Visual Art: Illustration in Music Branding

VISUAL ART

Relevancy Towards Band’s Branding

P r o m o t i o n a l C a m p a i g n Fo r B a n d

Ashraf Bin Abdul Rahaman • Ruslan A Rahim • Azhar Abd Jamil

VISUAL ART

Relevancy Towards Band’s Branding

P r o m o t i o n a l C a m p a i g n Fo r B a n d

Ashraf Bin Abdul Rahaman • Ruslan A Rahim • Azhar Abd Jamil

For The articales and photographs reproduced in this book, the Publisher would like to thank the following : National Design Center, Malaysia Post Graduate Studies Faculty of Art & Design, Universiti Teknologi MARA TWITTER

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Parkson KLCC Published by: UPENA, UiTM Press, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. http://penerbit.uitm.edu.my/ Design and Visual Development: Azhar Abd Jamil, Fuad Misbah Text Fonts: Helvetica 10pt

VISUAL ART

Relevancy Towards Band’s Branding

P r o m o t i o n a l C a m p a i g n Fo r B a n d

Ashraf Bin Abdul Rahaman • Ruslan A Rahim • Azhar Abd Jamil Copyright © 2012 National Design Center, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form of by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the prublisher.

Library of Congress cataloging-in-Publication Data Digital signage - Layout Design and Integration of social Network Twitter / Hijjaz Hamidi Bin Abdul Aziz / Ruslan A Rahim / Azhar Abd Jamil

ISBN 000-000-00000-0-0 1. Digital signage. 2. Layout Design. 3. Twitter. 4. Social Network.

5. Coursework Project. 6. Integration with twitter.

Printed by :

Printing Technology Department Faculty of Art & Design Universiti Teknologi MARA Tel: +603 5544 4001 Fax: +603 5544 4002

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ABSTRACT

CONTENT

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION LITERATURE REVIEW ANALYSIS & DEVELOPMENT TESTING & EVALUATION DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION REFERENCES

Due to the dropping sales of physical CD today it is somehow depressing for a band especially, which are not so famous in the mainstream scene and practicing independent method to become a hit or even just to survive.

They cannot only depend on their catchy or powerful songs or plain visual to taste a sip of successfulness in their career. This modern, mass media and high technology market demands more than just audio. The market crave for interesting visual that not only static but also interactive.

They are no guarantees one good product can easily reach the peak, thus a good product must also have a good branding. Couple, a Malaysian “indie� band veteran is one of the good examples for this issue. The band had gained respectable amount of fans and achievement despite staying independent. Their songs played in the mainstream radio station, listed in American movie soundtrack, got

TV talk show interviews, a consistent amount of shows but still they are the same. Thus, through mixed research methodology such as spreading questionnaire and in depth interviews with creative industry valid personnel, the researcher found that the key factor is by doing a branding or promotional campaign for the band. The band will be reinvent in the scope of visual and image by applying a cartoon illustration method. Though the virtual band Gorillaz is one of the main influence and inspiration for this research, it will not convert the band into full virtual entity. Using the new established cartoon illustration, the researcher will focus on the merchandising side of the band both above and below the line.

The result of this research will open a new approach in branding a band and unlock more the qualities and possibilities of cartoon illustration to the world.

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Product or (service) is the thing you buy and use while brand is the promise of something

INTRO DUCTION In this modern day, where human becoming more sophisticated and selective towards everything, its hard for a product to survive or even exist without the use of remarkable branding. Brand and product actually is two different things. Brand is intangible and could be a guarantee of quality, a sense of prestige or heritage. Brands also offer differentiating competing product variants. For a simple example, Nike and Adidas both are sportswear companies, but they have a different type of brand tone, Nike with “Just Do It” while Adidas with “Impossible Is Nothing”. With branding, one can offer set of values, a vision and attitude to a product or service.

