List of Skills Require to Complete Project

The two main skills that I am going to need too complete this project to a proffesional standard are photography and photo editing.

I have spent alot of time on photoshop and I feel that I create everything that I need for this project , if I get stuck at any point I can go through some more tutorials online and work through any problems.

Their are countless online resources that I can also take advantage of for example..

http://www.lsptraining.com/?referral=adwords&kw=Beginner_Photography&gclid=COzy6Imti7cCFVMbtAodlz4AJA

"Getting started in the world of digital photography today can seem overwhelming. Our digital SLRs have more buttons, dials, and menu options than any person can reasonably be expected to keep track of.

Don’t be fooled. If we brush aside the terminology and sales gimmicks, photography today is just as simple as it was 50 years ago; maybe even simpler.
There are really only three things that you need to learn to understand photography. Once you understand these three basic elements, and how they relate to each other, you’ll only be limited by your own creativity and desire to practice. These things are:

• Shutter Speed
• Aperture
• ISO / Film Speed

That’s it. Once you understand how these things affect your images and how they relate to each other, everything else just falls into place. Each of these three elements affects your image in two ways: one is physical, and one is creative".

I am fairly new too photography but I took AS photography and have used a camera from a very young age , so I understand the basics of how to take good photos e.g. various different lighting techniques.

Their are thousands of books on photography that I can get from the college libary , theirs a department full of proffesional photographers and I also have photographers in my family so a no point will I be stuck for help.

I already have good ground to stand on and am familiar with the basics but I want to push my work up too a proffesional standard an gathering a collection of material I can reference and learn from will be incredibly beneficial.

I also had to put together a website using Dreamweaver , and this required me to learn how to program in HTML and CSS. These are the two languages that nearly all websites are created with.

I had to watch several Youtube videos on how to build a website and I also had to use my graphic design skills to make sure that everything look good.

Secondary content research

 
My secondary content research will consist of research into Magazines, Books, Journals and several online sources such as Wikipedia,

Popular sites that my demographic use and other points of reference as far as design, branding and style are concerned.

www.thelondonvandal.com

-          The London vandal is a blog style website that posts graffiti news, pictures, videos and other street art, music, fashion related material and upcoming events. I’m mainly going to reference this site for its style, design and layout because I think it massively appeals to a younger audience.

 

Research into Similar Projects

I have done a lot of research into similar products; here is an example from “Digital Soundboy” they hosted a massive event inside Notting hill carnival last year.

Digital Sound boy’s poster is on the left.

I designed the poster on the right

I’ve followed a lot of the same styles and layouts of a professional poster and have made sure that all of my research has been applied to the design. This is just an example of how I’m going to use the research that I have gathered and apply it to my project, that poster will not be part of my final submission.

-          Bright Colours

-          Nice Background

-          Exported as a tiff file

-          Created using industry standard software (Photoshop)

-          Clean , simple and easy on the eyes

-          All text is clear , bold , easy to read and informative

 

 

 

 

Research into competitors

Research into competitors

The music industry is an incredibly competitive industry to break into and there are many different people working on similar projects. The only way too truly make you’re mark and earn you’re place amongst professionals is too come up with something original, you’re own addition to an already established, crowded and competitive industry.

Each one of the brands listed below has their own individual styles, layouts, formats and different strategies for appealing to their target audiences.

I have analysed each brand and have decided which aspects of each I am going to apply to my project e.g. layouts, colour schemes and typography

www.youtube.com/user/majesticcasual

-          “Majestic Casual” is a Youtube channel that promotes electronic, garage and house music. I really like what they do and feel that I can learn from some of their examples.

-          Every video that they post has a photo shopped image that links really well to the soundtrack.

-          I really like the way that they have successfully linked the audio and visuals, with a clever bits of Photoshop and some carefully chosen imagery.

-          The main thing that I have learned from “Majestic Casual” Is that it’s important to have relevant and appealing imagery , because even though the music is the main feature it’s nice to have something visual to associate with it.

www.dispatchrecordings.com

-          “Dispatch recordings” is a record label that specialises in drum and bass, electronic and break beat music.

-          A lot of their music is very similar to the material that I am currently promoting but they are a more established brand and have been selling records for years.

-           “Dispatch Recordings” is a strong example for me to base some of my work on and they will be an important point of reference throughout my project because if I get stuck somewhere I can just take a look at how a professional company handles similar problems.

www.mau5trap.com

-          “Mau5trap” is a record label owned by an incredibly successful house, electronic, techno producer/DJ called deadmau5, he has made millions of pounds from his music as has built a reputation as one of the best live DJ’s in the world.

