Gil
Richard Dyers theory of star image suggests
that artists are able to construct an image of themselves in which are
attractive to audiences and able to be marketed through different formats such
as media, TV & magazines. Common values of star images can hold:
Youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism and originality. He also states that artists
are represented to audiences in a way to make them seem both normal and also
extraordinary, in order for audiences to identify them whilst having an element
of superiority through their fame and talent.
For our artists, who are electronic music
producers, the concept of star image is not sold on what the artists look like
whatsoever. An example of an electronic music producer that uses his star image
in alternative ways is Skrillex. Instead of selling himself based on his looks,
and his features in TV, music videos etc. His key representation is his logo,
with three lines. This helps an audience to recognize Skrillex, and relate to
him. This is something we wanted to re-create with our artists. Also in music
video’s Skrillex has a re-occurring aspect of violence, in which the audience
can also relate to and identify. This is also what we wanted to achieve.
Bee
The design of our degipak is a combination
between nature form and geometric shape. Geometric shape represent electronic
genre. The shape is twisting the forest image in the background which imply
that it has distort the way of nature. The design is simple ,subtle and
minimalistic. This emphasise the artist star image of being unique and
artistic. As we chose not to put the artist faces in. It makes the artist
becomes mysterious which according to Richard Dyer’s paradox theory the artist
has to be both present and absent at the same time therefore this is the absent
bit. The extra thing we did for the digipak design is put the record label logo
on it. This element is not usually being emphasise. However, because Inspected
is a record label that specialise in this genre of music which means by putting
the logo it will help cross promote with other artist under the same label. We
also put Inspected logo at the end of the music video as well.
The concept of nature flow across all our
media product. The design of our website is very clean and minimalistic with
simple homepage. We also used geometric shape which is very similar to our
digipak both in terms of style and colour. On our website we have social media
section which include twitter, facebook and instagram. This will keep the
audience update and inform about new release, events or even get in touch with
the artist. This fill up the present part of the artist’ star image.
One of the key symbol of Koan Sound is the
fox as it is the protagonist in our narrative. Therefore we include this fox
symbol on our digipak to help people recognise the image. Also because we are
not promoting the look of an artist or their voice the ‘name’ of the artist
becomes very important. We emphasises this by putting it in the opening of the
music video as well. We remain the bold clean font in all of our product to
keep the modern and artistic image. This kind of opening are often used in many
dubstep music video as well.
As we are aiming at young audience, We sell
merchandise on website. This include T-Shirt with the Fox print and also other
design. These symbolic designs are seen across all of the products. The purpose
of this is to make people recognise the artist and at the same time feel more
involve.
Elizabeth
The KOAN Sound’s image was an important
aspect in our music video to which we constantly had to refer to. With “Trouble
in the West” we wanted to make the audience wonder but also create an
unforgettable adventure in terms of the plotline. For example the use of masks
in the music video was inspired by Martin Garrix and his famous “Animals”
video, we felt that the surrealism theme was something of a trend in dubstep
music videos and therefore decided to try such stylization ourselves. It also
would identify better with our target audience who are artistic individuals and
who appreciate the combination of both, art trends and music. In terms of costume design, Wes Anderson’s
stop-motion animation “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was our greatest inspiration, as we
wanted to transfer the same level of quirkiness and uniqueness into our music
video making it more entertaining for our audience. Also such unique wear
complimented well the type of music KOAN Sound produce as it differentiates and
is more niche than an ordinary dubstep track. KOAN Sound is an organic artist
and doesn’t represent itself as a commercial performer so to highlight this we
used a very naturalistic location such as “the forest” and “cave” instead of
solely a club or a bar. Such set designs
gave the element of honesty and realness that are often absent in dubstep sequences.
The more aggressive part of the music video was when Mr.Fox was battling the
Boss. Such glorification of violence was largely inspired by a well-known
artist “Skrillex”. This part of the video was really appealing to the young
male segment who enjoy performers like KOAN SOUND therefore that scene of
violence was almost necessary to increase our views and the popularity of the
artist. Also there is a common value
that is presented in this scene which is the rebellion against the system,
against globalization which appeals to many audience members and makes the
artist more likable as he is more relevant and relatable.