This statement related by a quote from Mellisa Davis, “Product or (service) is the thing you buy and use while brand is the promise of something”. From New Oxford American dictionary the meaning of “branding” is “the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design”, so from the definition, one of the vital features of branding is distinctive design. In general, the word design is strongly related to visual form even though there is some form excluded such as sound design, which is not visually visible. On the contrary, both are in need of aesthetic qualities (subjective) to become distinctive. Thus to make a good branding, one must provide good visual.

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The matter above about remarkable branding also related to the music industry. The music history itself had given birth to various type of genre such as Jazz, Punk, Rock, Metal, Pop and so many subgenres. So, as the music itself evolved, people were offered by a large amount of bands and artist that give nothing much to compare to each other’s. This situation is exactly the same to other form of products or services.

To survive and sustained, the product must be able to differentiate itself with uniqueness from other competitors, though the product itself must be good in the first place. To be frank, band or music artist today can’t just rely on their great songs only to become a hit. Visual elements are one of the crucial parts.

According to Rom Mohd. Noor, ROTTW editor, “Audio and visual is ultimate in branding relevancy, because the market demands visual, it has been a norm.”.

From the quote, it is understandable how important the visual aspect is to the subject. Plus, the major contributing factor for this research must be done is the sales drops of physical CD today.

Due to the finding, a band today must explore a new method to gain profit beside the sales of their CD’s. Current top international bands such as My Chemical Romance and Paramore had turned to weighing their visual aesthetics and serious merchandizing. This method also will bind a band’s image together with their music.

A grunge band must look different than a black metal band or a deathcore band surely does not fit a hip-hop group resemblance.

It is significant a band image should fit its sound, look and demographics.

Legendary band such as Iron Maiden is a perfect example for this, they created a mascot which well known as “Eddie”.

Whenever people saw Eddie, their mind automatically think about Iron Maiden.

Hujan’s umbrella logotype is one of a good local example of well-treated brand visual that differentiate the band between others.

The logo managed to be a cult; even the Hujan’s haters redesign it by turning the umbrella upside down, this much like a negative thing, but in a way, its just like a free promotion for Hujan. Another local example is Pesawat (In English; Flight), the band wears pilot uniform to link their image with their band’s name, and Pesawat is one of the top indie bands in Malaysia, the branding connection can be seen here.

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This research also influenced by the success of Gorillaz, a virtual band that have been created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett since 1998. The virtual band consist four animated members, which are 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russel Hobbs. Gorillaz had earned many outstanding achievements such as an entry for The Most Successful Virtual Band in the Guinness Book of World Records thanks to their seven million copies debut album sale in 2001. Their second studio album, Demon Days that released in 2005, went five times platinum in the UK, double platinum in the United States. The band also earned five Grammy Awards nominations for 2006 and won one of them in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The combined sales of Gorillaz and Demon Days had, by 2007, exceeded 20 million albums.

The creators of Gorillaz recipe of success had proven and justify the force of cartoon illustration/animation and distinctive branding method.

Thus, this research had chosen Couple, the unsung hero of Malaysian independent music industry to apply and experiment the same method as Gorillaz, only restricted by not converting the band into fully virtual. The experiment only inspired by the branding method and approach. The reason why to chose Couple because the band had been established as early as the 90’s and had collected a large amount of fans during the years based on their consistent amount of show (locally and internationally), Facebook Band page’s Insight and through the result of research survey. Their songs are also been featured in a few American independent movies, and the latest one is for “Super” a movie by James Gunn that officially selected for Toronto Film Festival. With all the appreciation Couple embraced, the band’s condition in Malaysia is somehow like floating in the middle, between mainstream and non-mainstream scene. Their songs were played in the mainstream radio stations and they also been featured at local TV talk shows but still they can’t achieve the top niche. Therefore this research must be done to find whether with good branding, it can help Couple to embrace the pinnacle of their potential.

