Draft 2

Designing/Creating my Digipak

From previous research into Digipaks and album's, as a group we quickly recognised that having the artist as a feature on the digipak was a successful marketing technique used by designers to create a 'trademark' for the band. Having already begun filming our video and making drafts, we already had a clear style and theme of our video. It is important when marketing an artist to keep all albums, posters and such merchandise in a similar style to any music video's that are released as to demonstrate to the audience the specific genre/category that the artist falls into. We therefore took some pictures in our school's photography room, deciding that using a black background would be most fitting with the grungy, dark colours in our video.

As the digipak was illustrating our artists' style, maintaining that grunge, alternative theme was important in all aspects. When choosing what to wear for the shoot I made sure to keep the colours of my outfit very dark which is why am I wearing mostly black, and wear heavy eye, dark eye makeup as a method of 'iconography'. We tried different outfits and hairstyles to test which ones we thought would look better:

However, we decided that the darker clothes look better and suited the style of our artist more. I was very pleased with the pictures we managed to take, already they linked with the theme of our video.

I decided, in the end however to go with this photo:

...

I chose this photo because of how close up it is, it creates more of an atmosphere between the audience and the artist and brings a sort of intimacy. I wanted to use a close up for my digipak and keep a long body shot for my magazine advert.

The front cover of my digipak was one of the hardest elements of designing the digipak. It was important not to cover the artist's face but also keep the font and style large enough to make the band name stand out. There were numerous extremely small, detailed, but important decisions to make. For example, I had to make difficult decisions about the font style I wanted.

However, in the end I decided to pick this particular font:

I thought this best fitted in with our animalistic style, and also fitted well with our genre and was a font I could use with our band 'logo'.

Some other small changes I made was deciding whether or not to add certain effects to the image. For example, choosing whether to have a black, vignette border like so:

As you can see, although small the effect does have a large overall affect on the image. I chose to add this border in the end, I thought it added even darker visuals. I'm extremely pleased with how the front cover of my digipak looks, I think it complies to the conventions of the genre and also fits well with the style of our music video.

The next aspect to creating the digipak was the inside two designs. When designing a front cover for the digipak there are certain elements that are nearly always included: the title, the band name, the artist etc. However, for the left inside cover the variety in what digipak's have is huge, varying from a quote to simply just another photo of the artist. I chose instead to have the title and the band name again, but focus more on the title compared to on the front cover.

I created the background myself. To do this I used the website 'ipiccy.com', which is a photo editing website. I started off with a plain white square

I then used a 'layer' which had handwriting on it (to represent lyrics that might've been on the album) and layered it over the white.

I also added another 'paper' layer which had a slightly more grungy look

Again, I added another effect to make the image darker.

After playing about with the brightness of the image and adding some other effects I finally began to add the font I would be using. I decided to go with a phrase that I'd often seen when researching digipaks and albums; "No.1 Hit Album".

Next I designed the CD. I decided to use the same background for the left inside sleeve for the background of the CD, as I didn't want too many different designs going on and for the Digipak to become messy and confusing. From CD's I'd seen before, most choose to have a certain image, or block colour for the CD, most were very basic. I decided to take advantage of the design opportunities, however, and again add the album and band name and record company to the CD. I thought this would be a good marketing scheme is terms of keeping all the merchandising similar in style, and having the most important information on most of the digipak, like the band name, album name and record label.

Finally, I designed the back cover. This was also hard. There are so many varied ways of setting out the song list. I knew I wanted to have another image of our artists, to reinforce the idea of the 'star image' and iconography. This made it difficult to add text, as I didn't want to cover the picture of the artist. After researching some different idea's I finally decided to go for a similar style to P!NK's album, The Truth About Love.

I used a similar design in that I had the image of the star to the left, and a block of colour to the right with the song list. I also added the record label and information below the list.

The back cover was the part I most liked of my digipak, I think that it is simply yet effective, the font is neat and the title 'Songs' still has that animalistic element. The dark colour palette links to our music video and overall I think I successfully maintained a clear style with each aspect of my digipak

First draft

Creating/Designing my Magazine Advert

Similar to the digipak, to begin designing my magazine advert, we first had to take photo's that we could use which would work with our style of genre. Therefore, we decided to have a black background and make sure I was dressed in dark, alternative clothing which would conform to the conventions of Indie Pop.

Here were some potential shots I was thinking of using for the Magazine Advert:

 

 

In the end, however, I chose to use this particular image:

 

 



I chose this image as I felt like it best suited our genre. I used a close up shot for my digipak front cover, therefore I wanted to use a long-body shot for my magazine advert, and this was the shot I felt best linked with our music video. I felt this image would allow me to work best with font and text too, as there is a lot of space surrounding the artist.

One of the strongest conventions of Indie Pop is the use of black and white, therefore I designed my magazine advert both in colour, and then in black and white

However, I decided I preferred the coloured version. I felt that the black and white version was too plan, and that having the colour brung more of a focus to the main artist, as I felt like in the black and white the focus on the artist became lost, and the text was what stood out the most.

This is my final Magazine Advert:

I wanted to make the album name stand out, and so I changed the angles of each letter to add effect to the font, and contrast it with the simpler font below.

I made sure to use the same font's that I used in my digipak, to maintain a sense of style. I also used the same colour scheme for this reason.

Digipak Analysis - The 1975 (self-titled)

 

 





 

The 1975 are an English alternative rock band. This is the digipak for their self-titled, debut studio album in 2013. Unlike most album designs, The 1975 chose to stick to a monochrome colour palette, with extremely simple visuals.

