Ancillary Research

Existing Ancillary Products:

 

 

Simplistic, conventional- artists face, album title, 21 stands out-green

 

Arty, unique, own font, logo, colours contrast, pattern, simplistic black background- contrast with white and orange

 

 

 

A2 Ancillary Products:

 

 

 

These two ancillary products are part of the same project however there are a few elements which don't suggest this. First of all, there is no ongoing theme; colour scheme, font style/sizes, pattern, design or relevance. What I do like about the ancillary product 1 i.e. the CD case was the wolf face design on the front. I think that it is arty and unique and it relates to the song and the narrative. What almost ruins this is the anaemic, girly,. floral design dominating the majority of it. First of all, I don't feel like the black, together with the oranges and reds combine well with the pink. The whole idea is that the wolf is sad and alone and nobody wants him, emotions include sadness, anger, determination. The floral pattern distracts completely from the narrative and makes it seem cute, quirky like a conventional friendship or romance story. The image on the back is also quite confused, a plain black border would have worked much better and made it look more professional. If I could re-do this CD cover I would keep the wolf illustration however maybe have a colour focus on black and red or black and gold.

 

The poster is also quite confusing, it has nothing to do with the wolf and there is no link between this and the previous ancillary product. The colours are all different and so are the fonts which makes it look messy and unprofessional. (As well as grammatical errors 'Beware the wolf'.) It is not clear as to who the individuals are standing in the background however we presume it is the band. Overall, the setting, characters, colours, fonts and overall style has nothing much to do with the narrative and the song, it would have been more effective if they had used the poster shown pinned to the lamp posts during the music video.

 

 

 

 

What I like about these ancillary products is that they are simplistic yet effective. The colours compliment one another and there is a running theme through both the album cover and the poster. The font is bold and it tells you what you need to know, not fussy or over enhanced. These elements as well as the illustration design in the centre professionalises it. The only way that they could have made it a little bit more unique or eye catching could have been if they'd decided to use the same pattern in the centre to create another 2 sides to the CD cover.