Palette - Brand Identity

What is the point?

The colours associated with a band or a particular project of theirs can help make it more iconic and distinguishable, allowing the demographic to easily access products of the artist by associating certain colours with them. Deciding a palette is a key aspect of a promotional project as it really determines the colour of all advertisements and merch, perhaps even the music video.

A key example of a consistent and effective palette is the White Stripes who use the colours white, black and red; the colours chosen are good at contrasting against one another and don't really clash. The continued use of the same palette has helped to form the band's iconic style and even dictates their performance costumes and other promotional material - the example on the right solely consisting of album covers.


It is difficult to point to a particular psychedelic pattern as bands don't usually seem to have a themed palette surrounding their band, unlike the White Stripes.

There are some examples within album covers that I could point to such as the vibrant use (and contrast) of pink and yellow in Thee Oh Sees' album cover for Carrion Crawler/The Dream. While this suggests it would be difficult to decide on a palette for Jack's Elsewhere Head stage name, I could still use a degree of consistent colour across the digipak material and even the video.


Deciding a palette!

I have researched into what typically makes something psychedelic in its colour use, I have discovered that the art style is at least acceptable to have Dada and Pop Art influences, extremely helpful as I intend to use Dada in my video but the Pop Art is interesting. For starters the Dandy Warhols, a neo-psychedelia band, are named after Andy Warhol - the famous American pop artist. Pop art has its place within the psychedelic genre as the art style typically uses vibrant colours and demands contrast between various layers of the piece.

The famous Marilyn Monroe piece showcases a variety of the repeated image but with swapped palettes. From this I can conclude that the palette should certainly be vibrant as to be visually appealing and adhere to convention, it might even help attract the attention of consumers and other psychedelic fans.


I also found from this website a brief summary of the history behind colour within psychedelic art, along with a segment with listed examples of palettes. I like the vibrancy of the colours used in the Glow and Fissionable Material examples but I don't necessarily agree with the use of black within the Glow palette.
Additionally I chose the Dance Lights for the consistent use of blue or blue-hued colours, the same with the Fun Kind as it has the blue larger than the other colours to show its significance over the other colours, blue is important to the project as it is titled Under the Weird Sky therefore I think there should be some saturation of the blue in order for the audience to still recognise the sky imagery used.

In short I like the vibrancy of Fissionable Material overall, plus I've previously used pink and yellow and green within my Psychedelic Head animations; I very much like how they contrast off of one another and the blue used is equally important for the inclusion within the sky imagery, however I will likely include some other shades of blue.
I also have an artist that I follow on Instagram called Jack B Coulter (who has synesthesia) and he included a piece, as shown below, which heavily features use of pink, purple and green. I really like the general vibrancy in the use of these colours but also the design of the piece itself, the ripples of colour could be something I choose to feature and perhaps overlay onto my sky imagery. While I would have to recreate such art myself, it might be worth looking into - as to achieve that 'weird sky' effect.

Target Audience - Brand Identity

Given that Jack's main audience currently is an assortment of friends and acquaintances, it would make sense to target young people around the same age. The Strypes are around the same age as Jack and have impressed a demographic of the same age by their sheer talent, their older fans are seem impressed too but also buy the music for a degree of nostalgia as supported by many YouTube comments preaching of the band as "bringing back real rock music".

I believe that since Jack has many friends of the same age - teenagers from 16 to 18 - a teen or young adult demographic is logical; many young people have begun to enjoy psychedelia given a sub-culture resurgence of rock music, especially from indie groups. Additionally, some sources argue that the gradual increase of electronic effects and sounds within psychedelic songs, along with heavy drug use and colourful light-up clothes, has greatly led to the creation of rave music and its culture. There is especially a growth in the psychedelic trance sub-genre to highlight this trend. Whilst Jack doesn't produce music of such a genre, I believe that interest in the rave community from young people clearly shows an interest into psychedelic culture. Pop artists such as Miley Cyrus have also begun to foray into psychedelic music, as noted by her production of the Floyd Song (below) which many online argue adheres to psychedelic conventions - likely through the trance movement previously mentioned. Within this, it is clear that psychedelia is making some return to the social consciousness - especially within the younger demographic i.e. teens and young adults.




