Alice Dale A2 Media Blog: February 2012

This was my digipak design. For my design I focussed on a pink and purple colour palette with strong lights and a lot of shadows. I think this keeps a synegy with the music video as during the performance studio scenes our artist wore a magenta dress and there was also very strong backlights. For the photos, we attempted to create a pink light behind the artists head using a pink light gel. Although this did not make the whole light pink, it tinted the edges of her head and this was a really nice effect. All of the pictures used are very glamourous and this once again links with our music video and the performance scene.

Different effects have been added to each picture on the digipak, The first picture is relatively untouched except we made the artists skin appear flawless. On top of the original photo, I placed another image and reduced the opacity of it to create a layered effect. I had to carefully position the layered image to make sure none of the spots cover her face prominently. The layered technique gives the image a professional look to it. The second picture (top right) has a blurred edges effect and also the contrast has been changed. The photo is very direct as she is looking directly at the camera and show the confident side of our artist. The effects on the picture make it a little more mysterious as the contrast change heightens the shadows and the blurring makes it seem mystical. the colours once again match the colour scheme as purple seems to be the prominent colour. The song titles are placed in a purple box below the artists face. I like that the songs are not listed vertically as we can see on other album covers/digipaks but instead are shown vertically. I think this arrangement fits well with the picture as the writing stereo-typically is placed down the left hand side.

The third picture (bottom left) is a combination of several photos. The arrangement of the photos links with the multisplit screen technique used in our music video. It is showing the same conventions and creating a synegy between the two. The pictures also have the strong lighting within them which is a main characteristic with both the music video and digipak. These photos were edited by changing the contrast setting. It was darkened to make the shadows more prominent and the lit areas brighter. This gives a very dark and seductive look to our artists which is similar to in the music video. The picture in the muiltisplit screen of the lights is the same picture used on the front but it is completely opaque. This image is also used on the side of the digipak where the cd is held. I do not think it is important to have a image here that shows the artist but instead an image which ties together the whole digipak. I think by using the same image as on the front the image looks important instead of random and irrelevant. The image has connotations to lights which is a link with our music video and also it is colourful and fun which the pop genre of our artist suggests.

The location of each picture is a black screen studio. This is a connection with our music video as the performance scene is set in a black studio location. The images are all close-up shots that are very typical of album cover photos as it is showing the artist. As this is the artists debut album I think it is important to introduce the audience to the artist and make the digipak appealing as this is the image that the audience are going to relate to the music. Andrew Goodwin's Theory about the image and the audio relating can be used here although we are talking about a digipak. Our artists music is from the pop genre with a hint of rock in there too. Therefore the digipak should show this also, My design shows her as seductive and mysterious (rock) abut also fun and colourful (pop). I think by using this we are appealing to our target audience and hopefully this will draw them in.

I think a weakness of this digipak is the typography. After doing some research we found that the font usually identifies the artist throughout their career and i do not think that this font is portraying the correct things about the artist to the audience. It seems very simplistic rather than fun as the music suggests.

Ultimately, I think that my digiopak intriduces the audience to the artist without being to upfront about it but still shows what her music is like and portrays her as an appealing artist.

Jess Lacey's design...

"The initial concept of my digipak stems from the mind map that I produced when considering how we wanted to present our artist. I felt that it was important to present Jessica Drake's confident sound but also her feminine side to attract our target audience. Therefore for the front cover I chose a close-up image of our actress. This is because it is particularly conventional to use such a prominent image like Rihanna's new album 'Loud', however as this is a debut album, we need to find a balance between confident but intriguing to create an appeal to consumers. The image on the front of the digipak is one that we took in our photoshoot but I have cropped the image so that the artist is placed to one side of the frame yet dominates the majority of the cover with her head tilted to one side. From my previous research into existing album covers, I found that the stance of the artist is very important in conveying the correct image. Therefore the stance in this image suggests multiple concepts. Firstly, some could interpret the pose as shy because the artist's head is tilted to one side which may connote her shy personality, also due to her shoulder being pulled up to her face suggesting a timid confidence. Consumers could interpret this as her vulnerability and therefore audiences, particularly our young female demographic, will relate to the image of the artist and may be intrigued to buy the album. However the tilted head can also be seen as a confident yet promiscuous stance as the artist is looking directly at the camera which creates a entirely different feel. This is because by looking directly at the audience, the image takes on a more confident feel and suggests a boldness that almost challenges consumers. Therefore if her eyes were diverted, this could convey a more poignant feel such as Adele's cover '21' which suggests the album's storyline of her broken heart. However our artist almost asserts an authority which demands the attention of consumers, thus making audiences interested in the CD.

