long as they share most of the house style components. From doing this it also distinguishes the differences between a DVD cover and an album cover.

The key image is similar on both products, but not exactly the same. This is good as both products share a similar main image which adds variety to both products. Both images have been edited on photoshop to remove the background and palced on top of the plain grey background. One difference is that a thin black stroke has been added to the digipak image, which defines the outline and makes it stand out more on the page. This could therefore have been also done on the DVD image if given a chance to redo it.

Back Covers:

Both products have used the same key image on the back cover. However, the original image has been edited on Photoshop for both products. On the album, the colour and saturation of the image was edited to being black and white. Also, I altered the transparency to make the image more appropriate to use as a background image. On the DVD, the background of the studio has been edited out and the image is left with the three members of the band playing. Louisa placed this image onto a black background and added a stroke effect around the members to make them stand out which works really well.

Both of the covers display the album's track list. The songs are listed in the same order which gives a realistic feel about the products as it looks professional and creates a link between both of the products. In our group we had to communicate with each other on what our record company and producers were going to be to create a sense of consistency throughout all of our products. For instance, if one person added 'Sony' to their product and another person used 'Universal', this would not be consistent within the group and our work would not be recognisable to one anothers. Therefore, we all decided to use Universal as our record company.

Discs:

To further the consistency between the digipak and the DVD cover, we used the same design on the disc across both products. Myself and Louisa created the design together so it was fair for both of us to use it in our product. We created this design by finding a blank CD template on google, importing this file into Photoshop, placing an image of a moon over the top and added text.

The design is largely the same for both of the discs. The only difference is that on the appropriate product one has got CD written on it and the other DVD. The fonts, font sizes and colours used are exactly the same on each product. This therefore demonstrates that these products are very similar.