It is important to note how, similarly within the Strypes' alleged 'revival of real rock' interesting an older demographic who were fans of the genre during its conception, an older demographic would likely be interested in Jack's music too. Through his inspiration with older artists, it's clear that Jack has taken on some degree of 'older sound' with his music; I will likely have to focus on Jack's ability as a musician - as previously stated - in order to draw in older psychedelia fans.

Costume - Brand Identity

Jack's costume in videos and promotional material should reflect the psychedelic genre and conventions he wishes to adhere to. With this in mind, it is important to note how Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Pink Floyd and Django Django (all psychedelic bands) dress rather unassuming with casual shirts and jeans.

With this in mind, Jack wore a shirt with a detailed pattern in the Summer Nites video I made for him; I am aware that he also owns some Pretty Green clothing. Pretty Green is a brand created by Liam Gallagher, from Oasis, and is one of Jack's inspirations - making inclusion of the brand logical in Jack's image. While Gallagher isn't necessarily a psychedelic artist and the name of the brand comes from a song by the Jam (who also aren't psychedelic), his clothing brand and some of the products are quite paisley.

Interestingly, they too use a circular logo design for the clothing which merely reaffirms my belief in creating a circular logo for Jack as an artist. Moving on, the intricate patterns showcased in the images shows how they fit within psychedelia as it usually contains kaleidoscopic or intricate patterns and imagery.

I am aware that I am treating my approach to this product as if Jack is a real client however, as this project is for educational purposes, I do not need to seek out permission or necessarily a sponsorship for the use of Pretty Green. Additionally, Jack might feel more comfortable in casual clothes and therefore we may just shoot with Jack in more 'normal' clothes just like the previously mentioned psychedelic artists.

Merchandise - Brand Identity

Most artists focus on T-shirts, they're extremely popular in displaying logos or album work. The Ramones have been eternalised in the mainstream use of their logo on shirts, even by non-fans, but the detailed album art and iconic logo/name for Iron Maiden has made their shirts also very popular.

This shows how even detailed or simple designs can work. Due to this I would most likely work with producing a shirt with album work on and another with the circular logo I plan to work on.

Segall's Shirts
Ty Segall seems to be where I'm going to aim for with representation of Jack as a solo artist, especially given Jack's adamence on working within psychedelic convention. Interestingly, Segall also seems to work on the same level as artists within other genres in how he has released mainly T-shirts when it comes to merchandise, showing that they are an effective and accessible product to produce for a wide demographic.


What might be interesting is working on some clothing such as sweatshirts or tapered jogging bottoms and even hats.

These products have proven to be quite fashionable with both teenagers and young adults who might consider buying Jack's merchandise.


This would also set Jack apart as a psychedelic artist in how he produces a range of clothing merch, the fashion style pictured on the left is commonly associated with mainstream fashion but obviously we could tap into that market as demonstrated by the Ramones.

Last note: the circular design of a logo for Jack as Elsewhere Head could - as mentioned in previous posts - be used in merchandise through the production of badges. Badges are very easily bought and many bands produce badges. They can be worn on jeans, denim or leather jackets, bags and many other places making them versatile but also helping to get the brand name out. This is especially important with a small independent artist like Jack.

Logo Concept and Design

I decided that what might prove useful is creating a logo for Jack, or Elsewhere Head.

I was really inspired firstly by my friend posting an artistic picture of the Neighbourhood Watch logo, I also saw a YouTuber known as the Northlander use a circular logo, due to both of these designs I believe the logo would look best as a circular design. Plus the design is perfect for including on a badge, and therefore band merch.

Existing Circular Logos and Merch:

A circular design would be a good choice as it helps provide me a basic layout of the logo in that I will presumably include the text 'Elsewhere Head' around the outside. Additionally, inclusion of Jack's name would help with establishing the brand as fans could wear badges and help identify/associate the logo with the brand.

• The Who also are evidence of a circular logo being effective in distinguishing the band; while the Who include their text on the inside, they have a very distinct font and I don't wish to necessarily imitate the band.
  Additionally, their use of an RAF roundel has made them synonymous with Mods, which quickly became a large part of their demographic - often adorning the roundel as a symbol of Mod culture, which the Who brought into pop culture/public consciousness.