-          Here is a video of him doing a set for Nokia using the worlds most advanced projection software.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX2Gd-kqV5s

www.ultramusic.com

-          Ultra music is the biggest record label selling house music in the world and they have a highly paid team of professionals running their project so Il be able to pinch , manipulate and tweak a few of their ideas and apply them to my project.

-          One day I hope that my brand can reach this level , but I appreciate the fact that this is a highly funded , highly successful company that has been established for a long period of time.

www.ukfmusic.com

-          UKF Music started off as a Youtube Channel promoting bass, dubstep and electronic music for the masses without making any money. Then one day they made so much money from advertisers, promotion, CD’s and Events that they became an official record label.

-          This proves that you can start small with low costs and still make it big. if you know what you’re doing.

Surverys and Peer Assesment

Mock Up of Idea

Im going to create a range of various different forms of promotional material ranging from album covers all the way to buisness cards , flyers , posters and digital graphics for use online.

Most of the promotional material that I create will be used in a digital format on the following sites that I have created.

 

http://soundcloud.com/theaudiosyndicate

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Audio-Syndicate/138298873011670

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAudioSyndicate

https://twitter.com/TAudioSyndicate

 

I have created all of the graphics that you can currently see on these sites and want to adapt upon what I have already made and improve all the graphics , artwork and promotional material associated with the brand.

 

Here are some examples of graphics that I have previously created , they were all designed in photoshop and I own the full copyright for each and every one of them.

 

1.This graphic has been placed on the facebook page that I have created for the brand.

The bright colours , simple layout and the addition of voyeurism mean that this banner appeals to my demographic perfectly.

 

 

2.This is a graphic that I created for a track from one of my artists

 

"Ponda - Under The Bridge"

 

I had to apply some simple photoshop skills to a text layer and a bit of editing of contrast and brightness on a relevant image. This graphic proved really popular and the song was also fairly succesful.

 

The full HD video is available on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDaJ_8k0YWQ

 

 

3.This is a mix of photography and photoshop skills , I took pictures of my music studio as I wanted to place them on my website. I edited each of the four photos indivudally and changed the brighest and contrast and apply a few filters to make the images more intresting.

 

To sumarise my idea is to make a collection of graphics , flyers , posters , background and other promotional material. I already have experience with this sort of thing and a strong graphic design portfolio that Im going to continue to add too.



Moodboards

Selection and Justification

I have chosen to go with my second idea as I feel that I can create a really high quality advertising campaign with a whole manner of various different forms of promotional material, ranging from flyers, stickers, posters & business cards.

I feel that I have more than enough experience to complete this project as I have been working within graphic design for the last five years and well versed in how to manipulate photographs using industry standard software.

One of the most important things in this project is going to be knowing and understanding my demographic, I fall into the same categories as my demographic so I've got a good leg to stand on but I’m also going to be creating questionnaires, interviewing people , talking to professionals with a bit more experience.

The best thing about this idea is that I have an incentive to work harder as the work I do can in turn be used to help me promote, advertise and spread the word about my brand.

Analysis of each idea

Idea One –

My first idea is to create a music video for a music track that I have produced, I feel that I have enough experience working with music videos to come up with a really strong final product. I’m going to research into music videos that fall into a similar or the same genre and analyse what techniques and methods that have used in their creation.

Because I have created music videos in the past I know how to plan out my project and how to assure that everything runs as it should, this will involve lots of pre-production work such as budget sheets, shooting scripts and location recces.

In order for this idea to work properly I’m going to have to create a production schedule and speak to my camera crew to find out which days are the most appropriate for filming .

I will need to borrow a HD camera either from college or from a friend of mine , I'm also going to need a tripod.

Depending on where I decide to film my music video I might have to bare in mind travel costs and further expenses such as food , drink and other essentials.

I have a rough idea of how my music video should turn out and will be strongly influenced by the following type of music videos.

I like the way that they have created a simple , effective and fairly cheap music video and have

spent alot of time carefully editing and tweaking the video.

I like the fast pace , intense visuals and the images suit the soundtrack perfectly.

Idea Two – 

My second idea is to create a full advertising campaign for my record label, over the duration of the course I have learned how to edit photos using Photoshop and have already done an extensive amount of graphic design work for the brand.

The advertising campaign will consist of promotional material such as posters, flyers and stickers that I’m going to hand out to promoters, DJ’s artists and graphic designers that I am currently working with.

I have begun sketching out a few logo different potential logos , and have created a few basics designs that I will probably develop later on in the project.

Brainstorms