‘Flume’ Case Study

It is not unusual for an artists debut album to be self-titled, the significance of this is that the album does not need a title in order to define the album as a whole. Using the artists name as the album title is a statement in itself, it shows that no other aspect in terms of typography is necessary in order to make an impression on whoever is considering buying the album.

The way ‘Flume’ is written above is how it is consistently written for all promotional activities that is done for this album, the same font and layout. The dots before and after the name of the album is how it is continuously written in all promotional pieces, this again symbolise that this album is all about the artist, nothing before or after but just Flume – this also explains why Flume is the biggest sized font on the whole cover. What contradicts the all the evidence pointing towards the artist being the most important is that he is not physically present on the cover of his album. The colour however is not always the same in all promotional activities, the colour of the typography is changed according to the colour of the background. That being said the colours that are used all follow the colour scheme of black, pink and white. Black being the main colour used in the front cover of the album may represent mystery, evil and sadness. Black can also represent the absence of colour, the primordial void, emptiness. The fact that this black has been paired up with a light shade of pink seems unusual because pink and black are not compatible colours, in this case white has been used to bridge the two colours together. The object visible in the front cover is referred to as an ‘Infinity Prism’ (the concept of the Infinity Prism is further analysed in the music video analysis) and it seems to have a glow behind it. This glow seems to be being emitted from the Infinity Prism, this observation implies that the glow is generated from the machines sheer power and heat.

Album Covers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3fdE2hca8Y&list=UUXAhoI7XO2kafTMjocm0jCg&safe=active

Flume – More Than You Thought

In the first three seconds of the music video the artists name is shown in the same layout and typography as it is on the album cover, this shows consistency across all the different platforms the album is being released across. This enables the audience to easily associate the artist to all of their promotional activities. Colour plays a important role in this music video because there are very few of them used and those that are used are used for a reason. The colour scheme of black, white and pink/purple is carried on from the album cover. The music video starts off in mainly black and white where the music is seems to built up and dropped but then at around one minute into the song the colour starts to seep into the shot via the unusual hexagon shape that the subject is starring into. Not only is the video shared on Flumes official YouTube channel but also on a channel called ‘Pitchfork’, Pitchfork is an internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interview. The music videos on both the channels are identical, however it could be noted that the video posted by Pitchfork describes it as being about ‘A mysterious hexagon and a cloaked woman.’ in the description box. On this music video Flume had enlisted the help of ‘Toby and Pete’ who are creative directors with roots in photo-illustration and, CGI imagery and typography. They were asked to create something that when seen instantly people associated to Flume and so they created what is referred to as the ‘Infinity Prism’, it is a light installation that is controlled by the musicians performance. It is made out of six LED screens and two mirrors which is what gives any onlookers the impression that the prism travels deeper infinitely. The significance of the Infinity Prism is that the artists music is so powerful that it controls how the prism works, also that fact that it is meant to go on infinitely gives the impression that there is always more than you thought there is, hence the song title. The music video overall is classed as an conceptual video, granted it has a vague narrative of a girl in all black being mesmerised and then later levitated by this mysterious hexagon it is never explain why this happens or who this girl is. Toby and Pete as the directors of this music video have clearly taken more of an artistic approach to it rather than just a music video to represent the music, making a statement seems more like what they aspired to achieve as the end product.

Tour PostersPoster 1 features dates for Flumes ‘The Infinity Prism Tour’ from 2013 all in Australia – this is where he is from. The first aspect of poster 1 that catches peoples attentions is the name ‘Flume’, note that it is that largest font on the whole poster as its purpose is to attract the attention of people walking past it. The placement of his name is centred in the dark depths of the kaleidoscope styled Infinity Prism used as the background. This may be implying that out of all of the confusing mess of the kaleidoscope Flume breaks through all of this and is the only thing that makes sense. It also gives the impression that his name is coming out from inside of the infinity prism, this has connotations of him coming from the future or his music sounding like it has come from the future. Additionally it may also imply that he is not like any other current artist as his has a very futuristic approach to his music. The special guest is an artist called Chet Faker, his birth name is Nicholas James Murphy . He started off preforming under the name Nick Murphy but then decided he needed to play under a stage name because people were coming to his shows thinking he was another well established musician also called Nick Murphy. He settled on Chet Faker as a tribute to Chet Baker who was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and vocalist. Chet Faker works in a number of genres i.e. electronica, downtempo, soul, trip-hop. The way the dates and venues for each gig has been laid out is very much coherent with the symmetrical theme that is being displayed on the whole poster.

