My third print piece

The following material is another print piece that I have created:

Press release for the band.

This is my attempt at creating a press release. From what I've learnt, a press release is an official document that is usually issued to newspapers, radio stations, journalists and other forms of news media. The type of press release that I have created features a band, and it provides background information about them as well as the release date of their debut album and tour. The reason for this press release is to encourage the news media to announce the bands debut album through advertising/promotion. The management of this band wishes for them to break into more a mainstream market and with the help of this press release, they can be recognised more widely among the public and their target audience.

I made this piece of work on an online editing programme called postermywall.com; I've used this programme for the creation of my previous print pieces and the outcome was, in my opinion, successful. I like the variation of fonts that are available on this website, they are unique and the ones I've picked out, I haven't seen used elsewhere which gave my work the originality I was aiming for. 

When I went onto the website to create this press release, I selected the option of using a solid black background in landscape; using black enabled me to be consistent with the house style choices I made from previous designs, and choosing to have it in landscape would allow me to fit all of the content on. I then uploaded two photos that I had previously picked out and I positioned them on the right hand side, and I cropped them down slightly so that they would fit in their designated spaces. 

When I was happy with their positions, I moved on to adding the main title which was 'Aramantus'. I used the same font and colours for this title that I had in my previous print pieces and this allowed me to be consistent in my designs. I made the size of the title much larger in comparison to all of the other text because I wanted it to stand out; I believe the red colour jumped out as being bold also, as well as the size. It's important for the title to stand out from the other text because it gives the audience an impression of what they're looking at. I added the copyright symbol to put beside the main title so that the document would look official. After moving the title around a few times, I eventually found the ideal place for it to be: at the top of the page on the left hand side with a small gap for me to fit some smaller text in above. I started to add the smaller text in the font 'Accidental Presidency' which is the main font I've used throughout all three of my print pieces; again, this allowed me to be consistent in the designs. This text was in white, which contrasted well with the red colour, and it was in a significantly smaller size than the main title because this information didn't need to stand out as much, although it was still important. I did the same thing for the text directly below the main title, except I put the word 'ultimate' in capital letters to make it bold, as it is a key word which ought to encourage the news media to advertise the band, as well as to encourage the audience that this band is worth their attention. 

After this, I went on to writing the main information below. The information I put here had to be convincing and presented in a professional tone; the information in this part of the press release is what the journalists and other people in the news media would read, therefore it had to be realistic and appropriate. I made specific language choices, and I tried to adopt the role of a press release writer. The font for the text was again, Accidental Presidency, and the size was considerably smaller than any other text as I had to be able to fit all of the information into the designated space. But not only this, like in magazine articles/interviews and other examples of press releases, the text is presented in a small font so the audience can feel as though they're being given a fair amount of information to take in; in other words, I wanted the appearance of my press release to fit the bill of others similar to it which are deemed as acceptable. 

When I was satisfied with the main body, I added some contact details to the bottom of the page; this was important so that an individual from the news media would be able to contact an appropriate person if they were interested in the band or wanted more information about them. I also included my design of the official NuTunes Records logo at the very bottom of the document to ensure that it looked professional, and also so that the audience would be able to identify the company that is responsible for the band.

Lastly, I made some finishing touches like adding a caption to the top photograph so the audience were aware of what it was showing, as well as adding relevant websites - www.nutunesrecordsofficial.co.uk and www.aramantusofficial.co.uk - in case the audience required more information and details about the band.

Like I've mentioned previously, I'm happy to go back and make changes with these print pieces if they aren't up to scratch, but at the moment, I'm pretty happy with what I've produced. I believe they all follow a similar house style and design; I've included the official NuTunes Records logo onto all three print pieces; I have used the same fonts and colours; and I've looked at examples of work similar to my own for ideas when I was struggling or unsure of what I had to do.

:)

Another print piece

Last night, I decided to create a second print piece for my coursework.

The material I've created is an advertising poster for Aramantus' official UK debut tour. I produced this piece using the same online editing programme that I created my previous print piece with: postermywall.com. This website allowed me to upload my own background photo (a photo that was taken at a concert that I attended at the O2 Academy in Birmingham) and from there, the website gave me a variety of editing tools that I could select and apply.