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY By utilizing the muscle of visual art, bands and music artist can enhance their values in the senses of branding. Due to these qualities, it supposed to lead them to a better potential of gaining more profit in terms of merchandise and their brand’s strength. It will also transform a conventional independent band/artist into “creative business” entity that not only deliver good audio, but also good visual.

The research findings also will educate the target user and audience sublimely about the importance and appreciation of visual aesthetic of product.

In this modern days music listeners prefer to download their favorite bands/artistes songs directly from the Internet for free, rather than buying the conventional form of CDs. This occurrence surely diminishes a band/music artist and record label major source of profit. Thus, a band or artist must be efficient and cannot rely solely on the sales of their CDs to survive. They must offer not only their good music itself but also supporting elements and new values, which are crucial in this sophisticated and demanding present world. Hence, this research will be conduct to identify whether branding exercise and merchandizing will provide the answer.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS What are the options that bands and music artists can perform to gain a distinctive brand and identity?

What type of branding style and tools do a band can implement to improve their band’s brand.

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AIM & OBJECTIVES The aim for this research is to create a branding exercise using cartoon illustration style that will help independent bands enhance their image and presence in the local music industry and through this research as well, the researcher has derived two objectives that are ought to be met. They are: To established and strengthen independent band/artist branding.

To create another approach of band’s branding by using cartoon illustration for local market.

The research only covers the visual aspect of the subject (band). It will not touch the music aspect such as song writing, genre or other variables that the band is offering to the audience due to the band personal unique choose in believes, style and approach.

The test subject is only for one Malaysian independent band, Couple. Time constraint and in depth focus factor are why the reasoning’s is opted.

The target audience for band’s branding exercise is only focusing on teenagers and young adults between the ages of 13 to 24 fitting the theory that they are easily attracted towards cartoon illustration and popular culture. The theory also supported by the fact that majority of Couple’s fan are in this scope of age based on my preliminary research.

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LITERATURE REVIEW PHYSICAL CD DOWNFALL Today it’s an era where people have decreased the keenness to purchase physical music album form, which is CDs. We can put the blame for this phenomenon thanks to the rise or Internet era, where a song from the CD had transformed into a small sized type of digital file, as small as 5MB that named mp3.

Through the end of June, album sales (physical and digital) were down 11% overall, with 154 million units sold.

Physical albums declined 17.7% (112 million sold), while digital albums rose 13.7% (42 million sold). Digital track sales were flat during the first half, with 597 million sold. CD sales dropped 17.9% during the first six months, with more than 110 million units sold. Current CDs were off 14.7%, while catalog CDs plunged 22.1%. However, the vinyl LP continued to gain, rising 9.1% (1.3 million units sold (Christopher Morris, 2010)

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The findings above had justified the future of global music industry, but that’s is not the major issue. Actually, the transformation is good in a way of new music distribution to the audience.

People can easily download their favorite songs into their computer and does not need wasting time, energy or money to go to the record store to fulfill their music needs. It is a very convenience method, it is so convenience, and it makes people do it illegally. Technically, the matter is just like buying a pirate CD with a new style. Thus, this will lead to the downfall of acquiring profit and justice for the trinity. As much as this had affected the big players (major labels, established bands/artists), same way goes to the fate of dozens new and independent bands/ artist that struggling to make an impact or even a living for their career.

While much attention is paid to the live music market and to revenues from branding and other non-recording revenue sources, these tend to be the privilege of established artists rather than new and developing acts. For example, Pollstar reported the top five tours of 2010 were

by Bon Jovi, AC/DC, U2, Lady Gaga and Metallica – mostly artists with extensive catalogues established through record sales. Once an artist has established their name through their recordings, they can then generate substantial income through live performances and merchandise. By contrast, no major artist to date has been able to build a career on live performance alone.

(IFPI, 2011)

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360 DEALS For the major labels, they answered this issue by creating a new type of contract deal for signing bands/artists, which called “360 Deal” (multiple rights).