Poster 1 Poster 2

North American and European tour – 2014

Poster 2 is a 2014 poster promoting all of Flume’s summer gigs for his North American and European Tour. When looking at the dates he sees to be traveling throughout North America from mid-July to the beginning of August and then from mid-August all the way until the end of August in and around Europe. What can be identified from this is that he his working nearly every night non-stop for a month and a half. This demonstrates how hard working he is but also that he loves what he does because he is not opposed to working so many nights in a row. All the typography is consistent throughout the whole of the poster i.e. the colour and font, this gives whoever is viewing the poster a sense of familiarity as it does not look like an intimidating poser to approach. The colour of the typography used is beneficial to the poster because the black stands out very well against the pale pink of the background.

National Australian 'Infinity Prism' Tour.

Consistencies

1. Colour Scheme – Throughout all of the analysed media forms there is a consistent use of pinks, white and black. The possible connotations that can be pulled of black being the main colour used in the album cover, music video and tour posters may represent mystery, evil and sadness. Black can also represent the absence of colour, the primordial void, emptiness. It could be said that at a first glance the pinks used are an unusual colour to pickbecause traditionally pink has connotations of unconditional love, compassion, nurture and hope but it could be argued that in a dark and twisted way some aspects of pinks meaning is being incorporated as it gives a false view of the message the artist it really trying to convey. The reasons for Flume choosing a colour scheme could be that it creates a sense of familiarity and makes it easier for fans and onlookers to associate the colours and patterns used to Flume; he is essentially creating a brand that fans of his music can identify with.

3. Typography of ‘Flume’ – The typography throughout the album cover, music video and tour posters are all similar. The way ‘Flume’ is written is how it is consistently written for all promotional activities that are done for this album, the same font and layout. The dots before and after the name of the album is how it is continuously written in all promotional pieces, this symbolises that this album is all about the artist, nothing before or after but just Flume – this also explains why Flume is the biggest sized font on the album cover and tour posters. When creating the album cover and tour posters the designers would have made the conscious decision to make sure the format, font, font size and positioning of the artists name ‘Flume’ to be the same and if not similar. Again, this decision would have been made in order for Flume to create a brand so people can identify with him. Also having the typography for the artist name all the same or similar for all the promotional activities allows the people who listen to his genre of music to differentiate between him and other artists. This makes Flume stand out against more ordinary looking branding from other artists because by creating his own brand he creates a persona for himself that people want to know about.

4. Artists Absence – He is not physically present in any of his promotional outlets. He was not featured on his album cover, on his tour posters and not even in his music video, the significance of this is that Flume is again trying to create a persona from himself which entails him coming across as being mysterious, unknown and mystifying. This makes men want to be him as the character he has built up for himself is very edgy and desirable because women want to be with him due to the mysterious aspect, this overall makes people more curious to know more about him. It is this tactic that will help him become more successful because the more mystery Flume adds to his persona the more onlookers will want to know more about what they are not shown. The conscious effort made to not physically include him on any of the media forms may insinuate that more of an artistic approach is taken to represent the music, rather than making a statement seems more like what Flume and his team aspire to achieve.

2. Infinity Prism – The Infinity Prism is not only present in the music video but is consistently present in all of the media forms that were analysed. The Infinity Prism is the only subject present on the album cover, the connotations of this is that the mysterious object has some sort of significance to the album and the artist. It therefore urges the listeners to make up their own minds as to what they think it represents, this is typically the way artists like to share their work in that they like people to make their own minds up about the meaning behind their artwork. The Infinity Prism is also present on one of the tour posters, out of the three media forms analysed the tour posters are usually the last to be released. So after seeing the Infinity Prism on the album cover and music video fans may be intrigued by it and hope to earn some answers by going to one of the shows. The placement of Flume’s name on the 2013 ‘Infinity Prism Tour’ poster is centred in the dark depths of the kaleidoscope styled Infinity Prism used as the background. This may be implying that out of all of the confusing mess of the kaleidoscope Flume breaks through all of this and is the only thing that makes sense.