Evaluation Question 2

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

We felt that to create an effective combination of our main product and ancillary texts we would create a brand across all the pieces. We achieved this in a number of ways, and with varying levels of success.

One particular way of doing this was by using a single image across all three pieces. This image, a shot of the whole band from the video, created an iconic image associated with all of our work. The image itself is used on the front cover of the album, behind the main image of the guitar. Of course, by being on the album cover, the image was then also used on the magazine advert. This meant that this one image was a unifying component present on all three pieces of work. In this way, the combination of our main product and ancillary texts was very effective.

However, the feeling was also that we needed a much more basic way of combining the three pieces. The idea was a general colour theme. Upon inspection it is clear that a red, white and black theme is the basis for all pieces of the work. For example, the background of the magazine advert is a black and red gradient, coupled with red and white text. This is also reflected in our Digipak, on which the text is red and white and the main image is the red guitar. Even the main image is overlayed with a red tint. We continued this in our video, Jacob used the effects tools to give the video a very slight tint to it, with the common color being red, and with blacks being deeper than normal. Again, in this way the combination of the pieces works very well. By creating a house style, and therefore a brand, we ensured that all three pieces were recognisable as part of the same work.

If it was possible, there would be ways I would change parts of our work. The red/black/white theme worked very well, but I would perhaps place more emphasis on it in the video itself. I noticed that the fact that the drummer was wearing a red t-shirt seemed to work very well. So in retrospect, it might have been better to ask the band members to all wear red, accompanied by black or white. This would help extend the theme and incorporate it more into that particular piece.