360 deals are contracts that allow a record label to receive a percentage of the earnings from ALL of a band’s activities instead of just record sales.

Under 360 deals, also called “multiple rights deals,” record labels may get a percentage of things that were previously off limits to them, like: Concert revenue, Merchandise sales, Endorsement deals and Ring tones.

(Heather McDonald, 2008)

This 360 Deal actually inspired by the spirit of survival of an independent band. Independent bands accepted the fact that they can’t have the distribution power like major labels, therefore it’s a compulsory for them to be touring all over places as an attempt to widen their influence and introduce their band to as many people as they can. They are also bringing along their band’s merchandise and memorabilia such as their album, t-shirt and poster to sell during their show.

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BAND’S BRANDING AND MERCHANDIZING “Labels may take a closer look at the progeny of the Grateful Dead: hardtouring jam bands that don’t necessarily sell many CD’s or score radio hits but do draw obsessively loyal fans who gobble up tickets and memorabilia. “We used to look at jam bands as bands that absolutely we shouldn’t sign,” Mr. Kallman said. “Now all of a sudden I’m saying: ‘Guys, you absolutely must find the next hottest jam band. I need the next Phish. Urgently.” (Jeff Leeds, 2007) We can conclude that this is the new refined method that adapted from the “independent bands survival 101” textbook. It’s just like a brandinga band model of business, which one of the juices is by emphasizing on the merchandise aspect. Therefore, the band must possessed a decent qualities of not only their music but also visual, to be more specific, they must turn their band into a brand that offers multiple type of components beside music alone.

For today, this method is really suitable and relevant due to the power of viral marketing, networking and technology provided by the Internet.

Branding will further reinforce the idea that your ready for the big time with your art and graphics used. Just like your personal appearance your graphics used should reflect the mood and feel of the band. Use the same graphic designer for all your work.

Keep the font & logo the same on all of your band’s marketing materials (Website, flyers, buttons etc).

(Peter Risman, 2008)

One of the important keys that must be considers for a band’s branding is the complimentary of the band itself with their branding. Justification of specific target market will help the branding merge beautifully with the band and will ensure the successfulness of the campaign or promotion.

“Why not do something that’s manufactured, but do it properly? It started off as a flippant comment to be honest, but the more we thought about it, the more we thought this is something the music industry will hate, but if it works, we’re going to prove a point here.

That gone are the days of bands full of interesting charismatic people where

you know every single member of the band, and you love every member. Let’s reinvent that, because it doesn’t exist.”

(Jamie Hewlett, 2007) To brand a band is somehow just like try to manufactured it. The word manufactured may sounds negative to some music ethic purist, but its come back again to the band’s vision, mission and believes.

As long as the branding doesn’t sacrifice their dignities, it’s not a problem for an open minded and progressive band.

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SURVEY A preliminary survey had been done to justify the acceptance towards cartoon and comic among the targeted audience, which are Couple’s fans in their Facebook page.

The structured multiple answers questionnaire had been distributed through online survey application, “Survey Monkey”.

RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY To fulfill one of the mandatory procedures of this research, three methodologies have been used, which are: • Survey • Archival Data Collection • In Depth Interview • Visual Research

From the data collected, the researcher can conclude that all the respondents are genuinely had a fond interest in cartoon and comic, and they are also interested in adapating the concept into Couple. They are also aware of the cartoon and comic style, this is shown from their interest in selecting “Manga” or Japanese style as their favorites rather than US comic superheroes, European and Malaysian style. The respondents had chosen “characters” as their most keen attraction into liking a cartoon or comic, this proved that good character design is a crucial element in executing the proposed branding campaign. Thus, the researcher strongly believes in developing a good character design for this research.

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ARCHIVAL DATA COLLECTION

IN DEPTH INTERVIEW In depth interview has been one of the vital method for this research to gain primary data from chosen personnel’s. The structured interview had been done with four reliable and related people with the research title.

