Do's and don'ts

From seeing the adverts for other artists I have seen what works and what doesn't work.The following are the basic simple rules that should be applied:

• The use of clear font is important 
• Use befitting sizes for images and fonts.
• Use clear, in focused images.
• Use Photos that are an appropriate shape for the page.
• Use a layout that follows the rule of thirds. To be taken into account when taking the photos.
• When choosing the font, it should follow genre conventions and be clear from a distance. here you place the font. The font should follow genre conventions and be clear from a distance. 
• Follow the conventions of the three colour rule and use colour that is appropriate for images, font and background.
• Use appropriate industry logos and conventions, properly positioning the barcode, date, copyright, titles and artist names.

Things that shouldn't be done as it will result in the product not looking that good:

• Stretch images and distort the quality of the image.
• Use unnecessary effects that do not suit the genre
• Use a font just because you like it. What you may like, may not fit in with the target genre and therefore the target audience. 
• Have a different theme for every panel. Unless done properly, it would look messy and un-organised. Stick to a certain theme or colour scheme that can run throughout and tie everything together. 

Advert draft

This is my draft advert.
I plan to download the font that "pink" is used from this album.

I feel that this font will not only take away the sheer bluntness from this advert, but it will also add a sense of personality and will make the audience feel more attached to the artist as it looks like handwriting font. I will also add the EMI logo and "also on iTunes". The layout size and colour of the text is something that I will play around with and see what works best.

Digipack and advert draft-Production

After getting feedback I know that there are too many coloured texts on my advertisement and this shall have to be changed.

Mock Up-Planning

Analysis of three digipaks and advertisements.

Newton Faulkner - Hand built by Robots. 

Front Cover

The front cover has an old feel to it with the washed out colours. It is almost surreal in a way with the background of clouds and a robots hand holding a selection of different figures from knights and soldiers to pirates. The artist's name and the album title are framed in a traditional way easily identifying what the customer is buying.  

Back Cover

The back cover of the album is similar to the front in that it has the view of the clouds and there is a little space man linking it back to the front cover. It is a very simple back cover.

Robin Thicke - The evolution of Robin Thicke.

Front Cover

The front cover is also relatively simple but done in a way that it literally represents how evolution of man had occurred but instead of monkey t man there is Robin Thicke getting up and getting dressed. The background is white but there is the outline of Robin Thicke's face adding a bit of detail to something that would otherwise be an empty white space.

 Back Cover 

The back cover of the album has a medium shot of Robin Thicke with the song titles clearly on the right side in gold highlighting them among the black and white cover. This way we can easily identify the song titles and what is on the CD that we are buying. 

Seal - System

Front Cover

This is the front cover of Seal's album 'System'. The idea in itself is very simple with just a close up of Seal's face and placed on a black background. The black background works with the black and white that has been used on his face that creates a high contrast highlighting his face and features. His face has also been split up into tiles like a puzzle, adding a level of sophistication instead of just having a plain close up of a face in black and white. I could not find a back cover for the album available to me. 

What I've learnt

This has showed me that when making the digipak I need to make sure that the title of the digipak is clear and either contrasting with the background or in a very distinctive font so it stands out. It is also important to make a dynamic digipak again so it stands out and is unique on the shelves. And lastly to know what kind of artist the digipak is being made for  so that audiences can easily link the digipak through what they see visually to the artist and the type of music they expect to hear when they listen to it. 

Chosen images

In our photoshoot we had a wide range of photos to choose from so again, as this is just planning and open for development and for the idea to grow, it may change.

I feel that these images are great for the advert and the digipak because they all show the artist close up with nothing in the background which would allow the audience to recognise who the artist is. They are also well lit.
I will be using photoshop to get rid of any scars and such and also adjust the levels to how I like them.
The last photo I will use as a double spread across the two inside panels. 

Chosen Images-Planning

 These are the images i have chosen to edit for my digipack and advert

pic 1pic 2

pic 3

I don't plan on editing picture 1 or picture 3 because I like them natural.

