Digipak and Advert - Finished Version

This is my final version of my digipak and advert. I did all the improvements I had to do and in my opinion, looks a lot better than the draft. Especially a huge improvement on the disk. I added the recording companies of where the song will be distributed I.e. Sony BMG. I also added an infringement copy right information around the disk to make it look very professional, finally I also added a spine to the digipak. With the advert I made the texts bigger and bolder to grasp the attentions eye by making it into capital letters with bright writing and a black background so they are able to see it. I added where the song can be brought and websites where you can follow the singer and keep updated with his latest music/information.

Although the only flaw here is that the images are not in high resolution which makes the images look like pixels and blurry. But overall I am happy with the final outcome of the digipak and advert.

Digipak and Advert Draft 2

These are my drafts for my Digipak and Front Cover. The improvements I am going to make are by adding more text to the Disk of the digipak to make it look like a real CD. Also I need to change the filter of the picture of me looking away into a beige tone to match with the colour theme of the digipak I also need to add the name of the album on the front of the digipak as well as add more information on the back of the digipak.

The only improvements I will make on the advert is to rearrange it to make it look professional and laid out well and also make the texts bigger and add the name of the album to make it informative and eye-catching.

Advert Creation Draft

When creating the advert for the digipak, I firstly looked for images on the internet of where my product will be sold. for example iTunes was one of them. I took an image of off google, then copied it onto Photoshop.

 I deleted the white backgrounds and areas so that it would be nothing but the writing and the icon. Using the Magic Wand tool, I highlighted all of them and used the paint bucket to colour them in the same colour scheme as the Digipak, being Beige.

It didn't take long and as soon as I saved it, I opened it on Adobe Illustrator and fit it across a black in front of a black background so the viewers can see it easily.

This is how the Advert will look like so far. I am deciding to add the same filter again, and re-arrange and try different compositions.

Digipak Creation - Front and Side Draft

Inside the digipak, I decided that I should have a picture of the location of the music video. This is to further emphasise the the emotion of one being lonely and relate to the song and the singer. I have added a filter on each of the pictures and deciding which would suit the digipak best.  As for the front cover of the digipak, I have chosen this specific image because looking at different artists from the same genre, their digipak's front cover picture would always have them looking away or looking at the distance. This is to create the feeling of their seriousness with their music and not entirely looking to sell their star image. Unlike pop music, they are usually giving a direct mode of address. 

Digipak Creation - Disk Draft

The creation of the disk of the digipak was fairly simple. I first used photoshop, to filter the original picture again and turned it into a vintage style. I created a new layer and created a circle that is similar to a disk. I placed it on top of the picture and on an area of where I want the picture to appear on the CD. I then created a background copy of the same picture and right clicked on that layer and selected Rasterized Layer.






With this option I am able to delete the areas I don't on the picture and keep the one that has the circle on top. I proceeded on using the magic wand to delete the area and left with a part of the picture in a circular shape. This is what it looks like when I moved the circle from the picture.







I got my wanted results and so I saved the picture on photoshop on a PDS file so the resolution of the picture is clear. I then opened it in Adobe Illustrator and added another circle which is the background and also used the eraser tool to make a circle in the middle to make it look like a real CD. Finally I added the same picture on the back so when the CD is taken out, the same picture is on the back as well.

I made another version of my Disk Design because I thought the picture for the first design could be used for the front of the CD. When I created the draft for the second version, I thought it looked a lot better and looks like a real CD.

Digipak Creation - Back Draft

This is the original picture without any filters. I chose this picture mainly because I wanted the star image looking into the horizon to give that feeling of him having deep thoughts and wonder. Which makes him look like a serious artists and further relate to the genre. Additionally,the space on the right is where I could place the texts and other components such as barcodes and logos.

I didn't want to go the typical filter: Sepia. Instead, I used the Colour Balance to change the mood of the picture - I altered the picture by adjusting the Luminance, Colour Intensity and Fade on both Midtones and Highlights and in result created a rather vintage look. I thought the filter suits the environment as well as the style of the genre. It also compliments the background and my costume.

I further altered the filter by adding in more modifications. I changed the Shadows of the current filter and adjusted the colours to make it slightly moody then before. Making the vintage look stronger than before which makes it such an improvement. I also ticked the "Preserve Luminosity" to make the picture highlighted.

This is the final outcome of the first draft - the only improvements that I need to make is to rearrange fonts and add in the barcodes and other texts.

Digipak and Advert Mock Up

These images above shows a mock-up of a digipak that I and Mumina created after we examined how they are structured. We have laid it out this way and imitated the typical convention of a poprock/soul adverts and digipak. The picture on the top left is of the front cover, showing the star image as well as the artist and album name. The top right is the back of the digipak, showing the list of songs, barcodes etc. The bottom left is the picture you see when you open the digipak. I chose a picture of a guitar instead of a star image because I believe that there are too many pictures of the star image and instead I wanted to show something that represents the genre as well as the main prop used throughout the music video. Lastly the bottom right is the picture of the CD, for this I thought the idea of having a picture of myself behind the CD and the CD itself would just have my name and/or album name. So when the CD is taken out, it would have a picture of myself.

