Final Digipack

Initial attempt at using photoshop

As I had never previously used photoshop before beginning to design my digipack I decided to experiment with layering images ontop of eachother & changing how the image appeared with filters & by changing its colour palettes. I found changing the colours very simple & easy to do from the offset however I found that cutting out images from their original picture to move them ontop of another picture was not so easy. After quite a few attempts I got the hang of it & really liked the effect I could create. I chose to layer images because I knew that I wanted to use this teqnique in particular on my cover  and in the end I ended up using doing this on nearly every side of my cover.

SINGLE RELEASE POSTER

 

Outside Covers

Front cover 

Back Cover

Right cover

                                          

 



Inside of Digipack

 Inside left cover

 

Inside middle cover

 

Inside right cover

                            

 

 

                        

Initial Ideas

 

From my reaserch into other artists digipacks I decided that when creating my own one for do you feel safe I would not have it centered around images of the band. I decided not to do this because from my previous reaserch I found that in general artists who used their pictures as the main focus on their digipacks were more well known artists. I believe that this is done in order to catch their audiences eye because global artists such as beyonce and rihanna already have a huge fanbase who would buy the CD just because they have seen the artist on the front cover-whether they like the music or not. However as my band are not that well known I wanted to use an eye catching image on the front cover to grab the audiences attention. I wanted to use an image of the girl in our music video on the front cover. As the song title is 'do you feel safe?' I wanted to use an image whereby the girl looked scared and upset to depict both the idea of her emotionally being scared and confused & to show the situation that is being sang about in the song is scary. Other than the title of the song the particular the lyrics that provoked this idea were 'im so scared about the choices we make' and 'this is a warning'.

 

Below is my initial idea of what i wanted my digipack to look like. I added an effect over the image of the girl. I did this in order to make the picture look grainy and unclear to reflect the fact that her thoughts are scattered & she doesnt know what to do. I wanted to surround with a scary looking setting to further get across the idea of being scared. I thought of a number of settings to use that could convey her beign scared in her situation such as a desserted wasteland or a carpark with no one else in it late at night however i settled for eerie looking woodland as i thought that it would get the the point i was trying to make across clearer as woods are quite a cliched scary setting. I added an effect on top of the image of the woods that i found to make it look more scary. I added a filter which made it look more grey - connotating her 'dark' mood and further reduced the opacity of the image to make it look foggy to increase the eerie look of the image.

 

Reaserch - Album Artwork Analysis

Before beginning to design my own CD digipack and poster for The Xcerts - Do you feel safe, I looked at some other artists ones for inspiration. I do not normally buy CD's as i listen to my music digitally so do not usually pay digipacks much attention however i found it very helpful. I found that all of the CD covers i looked at refected the genre of music within them & in general well known artists will always use an image of themselves on the cover which i would imagine would be to help create sales however those that were not as well known would opt for eye-catching images that were usually very thought provoking. Below is my analysis' of the album covers i chose to look at;

Beyonce- 4

• Neutral coloured background causes the image of her to stand out more – also she is positioned in the centre of the cover taking up the majority of space. This makes her the main feature-which I think relates to a lot of the songs in the album which are sang in the 1’st person or are about her doing something.
• The fact the image covers her name shows how much of a well known artist she is because people will know her name from seeing her picture-it will help with the sales of the album.
• Upward angle looking at her further reflects a lot of songs in the album including who run the world (girls) because It makes her look powerful & in these songs she comes across as being in control of what she’s singing about.
• Choice of clothing she’s wearing fit with the conventions of the r&b/pop genre.
• The album name ‘4’ is simple – it’s being reflected in the simple cover used.

Bruno Mars – Doo-wops & Hooligans

• The minuscule silhouette figure who looks quite laid back walking along a huge path that’s never ending. This could be to reflect the careless & fun nature of the album
• The majority of the screen is taken up by the big path of the rocket flying away; this suggests he has just embarked on a journey, that literally rockets off towards the stars – this could show an artists aim of making people who listen to the music forget about real-life – particularly relating to the song in album ‘runaway baby’.
• The vibrant yellow background may reflect Mars' energetic and lively disposition within the music
• The fact that he only possesses the company of his shadow alludes to his independence as an artist
• His name is printed in a bold cartoon like font which resonates a retro quality which could signify Mars is an artist with a 'retro edge‘
• The album title 'Doo-Wops & Hooligans' appears in a small, sans-serif font to prevent the album artwork from appearing tacky with over-decorative fonts
• The artwork reflects simplicity whilst appealing to both a male and female audience

Rihanna – Russian Roulette

• The song is about a relationship & being afraid of getting hurt in the end – which is similar to when you play the game Russian roulette because you know someone is going to get hurt and it could be you. This feeling of being trapped is reflected in the cover because the barbed wire – she cant move without being hurt.
• The fact she’s naked covered in nothing but wire is typical of the genre
• The use of barbed wire reflects the danger she’s singing about; usually find it around places you cant enter
• Dark colours reflect the dark side of what she's singing about – its a game which are usually fun however in this instance  someone's going to be hurt
• The red drip below the title links to the game of Russian roulette that she's relating the relationship to because it looks like blood.
• The R looks like a sharp knife relating to the hurt she's singing about.
• Her facial expression reflects the emotion she’s singing about