1. The Weeknds website has a simplistic black and white theme.
The black is powerful andstrong. The red used in some of the
pictures match some of the colour filters in the artistsvideos as
the colour is used to connote violence. This is a common
connotation of thelarger hip-hop genre.The header at the top of the
website is very similar to the title on the artists album
coverusing the same black and white colour scheme as well as the
same font. This font is usedeverywhere in the website.The website
uses a blog-style layout to make for a very simple navigation.
There is verylittle writing on the site as it features a lot of
visuals such as photos from performances,official music videos and
promotional posters and adverts. An official video is the first
thingthat pops up as you open the website from the artists VEVO.The
abstract photography on his website promote his tours as visually,
they are made tolook like an exciting experience to the audience
which adds to the appeal of his music. Thisis also reflected in his
videos which show abstract and artistic images and reflect the
artistspersonality.The shop also features the simplistic black and
white theme however the white is theoverpowering colour. It gives
the site a more pure and clean feel. It also features a
largemajority of pictures over writing as the online shop features
a slide show of models andproducts. The photos traditionally
represent both men and women with the womenwearing revealing items
from the clothing line. Where as men look strong and powerful.The
clothing line is featured in some of the artists videos and the
products use large logosto make the audience feel like the artist
that they idolise.
2. The Weeknd has a very particular and recognisable style of
video. Thekey feature of any of his videos is the hard lighting and
high contrast.This creates defined detail on the artist, a darker
background and verystrong shadows which can be used to create shots
that are just of thesilhouette. Some of his videos use the same
simplistic black and whiteeffect as his website however he also
uses colour filters and colouredlighting. This is either blue or
red which are both powerful masculinecolours, red connoting
violence inspired by the genres hip-hopinfluences. The videos often
feature extreme close ups especially duringperformance. The artist
in his videos is often shown to look veryisolated with the hard
lighting acting as a spotlight and emptybackgrounds in the shots.
The cuts in his videos are very closely basedon the pace of the
video as the cuts can involve flashing images or shotscan last up
to 30 seconds. Videos such as Live For feature bothextremes of
pace.
3. The cover of The Weeknds album, Trilogy, uses the samethemes
as the website. A simplistic black and white layout isused with a
border to the photo. The clear separation of thepicture and writing
makes it really easy to understand thecover a sit is easy to
understand the website. The Kiss Landcover uses this same
simplistic layout. However, the photoand the font share the
turquoise colouring. It adds to someof the oriental themes of the
font and some of the videosfrom the album. In both covers the
artists logo is the same.In both the covers, the artist is the only
focus of the picture.In the Trilogy cover there is a girl but the
shallow depth offield and hard lighting focusses only on the
artist. In the firstcover he is not giving direct address. However
in Kiss Landhe is looking down at the audience with an arrogant
feelingdirect address. The costume on both covers is the same as
inhis videos in that it is all black and this means that
theaudience are not focussed on it at all.
