'republic records' obivously represents the American flag the way it is layed out, this tells me that it was established there and this also portrays that they are patriotic to their country. The word republic means the power held with the people and in their elections, this shows another strong link with America as they are seen as a very powerful republican country. The logo itself immediatley connotes that they record company want to give a positive image for themselves but also their country. Linking the title in with the flag makes the audience feel that the record label want to produce music to for their country and music that will make them happy and relevant to them, it also makes us originally want to find out what kind of music they will produce as in their logo they have no image to represent a certain genre.
The logo is quite plain in black and white however this to me looks more prefessional and classic than the use of lots of colour, a professional record company doesn't want to stand out on the album cover so they want to be subtle and plain to an extent. 'republic records' don't use any capitals and this could be because the logo and the record name actually stands for itself and doesn't need capitals to make it any stronger, the sans serif font also enforces this because they feel the name and logo can stand for themselves and having a fancy font would take away from this but also from the professionalism it already has. The word 'republic' is in a larger font so that it stands out more then the records which can help them get noticed furthermore including records in their label helps to connote what kind of company they are.
'Def Jam recordings' also use a very simple proficient but simple logo for their company, for the same reasons that they don't want to take attention away from the album or poster. They have used black and white for a classic look and used simple sans serif fonts for the same reason as other well known record companies. The enitials however are in capital so stand out more and also make the word DJ which leads me to think they focus of more R&B artists.
It is hard to tell where this record label is from as they have no direct link to any country or a symbol that would lead anywhere however the name also stands by itself and doesn't need an image or fancy serif font for it to look professional. I can see only from looking at these two records labels that they are very similar and both have their name for example 'Def Jam' in a larger front than the word 'recordings' so that when the label is noticed the viewers will look straight at the name and it will catch their eye.
All of these logos are square which makes them more conventional and fit much more nicely on the back of a music album so the attention isn't being taken from the album to the record label. Using a sqaure is also more professional than using stars or triangles etc because they are basic and fit much better in the corner of an album, in addition to this circles and triangles are generally linked with children because they are more interesting than a basic but more professioanl square.
Record Labels
'Island Records' have gone for a more colourful record label than the last two I have analysed. The use of yellow and black generally represents danger and which connotes that the producer has created the record label to stir things up in the music industry. This colour scheme makes the audience feel interested and intrigued by the way it is presented and also makes us want to listen to the type of music they produce and why they are so different and unique from the other record label companies. Seeing the palm tree silhouette in front of a yellow sun portrays that the company was established somewhere hot, it was actually established in Jamaica.
The island connotes that the record company is seperate and individual from the other record companies like an island is seperate from the main lands of a country, this shows that they are individual and unique which helps them create their own fanbase and their own unique way of selling music. The font used is sans serif which portrays the simplistic vibe which is also shown in the logo image itself, the yellow stands out well from the black but isn't too noticable to stand out on the back of an album so that it looks professional however it is noticeable enough to be noticed and catch the eye of the audience so that they can then expand and grow their fan base.
With this logo I can see that they have chosen to write records in a larger font whereas the other two logos have made it smaller than the title of their company, this could mean that they see both words as equally as important to sell themselves and make themselves noticed.
16/09/13
Our Record Label
03/10/13
After getting audience feedback on the most appropriate record label for our chosen genre and changing it to meet their needs and expecations of a professional acoustic folk genre. There is a quick drawing on my research page of the progress in making our record label and why we have chosen this one, now we have taken the final label and put it into Corel Draw to make it more professional and fine cut than before. Below is our finished logo.
I think our final edit of our record label logo fits well with our chosen genre, acoustic folk, as you can distinctively identify the acoustic guitar which instantly give you an idea of what kind of music we would produce. The fade we added in using Corel Draw I feel gives a more natural and smooth feel to it as well which most of our target audience will like about our record label logo. From doing our audience research we were able to change the positioning of our wording, originally we had 'RAW recordings' at the bottom of the guitar, I feel this gave us an advantage by doing audience research as we were able to recognise the needs and expectations of our audience and what they would want from an acoustic folk music video. We repositioned 'RAW recordings' to the top to meet those needs of our audience. The black and white gives a much more professional and deluxe feel to it also as there are no silly colour used to catch the eye but in stead we are relying on the simplicity and professionalism given by the plain black and white colour scheme. Generally, record labels are square however due to the shape of our acoustic guitar we cannot fit this common mould, I feel this would benefit us in that it is different to other bigger record labels showing that we don't want to follow the crowd. This also fits with our acoustic folk genre as their generic codes and conventions don't follow any other genres and are much more different in the way they present their music, we wanted to carry this out in our record label logo.
Emily and I as a group decided together on the 'RAW' title as we felt that as a genre acoustic folk is very natural and raw. This shows through in our record label connoting the rawness of the talent from our artists however the bold capital letters we have presented it in may differ from this as it can be seen as quite harsh whereas acoustic folk music is very smooth. The smoothness of our genre we wanted to use in the way we presented 'recordings' in the less harsh font style to look more natural. This connotes that the music we could produce as a record label can have a unique selling point from the other record labels in this genre as we can have a more sharp and harsher vibe to the music we may produce, this could be shown in the album covers or in some of our artists songs for example higher notes or stronger quitar solos.
Overall, I think that our record label logo fits well with our chosen genre and I feel good about our logo as we have met our target audiences needs and expectations of a record label logo. If I were to change anything about this logo I would possibly make the fade on the left a bit longer into the neck of the guitar as I think this could reinforce the smoothness of the acoustic folk music genre.