• Dave Giles is a rather unknown artist, at least in reference to major record labels and companies, however he has also sought out the use of badges to sell his name and brand. The badge shown above includes his website url and therefore is useful in directing people to his work and therefore broadening his fanbase. I personally don't think it'd be worth putting a url on the logo, despite Jack's work mainly being online, simply due to the aesthetic being lost; I think that integrating the artist's name as opposed to a url looks better, as seen in the Who's logo.
  I would like to note how I do like Dave's minimalist approach with the 'stamp' design. He focuses particularly on his beard as a source of identity or distinguishing himself from others, however he has since shaved it off which makes the design shown obsolete; with Jack having glasses, it might be worth simply including them despite his newly formed and trimmed facial hair - as beards tend to be easier to remove or change unlike glasses which can be quite iconic as seen by artists like Elvis Costello or Buddy Holly or even John Lennon.

As a result I am likely to create a 'stamp' design of Jack's hair and iconic glasses for the logo, drawing on inspiration from Dave Giles and the Neighbourhood Watch. Although text will probably be simply Jack's stage name like the Who's design but placed along the circumference like in the Northlander design.

Bonus:

In Durham, I happened to come across a pizza place using a circular logo, I find it is quite relevant given my desire to create a circular logo. Notably it is just black and white, much like the Dave Giles badge, which likely saves money on printing. Whilst Jack is aiming to establish himself as a psychedelic artist, I think a black and white logo might be more fitting and certainly establish a professional brand identity; such a palette choice makes the logo versatile as well, clearly being fit for any choice of merchandise. On another note, the text follows the rim of the circle here, much like in the other logos above, and therefore reinforces my choice to place the text around the outside.

Elsewhere Head - Brand Identity

Jack revealed to me that he would like to produce his new album under the name 'Elsewhere Head', as can be seen by his inclusion of the name on his BandCamp. This came about during a conversation in which I tried to clarify whether or not he wanted to keep it as a solo project or produce the work with a band - something which would dictate a lot of my work as I'd have to focus heavily on how to present a band but also it'd be harder to organise more than one person.

I was potentially thinking of working on some of Ty Segall's stuff as he is a solo psychedelic artist. Ty Segall also has some stop motion animation within some of his videos which I could use for inspiration, namely Manipulator which uses photographs (like my Psychedelic Head work) in order to create the motion with some background changes that go along with the beat. I particularly find this image to be striking in how the opening head clearly links to psychedelia, this is something I could potentially work with for Jack's album cover.

It is important to note the abstract and otherwise unrelated use of imagery, the background images are quite random but there seems to be a degree of cohesion in how the images are relatively evenly distributed and (as seen above) the video includes some kaleidoscopic imagery. The images also come into the video on the beat which could be an effective way of editing to the beat.

Ty Segall?

I started listening to Ty Segall because Jack was suggesting good music for me to listen to a while back, so clearly Jack is a fan of his work. When I showed Niamh some of his music, she said it sounds a bit like Jack's work. This more than proves to me how Ty Segall is a great source of inspiration that I can draw from for ideas on branding and music video, especially given that he is a psychedelic musician.

Firstly he includes some stop motion in Manipulator and California Hills has animation (which I can't tell if it's done in Flash or MS Paint). Manipulator links to the more Dada art style from my Psychedelic Head work but obviously California Hills' use of a more illustrative design links to my animations in the past, already having a cartoony style, along with my work on Shit Music.

His use of text is interesting in his work as it is clearly illustrated and has a significant amount of detail.

Such designs being extremely different to my sans-seriff font in Summer Nites.
It is likely that I will have to illustrate the text for Jack's products in order to replicate the complexity, which typical digital fonts lack.

Experimental - Psychedelic Head Idea

Being inspired by my own work, both within my study of Art and my work with Jack in the past - on his EP for Shit Music - I've planned and created a small concept which is quite psychedelic. I storyboarded out my idea and animated it using Flash.

To the right I have clearly given evidence of both my own Art, which used various inks and acrylic paints layered over different pieces of paper, along with the cover for Shit Music which was illustrated using Illustrator.





I only managed to animate roughly this section of the plan in which I indicate how I wish to have some miscellaneous liquid - which I would presumably make vibrant in order to adhere to psychedelic convention, as it is visually entertaining to watch - to pour from Jack's mouth and perhaps other parts of the screen or his eyes. This design is again inspired by my own art and work on Shit Music.

















These last parts of the storyboard just link to how I could either transition to Jack playing music with a whip pan transition (right) or create a psychedelic spiral animation (left). I didn't wish to waste time doing these in the test footage as I might not need them.