The front cover

• As the album is self-titled, the 1975 only needed their band name on the cover, which is an effective marketing strategy. The only font is the band name, arguably the most important piece of information the viewer needs to remember and recognize.
• The most eye-catching visual is the use of the luminescent lights behind the font and at the centre of the image. The lighting draws attention to the speaker at the centre of the image which is often used in Indie and Rock music videos, and merchandise as often bands include their technology/instruments in their visual designs.
• The monochrome colour scheme, although simple, is extremely effective in this case. The dark, low-key lighting is a key convention of alternative rock/pop. Sometimes the most simple designs can be the most effective, as they are sleek and sophisticated and focus on the band name entirely.

The inside

Again, the inside sleeves maintain the monochrome colour scheme. This is unusual, as from research I have noticed that most digipaks directly contrast the inside colour scheme from the front and back cover. However, the designers chose to stick with the black and white colour palette, which I think helps to maintain the sophisticated, professional style. The font also stays the same throughout, which is often used in digipaks to make the audience aware of the artist's style. Most designers choose to keep the inside of the digipak very basic, and with little to no text. However, the designers for the 1975's digipak chose to have text on the inside, which is a clever technique to use for adding in wanted information without taking up space on the front and back covers

The back cover

The back cover of the digipak remains similar in style to the rest of the digipak. Similar to the first image, the speaker is the most eye-catching visual as it is surrounded in fluorescent lighting. The song list layout is very basic, and the font used is quite plain. Personally I prefer song list's to be a little more unique, however this particular style works well with the rest of the digipak, as all the text is quite standard and sophisticated, therefore the style is maintained well throughout.

Magazine Advert Analysis - The Killers 'Day & Age'

The Killers are an American rock band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2001. This magazine advert is promoting their 2008 album 'Day & Age'. The Killers fall into the Indie Rock genre which is very similar to the Indie Pop genre that we are focusing on. The band's name is the most prominent visual aspect of the advert, closely followed by the album name written underneath. This is typical of most magazine adverts, that make sure the band/artist name and the album name are the two most visible pieces of information. The advert uses very dark colours such as blacks, and very deep purples which is the type of colour palette often used in the Indie genre. To make the text clearer, the background images fades to black where the text has been put over. A common feature of magazine adverts is the promotion of a recently released single, which is demonstrated in this particular example 'Featuring the single Human'. The record label has also been included towards the bottom, which again is a common convention of indie magazine adverts. The designer has made sure also to include the website link, which is important in promoting the band as a brand and leading the audience to access more available information about the band on their website. Overall this example conforms to the conventions of Indie magazine adverts because of it's structure in text, and the dark colours used.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

The Uses and Gratifications Theory derives from Katz and Blumler, who's theory focused on the audience's influence on media, rather then the media's influence on audience. It suggests that audiences take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their lives. The theory suggests that audiences view media in order to fulfil specific gratifications.

Digipak Analysis - Marina and the Diamonds "The Family Jewels"

Marina and the Diamonds is a welsh singer-songwriter. Her music comes under the Indie Pop genre. This particular digipak is a design for her debut studio album The Family Jewels (2010) which incorporates indie pop and new wave musical styles. The album conforms to the Indie pop genre, with the dull, softened colour scheme and particular focus on the artist.

The front cover

• The artist is the main visual focus point of the cover, which is an important marketing technique when designing any type of merchandise for bands and artists.
• The artist's name is the largest font on the cover and is one of the most eye-catching aspects of the cover.
• The background has a floral print, which although does not conform to the indie genre because of it's dull colour palette the overall image still has an indie style to it.

The inside

Both inside designs are in black and white. This seems to be a common convention of digipaks, that the inside colour scheme directly contrasts that of the back and front cover. The use of black and white is something commonly used with Indie pop/rock as it symbolises a deeper sense of emotion. The artist also again features on the inside, it is important to have the artist feature on the majority of the digipak as the aim is to get the audience to begin to recognise the artist and their style.

The back cover

• The back cover is similar in colour scheme to that of the front, with dull, softened colours used which conforms to the indie pop genre
• The artist, again, is the main focus of the visuals in order to create a brand.
• The image illustrated the artist hanging downwards, and the way in which the song list has been designed reflects this. This abstract style is common in the Indie pop genre, as most Indie artists want to subvert from the usual conventions of most other genre's and use alternative designs to do so.
• The font on all parts of the digipak remains the same, which maintains a sophisticated style.

Magazine Advert Analysis -

Lana Del Rey is an American singer, songwriter and model. Her style of music tends to fall into the Indie Pop/Rock genre which is exactly the genre we are focusing on. Like most magazine adverts, the artist's name is the most visible piece of information. The name is at the top of the advert, taking up a large portion of the image and clearly promoting the artist as a brand. The album name is also clearly shown, perhaps not as much as the artist's name, as often most find that the artist's name is what the audience need to remember the most, as all other information can follow suit. Contrary to the conventions of an Indie Pop magazine advert, the colours used are very bright, and the lighting is clear and unlike most lighting used in the Indie genre. This, I believe, makes it unclear as to what genre the artist falls into, which can become confusing for an audience. The designers have also included the album release date, as well as social media links which is important in promoting and marketing the product. The artist herself, however, is the main focus of the image which conforms to the conventions of Indie magazine adverts. The artist/band often feature on the front of the magazine advert so that the audience can begin to recognize them and their style.

Filming day 4

We filmed the hospital scenes this week, it was one of the most difficult scenes to film as it took a lot of choreography and time to get the movements right and not get any other people in the shots. We are very happy with the shots we got despite the difficulty of the shoot