Digipak and Promotional Poster Deconstruction: Catfish and the Bottlemen

Catfish and the Bottlemen - Promotional Material Deconstruction:

Digipak Deconstruction, Catfish and the Bottlemen - The Ride:

Front Panel:

The simplistic back cover with its contrasting black background and white capitalised and bold text is highly striking yet subtle, perhaps a metaphor for the juxtaposition between their lyrics and their sound.The band's logo has been super-imposed in the top left-hand corner in order to encourage brand recognition, however, unlike many other albums from the indie genre the logo isn't aligned within the centre of the panel in prominence. Instead, the striking iconographic covers (graphic designed sketches of a crocodile and two people) of both of their albums make them easily recognisable, and in fact many of their fans take inflatable crocodiles to their concerts due to the album cover art. The album art for 'The Balcony' features a comical sketch of two people with their hands placed down the trousers of one another, which young people may find humourous; therefore making the album appear appealing to the band's target demographic of 17-25 year olds. The cover art is highly ambigious as neither of the figures have faces, leaving the it open to individual interpretation, making it more relatable to their audeince; as it divulges that they are free to form their own opinion and identitiy, an ethos embodied in indie music. The ride cover art features a crocodile biting its own tail (the image creating almost a semi-circle), which connotes danger and ferocity. The art has been digitally designed, using thick white brush strokes to outline the design which allows it to stand out and divert attention on a shelf from other albums, despite the monochrome colour scheme. The reoccurring black and white colours reflect the aesthetic of the band who constantly wear dark clothing. The album has followed conventions as it displays the barcode, serial code and record label information. However, in contradiction to the other two albums 'The Ride' contains explicit language, therefore as a legal requirement, the album has to display an 'explicit' sign in the bottom right-hand corner.

Inside Panel and CD:

The monochromatic colour scheme continues within the digipak, whereby the iconographic alligator motif is used once again, along with the conventional record label information (as seen by the Island Records logo underneath the image) and copyright information. The CD booklet includes the same track-list that is seen on the back of the album.

Back Panel:

The back panel has conformed to the convention that a CD is intended to inform the consumer of the songs featured on the album. One capitalised typeface has been used throughout the album, which has an unusual graphology as a slight space is left between each letter, spacing the song titles out. The spaced out text has an imapct on the speed at which the viewer reads the text, prolonging the time it takes to scan over the songs, keeping the viewers attention for longer. Similarly, the formation of text containing the song titles on the back cover is a highly lucrative metaphor, as the text mirrors an arrow pointing down luring you to open the album and listen to its contents which will take you on a 'Ride'.

Promotional Poster Deconstruction:

UK Tour Poster 

The main promotional poster for the bands tour adheres to their monochromatic colour scheme, with the use of the graphic image of the crocodile from their album a clever ploy to simultaneously boost album sales, whilst selling tickets to the tour. (Synergy) It features the band's logo capitalised in bold, making it easy to read and eye-catching to the viewer. The poster also features the bands website, and where fans can buy tickets to the concert. In this promotional poster, the band has chosen to focus on the emphasis on the music rather than the artist, as they have chosen not to include a photo of themselves; this could also be to do with the fact that the band have a British origin and are more well known in the UK than worldwide, meaning their iconographic cover could be recognised by a wider audience. Contrasting to the above poster, the band also released a promotional poster for their Australian tour, which notably did include a photo of the band (See below). The mise-en-scene of the photo shows the band seated on sofas, in what appears to be a dressing room. This makes the poster appear as if it were taken before a show, and creates a sense of intimacy with the fan. They are directly looking into the camera and are wearing black jackets, recurring motifs of the indie genre. In this poster the band's logo is centralised and takes up nearly half of the poster. The monochromatic colour scheme remains the same, as does the information about what tour dates are available, where you can buy tickets, the name of the record label they are signed to and the link to their website.

Australian Tour Poster