Research

Creating my own brand

During the process of the development of this project, I have decided to create my own brand. However, to make it identifiable for the audience who listen to my music and who want to know who I am through the marketing and all this relative stuff. I started to look for help in getting an icon for my artistic name brand, which was very helpful because I have a very good design that fits pretty well with my personality and image. 

To design this logo, I went through an analysis about making a logo that projects my identity and my brand. As my artistic name is Jayffo, the first ideas were about making a logo with an animal on it, a wolf, a lion or a dragon. Something that identified my strength through my singing. However, I started looking at some references from my favourites artists:

These are Maluma's and Nicky Jam's logo, that helped me to get a reference of how I could do my logo and as a result, I got it. 

The J and the F are the remarkable letters that sound more when my artistic name is pronounced so the idea of the J and the F as the main face for the logo was the base to start with.  Also, taking as a reference to this logo:

The meaning of this logo is the following extract from Wikipedia:

"the Yin and Yang are two concepts of Taoism, which are used to represent or refer to the duality that this philosophy attributes to everything existing in the universe. It describes the two opposing and complementary fundamental forces, which are found in all things. Yin is the feminine principle, the earth, darkness, passivity and absorption. Yang is the masculine principle, the sky, the light, the activity and the penetration." -

The next image is my Logo which meaning is very deep for me and I think that as my name and my date of birth are the most important meaning of me.  The reason is because 'JAY' is the letter of my name which means my identity as a human being in this world and the date of birth which is the fourth of September in 1999, that takes the second part of my artistic name 'FFO' that means always the day that I came to this world for a purpose and it was given the chance to me for contributing something to the world, so it is very important for me to know when I was born.  For now, I just will keep it in black and white to print it on my cloth and my adverts because, to be honest, I do not need colour, with the logo is more than enough.

Also, it is good to know why this is important. Doing some research I have found the following information about branding and Logos:

Create a logo — this can boost your visibility.

- Musiciansunion.org.uk. (2019). theMU - Advice on promoting yourself as a musician by Musicians' Union. [online] Available at: https://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/Home/Advice/Your-Career/Promotion/Creating-an-Identity [Accessed 12 Jun. 2019].

The importance to be iconic and the real identity that you take through the time when people start to know your logo, they suddenly think about you later when they see an advert with it or any propaganda. Another example of this iconic reaction of memory that people have when they recognise a brand is this one, which is a very interesting example extracted:

"If Coca-Cola was to lose all of its production-related assets in a disaster, the company would survive. By contrast, if all consumers were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to Coca-Cola, the company would go out of business." - Coca-Cola executive.

(Design Council. (2019). The power of branding. [online] Available at: https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/power-branding [Accessed 12 Jun. 2019]).

Of course, the fact of memorising a brand makes it visible against anything, even if we lose riches material the brand still will keep there as long as we recover everything every time we lose. From another point of view It is also important the investment in promotion, the consistency of keep performing and the matches to gain out there where there is so much competence in the music industry.

Performing in venues 

During my time making social life at weekends and also recording sessions. I had the pleasure for being invited to sing at the reggaeton's live event created and promoted by 'Guerrero music' and 'London reggaeton' which place was at Dingwalls, Middle Yard, Camden Lock, London NW1 8AB. I refer this a part of my research because here I performed two of my songs from my album which was 'Escultura' and 'Mirala' so live the experience of how the people would react with my music. However, the response was very positive, motivating and very close to feel like the beginning of my career as an independent artist. Here I have attached some pictures of the venue.

Also, I was invited to perform at one of the biggest Latin events in London called 'Climax UK' where I sang in the company of my best friend C-Bry who was performing for the first time his song. However, this time I felt very different for me because the first time that I performed my music I was panicking, but once I have got the confidence on the stage I just felt that I had to do it better the next time, I was not satisfied enough at this performance so that the energy of the people were not the same as Dingwalls. Anyway, it is good to live the different perspectives of different venues where you perform and it is good to learn from it to keep motivated to do it better the next time. Here there are some pictures of my performance and the from the venue too, the venue was at  Club Aquarium in 256-260 Old St, Old Street, London EC1V 9DD.

Recording my music at Sensible studios

This was my main source of research, most of my learning through these weeks about analysing my music and enhancing the quality of every song was because of my recording session at this place with my producer Dukus.

Most of my music recordings were done there with Dukus, I produced all my tracks and composed all my songs but this guy helped me so incredibly to take them to a high level of sound quality for commercial music purposes which was I was looking for. However, I have learnt so much from him including the improvement of my music production skills and my singing. As he is an artist too, he advised me so much in how to sing more comfortably and how to sound more unique and original inside my instrumentals. every single recording was better, the advance was increasing and my confidence too.

Here there is an attachment of one of the pages who has published some comments about his musical work and his releases:

"Dukus is a genre-bending, British-Colombian artist best known for his engineering prowess, with his latest work including Yxng Bane's HBK mixtape and Fredo's debut album, Third Avenue. Dukus' work rate in 2018 was relentless and after a long year of recording, mixing and producing, he took a flight out to Colombia to recharge.

But the work didn't stop: whilst out there, Dukus shot the video for his Spanglish trap banger, "Un Problema". The track is a masterful mix of reggaeton vibes and booming trap 808s, with the visuals paying homage to Dukus' Colombian heritage, showcasing rolling hills, beautiful women, and the buzzing nightlife of Medellin. 

Directed by Chauffer, peep the opulent visuals up above. "

- Complex. (2019). Dukus Drops A Spanglish Trap Banger On Us With "Un Problema". [online] Available at: https://www.complex.com/music/2019/02/dukus-un-problema [Accessed 24 Jun. 2019].

Also, here I have put some of his work which is more influenced by his Spanglish style of making music. I like his vibe because he mainly includes his cultural background all the time trying to influence people from the UK to like more the Latin vibe in English/Spanish.

Interview at Juntos Tv

As part of the diffusion that I was performing around London, one Tv channel based in Latin culture and promotion of artist had the interest to make an interview for me and my friend C-Bry. in this interview I was asked to talk about my music career, my studies, my music, my audience and all the staff related to my identity as Jayffo and the same was asked to my friend C-Bry:

This the link of the video where there is the interview at Juntos tv facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/juntosTvUK/videos/475644076506750/

Conclusion of my research: Most of the information here was given to every track's production that was helping to get known by more people and therefore all the invitations to perform and for an interview of tv came up. So I might say that the main source for the cause and effect that happened all the way through my project was the social life, the more I was socializing, the more I was getting into parties and performances where people were starting to know me and to listen to my music. Obviously, my music content, production and composition was part of my learning at college and with my producer Dukus who was helping me all the time with the arrangement of my songs to be ready to be published.