Digipak in jewel case photographs

Final submission/choices of digipak

^Front cover

^ Inside panel

^Inside panel 2

^Back cover

Digipak (Revised)

____________________________________

ANOTHER REVISED PART

For the front cover I was advised to re-think the use of colour and to try different colours, but only one colour. After this advice, I could see the difference whilst experimenting as the initial group of colours may look amateur in most peoples' opinions. I wanted to show two examples which are in contrast... The pastel pink is light and perhaps too girly. Whereas the blue is light enough to be eye-catching which I like about it. The "moon song" words were also advised to be coloured as the audience may not see it, I actually forgot to colour it, but by putting it in blue it is no longer in camouflage with the mark making of the sky. Another tweak I had to do was colour the tree's branches in more as they had different tones of grey/black. A suggestion was made to colour the moon, but I think it looked better without as the graphics is black and white, so I chose not to.

Developing digipak

The colours of the font on the front cover were chosen to emphasize the name of the band. I chose four colours which I thought worked quite well but was advised to experiment with one colour rather than a range. Also, in the smaller versions, I changed the colour of the moon, giving it a glow using a pastel yellow. I decided that I preferred it without the tinted moon.
The first panel has a British Union Jack sticker on the guitar with other folk/ska instruments around, with wolf heads named after the band.
The second inside panel has the wolf head either looking up at the moon or into a hole, which looks to the music video. Using PhotoShop I used a low opacity, black coloured brush to go around the edge and in the wolf's head. The next experimentation shows Tamas' head in the white space, which I don't think looks aesthetically successful, therefore it won't be in my final selection. It may have worked with a different photograph perhaps.





The back cover has the track names on a banner, carried by birds against the sky and moon, above the wolf on the hill, linking to the music video and front cover. All the panels have the similar style of drawing, drawn by myself and link with the music video animation imagery. The record label information was influenced by Paolo Nutini's latest album as it seemed relevant to having copyright on the illustrations (like his album has). The "Island Records" icon was to show where my own record label would be placed. It is not going to be used on the final version. On the other hand, Island Records does have a range of indie/rock/folk artists, from Florence and The Machine to Mumford & Sons.

Development of front cover

The landscape image is one I have chose for the front cover and will develop it further so it is more refined. This idea has a strong link to the visuals in the music video. I may use a thinner pointed pen in places to get more varied patterns and better detail. I have another development coming with adjustments to things such as the landscape, the writing and the wolf's position (which is a little too-camoflaged against the mark making and trees).

Further ideas

-Some sketches of what could be possibilities for the front cover of my digipak. Drawing the cover allows me to create something much easily than on a computer or taking photographs of. I still need to work on the ideas as the second (with the two "worlds" on different sideas) is a bit empty. I do like the last idea, with the landscape as I tried to put a lot of detail into the sketch. If I have a guitar in the sketch somewhere, it could have a British Union Jack sticker to symbolise Britishness (the band being British too). It's important that the cover relates to the music video which I kept in my mind whilst doing these ideas. Even more, whether to use colour or black and white will be a debate I have with myself. I could use watercolours to get some colour in them, which I think will look just as good as without.

I will continue to experiment with different sketches, collaborating different parts so it is attention grabbing. These sketches remind me a lot of Glas Vegas's album covers which have been very inspirational.
Song names to include: Honey, Threadbare Blues, Moon Song, Paranoid, Orchard Boy (the bands), Time Will Tell, Close Contact, The Burrow (our own).

Digipak ideas

The first idea is very simple, perhaps boring in some people's views (mine too) but it is a link to the music video- with the Wolf. Both images are atmospheric with a grayscale tone. The tree and sky image was taken by myself whilst the wolf was an internet image. I realise this will decrease my marks but I wanted to experiment with manipulating the image. I plan to sketch a Wolf myself if I do go with this or a similar idea, or another alternative to use a screen shot of the animation. Many indie and folk bands have adopted the "band-on-the-front" idea, most influenced by The Beatles album covers, which is an idea for the front cover. As it is a popular trend, although less unique than artwork, it creates a connection between the audience and band/artist. Artwork on covers can be more distinctive, take the Glas Vegas covers and Paolo Nutini's latest album which I find very bold and attention-grabbing with their colour schemes and interesting imagery.