To edit picture 2 I will be using photoshop. The tools I will use will be the healing tool to keep the skin tone the same. I will also use the clone stamp tool to neaten up certain areas. I will also use the burn tool and the dodge tool to highlight certain areas of her face to make features stand out.

Photo shoot 14/12/10 - Planning

Today, we decided to do a photo shoot for our digipack. As we decided that we needed better shots.
To begin we thought about the shots that we wanted for our panels.

We experimented with lighting and shutter speeds in the studio and ended up with a range of shots at our disposal for our digipack.

Layout & design ideas / mock up based on the ideas.

This is a draft of my digipak. While creating this draft I felt that I would use some of the features that I plan on using in my actual digipak.

In my actual digipak I plan on using a font that looks friendly and fun, but not patronising like comic sans. Something that is bold yet shows the artist to be fun. I plan on using a font like that or similar.
Also, having the artist on the front is something that is very important as it allows the audience to identify the artist with the music

I also plan on laying out digipak in this style. With the tracklisting in the middle song after song

and with the copyright information label logo and bar code beneath.

For the inside I plan on having an image that spreads across two panels. I feel this is a bit bare, but I cannot think of anything to add on to another panel, but if I do then I will include it in the final version.

As of yet, we haven't done a photoshoot therefore, this may and probably will change because of the images.

Mock Up-Planning

Overview of "Do's and Don't" of design work - Planning

The basic do's and don't's of design work are the following;

-Use relevant/clear photos that won't pixelate
-Keep a simple colour scheme
-Make sure the images/font/text relate to the genre
-Use the proper conventions and integrate them well
-Be creative


I will take this in to account when putting my digipak and advert together.

Short list of fonts,colours,layout and design ideas - Planning

Below are my short list of potential ideas for my digipack and advertisement.

Fonts
Abadi MT condensed
Andalus
Bauhaus93
Britannic bold

I believe these relate to the genre best.

Colours

Light shades

Tones:
Black
Grey
White

For a good contrast and balance.



Layout&Design

Like many front panels I want a shot of the artist herself.On the back I would also like an image of the artist to feature.On the inside I would like either a double panel of a city scape or a panel for the city scape and another image of the artist.

Feedback movie-Production

Analysis of three digipaks and three advertisements (research and planning)

During our lesson time we analysed digipaks and advertisements from previous students. Here a three digipaks and advertisements from established artists that I will be analysing and researching.

Here is the digipak and advertisement for Madonna.

The colour scheme and fonts is conventional to the genre is represents. It has quite a few vibrant energetic colours which aims to show the style of the music and Madonna herself. I noticed that on the advertisement, there are photos of her performing live. This gives the audience a taste of what it will be like to go on one of her shows.  There are quite a few different colours, however the over use of colours is at least maintained in every part of the digipack, adding to the wacky editing, it makes the digipak still look professional. 

Feedback

practise digipak

During the summer, we did a practise digipaks.
Here is mine.
I was aiming for a "Hipster" type digipak. 
The use of glitter, triangles, nebula and cats are something that are directly linked with the hipster style. The track listing, also conforms to the hipster style and has a direct reference to films in the hipster style.
Song titles such as "Cellar Door", "Grandma Death", "Lucid Dreaming" are all direct references to the popular cult film, Donnie Darko.
"Kurt Lives" is Kurt Vonnegut who is an American writer who wrote, "Slaughterhouse-Five" and many others; he was known for his humanist beliefs.
Even though it was just a practise digipak, a lot of work was put in to ensuring and conveying the hipster style. As we didn't have a song to work from, we didn't have a genre, so instead we decided to go for a certain style in which the genre type was suggested, but not set in stone.

I did a 6 panel digipak as I felt that there should be equal amount of coverage for each member as even though there is a lead singer, they are both equal and they are both the front women of the band.
I found adding text to a background without a consistant colour all through very, very difficult as with many text colours, it didn't show up, or they blended with the background making it very difficult to read. I also had some trouble with the placement of text and getting both Jasmine and myself on the front cover without cutting a lot of body parts off.
From this I have learnt that perhaps a plain background is the better option, and the artist being in the centre because it then allows the person editing to move the artist from left to right, right to left or which ever way they want the placement. We plan on doing  a photoshoot for the our current digipak and we will take in consideration these factors.