Another aspect which is dominant of the front cover is the artist's hair. We particularly wanted to create a professional effect by using a fan to the actress' hair. This is because it gives more life to the image by making it appear to be a moving image which creates more interest for the audience. Also in this image we used the light gels which we placed in front of the light behind the artist to create a soft pink light from the background. I think this worked really well in the image as it gives the front cover a more colourful appearance that nicely frames the artist's head. The pink colour is also used throughout the digipak as a main colour scheme which more of a magenta pink to suggest fun and femininity. The other colour present on the cover is the artist's costume. This was one of the numerous costumes that we tried and I particularly liked this dress as it gives a bit more colour to the artist and the hooped earrings again suggest her femininity and appeal to mainly females. The costume also gives an indication to the targeted age range as the artist wears the dress off the shoulder which suggests her promiscuity. Another aspect which is important to the overall appearance of the artist is her make up. For the photoshoot the actress clearly applied make-up particularly on her eyes which connotes a bold image and even suggests a less conventional genre of music, possibly conveying more of a rock aspect to her music. However in the post-production stages I also edited the image to add a bit more of a flawless look to the actress' complexion. However I was aware that too much make-up may be disadvantageous to us as audiences may be unable to relate to our artist and so we wanted to find a balance between the two so that the artist is not too unidentifiable to audiences.

Due to the good composure of the image, it was easy to add a text. As the artist tilts her head she creates the eye of the consumer to be drawn from her eyes, diagonally down to the bottom right hand corner. I decided to deviate from conventions and put the name of the album 'YOU' as the larger text and then put the artist's name slightly smaller underneath. The album name in capitals relates to the bold image of the artist looking directly at the camera and it suggests the impression of the songs to be empowering to girls who have come out of a relationship. From the lines created by the image the text consistently flows down to the bottom of the frame so that the object seen after the artist is the title 'you'. I chose a white font for both texts and the typography was a fairly basic one. I think this gives the cover a more professional look so to suggest a more sophisticated side to the artist. I also added a star on the top of the 'i' in the text in order to establish an iconography for the artist, this will make audiences recognise the font and it also gives it a personalised feel which gives the overall impression of the cover to be fun.

For the back of the digipak many of the album covers had a long shot of the artist. However I decided to deviate from this convention, similar to Adele's album and had a close-up image. The synergy to the font cover is evident by the pink light which forms round the artist's head and the pink theme continues through the text of each single on the album. The picture only shows half of the artist and I think this leaves an enigma, presenting a more mysterious side to the artist. In this image her eyes are looking down conveying a more vulnerable pose yet she is smiling which may suggest a playfulness. Her eye line however looks over her shoulder towards the placed text which shows a relation with her to her songs. I also decided to slightly alter the shape of the text as they curve to the right which suggests a bit more informality and reflects the image of the artist's body showing a relation between the two.

On both the inside panels of the digipak I wanted to do something that synergised with the music video. Instead of using a full scale image I decided to break convention and use a different technique of repetition of the photo on the back cover. The aspect that I wanted to relate to the video was our use of effects from the narration to the performance scenes. Therefore I edited all the images into a greyscale effect which suggests a relation to her past life with her ex-boyfriend and connotes a general dull feel. However on one of the small images I let it remain in colour being the only one, this was to suggest how Jessica Drake stands out in a crowd and shows the dichotomy between her past and present life. Clearly as she has a life in colour, this connotes brightness suggesting her emotions. Therefore the inside cover has a deeper symbolism which may relate to other teenage girls who are in similar situations. Due to the repetition of the images, it suggests that such greyscale living is not uncommon and Jessica Drake appears to be fighting against this, suggesting a message of 'girl power' and general women empowerment after coming out of a relationship.

Ultimately, I think my digipak captures numerous sides to our artist and presents her as a bold yet vulnerable character that will be able to relate to our demographic."

"For my design I decided to use a colour scheme of magenta throughout the front cover, back cover and inside spread. During our photoshoot we experimented with using lighting gels and one of the colours that we found worked best with my skin and with the lighting we had set up was the magenta one. Because the main light was situated behind me, the magenta gel gave the outside of my hair a magenta glow. If we hadn't used the gel the glow would be white, connoting innocence- which isn't how we wanted to portray out artist. Magenta is a shade of purple however which stereotypically connotes rage. Rage and revenge are 2 of the strongest emotions throughout the album so I feel the magenta works really effectively. To keep the magenta theme prominent throughout, when I was editing the front and back cover pictures, I used a makeup tool to tint the lipgloss that colour too. This subtle feature helps connote the deviation within the album also. Furthermore, I used this colour for all of my writing on the digipak. On the righthand side of the inside spread I placed a semi transluscent circle of magenta. This indicates where the CD would go; so when the CD is out of the digipak (being listened to), the inside spread wouldn't look bare or uncomplete. I decided to use a transluscent circle here as it made it look more professional, and also the transluscent nature is representative of her relationships, as in the album she describes how her relationships never work out, or how she regrets them- they were never a solid fixture of her life.

