This is a symbol that has become synonymous with the band through it's branding and advertisement material. The origin of the symbol came from the lyrics of 'Bye Bye Badman' from their debut album, 'Citrus sucking sunshine'; this song references the protests in Paris in the sixties in which sucking a lemon could combat the effects of tear gas. Since it's use on the cover of their album it has been used on a vast majority of their promotional material. The purpose of this is to acclimate the audience to the connection between the symbol and the band, thus allowing them to associate the lemon with The Stone Roses, even when a lemon has nothing to do with the band. This is symbol that has been used more recently, as seem in the previous blog post, to promote their two new singles and tour dates to their modern audience. The fact that the posters simply showed a lemon and people instantly associated it with the band, suggests the power of it's symbolism. However, it would appear that the more modern advertisements used have taken a different design approach in that the lemon showed is actually a photograph, rather than a work of stencil graffiti.
She Bangs The Drums Poster
As we can on this advertisement for the single 'She Bangs The Drums' and it's B-sides, the lemon is used, though not as prominent as usual. However, this doesn't take away from it's recognizable nature as the bright yellow contrasts with the monochrome background it has been placed upon, thus branding it as a Stone Roses' piece of work. This can thus be described as an example of branding synergy in which the lemon is used as a widespread form of symbolism throughout their posters etc. They have taken a normal object and attached their brand to be associated with it.
This was a poster used in 2009 for the remaster and re-release of their debut album. This poster features a number of callbacks and references to the BritPop genre; given that this was released as a 20th anniversary, the poster shows the zero as the band's key symbol, the lemon. Furthermore, the typography for the lemon and band name is a gold-yellow, referencing the lemon and even perhaps the Roses' biggest hit 'Fools Gold'. Additionally, the use of a plain black background with striking colors and bold text atop emphasizes the eye-catching nature of the poster and perhaps the importance of the album itself. The text used on the poster is colored red, white and blue, referencing the NME quote as it being 'the greatest British album of all time' as the colors of the union jack are used, whilst also referencing the BritPop genre. Moreover, the color scheme could be a subtle reference to John Squire's artwork he produced for the band and himself; the artwork referenced will most likely be his work for the 'Waterfall' single which saw the upper corner of a union jack.
 |
| Single cover for 'Waterfall' |
This can be seen in the following:
What I can take from this
For my advertisement/digipak production I definitely plan to employ the use of the lemon as I feel this is a symbol that has become so synonymous with the band that fans of the band and the genre instantly identify it with the band; furthermore, even those with no interest in the band could potentially identify it with the band. Additionally, I feel as if this would not only be an effective callback to the older fans of the band but would also resonate well with the newer fans due to the more recent advertisements. However, I am still unsure of whether I would like to use the Pollock artwork, and if I do, how prominent it would be. Yet, if I were to utilize the use of Pollock art I would have to either create an original piece or take photograph with a subject observing a Pollock piece; both of which I am unsure about. This website enables the user to create a digital Pollock piece, though I'm not convinced with it's 'look'.
No comments:
Post a Comment