This section been done by collecting and reviewing diverse publication and previous research about branding, music industry, visual art and cartoon literature reviews from books, journals, websites, magazine and thesis. Below is the Couple’s Facebook band page insight that justifies the target audience demographic and geographic data.

The research is targeting audiences that are in this parameter, more specifically only Couple’s fan.

ROM MOHD NOOR

OMAR BIN OSMAN

Figure 3.7: Couple’s Facebook band page insight.

The first person is Omar Bin Osman.

He is an advertising and branding expert cum practitioner that had established his own advertising agency by the name OSquare Advertising Sdn. Bhd. He has been in the advertising industry more than 20 years. He also appointed as part– time lecturer at UiTM’s Faculty of Art and Design. Hence, his opinion and point of view is very important for this research.

Another person in the list is Rom Mohd Noor. He is the founder, owner and editor for ROTTW magazine.

ROTTW is claimed as the Malaysia’s premier music magazine, which had been published since 1996. He also known as a formidable musician, custom guitar maker, music critics, and music event organizer and regularly invited as judges in various battle of the band concert.

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INTERVIEW CONCLUSION

SHAARI SULONG

Shaari Sulong is the third person interviewed for this research. Shaari Sulong or better known as Aie, is a cult modern Malaysian cartoonist. He had been in the cartoon and comic industry since early 1991. He is well known for his masterpiece comic series, Blues Untuk Aku and Aku dan Sesuatu. Rather than only doing comics and cartoon, he also done some album artworks for local bands such as legendary rock group, Wings and Def Gab C. Thus, his experience doing the project is significant towards this research.

The interview sessions were one of the research main elements to ensure and support the previous research questions and background problem. It also helps to open and enlightened the researcher with v a s t technical information about branding.

All of the interviewed personnel have a mutual opinion about the criticalness of knowing the target audience and selecting the right strategy.

VISUAL RESEARCH This method been used to gathered as much as visual references to study various concept, style and approach that already been used by other designer and bands. Majority of the visuals are about bands, music concert posters, album artwork and merchandize.

Based on that, the researcher must define their driven items to ensure the branding campaign will excel to the max. Despite the good branding strategy, the product itself must have a certain quality to go parallel with it. The decision to go branding also is relevant due to market demands.

Audience now days, require more than just audio, they demands visual.

This may occur due to the new media and Internet era that offer flashy and sophisticated entertainment for the human to consume. They also can download their favorite songs for free, mostly illegal. This gives hard effect for the bands to gain profit and survive in the music industry.

From this fact, all of the interviewed personnel feels that by making a good branding campaign and refresh the band’s visual can somehow h e l p the band to counter this problem. Its not impossible if the applications of the driven items are well chosen and executed.

Figure 3.8: Concert and album release poster.

Figure 3.9: Concert posters.

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Figure 3.10: merchandize: T- Shirt

Band’s

Figure 3.11: Band’s merchandize: Album artwork and packaging

Figure 3.12: Band’s merchandize: Album artwork and packaging.

Figure 3.13: My Chemical Romance artwork.

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DESIGN &

DEVELOPMENT Based on all of the collected data and information throughout the previous chapters, the researcher had chosen to do a branding and promotional campaign as the matter of execution method. The branding concept is to transform the research subject into a cartoon illustration. This decision had been made following from the researcher targeted audience and the finding from the methodologies applied.

MAIN CONCEPT The development of choosing the right concept for the branding is based on the test subject (the band) requirements with the mixture of the researcher findings. However, the researcher had tried some preliminary concepts such as adapting US Comic Super Heroes style and Russian War Poster, but lastly decided to follow the band’s request and research findings. The requested requirements are to use Sex Pistol (one of the pioneering of punk genre) “God Save The Queen” album concept.

Figure 4.1: US comic super heroes style initial sketches.

