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To what extent is the identity of the artist you have chosen to analyse consistent across

different media forms? Refer to examples.

‘Flume’ is the artist that I have chosen to analyse for my case study. From analysing an

album cover, a music video and two tour posters from his self-titled album there are a number

of significant consistencies that all combine to form the artists identity. It is not unusual for

an artist’s 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, on the album

cover for example, is necessary in order to make an impression on whoever is considering

buying the album. The music video that I analysed is called ‘More Than You Thought’, when

analysing the music video further a clear link can be made between the name of the song and

the contents of its music video. The music video itself may seem quite ambiguous and

therefore at a first glance may not be understood but if you look closer you may find that

there is more than you thought to the video.

One consistency across all three media forms is the colour scheme, there is an evident 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.

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to

be the colour of perfection. White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black,

white usually has a positive connotation. Using white could be the director’s way of slightly

balancing out the negative connotations of black. It could be said that at a first glance the

pinks used are an unusual colour to pick because traditionally pink has connotations of

unconditional love, compassion, nurture and hope but it could be argued that in a dark and

twisted way pink 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.

During the course of analysing the three media forms for the case study another consistency

that was noted is the typography. 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.

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What contradicts the all the evidence pointing towards the artist being the most important due

to his name being the biggest font size is that 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.

As well as the music video to More Than You Thought being posted on Flume’s YouTube

channel, the video is also posted on Pitchforks YouTube channel. In the description below the

video Pitchfork describe the video as being about ‘A mysterious hexagon and a cloaked

woman.’ the mysterious hexagon that is referred to be actually called an ‘Infinity Prism’. On

the 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 musician’s

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 artist’s 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 – similar to how

the artists absence in more of an artistic statement.

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. It also

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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 suggest that he is not like any other current artist as he has a

very futuristic sound to his music. As mentioned previously Flume had enlisted the help of

Toby & Pete to direct his music video and create something that people would look at and

instantly associate to him, to this brief the Infinity Prism was created. In analysing three

media forms from Flumes self-titled album the recurrence of the Infinity Prism in all of them

aids in meeting the brief Toby & Pete were given, for people to be able to see the object and

immediately link it to Flume.

In conclusion Flume has been able to create an ambiguous and mysterious identity for

himself through the use of the four consistencies i.e. the colour scheme, typography, the fact

that he is physically absent and his Infinity Prism. These four consistencies all intermix to

create a persona that people will find interesting and will be curious about. This will in turn

ensure his success whether it is short-term or long-term as people’s curiosity to figure out

who Flume is.