After uploading my own background photo, I chose to add the title at the top of the page, as this is where I've noticed that the title is typically placed in this type of material; I selected the 'Boston Traffic' font and applied it in two colours (a text colour and an effect colour) and both were in shades of red; the text colour was a lighter shade of red and the effects colour was a darker crimson colour, allowing the perfect blend of varied tones. The colour choices I made for the title are significant; keeping the title of the band in these particular shades of red enabled me to be consistent in my designs and to also be able to connect with the audience who would be easily able to recognise the band being advertised straight away by the title. I've noticed through research that all bands and artists maintain the same colour and font for their title in advertisements and other promotional material because it is a key way for the audience to identify who they are. I also chose to apply a light drop shadow to the title as well, which made the edges of the letters slightly darker, and I thought this made it stand out from the colours of the background image. 

After this, I moved on to adding the sub-headings text (directly below the main title) which displayed the name of the tour and when it would be taking place; I chose a basic font called 'Coming Soon' for these headings and I duplicated the text twice for the top subheading in order to make the text bold and eye-catching. The font I chose has a modern and youthful appearance; I thought it gave an original look to the band but if I had chosen to use a much bolder font with clunky lettering, it would have been too much for the effect I was trying to convey which was to show that they aren't a typical rock band. The font had to be different from the title font; the band title has to stand out amongst the other text as being the main subject, yet the subheadings giving information about the tour also has to stand out so that the audience are aware of exactly what the poster is advertising. I named the tour 'Ready When You Are' as I felt it had a rebellious/edgy kind of ring to it, and this is similar to other tour names for bands with the same music genre that I have seen being advertised before.

I focused on adding the tour dates in the central part of the poster. As part of my research, I'd previously looked at a handful of tour posters of this kind on the internet so that I could have an idea in mind of what a typical one looks like; I looked at factors such as the content, structure and layout. In the end, I decided to go for a design that looked appealing yet sophisticated, and this included having the text centrally aligned and in a bold font - 'Accidental Presidency' - which was in a pure black font that could be seen clearly against the lighter background image. I followed the layout that I'd seen (and liked) from other tour poster designs, which was having the month of the tour as the title above and the key dates and venues beneath as individual titles; I also used actual music venues to add realism to the poster, and I found these from other tour posters that I'd looked at. I spent a fair bit of time ensuring that all of the text was aligned in a specific way - the spaces between the text had to be equal and the overall alignment was central throughout.

I included key details at the bottom of the poster such as 'The Ticket Factory' website which is where the audience can purchase tickets for individual concerts, and also a phone number if they wanted to find out more information about the tour; these contact details are also real as I wanted to poster to look convincing and professional. I also added my original design of the NuTunes Records official logo at the bottom left, as this is what is always included in this type of material for advertising and marketing purposes; the audience should be able to see who the management is that is involved with the advertisement and events - it makes the information seem more legitimate and reliable.

I've used a colour house style of red, white and black; the main title 'Aramantus' is in a bold red colour, the subheadings below are in black, as well as the tour dates, and the contact details underneath plus the NuTunes Records logo are in white. These colours work well together and fit well against the colours of the background; the top thirds of the background image are bright colours and the bottom third is darker; the red and black colours contrast nicely against the bright background and the white font colour contrasts well with the darker background colours.

And here is the first edit:

(I am prepared to go back and make changes if this isn't good enough or needs slight improvements made.)

Advertisement poster for the bands UK 2015 debut tour.

Learning how to use Dreamweaver CS4

Today I decided that I was going to figure out how to use Dreamweaver CS4 on the PC's in school.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to Dreamweaver at home, so the only time that I will get to work on creating my website is during school hours, which means that this will probably be a slow working progress.

Seeing as I have limited experience with Dreamweaver, it might take a while for me to learn how to use it properly and confidently. I'm going to start off by reading different articles on the internet about how to use Dreamweaver, and I will follow the instructions that I'm given for how to create a basic website. I might then get on to watching some tutorials on YouTube (which have been highly recommended) but I guess at the moment I'm just finding my feet with it all.

I will give regular updates on how this is all going, but I am actually currently working on my print pieces too, so I'm having to share my time between them both. I know it would probably be easier to stick to one platform until it's finished, but for now, I just wanted to get an idea of how to use Dreamweaver so I won't have to panic about it later.