Figure 4.2: US comic super heroes style concept sketches.

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Figure 4.3: Russian war poster style initial sketches.

Figure 4.4: Russian war poster style concept sketches.

Figure 4.5: Sex Pistol “God Save The Queen� Album Artwork.

Figure 4.6: Punk art style concept visual research.

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This punk concept and style is related to collage art. The style used cut and paste approach to established a design. The typography style is inspired by kidnap and ransom notes, so the sender’s handwriting was not revealed, this is the nature of punk visual art that deliberate violation.

This type of style actually does not fit Couple’s music genre and tone.

Couple is a power pop band that related to less violence or aggressive visual. Thus, the researcher will combine and creatively a s s i m i l a t e the requested concept with the appropriate style based from the observation, survey and archival data, which is cartoon i l l u s t r a t i o n and comic concept.

The researcher had studied and analyzes three styles, which are from the virtual band project, Gorillaz

by Jamie Hewlett, famous Akira Toriyama’s art of DragonBall and Brian Lee O Malley’s Scott Pilgrim.

Figure 4.7: Comic style concept visual research.

Figure 4.8: Scott Pilgrim visual research.

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Figure 4.9: Gorillaz illustration visual research.

In term of design composition, the researcher had adapted assemblage art composition style. This style also slightly related to the punk art style, which is, collage or “cut and paste�.

By adding this style, the design will have more than one artistic style.

Figure 4.10: Assemblage style visual research.

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INITIAL CONCEPT SKETCHES Established by these three concepts, the initial sketches had been started to develop Couple’s distinctive cartoon style. Based on the band’s line up photo, the process had begun. Below are the important elements that the researcher had considered before developing the characters.

Due to the branding target market, the characters will be created with less basic shapes that related to children or realistic figures that related to adult. The characters will be set in the middle of semi realistic and deformed style.

To make the characters become warmer with human feelings, various type of expressions been adapted, but mostly the expressions are all about lively, happy, energetic and strong emotions. This key points also related back to the target audience, which are teenagers.

Thick, even, soft and round lines may suggest an approachable, cute character, whereas sharp, scratchy and uneven lines might point to an uneasy and erratic character.

Jon Burgerman, 2010

The researcher had chosen even line with thick outline for the character design. This will emphasize more the concept of punk art and cut and paste style. This style also makes the characters merge up from the colorful and detailed background.

To add more depth, the characters also been equip with their own props such as their music instruments for example guitars, bass, drums and microphone. The props also help to enhance their position in the band.

To give more environmental feel, the characters were composed together with additional props such as their own transportation and music instruments. They are also visualized performing on the stage or just plain posing to the camera with various facial and body expression to give more edge.

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Colors also one of the crucial elements to give the whole feels of the characters and illustration. The researcher had chosen vintage color scheme to combine with the band original concept. Majority of the colors were mixture of tint and grey so that the vintage feel can be more visible.

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Figure 4.11: Initial characters development 1 Figure 4.12: Initial characters development 2

Figure 4.13 & Figure 4.14: Secondary Phase Character Developments.

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The entire initial sketches than had been through the process of refinement and stylization. This the stage where the actual character style been finalized. Below is the pre-comprehensive stage of the characters development.

Figure 4.17: Ariana Shahrin posing.

and

Figure 4.18: Aidil and Masrin posing.

Figure 4.15 & Figure 4.16: Secondary Phase Character Developments.

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The next stage is the composition experiment based on the style of Gorillaz, Scott Pilgrim and DragonBall. The characters will be posing with props such as umbrella, transportation or any other suitable things.

Figure 4.21: Characters with umbrella composition.

Figure 4.19 & Figure 4.20: Secondary Phase Character Developments.

All the characters eyes were covered with a collaged piece of paper, adapting the Sex Pistol “God Save The Queen� concept.