The advert is also simple as well. With the help of analyzing adverts - I copied the idea of having logos at the bottom of where it could be sold in. The album name and artist name would be in big and bold to highlight it's importance. On the left side of the advert I will have the information and have the "Click Here" to imply that it can be an online advert as well for online purchase. I will be positioned on the central to suggest that I am the star image.

by Julius Conmigo

Digipak Research and Ancillary Text Fonts

Before making a mock-up for My and Mumina's digipak cover, I went on the internet and researched four different front covers. All from Soul and Pop Rock Genre. I noticed that most soul and pop rock album covers, have the artists in a close up shot. This is a strategy that they use in order to sell the star and their music as well. I also noticed that they have somewhat have a filter in their pictures, in these images, three of the album covers have a black and white filter - this is to emphasize the feeling of nostalgia and passion within their songs and in relation with newspaper it tells us the 'Truth' implying they are meaningful and truthful about their music. However, Kris Allen's cover is colored, but his genre is within the direction of pop-rock just like Parachute and Pink. I also realized that all of these images, the artists are not making a direct mode of address - this body expression tells us that they are deep in thought or wonder. They also look very serious in these pictures. Whereas Pop artists such as Rihanna or Jessie J, they all have a direct contact with the audience, as they are selling their music and focused on the star image. They also have sometimes provoking albums and look modern than soul/pop-rock genres.

With these four images of pop rock and soul genres, it also gave me a broader idea of what the Ancillary Text Font design will look like for the digipak/advert. I wanted to see the typical fonts that soul/pop-rock genres used in their album covers, and then I would apply these certain conventions. I noticed straight away that the majority of the fonts are in bold, capitalized letters and the fonts does not really differentiate from the other album covers, like having a special type of font. They are all rather simplistic, in my own opinion, makes them look mature and serious as an artist. You can see this in other genres such as Country and Folk, and makes the font look very important and because it is in capitalized letters it shows how important and the album is focused on the star image. Moreover it just proves that the genre is meaningful and serious about their songs, whereas genres such as Pop are more about beats and less meaningless in their songs as they are more focused on the branding of the artist.

 

Mumina and I went on 1001fonts and selected five different fonts that I can use for my artist logo. I selected these specific ones as they relate to the style of artist as shown above. Since the genre was slightly pop-rock, I chose the font "Rock it", however it seemed to gritty and edgy for the genre and reminds me the font of Kerrang. Although this was just a suggestion, as were focused more on Soul genre. The two fonts that I like, are "Minerva 16 Regular" and "Kalenderblatt Grotesk" as I believe they would suit the style of the genre. However I and Mumina are going to decide out of the two of which one will look better and appropriate. Although I picked the fonts Quattrocento Regular and Almonte-Regular TTF, I thought they fit the style of the genre but comparing it to the other fonts, these two fonts seemed too plain. As you can see everything is, either bold, capitalized or both as I wanted to use the idea of having importance into my name, after all it is focused on to me as a star image.

UPDATE -   I thought the idea of changing the stars name to Vincent De La Reyes instead of Julius Conmigo. As I thought that name would sound more sophisticated and my name didn't sound like a singer

by Julius Conmigo

Contact sheet (Photos)

These are my pictures in a contact sheet that Mumina took for the Digipak and Magazine Advert. We took the pictures at Mudchute Park because we wanted to take the pictures of where the performance is based but this also combines both the main product and ancillary text is it will make a strong link between the two. Mumina took the pictures of me in different poses in different positions around Mudchute Park. There are overall twenty-seven photos, I did not chose to upload the other photos as they didn't look good. Out of these twenty-seven photos, I only took five photos, four for the digipak and one for the magazine advert.

Advert Analysis 2 - Rihanna

The second advert that I will be analysing, is from Rihanna's album: LOUD. Although she is an artist from the pop genre, I was instantly drawn to this audience, as the various conventions such as compositions, lighting, clothing, location and even posing, can represent and reflect upon my genre and ideas. I want to extract the idea of this advert as being related to country, pop-rock or soul genre.

 The colour scheme and the main image is very similar to her album cover, which also features on the advert. The colours and images all link together which makes it easier for the target market to spot or notice Rihannas Loud album. The use of red on the advert and digipak connotes a sexual vibe although yet, dominant, brave, confident, it could also represent her lust in her music. The font and lettering is the same as on the album cover but a bit bolder because the target market needs to be able to notice the release date straight away. The angle of the shot used for the main image is a low angle which shows Rihanna is dominant which links in with the use of red. From the image it looks like she’s crossing her arms and looking into the distance, this contrast with the use of red and the low angle shot as she looks vulnerable and shy. She’s wearing a strapless dress which is also red to tie in the whole image together; it’s a bit low cut to show some of her cleavage to make her look sexier. She’s wearing a diamond bracelet around her arm and a diamond necklace to make her look less naked and makes the image more feminine. You can’t really see her face properly because her hair covers most of her face but it looks like she’s got her teethes against each other look quite sexy and the fact her hair is covering most of her face shows that she’s shy which is a contrast what she really is.

The background of the main image looks like it’s been shot on a wheat farm which gives it that edge instead of just taking pictures on grass and the colour of the wheat goes well with the colour scheme. It’s got a warm, earthy tone to it. The image has been taken in the middle of nowhere like she’s lost and lonely which connects to her body language. One of her singles called Only Girl in the World which also connects to the image as she does look like the only girl in the world who has been isolated. From this image and the video for her actual song there is a massive contrast as she is shown way more confident and powerful in the video rather than here as well. On the advert an image of her album cover is also included so everyone can see how the cover looks so they won’t need to look around for it in the shop; they’ll already know how it looks. The main image has been shot on the rule of three rather than the middle as it’s so typical and boring to just shoot someone in the middle and there’s space for the image of the album on the right. From Rihanna dying hr hair red there was loads of females and males that started dying their hair red as well, this shows how influence Rihanna is as an artist and how her fans look up to her.

by Julius Conmigo