ANCILLARY RESEARCH: Digipak and Magazine tips

Digipaks and magazine covers all have conventions in which they all follow to make it look professional and appealing to consumers. We were briefed in class what to do and what not to do when designing and creating our digipak and magazine covers. Below are tips of what we should do and should not do when creating our ancillary products. These are the same rules professional ancillary products stick to so they can follow the conventions of a great finished piece which fans and potential customers would enjoy.

DO:

• Use a clear font
• Use appropriate sizes for images and font
• Use clear photos that are focused
• Use photos that are an appropriate shape for the page
• Use an appropriate layout
• Use relevant conventions associated with your genre
• Use appropriate industry logos and conventions, properly positioned

DON'T:

• Stretch images
• Use multiple and unrelated layer styles
• Use unnecessary effects unrelated to the genre
• Place text across the artists face
• Change text colour to the same or similar colour as the background
• Use unnecessary fonts
• Have an unorganised and hard to read layout
• Use hard to read fonts
• Use more than 3 or 4 different colours

What should a digipak look like?

Below is an image showing what the front and back cover of a digipak should look like. Firstly, focusing on the front, you can see that this digipak follows the conventions every digipak has; the front cover has the artist's name and the CD's album name clearly in the top right hand corner against a background which makes the text stand out and easy to read. The front image is clear and not to hectic with multiple effects and filters. Promotional stickers are placed on the front to attract attention to potential customers and hopefully gain a sale. Although this front cover does not have an image of the artist, it does have an image and colour scheme which relates to the genre of the music. The back cover follows the same conventions as the front with the same image dragged across both panels. The colours are still the same (black and yellow) with the same font and font colour kept. The back cover has the album track list like any other digipak along with other various production logos and information (in small writing).

Here are further examples of digipak covers. You can see that each cover follows the conventions of having the artist's name and album cover clearly visible, along with an image of the artist or relevant images to the genre of the music.

What should the inside of a digipak look like?
The inside of every digipak looks the same or similar and has the same references as the front cover. The majority keep the same font, same colour scheme and even sometimes the same images. A digipak on the inside usually contains more information and bonuses than what you'll expect from a CD. This can vary from bonus never before seen images of the artist (e.g. when they were younger) and/or exclusive information. Visually, the inside of a digipak such as the layout, font and image types are continued from the front cover. Graphical designs may be added to enhance the look of the inside and make it more personal to the owner. The are also some acknowledgements and maybe even some information about each individual track on the album. The track list can be repeated so the owner doesn't have to flip back and forth to see the track list at the back of the digipak. There are sometimes also some details and references to the production of that particular album and maybe even a booklet showing this in more detail.