From now on, I will be working on learning how to use Dreamweaver and creating my website during my free media lessons in school time, and at home I will continue to work on creating my print pieces.

Lately

Just lately, I have been going through and updating my research (and some other things) for the coursework. 

I decided that I would do this now, so that I wouldn't have to worry about it later when my deadlines are due. I have had to change/update certain things in my research and other various posts on my blog where I have previously stated that I was going to be doing specific things, but in actual fact I've changed my mind somewhere down the line and I'm now doing completely different things. A good example of this would be in my 'coursework decisions' post where I said that I would be supporting a band that produced 'pop/punk' music, but I have made certain decisions recently which lead to me changing my initial ideas for my coursework, and now I seem to be taking a completely different route with my planning and preparation of the practical tasks. Now obviously, if my practical tasks and research do not add up and support each other, I won't receive a very strong mark when I hand everything in, which is why I've been using my time to make sure this doesn't happen. I've added a new section to my research, which is 'investigating print', and I've been looking at examples of print material such as press releases and promotional posters which is currently helping me to form my own print work which I have been posting on the blog.

My next steps are:

• To finish changing/updating my research 
• To begin my second piece of print material (press release)
• To write about the decisions I made when creating it

I don't know if anybody (apart from me) actually sees/reads these posts but hey, at least I'm clear on stuff

My logo for NuTunes Records

When the school system went down before Christmas, close to when our coursework research was due in, I planned to work on creating my logo for NuTunes Records during my free periods in school time. However, it wasn't possible to do so, as before, problems with the system meant that I couldn't save any work onto my school documents, meaning that any work I did with creating a logo would be lost, and I didn't have a laptop to work with at home at the time. Now, after Christmas, I do have access to a laptop and I am able to work on my coursework outside of school, so I have been able to create and develop a logo in my own free time and here is the finishing result:
 

The first developed logo I have created for the brief which represents NuTunes Records.

Using my research to help influence my decisions, I created this logo. My research taught me that an effect logo should be memorable, simple, timeless, and should have an appropriate font with meaningful colours. 

I believe that the logo I've created fits this criteria, due to the choices I made with the design. For instance, I chose a simple black and white colour scheme which not only is attractive to the eye, but it represents the image of 'rock and roll' (a genre of music that this label represents), and it becomes easy for the audience to identify. The simple colour scheme also will allow for the logo to easily fit onto any website, poster, magazine advertisement etc, meaning that the logo is versatile, and also timeless, as the logo can be used at any time without the need to be adjusted in any way.

I chose to use a basic font, Pompiere, which I believe is fitting for the representation of NuTunes Records: the font isn't overly bold and eccentric (like in some other designs I have seen), but it holds a sense of appeal by the elegance and style that it has. When I chose this font, I realised how smooth and sophisticated it was, and I thought that it could easily fit in with any advertisement that it appeared on, but not only this, the sophistication of it and it's ability to stand out is a good reflection of the recording label that it represents.

The reason I'd say that this logo is memorable is due to the originality of the music record symbol that I've included which follows 'Records'; the symbol is a representation of music, which is appropriate to what this recording label is about - the marketing of music recordings and music videos. The music symbol is a clear indication of this, in which the audience will be able to see when they look at the logo, and will therefore recognise, or have some sort of idea of what NuTunes Records is all about. Apart from the symbol, however, the logo does not have much else going on in it, which adds to the simplicity of it. Simplicity in a logo is vital (as identified in my previous research), and I believe that I have achieved a sense of simplicity in the design of my logo which is not too underwhelming, but instead adds to the effectiveness of the design. 

I created this logo with the help of a website I discovered called postermywall.com, and one that I already knew of called picmonkey.com. I mentioned in my previous post that my laptop does not have the system requirements to download versions of Photoshop, and therefore I have had to settle with alternative editing websites (which actually aren't all that bad anyway, and I find them easy to use) to assist me with my work. The first website, postermywall.com, is an 'online Custom Poster and Photo Collage Maker', however, I have not used it for such functions and, instead, I used it for access to a particular font called 'Pompiere'. I chose the option of a solid black background to begin with, which lead to my decision of the nicely contrasting white font to go with it. After that, I simply chose the font, adjusted the size to 62, and then added in the image of the music record which would sit beside the text on the right. When I was satisfied with what I'd done, I downloaded the work, and I brought up picmonkey.com on a new tab. I opened up the work on this website and I used the cropping tool to cut down the size, then I finished off by using the sharpen tool to make the text more bold and clear.