The pose and eye contact on the front cover of my digipak design aims to reflect the artists personality and tone of song. She is looking directly at the camera, which is a convention which we found to be prominent thoughout existing album covers. This strong eye contact makes the digipak more personal as the artist looks like they are looking directly at the demography. This consequently encourages them to purchase the album. Another feature which the eye contact shows is the artist's confidence; which is one of the ways that we wished to portray our artist as. On the back cover the eye contact is looking up at the top right corner. This direction of sight is stereotypically associated with innocence and 'it wasn'tme'. This works really well witht the message of the song as she is blaming their brakeup on her boyfriend- suggesting that it wasn't her fault. Innocence is also a characteristic we wanted to portray our artist as.

Whilst researching into existing album covers we found one of the most prominent conventions to be the type of shot used. There is a wide range used on general album covers however for solo, female artists we have found a Close up shot to be the convention. This shot shows the closeness to the artist, thus making it feel more personal. Also, it suggests that she has nothing to hide (as we can see every tiny detail of her), so the demography would feel more related to her, making her a stronger role model. We wanted to vary the shot that we used on the back cover, so we decided to do this in relation to how well the back cover depicts the artist. The front cover tells us the artists name, and the title of the album, so we know a little about her; the back cover however gives this in more detail- titling each individual song- so we used a closer in shot, allowing us to see more detail on her face. The inside double spread is a shot, replicated from the final shot of our video- suggesting an ending to one (the video), is an opening to another (the album). This is how the system should work- the demography watch the music video, and as a consequence of this, they buy the album. This shot on the inside is a long shot of the artist walking away The long shot allows us to see an overview of her, connoting she's not all as she seams.

Typography is another aspect that we recognised as being important when we were researching conventions. It is important to keep the same font throughout our digipak. I initially thought about layering a handwritting font onto it as i thought it would fit in well with the stray strands of hair, also it would continue to connote girly, which the magenta undertones have set up previously. However, I need the font to represent the song and the artist. We need the font to be a simple style (which is representative of her problems being black and white), and also a font which has straight lines and pointed corners (this would connote the heart ache and agression which is portrayed through the song). I finally decided on 'Areil' for my font as it held all of the characteristics that I needed. I used capital letters for the album title as i wanted it to prominate and stand out.

We used strong photographic lighting in these shots to create highlights and shadows. On the front cover, half of her face is in shadow, connoting a slightly evil side to her thoughts. The side which is left highlighted could suggest the other, oposite side to her; although she may have dark thoughts, these may have been provoked by someone taking advantage of her vulnerable and innocent nature.

The front and back cover to my digipak design are set in a black studio. We found this to be a convention for many solo, female artists. It makes the photo look more professional and further, it makes the lighting more definate. The location for the inside spread photo is a location taken from our music video. The last shot in our video is her walking up to an old lampost, swinging round it, and walking back again. This could connote that she is going back on what she said. The location works well because it synergises with the music video."

This image concentrate mainly on the lighting of the shot. The shot is lit on one side creating a shadowed effect onto the other side of the artists face. The light at the back was used with a magenta gel to create the pink tint to the image. The image uses eye contact which is a key convention of mainstream album covers and I think here is asserts the audience of the artists power as she looks quite vulnerable in this pose, especially as half of her face is shadowed. This may have connotations for her having more than one side to her. Also, the light in the background links with the other media text.

This image uses layering to create a very interesting photograph. The photo is colourful and playful which links with her pop genre of music. The position of the typography on this shot is clever as it seems as if she is looking directly down at the writing. The pose is very similar to that of Rihanna and Adele in our research. She looks quite vunerable however which is not something that all of our target audience find appealing. I like the font style in this image as it is a strong and playful font.

This image has played a lot with the dark and light places in the picture.The contrast has been changed to highlight the well lit areas and darken the shadows. This is also helped by it using the black and white effect. The pose is very confident and striking and the use of the bold and strong font makes the image even more powerful. The picture is the strongest of all of the images and clearly shows a confidence which we see in the music video.

This image uses pink tones to highlight different sections. There is a huge contrast between the pinks and black. The image looks very experimental and distances the audience from the artist as you can not see her eyes and there is very little emotion in her facial expression. I don't think this is the right image for us to use as our past research has suggested that the audience like to relate to the artist and this image does not allow them to do this.

With this image, we really like the tones within the picture. Some of these were created using the magenta gel and then others were added during the editing stages of the image. The image is very feminine from her position to her costume and even the calligraphy font. It all seems to channel femininity. Although the artist not looking at the camera could suggest vulnerability she has a confident stance which overrides this. I think that our female audience will find this image empowering.