Magazine Advertisement // Deaf Havana

Norfolk based Rock Band Deaf Havana are the band that I most liken to the Artist I will be working with, Abandoning Sunday, and so I have chosen to compliment my analysis of one of their videos and their digipak with an analysis of their Tour Poster for their October tour last year in support of their new album, "Old Souls". I feel analysing this artist's work will help inform me with regard to what I will be producing, as their lyrical style, appearance and music genre is similar to that of my artist.

This poster was created to advertise the tour that the band were undergoing around the release of their new album. When doing a tour around an album, it would be expected that the artwork would be similar to that of the album artwork, however besides the font type and colour, a different colour scheme is used. This may be due to the fact that, for the digipak, the band doesn't feature at all, whereas in this poster the band are all pictured. This has been done to show the newer audiences what the band actually look like as they will be seeing them live. The blue themes from the digipak were continued in the later UK tour in April 2014, which was subsequently dubbed the "Old Souls" tour.

The inclusion of the band at the top of the poster immediately captures the audience, with front man James being pictured centrally. At first, the audience is under the impression that they are all dressed formally, i.e. James is shown in a grey suit jacket, and other members are wearing waistcoats or shirts, whereas some members are just wearing plain coats. This could mirror the different audiences the band may have due to their styles- they still appear to some as a strong rock band, but the new singles that were released prior to this tour were influenced by some folk rock, and this formal appearance perhaps reflects the sophisticated nature of the band. Combined with the continued humble appearance, this will help to sell more tickets to the concerts, as more people will view the band and feel as if they will like them just from their appearance.

This impression of sophistication continues in the house style- the lattice style border that separates the image from the tour dates has connotations of wealth (which the band don't have, they cancelled a tour due to a lack of funds) and perhaps upper class. This could perhaps indicate the band maturing and becoming established. The background appears to have a wallpaper style, with the text having the same font and colour as that used in the digipak for Old Souls. The album has been included at the bottom due to the tour being done around the album, ultimately to increase sales of both the album and tour tickets.

Another way that the poster may help to promote the band and increase sales of the tour tickets is the inclusion of the support acts. "Very Special Guest" makes the support act seem very important, and former Busted front-man Charlie Simpson has had a very successful solo career exploring similar genres to Deaf Havana. If people who like Charlie Simpson's music, or recognise the name from Busted and the style that they had many years ago, more people will come to the gig, perhaps not to see Deaf Havana as a priority, but they will still see the band perform live and could grow to like them and purchase the album.

Although the poster helps to create slightly different connotations of the band and attract different audiences, I will probably try to avoid making something completely different and create continuity through my pieces, for instance if I was producing a tour poster for this band surrounding the album I would continue the blue colour scheme and coastal themes from the digipak, or maybe include a still from an associated music video. However, the advertisement does create strong links to what the band is like, genre-wise and personality wise, and gives a distinct message to the bands fans, which is something I will try to utilise - and I will just be producing the magazine advertisement for the digipak, not a set of tour dates, so I will try to continue similar themes across my products.