The construction of my digipak

The construction of my digipak was fairly simple as I was extremely familiar with the software's I created it on, one of these software was Microsoft Word; this enabled me to manipulate the shapes of the images to make my digipak look professional realistic. The other was PicsArt. 

I edited the images an application called 'PicsArt', this app had a wide range of tools, filters and edits which allowed me to experiment with different themes for my image. The main tab I used was the 'effect' tab where all the different edits were located.   

I was able to place text boxes over the image to write on top of it, I hid the text box by selecting the 'no outline' and 'no fill' tabs. The information I wrote on top of the images included the tracks featured on the album as well as the artists webpage address.  
    

I was able to change the shape of the images pasted, this was particularity useful when making my CD design. I clicked on the image and the 'format' tab appeared at the top of the screen, I clocked this and it gave me the option to change the shape. I clicked the circle with the light grey edging to make it look like a real CD. 

I did the same with the picture of the album cover, I selected a slightly slanted option, again located on uner the format tab on the tool bar, to make the cover look as if it was 3D. this was again to make the front cover look more professional and more like real CD packaging. 

Final digipack

After comparing all of my previously designed CD covers and discussing and evaluating them with my peers, this is the final copy I have decided on. I got to this stage of the image by playing around with different edits on an application called PicsArt, I used an edit very similar to one which had shown on one of my previous designs as this was one of the most popular out of the few I had shown so I decided to use this on my final cover. I developed this slightly by adding a light masking effect over the image and creating a shadowed figured behind the main image. 

The effects I wanted to create for the album cover were youthful, urban and current, which I felt linked well with the genre of music. I was mostly inspired by John Dalhbecks 'Mutants' and David Guetta's 'Nothing but the beat' album which had a similar concept, with the use of prominent lighting and distorted images. 


Another key convention I wanted to stick to was the artists face not being fully shown to the audience; this creates a sense of mystery around the artist which I hope would intrigue people. However as it is an first album it's conventional an image of the artist as the main focus point as this shows brand identity so their fans can see what type of person he is.  I used the name 'Alex Fiction' in slightly bigger wiring that the album name 'Luminescence' as the artist name is crucial to the build in popularity around him. This follows the conventions of new albums as they often use just the name of the band or artist to promote their brand image and get the audience family with their name, I added an album name in addition to this to challenge this slightly.  

I used the same image on the CD design to keep a consistent link between the cover and in the items inside, I removed the artist name and album name and just used the image as I felt it wasn't needed on the CD. I did this not only for design purposes but also for practical reason, so if the user was to misplace the cover they would know which CD this album belonged to because the iconic image. 

I used the same background on the back cover to the album that was used on the other pieces to the digipak, again to keep a consistent link. This also created the effect of a real wall, with Liam (posing as Alex Fiction) leaning on one side of the wall and track names being printed on the opposing side. I didn't use the image again on the back cover as I thought having it on the cover, CD and magazine advert was enough to create the strong brand identity I aimed for. 

I also changed the font on the back of the album cover for practical reasons only, as I felt the font used on the front cover could be hard to read once scaled down to a size that would fit on the back; however I selected a font that was as close to this one as possible to carry on the consistent theme and to show an obvious link between the front and the back. I added relevant logo's and symbols on the back of the cover to give it the appearance of a real product, these included a bar code, scan code and record label logo. As well as this I added a webpage to Alex Fictions page that the audience could visit if they want to learn more about him,to look at merchandise, album release dates or upcoming tours. 

This is the insert for my digipak, I again used a picture of Liam to keep the link between the whole product, and distorted it with a pixelated effect. I took a lot of inspiration from John Dalhbacks album for this picture as I thought it gave a really effective appearance. I kept the same theme throughout by not showing the full identity of my artist to create a sense of mystery.

Considering fonts for my digipak

In order to create my digipak to the best it can be I tested out a range of different ideas including the style of don't, the key elements I knew I needed to include was to make the font clear to read so the audience and know who's album they are looking at. In addition to this, it is also imperative that the style of the font is unique, to identify the artists image and also the genre of the music. Fonts can be used to give an insight into the type of genre the music fits into, for example if the font is in bold, bubble writing then you would associate it with  the pop genre, whereas if it is edgy and harsh then it would fit more to the indie genre.

Above are some styles of font that I may use for my digipak, I have selected a variety of fonts all of which I feel could fit into the house music genre. I asked some of my peers for feedback on these fonts and asked them to give them a rating out of 10. Doing this will make it easier for me to choose my final font, allowing me to feel confident in my choice.