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LAYOUT DESIGN Figure 4.22: Composition experiments 1 Figure 4.23: Composition experiments 2 Figure 4.24: Composition experiments 3

Figure 4.25: Initial final layout design sketches.

Figure 4.26: Comprehensive final layout design sketches.

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Figure 4.29: Layout design (with characters) color testing 1 Figure 4.27: Color added composition and characters.

Figure 4.28: Comprehensive layout design color testing.

Figure 4.30: Layout design (with characters) color testing 2

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Figure 4.31: Typeface design development.

The font that been used for the typeface design are Times New Roman, Futura, Helvetica Neue, Frutiger LT Std 66 Bold Italic, Frutiger LT Std 76 Black Italic, Frutiger LT Std 95 Ultra Black. All the fonts were stylized, distorted and mixed to give the punk art collage style. The process was done using Photoshop, for initial sketch and Illustrator for the vectorized version, this method applied also for the characters and layout design.

Figure 4.32: Vectorized comprehensive final design.

Figure 4.33: Vectorized characters and props.

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ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEO TEASER

Figure 4.34: Composition varieties without props.

The music video teaser been done by starting a rough sketch storyboard to manage the scene from start to end.

The process had been cut short due to the availability of vector objects of the characters and props that had been traced earlier.

Figure 4.35: developments.

Initial

scene

Figure 4.36: Comprehensive storyboard/scene.

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COLLABORATION WITH CELCOM XPAX

Figure 4.37: Xpax, UOX and SOX Logo

The campaign will also collaborate with Xpax, a prepaid brand by Celcom. Xpax will be sponsoring and co – sponsoring some parts of the branding campaign such as press ad, magazine ad and mobile merchandizing for Couple. Budget capacity and mass distribution capability (for research targeted audience) of Celcom are the main reason for this action been taken.

XPax also have their own side brands such as UOX (University of X) and SOX (School of X) prepaid plans that have become a pop cultural entity for teenagers, which the research target audience is.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Based on the research questions, literature review, data collection from methodologies, justification and execution of design development, the researcher had established a set of branding/promo campaign for Couple as the finding for this research. The campaign contain both above the line and below line techniques such as press/magazine ads, digital and physical merchandizing.

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According to the execution of the findings, other bands and music artists can apply the same method as been done to Couple. With a comprehensive branding approach and focusing on the merchandizing side, they can open up a new dimension of gaining profit besides only relying on physical CD sales. The finding also justify that besides using typical real photograph concept, they are other approach that can be u s e to deliver a good band’s branding.

Using cartoon illustration gives Couple the distinctive and unique image. Its also have the ability to extend and adapted into various type of media and merchandise platform.

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The researcher found few technical issues during the stage of design development. These technical issues can contribute some advantages and disadvantages to the process and final output of the design.

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FINAL DESIGN OUTPUT

Choosing the most suitable computer graphic format output is one of the issues here. At first, the researcher had chosen raster format for the output, but due to its mandatory resolution dependant, vector format merge to excel it. It’s quite a big problem when comes to alter variation in colors, layout and design composition. Plus, by using this format, it’s also consuming hard disk space and demand large sized file to maintain the quality of the design.

Another major reason to turn on vector format is, its flexibility in adapting to many type of media output, as simple as a poster or as detail as making a motion graphics.

Figure 5.1: Album Launching Showcase Posters Figure 5.2: Actual Poster

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MUSIC VIDEO TEASER

Figure 5.3: Final Magazine Ads. Figure 5.4: Actual magazine Ad sample

Figure 5.5: Scenes 1

Figure 5.5: Scenes 2

Figure 5.7: Scenes 3

Figure 5.8: Scenes 4

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Figure 5.9: Scenes 5

Figure 5.10: Scenes 6

Figure 5.13: Scenes 9

Figure 5.14: Scenes 10

Figure 5.11: Scenes 7

Figure 5.12: Scenes 8

Figure 5.15: Scenes 11

Figure 5.16: Scenes 12

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Figure 5.17: Scenes 13

Figure 5.18: Scenes 14

Figure 5.21: Button badge Figure 5.22: Actual Button badge

Figure 5.19: Scenes 15

Figure 5.20: Scenes 16

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Figure 5.23: T- Shirt Design 1 Figure 5.24: T- Shirt Design 2