Video of Ideas



I tried to animate the head but it took quite a long time as seen in the first idea's footage, since I had to redraw the head for every frame. I personally prefer the second and third ideas in their use of my friend Max's head; in the second and third ideas, I used various images of Max that were cut out in Photoshop and given a transparent background, in order to overlay into Flash.

The second clip was quicker to do as I took different pictures of Max in order to achieve the stop motion effect, and while the quality of the image was poor (due to resizing) I believe it worked in my favour stylistically - it seems quite like Dada art or perhaps Monty Python or the early Mortal Kombat games. The third idea was done in an effort to experiment with whether or not I can simply manipulate an image into doing certain actions, such as a static closed mouth picture opening its mouth with a puppet-like mechanism. While the technique could prove useful, the Photoshop on it took longer than necessary as I could just take different pictures to create a stop motion video.

"Black Lines"

In my time I've seen a variety of different music videos and I've noticed that a lot have recently started to include black lines around the top and bottom of the video. I'm aware that this is to do with aspect ratio but I was considering the reason behind it - obviously the music videos have enough of a budget to be shot in a wider screen.
It appears that the videos look more cinematic with the use of these black borders which seem to focus the audience's attention more to the performance on screen. Additionally, as films typically are shot in a similar fashion, it makes the video seem more artistic or professional as it tries to copy the features of major cinematic releases.

Here is a number of examples I've found:




It is important to note the sheer difference in the genres which use this feature. The range of genres clearly indicates how popular the technique has become and this is especially interesting within the indie genre. Major artists such as Katy Perry and Usher (Panic! At the Disco being a very well known pop-punk band with a large teen following) or those typically in the charts seem to use the aspect ratio within the video for aesthetic purposes, they can shoot in full screen but choose not to as it appears more (as previously stated) cinematic and professional. Bands and artists who aren't as 'popular', or as tied to major record labels - such as Watsky or Rat Boy - tend to need to produce lower-end budget videos; as if to appear more professional, these artists have included these "black lines" within some of their videos.

I doubt that I have the equipment to shoot in the correct ratio, the school Canon Power Shot cameras don't support the format - which would need to stretch the video when shooting for it to look detailed enough when re-scaling in the final edit. As such, I could perhaps see about simply adding in black lines to act as borders in post production - either using Flash or the shapes option in Premiere Pro. This could make my final video appear as if it had a higher budget when in actuality is was quite low, like many in the indie genre.
While the more 'professional' and cinematic look might undermine the conventions of the indie genre, which typically has an amateur aesthetic when it comes to the quality of the equipment used, I have seen a few indie artists such as Twenty One Pilots (as listed above) use this same technique - possibly to compensate for the inexpensive equipment used, but in some cases these major indie artists have high camera quality.

Conventions of Psychedelic Genre

Well firstly I researched into the genre myself, there are various other types of psychedelic music such as neo-psychedelia (Django Django), psychedelic rock (Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall) or even psychedelic pop (Tame Impala, who also fits into the other two genres) but covers a range of other sub-genres. However, they all seem to be influenced by the 1960s psychedelic culture in which many used psychedelic drugs such as LSD and mushrooms to experience visual and auditory hallucinations while listening to music; the psychedelic music attempted to recreate the experience or at least enhance it, this perhaps explains the visual aspects of psychedelia. The music has spread from influence of Western rock and folk bands - especially in the US and UK - and some bands incorporate many other aspects of different genres, most commonly electronic sounds and effects.

Visually there is a lot of use of kaleidoscopic imagery, along with intricate illustrative patterns and often abstract or surreal art - not typically based within realism ; this again is done to enhance the experience while under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.

The art often includes:

• Vibrant and/or contrasting colours within the palette 
• Surrealistic or otherwise whimsical imagery that isn't necessarily realistic
• Often extreme detail within the illustrations
• Kaleidoscopic, fractal and paisley patterns (which can be moving within videos)
• Specific focus on colour and shapes - often using spirals, circles or other recurring imagery/motifs
• The typography for the art is often warps or hand-drawn/lettered, the font is also usually extremely serif or complex in its design

To confirm my research, I sought out Jack's opinion on what psychedelia means. I was also worried because from the research, it seemed that performance wasn't the main focus of visuals which is the opposite within my project. I'm thinking that I will need to somehow make the performance clips more colourful or psychedelic in convention. Moving on, this is what Jack said:

Base Music Video Analysis (2/2)

Music video analysis thee oh sees from Eughan Wooding

Music video analysis django django from Eughan Wooding