I have averaged each rating and displayed them below: 

Font number 1 - 3


Font number 2 - 2

Font number 3 - 4

Font number 4 - 2

Font number 5 - 1 

From looking at the ratings of all the fonts the most popular was font number 3, I liked the effect on this font as it looked quite futuristic which I felt fit well with the house music genre. 

Audience feedback from my digipak rough cut

I showed the class my original idea for my album cover, this was still the image I have used on my final cover but just a less heavily edited version; everyone agreed that the image was successful as it looked professional, however a lot of people said it didn't represent the house music genre as much as it could as the image was quite dark, was said it looked as if it could be used for an indie artists. I wasn’t pleased with the comment and knew I had create a strong identity for my artist and the genre he sits within, I knew I had to use a more distorted effect with more edited features such as brighter colours or pixelating the photo in order to achieve this. Below are some of the comments made about my rough cut, both positive ones and negative ones:

Positive comments

• The shadow created behind the artist looks very effective 
• The photograph looks well presented and professional
• The colours used on the shadow works well with the background
• The location where the photo was taken works well with the genre 
• The contrast between the white t-shirt and the dark wall looks really effective

Negative comments

• The image looks to dark to fit into the house music genre
• The picture looks a bit too plain 
• It looks as if it needs more editing done to it 

I will keep elements of the picture the same in relation to the positive comments so I don't take these factors away from it, and will try to rectify the negative comments by furthering my editing skills and brightening up the image. Gathering feedback from my peers was extremely useful as it let me know what I did well as well as the aspects that didn't work as effectively as they could of. 

Digipak rough cut

This is the rough cut image for my digipak, I took this image from my initial designs as it was rated the highest out all the others I had edited. I am pleased with the image as I feel it looks authentic and as if it could be used as a real album cover, however I will contact my peers for their feedback before I make my final decision on whether I use it or not. 

 I edited this image on PicsArt, an application that offers a wide range of editing tools to play around with the appearance of images. The main edit I used on the app was the 'shadow' tab, which created the duplication of the image behind Liam. As well as this I used different lighting effects to create the red tinge to the photo. I will be using the same image throughout my digipak, which is typical any new up-coming artist as it strengthens their identity as well as reinforcing their image to the audience, so it is extremely important that I get this image right.     

The main inspiration for my digipak

I chose to keep the same image throughout to create a strong brand identity, reinforcing the image of my artist. This has been done many times before in many genres but particularly the house music genre, artists such as David Guetta and Deadmau5 have replayed the same image over a number of albums to get their image to stick with people, I want to create the same effect for my artist. 

David Guetta has replayed the same image of himself over a number of his album covers, with different edits to them and different colours used on them. He is seen posed leaning against a wall with a casual facial expression, showing only part of his face. I have kept very closely to this when shooting the image for digipak and used the same conventions used in the image used on a number of his albums.

David Guetta digipak analysis

The Digipack I have chosen to analysis is David Guetta 'One more love' as it is under the genre of dance which is the same genre I have chosen to use for my music video. 

This digipak represents David Guetta well as a dance artist because on the front cover it shows a mid shot of him wearing a white t-shirt and sunglasses. This picture links in with dance conventions well as he is wearing big sunglasses which connote fame and high status, also a lot of dance artist wear sunglasses indoors in their music videos. Also the black background connotes the dance genre because in a club it's usually dark and it conveys mystery. The splashes of colour on the digipak convey the flashing lights in a club which links in to the dance genre, also it conveys graffiti which is a way for people to show their emotions through art or to leave their mark somewhere. The only colour on the digipak is gold which connotes fame and richness and the expensive lifestyle of the dance artist. 

The connotations of the advert convey the dance genre because of his sunglasses showing high status, his t-shirt which is casual clothing which links in with dance, the typography is stylish and the name of the album is written in a graffiti type of font. The graffiti type of writing goes well with his tshirt as it has a gold graffiti affect on it. The use of black and white on the front and the bright bold colours on the back show a great contrast which makes the digipak looks more interesting, although he has contrasted the bright colours with black and white, the colour scheme for the typography still remains the same on each cover being either black or gold. 

The use of using gold as the only colour on the front cover portrays wealth and success but as the gold parts look like they have been graffited on, it shows that he achieved that success by being an truthful artist and having only started from the beginning like the streets, he has still come this far. The black and white colours are a simple contrast to the colourful paint effect on the other two sides, as a whole affect it connotes a clubbing atmosphere as it's dark but there's bright lights.

The design of the digipak represents the dance genre well, the splatters of paint on the cover convey bright lights and a none caring fashion as it looks messy. The layout has artist representation on the front cover for people to see and know who's CD they are buying. The image of David Guetta at the front looks like a papped picture so this connotes fame. The listing of songs is on the back cover, so before people buy the CD they can read which songs it includes.