Digipak practice-Planning

Summer Edit

During the summer we learned about digipacks and started practising how to use the software that is needed to make one.

                                                   Back Cover

As you can see the image is edited and was planned carefully.

The elements needed to complete this panel would be the track listing which would have went on the right hand side in a dark font.

The producers,website and bar code are also needed to complete this cover.

                                                     Front Cover 

   This panel was also carefully planned but as you can see the name of the artist and the album title is missing. However, i spent a lot of time editing this image which shows me what time scale is used for this part of a promotional package.

This exercise was about what not to do for making a digipack. The images used were composed awfully and the moral was to plan shots carefully and make sure they are perfect in everyway possible. These images were also unflattering so once again a lot of time was spent editing to make this mediocre digipack.

Analysis of three digipaks and three advertisments- research

Lady GaGa - The Fame Monster

Front Cover

The mid shot of GaGa is centered. This image of her has her hair styled to look a bit tousled and make up perfectly smudged to make the image dynamic. The text compliments the grey scale of the image. The warning label and capital letters make it appeal to those who shouldn't have it.

Inside Panels

The colour scheme is followed to the inside of the digipack. The image is taken at the samed distance creating another mid shot but this is more daring as she is wearing less clothes as though once you listen to her music you know her. The image would appeal mainly appeal to teenagers because it's daring and this is not the norm for a pop singer as they are seen as role models.

                                                                               Back Cover

The back cover is somewhat different to the other panels as there is actual colour in the image yet the background still allows it to complete the digipack. The image is a close up which is generally the type of shot seen on the front of an album.
The cover also has the typical conventions bar code, producers,track listing, website etc.However, the layout is more like that of a front cover as well with the text being small for the track listings.




 Advertisement
This advert links to the digipack as the colour scheme used (grey scale) is the same as well as the font size. The images are also repeated. The information is relevant and to the point.

Ke$ha-Animal

 Front Cover

This cover has the typical conventions of a pop artist as the central focus is the artist and it is a close up of her face. The saturation of the image itself contrasts well with her lips and the text. The artist is shown with the perfect face and slightly tousled hair much like Lady GaGa's. The placement of the text fits the image well and the colours give the cover a nice contrast. The glittery text is also very eye-catching.

                                                         Inside Panels

These panels just emanate the idea of a fun time as the the background is dark and the text is very bright almost mimicking a party scene. The text interlinks to the text on the first cover and the decoration although simple is just enough.
                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                  Back Cover 

The layout of this cover is different to that of others in the respect that the bar code would normally be at the bottom with the producers and excess information. The text and colour scheme are carried throughout the other panels and therefore link well. However, we are now met with an image of animated animals that are glittery but this relates to the title of the album.

         

                                                                                                              Advertisement

  This advert as a typical link between the entire promotional package features an image of ke$ha with similar hair and make up with the same font. There is more saturation with this image to match the text which again promotes the idea of fun and carelessness.
Once again the writing is coherent and relevant.


  

Alicia Keys- Greatest Hits 

Front Cover

 This image was clearly well thought of and planned as there is subsequent space for the text to make it look as though she is looking down on her name. The trendy outfit and make up make it of the r n b genre. the colour scheme is very neutral with just a splash of colour added by the lips.

Inside Panels

These images are much more sexualised but also well planned especially the thank you's as she is set aside with the mentions on the other side.The neutral colour scheme is carried through by her clothes  back drop and font colour.

 Back Cover

This is another well planned panel with thought to where the track listing would go and the additional producer and website information. The colour scheme is neutral again making some of the text a little hard to read but the track listing layout is similar to that of Ke$ha's.

Advertisement

This advertisment only promotes one song featured on this album and despite having a different colour scheme is linked to the album via the font style and the shot type.