Alt J are a four piece indie band from Leeds who signed with Infectious records in 2011. They have released 3 albums, An Awesome Wave (2012), This is all yours (2014) and Relaxer (2017). The band have become increasingly successful in the last few years and have had a heavy touring schedule and this has lead to the departure of bassist Gwil Sainsbury. The remaining members are lead singer and guitarist Joe Newman, drummer Thom Green and guitarist Gus Unger-Hamilton. They have won awards such as the Mercury Prize (for an awesome wave) and they have had three Brit Award nominations.
Institution
Infectious records was established in 1993 by Korda Marshall and is located in London. The parent company of Infectious records is BMG Rights Management, an international music company specialising in music distribution and publishing. BMG rights management was established in 2008. Since 2009, infectious records have signed many emerging indie bands such as Alt J, Superfood, Drenge, the Sherlocks and Vance Joy.
Relaxer Digi Pack
The digital pack for Alt j's new album Relaxer is where the bands strong 90s video game-esque aesthetic begins. The art work that works on many different media platforms is a refrence to the cult 90s playstation one game LSD: dream emulator. The 90s/00s gamer style and aesthetic is currently very popular with many art students, street wear enthusiasts named "hype beasts" and skaters in London and is becoming increasingly fashionable. This mean that the aesthetic will be very attractive and will appeal to the target audience as they are likely to be one of the youth sub cultures mentioned above.
The pixelated murdered man and dark colour scheme used in the art work help to illustrate the darker themes of this album. The unconventional choice of art reflects the slight shift in style and more unconventional themes explored in the lyrics of this album.
The band are known for their strange but oddly visually pleasing album art work and usually the band themselves only appear on the inner sleeve of their albums. This is something that I would like to do my self in the creation of my own digi pack. I find the three uniform shots of the band on the black background particular striking and I would like to try something similar. They have used their signature rounded lower case font for the band name, which will be recognisable to many of the target audience.
The front cover of the CD case has the track listing and the name of the band and the album name on it.
Tour Poster
The tour poster uses the album art as the background. The same signature font is used for the band name. As well as this a thin white boarder is used to enclose the text. This style is also seen on the front and back of the digital pack. I really like the look of this simplistic white line on the dark background and I think that it is a look that I would like to use on my own cover. All of these elements combined help to create a very strong sense of brand identity.
The poster includes a number of world wide dates as the band are now a global brand. However most of the venues that the band are playing at are majority seating. This is unusual for a band in this genre but this is due to the fact that alt j represent themselves as a band that consider their music as something to be appreciated rather than used as a backing track for dancing and moshing.
Website
The website also helps to reinforce the strong sense of brand identity by incorporating a immersive modified and navigable version of the 90s video game which eventually leads to the album artwork. This would appeal to the primary target audience who either old enough to remember paying the game when it came out or the secondary target audience who are enjoying the resurgence of the 90s and 00s culture. The home screen of the website strays slightly from the theme of the album art work but the font is the same as that on the front of the album. The track 3WW is also playing when you enter the website and this accompanied by the button "stream or buy" which targets the digitally native young target audience who are more likely to stream their music or buy it online rather than buy a physical copy. This digitally native audience is also addressed through the social media links at the bottom of the page.
NME Cover
Alt j were featured in NME just after the release of their new album in late June of 2017. This is an example of synergy being used in order to market the new album. The cover of the magazine is very minimal only using an artily shot image of the band themselves and a simplistic white font displaying the band name across the page. There is also a very small byline that says "blurring the lines" this is referring to the bands risqué lyrics that are covered up by the bands confusing use of language and John Newmans nasal voice. This minimalistic look is very fashionable and takes no attention away from the band or the visually pleasing photography. This photography helps to present the band as artistic and creative.
This product and brand works very well on multiple media platforms. This is due to the very strong aesthetic of the brand that helps to create a strong sense of brand identity.
Merch
Music video for deadcrush
Although alt-j has a very strong brand identity an house style throughout their marketing campaign for the album relaxer their music videos are almost completely different in all ways to the aesthetic and house style. The videos only have brief links to the album artwork and concept that only a dedicated fan would pick up on, for example, there is a dancing lady on the game on the website in the 90s-style graphics. This is a distant link to the dancing Anne Boleyn in the Deadcrush music video. Apart from this, the music video is otherwise totally separate in terms of themes and aesthetics.
link to deadcrush video
What I will take away from this research
1. An artistic cover for my digi pack that focuses on a piece of artwork or photography rather than the band themselves.
2. The use of a triad of images of my band on the inside cover of the digi pack.
3. A very strong sense of brand identity that is created by using the album artwork and album font on posters and the website. I will also make sure that my aesthetic is clearly planned out and used across all media platforms in order to create a marketing campaign that is successful.
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