ADVANCED
PORTFOLIO
RESEARCH
Record Labels - (10/9/15)
The Universal Music Group is the largest music corporation in the world, they are a music and entertainment company that were founded in 1934 as Decca Records. They are currently based in Santa Monica, California, United States. The Universal Music group have a variety of different artists, from a variety of different genres including The Weeknd, Kanye West, Katy Perry and Stevie Wonder to name a select few. They have a family of different records such as A&M Records, EMI Records and Virgin Records. Their logo is made up of an outline of the world, it is in black and white which gives a professional and modern feel to the company. The image of the world also gives over the idea that the company produces music with a variety of different artists all over the world, which therefore suggests that they have global appeal. ‘Universal’ is written in a capitalised Serif font and is placed on top of the outline of the world. This highlights its importance as it is the first thing we look at. The fact that it is capitalised means that it stands out to use as an audience and has a bigger impact on us. In addition to this ‘Universal Music Group’ is written under the world in a capitalised, Sans Serif font. The word ‘Universal’ is repeated in order to highlight its performance and make us as the audience feel more familiar with the logo and therefore the company. The sans serif font differs from the serif font used for the main part of the logo, showing that it is not as important. However the fact that it is clear and easy to read means that it is more recognisable to the audience.
Universal Music Group
Island Records is a record label that is a division of the Universal Music Group which was firstly based in the UK before 1998. At the time of 1989, Island Records, along with another record company A&M were once the largest independent record labels in history, with Island being a highly influential company to UK music in the early 1970's. From February 2014, the label has split between three and include Island UK, Island US and Island Australia. Island Records like the Universal Music Group represent a number of artists from all genres including several famous artists including Dizzee Rascal, Drake, Ariana Grande, Florence + The Machine etc. The design of the logo shows a palm tree silhouette cut out of a black circle. Again, a black and white colour palette has been used to keep the logo simple, and to therefore make the imagery of the palm tree more memorable to the audience. Below the logo of the palm tree is the text which states the record company's name 'Island'. This is displayed in a black sans-serif font which is capitalised to show the importance of the company name. Also, the name of the company is complemented with the imagery of a palm tree, as palm trees can be associated with objects that could be found on an island.
Island Records
Record labels are a brand or trademark that is associated with the marketing of music recordings and videos. Below is my research into 5 different record labels and their logo's in order to gain an understand of the different codes/conventions associated with them, so that we can design and create our own record label logo.
Creation Records was a British independent record label, which was founded in 1983. The music genres that the company were associated with includes Alternative Rock, Post-Punk, Indie Pop, Shoegazing and Britpop. The record company was sold to Sony due to debt in 1992, and later signed artists such as Oasis.
The company logo consists of a symbol with text on the right hand side. The symbol shows different shapes in the colours red and blue, which creates a C shape that stands for Creation. The text of the company's name is in a black sans-serif font, which contrasts against the strong colours of the symbol. However, the whole logo does not appeal to me as a music company logo, as there is no musical symbolism in the logo.
Creation Records
Forefront Records is a record label that is based around the unique contemporary Christian music and Christian rock genre. Their parent company is the Universal Music Group, who are the parent company of a lot of record labels. Forefront Records was founded in 1987 by Eddie DeGarmo, Dan R. Brock, Dana Key and Ron Griffin. The logo is a sphere shape, it is coloured blue and has a glow around it, which gives over the impression that it produces rising stars that glow within the media. The sphere shape also has an arrow pointing upwards, which again connotes rising success. The logo for Forefront Records features a sphere (inferred to be the Earth) with an arrow bending its way around it. This imagery can be interpreted to mean the music released through the label has an international appeal. The arrow and sphere shape are abstract and extremely modern and help to make the logo look professional. The name of the record label is written underneath the arrow and the sphere. ‘Forefront’ is written in a Sans Serif font, it is not capitalised and it also a skinny font, which makes it harder to read, therefore meaning that it will be less well known to the audience. Underneath this ‘records’ is written, it is in a sans serif font which adds a modern and easy to read appeal.
Forefront Records
Rise Records
Rise Records is an American label which defines itself as supporting ‘various’ genres across the music industry, yet is known mostly for supporting pop punk, alternative, and hardcore bands such as Transit, PVRIS and From First To Last. Independently set up by Craig Ericson in 1991, the label originally released 7” records of underground artists at the time, before moving towards the CD format in 2000. Both the Alternative Distribution Alliance and UNFD distribute Rise’s releases. The official Rise Records logo is presented in black and white, giving the design a minimalistic, yet diverse appearance (an apparent reference to the extreme range of artists that Rise supports). The letter ‘R’ is heavily emphasised as an insignia (due to the alliteration present in the label’s name), while all the text present in the logo is in a serif style font. The use of black and white emphasises a heavy contrast of colours, a potential reference to the contrast of music released by Rise Records when compared to artists supported by more mainstream labels.