Figure 5.25: CD Design Figure 5.26: Actual CD sample

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Figure 5.27: Tag Design Figure 5.28: Actual Tag Sample

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION

In this chapter, the researcher will be discussing, make a conclusion and recommendation based on all of the data that gathered through all the methods in the early stages of this research.

The relevancy by adapting cartoon illustration towards band’s branding had been justified and tested by this research. It’s proven to give an edge and new feel in the scope of Malaysian music industry generally and band specifically. It also opened an opportunity to gain more profit by utilizing and strengthen the merchandizing section.

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Based on the explanation and findings in Chapter 5, this research recommends some issues for upcoming researcher to look forward, which are:

CONCEPT & THEME With difference target audience, new researcher can explore new concept and theme approaches that have the contrasts from this research, thus another new knowledge can be occur. But, it’s not a problem if the new researcher wants to scope the existing target audience as long as the research subject is different band/ artists.

TARGET AUDIENCE It is most important for upcoming researchers that want to continue or improve this study to realize the precise target audience when launching a branding campaign. This research had covered teenagers and young adult audience, thus the new researcher can try another target audience to have differentiation concept in launching their prototype and final design.

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3D ANIMATION It is also strongly recommend converting all of the characters into 3D animation style. This will give a new feel and visual for the existing research that had been done. 3D animation also is now the popular method used by famous animation studio such as Pixar and Dreamworks and proven a success for the market.

By using 3D style, it also offers more attractiveness and diversity dimension to the audience.

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REFERENCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Bros, A. (2009). Dave Matthews Band - silkscreen concert poster. Retrieved May 3, 2010, from http://jojosposters. com/in de x.php?m ain_ page= product _ info&cPath=44&products_id=1717

Michaels, M. (2010). Unhealthy Rock Stars, Insane Pop Stars and a Dying Career?

Retrieved February 16, 2011, from http:// www.411mania.com/music/columns/140328

Browser, C. (2007). Best Selling Comics 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2011, from http:// www.coverbrowser.com/covers/bestsellingcomics-2007/67

Morris, C. (2010). Album sales drop, digital sales soar. Retrieved February 16, 2011, from http://www.variety.com/article/VR11180 21441?query=Album+sales+drop%2C+digi tal+sales+soar

Burgerman, J. (2010). 20 Character Design Tips. Retrieved February 16, 2011, from http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/ features/20_character_design_tips

MyChemicalRomance. (2010). Goods Retrieved January 3, 2011, from http://www. mychemicalromance.com/shop

Cloonan, B. (2010, January 13). UK Rock Sound. http://inkandthunder.blogspot. c o m / s e a rc h ? u p d a t e d - m a x = 2 0 1 0 - 1 2 11T11%3A20%3A00-05%3A00&maxresults=7 Cooper, J. (2007). Gorillaz: D - Sides.

Retrieved February 16, 2011, from http:// www.inthenews.co.uk/entertainment/reviews/ music/r-n-b-rap/gorillaz-d-sides-$1170827. htm Davis, M. (2005). More Than A Name: An Introduction To Branding. Lausanne: AVA Publishing.

Hatzigeorgiou, K. (2010). Queensgames.

Retrieved January 6, 2011, from h t t p : / / k a re n s w h i m s y. c o m / re l i q u a r i e s / queensgames/ IFPI. (2011). IFPI Digital Music Report 2011 (PDF Report).

Leeds, J. (2007). The New Deal: Band as Brand. Retrieved December 30, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/arts/ music/11leed.html

O’Malley, B. L. (2004). Scott Pilgrim.

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