 

PS: I sincerely apologise for the lateness of this post, it should have been presented a while ago now with my research, but it has just not been physically possible to show this until now. I will update my research accordingly with this section included under the 'logos' part.

My first attempt at a print piece

This evening, I decided to have a go at creating a print piece. 

As I had already gathered a selection of photos which I required for some of the print pieces (at a gig I attended on the 30th Jan), I thought that it would be necessary to begin experimenting with them.

After I'd picked out a photo that I wanted to edit, I tried to download a version of PhotoShop from the internet. It turned out, however, that my laptop didn't have the 'system requirements' to complete the download, therefore I wasn't able to use PhotoShop. Instead of giving up entirely, I began to search for an alternative editing programme that would be suitable, and I eventually came across a website called 'PicMonkey' which I experimented with for a short time. The website wasn't bad, and it had some good basic edits and effects as well as text options that I could apply to my photos. 

I opened up a new tab after a while in search of some poster templates which I could look at for examples of how to model my own designs, and I discovered a website called 'postermywall.com'. The website looked promising, and after having a quick scan of the site, I found that the thing that interested me more than anything was the selection of fonts it had to offer. I decided in the end that I wanted to use some of the fonts that I had come across on this site, and I soon fitted them onto my photo; the fonts were original, and had the 'edgy' elements that I was looking for that could be applied to a magazine with a specific focus on genre of music (rock/alternative/metal). 

After I made my choices with font, which in the end were three different fonts called Accidental Presidency, Boston Traffic and Pompiere, I started to think about colour of font, and how this would fit in with the colours of the photo itself. I chose a darker shade of red for the 'Aramantus' title, which I thought suited the image due to the obvious colours of red in the photo (band members' hair colours, the tradition of the red bandana which each band member has), but I didn't over-use it as I wanted the 'Aramantus' title to stand out, so I stuck to using white for the rest of the text which I thought was a safe but appropriate house-style choice. I included a made-up website, which I deliberated placed beneath the Aramantus title, to add realism to the text; in most posters of this kind, some sort of contact details are provided so that the audience can seek more information if they wish. I also added a fake image of a bar code, as well as a copyright statement which reads: ''© 2014 NUTUNES RECORDS LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED''; this again was my attempt at adding realism to the text as well as giving it a professional magazine look. 

I made specific choices in the layout of the text, for example, the text is almost seen to be 'crammed' together. I wanted it to be this way because I feel that it gives the audiences short and snappy messages, as oppose to the text being spread out all over the photo which could give mixed signals about the overall message of the text. The logo for NuTunes Records is presented in its original font, which I believe stands out from the fonts used for the other bits of text. I intended for this to happen because I wanted the audience/viewer/reader's attention to be drawn towards this information - NuTunes Records are responsible for this band and are bringing them to the attention of the public, therefore a sense of credibility is due to them.

After I'd finished my work on postermywall.com, I transferred the photo back onto PicMonkey where the editing began. Using the 'basic edits' section, I experimented with the exposure tool where I adjusted the brightness levels of the photo, and I used the cropping tool to trim down the top proportion of the image which I felt didn't need to be there. Before moving on to the 'effects' section, I used the 'sharpen' tool to make the photo more clear, which I thought was necessary as the photo (in my opinion) was slightly blurry. 

After this, I used the 'dark edges' tool which, as it literally states in its name, darkens the edges of the image; I felt that this was needed as it added to the overall dark lighting of the image, which is appropriate to the 'concert' setting of the photo. I also thought that the photo just looked more appealing with this effect; the dark edges made the image stand out. The final effect I chose to apply to the image was 'boost'; this tool provides the image with a colour boost, giving the brighter colours a better contrast, and the darker colours an edge; I particularly liked this effect because it made the red colours stand out, giving the overall image a much better appeal.

And here, the image shown below, is the finished product. 

This was my first attempt at a print piece, as it says in my post title, but I tried really hard to create a piece of print material which was suited to the task. As this was only a first attempt, I will probably end up altering a few things to create a better look, but for now at least, I think this will do.

A double-page poster spread to be used in a special edition magazine to promote Aramantus' debut album 'Beriadan'.