Reflecting back on the AS Year

Here is my completed preliminary digipak design that i produced last year.  I thoroughly enjoyed this task and i learnt valuable skills from it. The image on the front of the digipak is of the three artists placed right in the middle which is significant in the sales of the CD as it needs to constantly promote the artists. The three artists are dressed in the same clothes as from the video which is quite important in linking the video to the song and single. I attempted to make the album cover quite colourful to connote the type of music the artists make. The disco lights image was taken from google and i was able to set it as the background by right clicking the image then setting is as background. Or I would stretch the corner of the image by clicking on it and dragging it far enough to fill the background.

I felt it was important to put on the front of the Digipak the name of the single with the music video to attract the audience. I got this idea from the original cover of the artists who recorded the song, as instantly showing that the album or even single includes the song with the video links it straight to video and encourages the audience to buy it. The artists in the original cover are looking straight at the camera and I chose to do this too to involve the audience as creating the effect that we are looking straight at them will help entice more sales.

Here are two examples of the Digipaks I have at home. In the Missy Elliott one her name appears again on the back which i feel is quite important and I am incorporate this into my final work. Similarly to the style i used in my preliminary Digipak, the Michael Jackson cover uses a silhouette of the artist which is filled with brights lights and colour. This connotes the legendary status and shows it is a tribute album to him, released after his death.

   

Here are the original pictures used for our Digipak cover and back. We shot the picture infront of the plain white wall as it is easier to cut out. I was able to cut out the image by using the Magic Wand tool. Firstly I added the image and then used the Magic Wand tool to select all the areas around the artists whilst holding the shift key to select everything at the same time. Then i was able to delete all the background and drag the image to a suitable place on the Digipak with the disco light background I had previously added.

Here is the second image I used for the back of the digipak. However i was able to reverse the image to black out the artists, leaving just their silhouettes.  First i used the Magic Wand tool again to cut out the image as before and then remove the background. Next i was able to fill the image with a single color black to create the look of a silhouette. Finally i added a barcode at the bottom left of the digipak taken from the internet.

Strength of Digipak

·      The use of Artists pictures on the front cover

·      The artists in the same clothes from the video to link

·      A background to signify the genre of music the artists make

·      Image of lead singer at the back of the Digipak

·      COnsistant colour scheme

·      Barcode at the back and artist name.

Weaknesses of Digipak

·      Silhouette image isn’t as effective

·      Artists picture doesn’t relate to the background

·      The artists name is difficult to see on colourful background

·      No record label name or stamp

·      Nothing on the middle of the Digipak (could include name)

·      Barcode is covering artists picture

 ·      Colourful background makes it difficult to find a colour for text that is visual