Album Covers
The first four of Coldplay's album covers are apparently seen as a quintology. Although very different in visual appearance, they are definitely linked by theme, and that theme is "art". The first album, Parachutes can be seen to have used an experimental form of photography, in the slow shutter speed of the globe. The second album, A Rush Of Blood To The Head contains some sculpture work. The third album, X&Y contains an almost Mondrian style of artwork, with the fourth album cover literally being a re-worked piece of art. These covers have taken on experimental art forms, and this definitely links them visually. This idea of art can therefore be seen as part of Coldplay's iconography. Here are the four album covers:
Music Videos
Coldplay have really experimented with time-manipulation within their videos, such as The Scientist (reverse motion), Yellow (slow motion), Strawberry Swing (stop motion) which I analysed earlier, and Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall (stop motion). These have allowed for very artistic results, and this is carried through from their album covers - what with Viva La Vida's album cover actually being a literal piece of art. It is therefore clear that Coldplay, as an artist, represent themselves, and their music, through artistic representations. being that they are of the alternative rock sub-genre, they offer an alternative style in the form of the arts. The video for Strawberry swing contains artwork produced by chalk, in the stop motion animation setup, and the video for Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall contains a heavy use of paint throughout. Here are the two screenshots, showing the further link with artistic concepts:
The Viva La Vida album cover contains artwork portraying the French Revolution, and it is believed that Coldplay have purposefully included revolutionary themes in part of the album, and its promotion. Chris Martin said "some say the album is brave - I just see us as being very lucky". This links very closely to the idea of a revolution, and of something new. This idea of trying something new has always been part of Coldplay's brand, as the video for The Scientist showed a reverse narrative, and interesting lip-syncing techniques, as well as the video for Yellow, which saw a video shot entirely in one take, with time manipulation, and interesting lip-syncing techniques.
The best way to summarise how effective Coldplay have been in the application of branding, throughout their products, is that one may only need to watch the first five seconds of a Coldplay video, and they will automatically know that it is indeed a Coldplay video.
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