I could use a mixture of art and images of the band to produce a more exciting and intriguing digipak. The three images of Tamas (our actor) are a development and separate ideas in themselves. The border emphasizes Tamas as being the main subject and focus, his strong pose and side glance gives him a masculine look. The circle could be represented as the Wolf's gaze or a spotlight on him. The last image has a very strong link to the music video as it is a silhouette and another with strings (like a puppet would have).

CD Album Cover Research & Exam Notes

Whilst exploring for CD album covers I made a random discovery, a blogger fascinated with CD album covers: http://aninsideoutsock.wordpress.com/ There are posts upon posts showing a diversity of covers (all of which are for signed artists/bands it seems), most being unusual/strange, creative and unique, with graphic and art techniques and influences.

Notes for exam:

G325A-

Write down what skills you have developed since the continuity task to the music video and print productions, since year 12.

Continuity task- 180 degree rule, match on action, edit, work in a team.

Thriller- genre, lighting, editing, sound, soundtrack, aspects of mise-en-scene, health and safety.

Music video- complex narrative, genre, complex edit, learn about marketing an artist/band.

Print productions- (...marketing artist/band, editing through Photoshop and similar software)

For all productions, we had to be acquainted with filming equipment (camera, lighting) and editing software (Adobe Premiere Elements). We also used cameras to capture parts of productions, such as locations, some using their mobiles camera or a digital camera.

Initial design ideas for digipak

I have begun thinking of digipak designs, from sketching the album cover and/or parts of it.

The drawing in the box was an initial sketch I thought of. The image was inspired by our use of woodland locations and the main character being a wolf. An interesting design I have yet to draw (post later) was to have part wolf (animation perhaps) and then the other half be real-life, of our actor coming out of a tree (animation world) into the real world.

Another idea was to have the wolf's head merged and created by the trees in the background as the front cover. The band (our main character/actor) could be gradually shown through the digpak as it is a four sided production. I had this idea a while ago and then found Glas Vegas has this style for many of their albums. This is the basic drawing of my idea.

Another idea is below, the use of black and white and then the simple landscape with the wolf in the centre (use of rule of thirds). As I did these examples of my ideas in Paint, it isn't the best quality. I could either do some kind of print (using my techniques and skills from Art) or maybe do it digitially- but with more thorough detail.

More ideas are coming...

Digipak ideas

The first three are existing CD album covers which I have found from music websites and Google.

Paolo Nutini is a folk/indie music artist who was a large influence on the character's costume in our music video. For instance, both have trilby hats, shirts and jeans, which is typical folk/indie costume. The album looks as though it was done by an artist or possibly even the artist himself.

The bright coloured colour scheme includes: yellow, red and green, the main image being a cartoon portrait of Paolo (the artist himself) at his diner table, a guitar to his left with a pleasant-looking landscape outside. A visual link between the album's title and visual imagery is made through the eggs on the plate (a cross reference to Paolo being Scottish too, as the phrase it, I believe).

For my own digipak, I am thinking of doing an artistic cover and came across some of Glas Vegas's covers which I personally really like. This looks like a linoprint, and suggests how bands can commission an artist to create their digipak.

Glas Vegas has many awards for their self-titled album, from Best Awards of 2008 in The Observer Music Monthly, NME to The Independent and The Sun. Also reaching the Number Two position in the UK album chart. This album, their second or third studio album, with its artistic cover could symbolize how the band are not worried about promoting themselves FOR their music; they let the music promote itself.
The album covers are simplistic and creative, with both a subtle and aesthetically attractive colour scheme. Both CD covers have atmospheric imagery, both with locations being villages. Both CD covers also have the man and woman, shown as equals, either in the sky or on the ground.

My next step will be to look at other several folk/indie music artists with inspirational CD covers. There are different possibilities which may contribute to the successfulness of the music artist, it may be due to their music appealing to their audience or, it may be due to their CD album covers attracting them to listen to them. As our band is unsigned, it'll be important to attract our target audience, using certain colour schemes, imagery, lighting, text font, price, extra features of the digipak.