Print Production - Final Digipak and Advert

Digipak CD Design

Digipak Advert

Print Production Planning - Idea Sketch Feedback

I decided to place my 'rough' sketch for my Digipack onto our Facebook group, by doing so, I am able to gain direct feedback from the suitable target audience about what they like and what I can change or maybe include.

Print Production Planning - Update

On Monday the 18th i will take my Photographs for both the Digipak CD Cover and advertisement, I have arranged with my Sophie, who is our artist to come over after we finish college at 2PM to do the photo-shoot. Screen shots of the messages and arrangements are found on the right.

Print Production Planning - Health and Safety Risk Assessment

Print Production Planning - Costume and Props

Print Production Planning- Locations

The Locations I have decided upon are two separate locations: the one main location will be my garden at home, the garden is fairly big and is suitable due to the use of trees and greenery around the garden which is where i want my surreal images for the  'Head Inside Left' and Head Inside Right' of my CD Cover. In this particular location i will use a range of vintage style props such as, old suitcases, bags and the use of a small table with old cups, saucers and teapots which were all inspired by this 'Alice In Wonderland' styled theme and use of surrealism. By using this location, i can use a variety of props and items without the need to travel too far, making the photographs far more surreal and suitable for the 'Indie Pop' genre. By having this slightly disjunctive set of images on the album, it strongly links with the 'Independent' aspect of the genre of having Landscape photography, whilst having some aspects of the 'Pop' genre such as, photographs of the artist.

The main 'Head Front' of the CD Cover and also the Main image on the advertisement will also be located in my garden at home. However, I will chose to take these images later on at night so it still links with the other images but just adds to the lightly 'low key lighting' which I wanted for the main images, the low key lighting also helps create some sort of atmosphere but I will edit the images in such away that this will not distract the attention off the artist but due to the Autumn weather the leaves on the tress are bold and vibrant which is ideal for my images. Props will be similar to props in the other location, this is so the connection between the images is obvious but I will use just simpler items such as a chair and small table, so the focus is directly on the artist.

Print Production Planning - Idea Sketches

This is my overall CD cover design broken up into each section:

Head front:
For the Front of my CD Cover i decided that this should promote not only the artist but also the 'Indie Pop' genre. I chose to have some aspect of 'Indie' by having the landscape background typical of this genre to have more 'thoughtful' images but i also used the typical Mainstream 'Pop' aspect of having the artist present, although hidden by the rabbit animal mask.

Head inside left:

This idea was inspired by a Kings Of Leon album, by which the main artist was separated into sections. I decided to have all the images on my Digipak related and this part of the Digipak will include a close-up of the artist which is typically found within the 'Pop' genre but having a rabbit face layered on top subtly but still quite vivid. The animal mask, was something the artist wore in our music video and i've included it in my Digipak as an almost signature of the artist and that particular song.

King Of Leon album cover - Influence for
my design

Head inside centre:

The left inside centre of the Digipak which will be where the CD is placed, is a slightly more disjunctive aspect to the Digipak of which i included due to this 'Indie' style but however, still relevant with the rest of the images on the CD. I chose to have an apple sliced in half on the CD itself rather than the background where it will be covered. But the simplicity of having just an apple photographed on a white background i think will work really well. On the head back left of the album which will fold over this image will be a photograph of a full apple, so when you open the fold, you go from a full apple to the sliced apple. This is shown at the bottom of this page.

Head inside right: 

On the head inside right of the Digipak i wanted to have something relevant to the rest of my images but also by keeping to the 'Indie Pop' genre so it is suitable for my target audience. I decided to keep with the landscape photography which is typical of the Indie genre but i decided to include all the props used in the rest of the images and placed them altogether, which almost brings the album together, making them all relevant. This idea of surrealism also plays a big part in this particular photo by having props and items in places they're not normally found, this of which i feel will work very well on an album cover.

Head back left:

This image which i spoke about briefly above is the full apple which when folded over will reveal the sliced apple on the head inside centre. Although very simple, i think this works really well, especially keeping some aspects of the 'Indie' genre by having very simple designs but having 'Pop' aspects throughout the Digipak, particularly the close-ups of the artist.

The head back of the Digipak which is not photograph is going to be a very simple black design on a creamy white background. This will be placed at the top, leaving space at the bottom for the song list.

Print Production Planning - Research into genre

Aspects that makes an Indie Pop Digipak are the following:

• Landscape photography
• Sunset/sunrise
• No emphasis on artist, usually mainstream digipak’s focus on the artist or their portraits whereas on the contrary Indie digipaks don’t focus on the artist but they focus on a symbol or an item which adds mysetery which is my next point.
• Sense of mystery 

Print Production Planning - Ideas so far

For my Digipak CD cover I have decided to do an 'Alice in Wonderland' idea theme with similar characteristics from the book. The idea came from the song for our music video 'Another Day' and this idea of a fantasy or surreal dream came to mind, similar to Alice as she wakes up to another day not knowing whether it was a dream or reality. Although, my DigiPak isn't going to be obviously 'Alice in Wonderland' themed, I want some characteristics such as the idea of having a young women almost looking or waiting for something to come or arrive and the idea of having a male and female in these animal masks. Other characteristics I want to experiment with is the idea of surrealism and having objects in unusual settings and backgrounds which I think would work well with the Indie-Pop Genre.

Print Production Planning- Time Planning

Print Production Planning- Digipak practise feedback

I decided to post my Digipak practise on Facebook as the images placed on my Digipak CD Cover are similar themes and designs I want to include on my final Digipak design. Although it's incomplete, gaining feedback will help me greatly in the developing stages and editing stages especially whether it is suitable for the target audience and suitable for the 'Indie Pop' genre.

Print Production Planning - Digipak practise

In this lesson we experimented on Adobe Photoshop with the Digipak designs and added various images of the web to practise with the different tools on Photoshop and to get an idea about the layout of the Digipak.

CD Covers- Technical and Visual codes

The key purposes of a CD cover are to...

1) Construct a star image

• Mode of Address
• Layout Style
• Use of Colour

2) Communicate the genre

• What visual codes are used? (signs, connotes, anchorage)
• What technical codes are used? (uses of technology to create meaning)

3) Provide a unique selling point

• How is it different to the artist's other albums?
• How is it different to other artists in the same genre?

Print Production Planning- Digpak Research