I’m With The Brand
Branding for musicians and businesses within the music industry
Successful branding triggers an emotional response in the people who see it.
It’s how people recognise and remember you. Done well it helps you stand out from the crowd. It also gives you a sense of what you’re going to get before you get it.
For musicians and artists, products don’t exist in a vacuum. How you present yourself becomes a vital part of the experience, adding an extra dimension, not to mention, the potential for additional revenue streams.
If you get your branding right, your audience engagement will be deeper, and they will keep coming back for more.
In a recent workshop - I’m With The Brand, Valhalla looked at many iconic examples of music branding from artists including The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols, Duran Duran, The Stone Roses, The Smiths, The Specials, KISS, The Beatles, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Nirvana and The Doors.
Also featured was this brilliantly consistent approach used over the first four Adele albums.
The cover art for first four Adele albums, 19, 21, 25 and 30.
The releases are named to reflect her age when the albums were written (19, 21, 25, 30), and the images reinforce this progression. Each tightly cropped portrait feels very personal and prompts you to think about the human behind the music. The effect is similar to seeing someone growing up in front of you, and the sense of honest authenticity is hard to miss.
Rearranging the order of Phil Collins first four solo albums reveals a familiar sequence.
This intimate treatment is similar to the one used by Phil Collins 30 years earlier. Outside the security of his established band and having endured a very public divorce, Collins’ first solo album Face Value was a raw baring of his soul. The cover art reflected that perfectly. In addition, he handwrote the title and tracklisting, along with all the other text on the cover, accentuating the personal nature of the recording.
The cover of the original release of Face Value (1981) and the reissue (2016) with new portrait.
For the reissue of his back catalogue in 2016, Collins reprised the cover portraits to reflect how he looked then. Not only does this further strengthen the connection between the work and the artist, but in a circular way, it’s also a nod to the same ageing process catalogued across the Adele albums.
Day-2 of the I’m With The Brand workshop included 1-to-1 brand audits.
The I’m With The Brand skills development workshop and 1-to-1 brand audits were delivered in partnership with Cultivator and supported by the European Social Fund (ESF), Arts Council England and Cornwall Council.