The choice of images used is one close up of the artist David Guetta, it appears to be a high angle shot and the brightest part of the photo is his face so that gives the effect of a camera flash, which could connote his fame and celebrity status as it looks slightly like a photo the paparazzi would take.

The typography used for 'David Guetta' looks straight and stylish to convey the modern dance world, whereas the 'one more love' writing is done in a hand written or graffiti type of font to convey where the dance world originated from the streets. All of the writing on the front cover is in white except 'one' and 'love'   which is in gold to portray wealth and success. The writing on the back cover is in black and gold and quite a small font, this all links in with the colour scheme used on the digipak.
The style of language used on this digipak is normal English as the album is called 'one more love' but the word love has an ambiguous meaning as it could connote one more album or one more dance, but David Guetta called this album 'one more love' because it was an extended edition from the previous album 'one love'.

The advert conveys the artist in an urban way because of the high angle of the photo and the colourful effect on the digipack. Also the picture of the artist is conveys him in a cool, fashionable way because the audience cannot tell his emotions as they cannot see his eyes, also the white lighting on his face may represent the sun shinning down on him, hence why he is wearing sunglasses.
The advert promotes the artist well under the category of dance because of the use of props such as his sunglasses and the use of bright colours and the colouring effect on the image which makes the focus on David Guetta. The way the splatters of colour are spread out on the digipak  could convey the atmosphere of his concerts when his dance music is playing and everyone is going crazy.
The target audience for the dance genre is around 18-24 so this digipack targets them well as it is colourful, yet cool being in black and white on the front with David Guetta wearing sunglasses and a plain tshirt. The plain t-shirt shows that he does not care about his image that much and he is being himself which conveys the dance genre as everyone likes to be original.

Deadmau5 digipak analysis

I looked in to a range of house music artists and their digipaks to look at the styling of them. One I looked in to was Deadmau5 4x4=12 album, the front cover is very simple yet very effective. They have used their iconic mouse logo and placed this in the centre of the album filling up the majority of space, making it the main focus of the cover. In addition they have made the outline of the mouse in a neon green colour to give it the effect that its been lit up, this luminescent colour links with the house music genre as it recreates the colours used on club lighting. The artist names and album name is located at the top of the cover so your eye is drawn straight to it naturally, moreover these names have been placed in the same neon green shade to link with the outline of the image. 





The same mouse icon has been used on the CD design but at a slightly smaller scale, this keeps a consistent link between the cover and the CD so when you open the digipak its clear the designs have been linked. The back cover of the album lists the track names in the same font used on the album and artist name, again creating a link between the two. By using this same typography it allows the front and back to flow, making it easy to follow. 






The bands name is printed again on the back, seen on the left hand side, reinforcing their brand identity. Logo's have been used on the back such as bar codes in the typical position for an album; the bottom right corner, this ultimately sticks to the usual conventions of an album cover.  

Conventions of a digipak

Part of my coursework is to create a digipak to go alongside my music video, I some research into digipaks and the importance of them in advertising. A digipak is a patented style of CD or DVD packaging; A CD digipak usually folds into four sections each featuring different images of the artist or their influences and always contain a front cover, the artist or bands CD, an insert and a back cover. Sometimes including information on upcoming tour, posters and bonus tracks. Digipaks are designed in a way which is meant to attract fans and target audiences, they must have a aesthetically pleasing cover to attract the age, gender and the type of person who will like and listen to the music. 

However they are are also created for the companies finical interests unlike regular albums which are easily downloadable from illegal websites, digipaks incise people into buying extra content which gives the artist some worth. An example of this is Katy Perry's - teenage dream album contains a bonus disk with extra tracks as well as a5 sized miniature poster. 

A digipak consists of plastic packaging used for CD singles, CD albums and the DVD digipak. It includes a book style paper board or card stock outer building; it's made from this durable cardboard so it's less likely to break. This format doesnt ever really change for digipaks even though some elements have developed over the years. 

On the front of the digipak you usually see the main artists or bands face/s, and if not something related to them or their album. On the outside there's a binding that holds the plastic trays inside, also with pictures of the artists or something to do with their album. The things to include on a digipak are the name of the artist and album, their track list, the bar code and record company logo, the six panels including pictures of their band on the inside, the spine with the name of the artist and album and finally, the disk impression. 

The digipak ultimately benefits the artist because it represents and promotes their new album which brings awareness to the artist therefore, selling the artist and encouraging the public to buy their CD.