Tour Poster attempt

I decided to also add a tour poster in with the magazine advertisement because it looks more professional.

I continued to still use the vine theme, and added an embroidered style background to go around the NLX logo which i think makes it stand out more, I have also used tour dates from NLX's actual website, obviously they are from 2009, but that can easily be changed if needs be.

Again i have used the same block font to show a repetition in style.
I have included two other bands for support acts that both share a similar piano, electro driven style like NLX has.

Magazine Advert attempt

This is the advert I designed, as you can see I have continued using the same style, the vine is still a prominent feature to show the flow of style. Instead of changing the style of many of the advert i continued the style as it looks more professional and mature, which then again reflects her music style.
I have also used a quote that sums up NLX's music style, however i could not find out who said it, so to give it authentic effect of being an advert for the new album i have said that it was a tagline by Q magazine.

Audience Targetting

Audience targetting

The target audience for this genre of music would usually be aimed at 16-25
the style of music is very dark wave – pop – electronic which is usually linked with the younger audiences, such as the teens. The lyrics in NLX’s song can be very relatable especially to young women, with subject matters mainly of love and loss, which is what younger female audiences usually feel most relatable too.
NLX’s general image is very independent, which can be very inspirational and impressionable to teens and late teens.

Audiences ranging from 16-25 are usually just experiencing love and intimacy, and therefore this style of music fits that very well, it expresses the highs and lows of these situations and that is what young people like to hear, also the music has a very strong ‘dance’ ‘pop’ feel to it, which also links with modern young audiences with the new club/dance era. 

alternate version to album layouts

This is my chosen piece for the album artwork.
The symbolism in the artwork shows a vine coming from a tree, it basically shows musical progression and how the artist has progressed individually and how her music has progressed, it could also show the growth of her popularity and that she now has a bigger fan base and has an official album, often showing that her music is now being taken to the next step professionally.
The vines could also show a passage of time, the use of grey towards the end could also represent how things change, how her music has and maybe her influence in the music industry.
I have also continued to use the same typeface as what NLX has on the website so it still maintains some sort of familiarity to the artist.

The back of the album cover includes the song listing and the bar code which are conventional for every album cover usually.
As you can see the vines are still represented here, and link into the front cover also.

This is the cd artwork, which still keeps the same style of image from the other artwork, it again features the album name and the artist name.
It still also features the same minimalistic style which is good, as it keeps a steady similarity to the rest of the artwork.

Album Cover Number 2

I began to like this piece for the colour theme, yet i found it hard to find anything to fill the space with and the overall piece when finished didn't really seem to look like an album cover.
I still maintained using the same type of images from the website, with the Victorian style illustrations of women, i wanted originally to use that picture of the woman looking at a couple walking away but the dimensions of the piece didn't look right and didn't match so i decided to use a flock of birds instead. This album cover has a stronger sense of feminism. It looks very aged and that is what i liked about it, i also adopted the idea of using a notepad theme which was on the website.
Originally the birds were put there to symbolize the music and meanings of the songs. The album is about love loss revenge etc and birds are a good way of symbolizing emotions. 

Album Cover Number 1

This is the first album cover I designed, as I have not created my own band, I have decided to make mock up versions of NLX's latest album, as alternative versions.
For this first one I decided to take the same colour theme as the website.

As you can see i have still kept the block type-face of the lettering from the NLX website to keep the same sort of fluent style, and also i have followed the colour theme of magenta, black and a beige/orange. I have also used a shadow effect on the side of the artwork to give it that dark edge, which NLX's music has.
The design i used as the main image i saw as very boisterous and somewhat tattoo like, it evokes a very masculine feel which could contrast as she is a very feminine artist in aspect of what her songs are about etc, but it could also link because it could show the powerful aspect to her feminism which would be represented through the strong pink in the image.
The overall word I think that can be gathered from this artwork is strong.
The reason I did not choose this as my final album cover is because I don't think it really respects her full artistic feel and her love of all things design, it almost seems to minimalistic.

Analysing Album Covers

Why: I have analysed other album covers to show what sort of style i could incorporate in my own and see what proffesional looking artwork looks like.

This is single artwork for ‘You Me At Six’s’ ‘Stay With Me’ single.
The artwork for the single all looks illustrated, it features a lot of pastel colours. The single also features an acoustic version of the song, which may be why there is a strong sense of pastel and softness to it; which is in contrast to the bands usual sound, which is pop-punk. The main focal point on the album cover is a cherry blossom tree, the song stay with me is basically about a relationship, possibly about loosing it for the wrong reasons and wanting it back, but having conflicting feelings about it. The cherry blossom tree symbolizes such things as hope, love and life, it also has connotations of power, from tradition in China it is said to show the power of female control and dominance, mostly feminine beauty. Clearly this ties in with what the song is about. In relation to the artwork the colours seem very feminine, and calm which again reflects the song and what it may be about.

This is the single artwork for ‘The Kook’s’ ‘Shine On’ single.
The album artwork is all in black and white and features a woman; however the photo of the woman is pieced together with other photos, mainly of the band. From looking up the meaning of the song, it is apparently about a man who is worried about his girlfriend, as she takes the influence of beauty from fashion magazines, yet he wants her to realise how naturally beautiful she really is.
The use of repeated images in this artwork link to the song meaning and even the lyrics at some points e.g. ‘safety pins holding up the things that make you mine.’
The woman on the cover may symbolize the images the mans girlfriend see’s in the magazine yet the photos that make the girl up are her true qualities and his true opinion of her.
 
This is the album artwork for ‘Bon Iver’s’ ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ album.
By looking at the style of writing in comparison to the title of the album it almost looks like handwriting that would appear in a letter of some sort. With background reading the title of the album basically expresses a the loss of a first love that you never get over, the artist said that there was nobody called ‘Emma’ the name just summed up those emotions. The whole album was recorded using minimalist technology, in a log cabin in freezing winter where the artist spent a few weeks after breaking up with his previous band, being completely alone he wrote this album. From knowing this it may be possible to assume that the photo is of a window, maybe even from the inside of the log cabin, as we can see tall trees and condensation/ice on the window. The whole making of the album was completely natural and that is what the artwork promotes, everything about it is in tune with the artist himself and it simply promotes how he truly felt and the emotion he felt through his life etc.

This is the album artwork for ‘Bloc Party’s album ‘Intimacy’
The artwork is very simple, it is an extreme close up of two people kissing. This clearly states the title of the album. The contrast to this artwork also, is that you almost feel like you are not supposed to be a part of what you are seeing, like it is ‘too’ intimate and private. Yet it could also be interpreted in the way that the band are inviting you into their music and sound, of course it could also represent the songs and nature of the album, it’s secondary genre almost.
How this will help me with my studies: This will help because it has taught me that i have to show artwork that will represent the artist and that will show me how to make a good looking album cover.