Evaluation, question two: How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?

The digipak Insomniac, a fabricated album by the chosen band The Jubilees, is closely linked in content and repeated themes to the video for the single of the same name and the corresponding magazine advertisement.

Nighttime shot of Elm Hill and shot of Earlham Road Cemetary

The orientation of the first panel sets the central figure in an upside-down position. The aim is for the design to be somewhat disorienting, though not to the point of revulsion. This aspect of the design links back to the canted angles in the second half of the music video, which also traditionally promote confusion or disorientation, continue the notion that the protagonist is losing his grip on reality. Both the digipak and the video are therefore somewhat surreal in their design. The dark space of the simplified bed covers could be read as representing night or death, featuring in the music video as themes of the story and locations, such as the twilit alleys and graveyard. The rest of the sparse and simple colour scheme is consistent throughout the print productions, creating a recognisable artistic style in the handful of shades and colours. Red is used to highlight the important content, specifically the band name. The figure itself is the protagonist of the video, creating a recurring character that may be featured on later promotional material, connecting the band’s digipak and print products with the original Insomniac video. The figure is also holding the gun with which he tries to take his own life in the video, showing his eagerness to use the weapon. The inclusion of both the character and central prop of the video reinforces the link between the texts and creates an appealingly tense mood in the design. Around the head of the figure are a container of pills, a larger image of the gun and the face of the protagonist staring outward, as if the images are on his mind (or even being dreamt about). The pills and gun link back to the video and the face represents the character’s self-obsession or concern for his own state of health, all of which are laid out around the figure’s head to give the impression that he is thinking or dreaming about the images. The fixation on the eye on the close-up of the protagonist’s face also links back to the notion of looking, as well as the voyeurism carried with the recurring image of the eyes in the video and elsewhere in the prints (see above-right). Elsewhere in the print productions and the video, the eye is repeated in a variety of styles (cut-out, print and faded video) as a recurring motif with which the audience can identify the band’s content.

The title of the album, Insomniac, references the apparent popular single directly linked to the video of the same name. The name suggests the mental health condition the protagonist may be suffering from and the symptoms he shows, such as difficulty sleeping; sleeping is a key concept in the album, with the artistic designs and most of the song names connecting to sleep or the lack thereof. After feedback from teachers, the fast editing and movement in the video has been likened to a comic strip, which could also be linked to the digipak in its printed style. These features culminate in somewhat of a metaphor for the uncertain future and vulnerable emotional state of British (specifically English) youths, with specific emphasis on drinking culture and reports of suicide. The video may therefore be considered a critique of the condition of the country, representing the pessimism and anxiety felt by some memebrs of the population, at time including myself (this personal link to the protagonist may have greatly influenced the mood of the piece).

Protagonist's use of the gun in Insomniac, with alcohol abuse

Panel one

Bedroom in Insomniac

The pillow in the second panel is from the bed of the protagonist and is yet another image which is also featured in the video, specifically during the bedroom sequences. The page is dedicated to various quoted lyrics from the album’s songs. Most of these lyrics, as with the songs, carry connotations related to sleep, confirming the primary concept of the album. Song of the lyrics, including ‘wide awake, I can’t sleep now’ and the final two lines, are sampled from Insomniac in single form. There are three samples in total from Insomniac from the page, compared to the single samples from the other fictional additions to the album, which confirms the popularity of the song and justifies the production of a music video. 

Panel two

Ed Sheeran paw motif

Panel three repeats the motif of eyes at the highest frequency of all the panels, so as to detract from the blandness of the extended bed covers in the background. The cut-out design of the eyes is built upon as a recurring motif for the band, with the concept of the images appearing in all aspects of the coursework and the cut-out format becoming easily identifiable and somewhat unique. As with the paw print motif seen frequently in promotional content for Ed Sheeran, the eye design becomes a brand the consumer associates with The Jubilees to the point of recognising their products wherever the eye is included. Returning to the video, the use of the faded eye is made much more important by its association with the band. The CD continues to use the eye, pills and gun as recurring designs to clearly fit with the rest of the digipak. The spine helps to further identify the band and content of the digipak, as well as the record label associated with the product. The magazine advertisement also uses the EMI logo to attract an audience whose musical interests include artists signed to the familiar label.

Recurring eye motif

Panel three with CD

CD design

Spine of digipak

Panels two and three, laid out in the desired format, showing the overlap of the eye design

The back panel reiterates the importance of the cut-out style throughout the piece as a band-specific visual style. The protagonist of the video is pictured playing an instrument, thus the character takes the role of a band member in representing the artist during live performance. The Insomniac single is also repeated with a live bonus track version, which shows the popularity of the track in the set list of The Jubilees’ live performances and strengthens the popularity of the band itself. The now recognisable brand style of the monochrome eye is continued in a jagged ribbon separating the legal information from the track list, linking the panel to the rest of the digipak.

Panel four

Recent issue of Q Magazine

The magazine advertisement features the same base image of the sleeping protagonist from the front panel of the digipak, altered slightly in rotation and enlarged. The same, recognisable art style connects the advertisement to the rest of the campaign and the product itself. Using the image of the protagonist from the advertisement, the consumer can easily identify the video and digipak (included for reference) through similarities in the visuals, and begins to illustrate the theme of the album. The eye is arranged in the advertisement to be a legitimate part of the band’s logo, confirming its importance as the primary motif. The advertisement is planned to feature in Q Magazine for various reasons; the magazine is a fairly reputable source of popular/British rock music news, frequently covering conflict between the Gallagher brothers of Oasis; the design’s use of bright red chimes in with the colour scheme of the magazine itself as well as being eye-catching in the design, which in itself is far more flowing and asymmetrical than the columnar articles of the publication; the quote is written to be from a past article in Q, which widens the potential audience as frequent readers respond to the positive review; the gloss finish of pages of the magazine would complement the colourful design more than a magazine such as NME, which uses paper with a matte, newspaper-like texture.

Magazine advertisement