Digipak Feedback

We were told to give feedback on our peers' digipaks. 

COSMO:
This digipak relates to the artists's genre and style. I like the front cover with the hand. However, the purple is a little overwhelming and the 'Happy' page isn't synchronous with the rest of the package. I prefer George's rendition of the digipak as it is toned down more and the front cover is amazing.

Alex Echo:
I really like the simple black background and the white text looks really effective against it. The photos are appropriate and the whole digipak fits the genre.

Hybrid Beauty:
I really like the back cover and the 'special thanks' page looks cool. I like the CD and the photo pages fit the artists' genre. Maybe choose a stronger front cover?

Encoded:
I really like the monochromatic look however the physical CD needs some work but the style fits the genre of the duo.

Grace Starr:
I really like this digipak and it is one of my favourites. The fonts all fit the style of the artist. I feel that this digipak will be amazing when finished.

James Couleur:
I like the idea of the back cover however it is poorly executed. The panels aren't synchronous with each other i.e black and white versus colourful.

Jaya:

I really like this digipak. The front cover is brilliant and the collage of photographs is really cool! The back cover is good in thought however it could be edited  darker to fit the rest of the digipak.

Nicholas Alexander:
I really like this digipak and the blue theme suits the genre well. I'd get rid of the white shape behind the text on the back cover if I were you and replace the text with a darker colour to contrast the photograph.

We received mostly positive feedback on our digipak. We were told that it is one of the best digipaks in our year and we were commended for our use of text. All feedback is listed below:

The bottom left square is the best picture out of any on the digipaks. I think the entire thing is very professional and the theme is clear and obvious.

Alleyways digipak is my favourite by far. It looks so professional from the lyrics page to the professional layout of the front covered image. There isn’t much to improve and i am struggling for things to suggest.

I really like Alleyways digipak, introduces the band and the genre at the same time, could include more writing on the CD.

WWW: Like the picture of the Group together a lot it is high quality.
EBI: Not a fan of the bin on fire or CD. The bin picture quality isn't the best, if retaken it might look better. The CD is extremely basic so unless you’re going for minimalism I suggest soothing more interesting. I also hope that the microphone image isn't the front cover because it’s more suited to the inside of the CD holder. I personally do not like the silhouette shots maybe keep one and have another band photo in an interesting location.

Alleyways is also one of the top digipaks and needs no words.

The alleyways digipak have quite a few images on theirs that make it look over loaded. a lot of the pictures look professional. You can see that the text works well with the black coloured background. The overall layout is really good some of it is really over loaded but still looks amazing.

Good, strong imagery here; the font matches, everything looks great - apart from the images don't totally flow. Maybe rearrange a few, swap them out to get a better balance! I'd make the font bigger on the front cover as well, apart from that, it's brilliant!

Great pictures and really like the text. All looks very slick and professional and links to the genre. Nothing bad to say really!

I think this is possibly the best as it has colour and sticks with the bands themes and has synergy with the other products. It has a lot of good pictures which have been nicely edited to fit the style of the band and the genre.

I really can’t think of anything to improve on for this I really like the outcome of the digipak.

A more interesting front cover just a picture of a microphone would not make me want to pick up the album if I saw it in a shop.

I like the theme and text. It is hard to tell which is the front and back covers.

Theme is good Text is easy to read Hard to distinguish between front and back covers etc.

Great photographs, professional editing and layout.

I love it all and I would improve nothing. Perfect.

Everything about this digipak is amazing - the colours, the text, the images, the genre AND the overall layout. Improvements: there aren't any - where can I buy it?

In response to our feedback I have altered our CD Design and included the track list and a better representation of the band name and EP title.

The slight change in the above digipak therefore renders the rendition as the final CD package.

Final Digipak Design

(Top left - front cover, top-middle - back of booklet, top-right - left page of booklet, bottom-left - CD, bottom-middle - back cover & bottom-right - right page of booklet.)

I added the final two panels - a lyric sheet and a full-band photo accompanied with all of our names. I am very happy with the final product and believe that it fully presents our band image and genre.

I created the final digipak using Paint and Photoshop. I also used the apps PicsArt and VSCOCam on my smart phone to frame the panels correctly and edit some of the final six chosen photographs with filters.

We all like the minimalistic approach with our front cover and CD design. We like how the members of the band can only be seen through silhouette until the digipak is purchased and the full-band photo page can be viewed. Our EP will only be available to buy through our website and our merch stand on tour.

Digipak - So Far...

After researching artists' digipaks and creating a first draft, I put together a second draft consisting of four panels. We all agreed that the front cover shouldn't feature us and instead we would be found on the back, under the CD and partially on the back of the booklet. We all like the idea of simplicity being key in our band image. We all also agree that we will continue with this newfound 'dark' image that juxtaposes the fun, upbeat sound of our band. 

Me and Ellie were inspired by digipaks from labelmates The 1975 and Universal's Lorde. Next I will have to add the last two panels to the digipak which will be a lyrics sheet and a full-band photo.

Further Cross-Media Consistency - CHVRCHES

Ellie conducted some more cross-media consistency research that relates more to Alleyways' genre and image. She explored the links between the artists' media constructions such as album covers, EP covers, single covers and gig posters. Their approach to marketing is something that we would like to emulate - simplicity and mystery within their products.

New Digipak Design

Above is the first draft of our Final Digipak design. We all liked the idea of having a simple front design. We also liked the idea of linking all of our merchandise together after doing research into cross-media consistency. We have therefore linked the front and back cover of our digipak, the CD design and our some of our future merchandise range. The digipak will also, of course, relate to our 'Fast In My Car' music video.

Our final draft will be a lot more pristine and professional than this.

Digipak Changes

After discussing how to adapt our digipak to fit our band's genre and style more, we decided as a group to use a couple of photo's taken during a brief photo-shoot we took part in after completing our drama studio performance scene.

This is that idea:

The digipak features a plain front cover, a plain back copyright sheet, a CD and a back cover.

 The front cover of the digipak depicts a microphone silhouetted against a white sheet backdrop that's decorated in bright fairy lights. The band's logo will be present in plain white writing towards the bottom-right.

 Above is the plain black back of the booklet that stands within the left hand side of the CD case. It reads "DIRTY HIT RECORDS. © 2014 Dirty Hit Records. THE COPYRIGHT IN THIS SOUND RECORDING IS OWNED BY DIRTY HIT RECORDS. FULLY LICENSED EXCLUSIVELY IN THE UK."

The CD template is inspired by Ellie's original idea however instead of two plain lines on the right of the CD, there will be two lines of fairy lights on a plain black CD with a white rim around the edge. It will read 'Alleyways' accompanied by the copyright details.

I am comfortable with this idea and believe that it fits our bands' musical genre perfectly. Therefore I will be scrapping my independent digipak idea to focus on this one instead.

Digipak Idea

Ellie researched digipaks and saw links and themes between the front cover and the track list on the back. After discovering this, she decided to take the two pictures shown above. She liked the idea of a 'simple' photo, with an object against a plain background. The photo displaying the front of the cases would be the front cover of the 'Alleyways' digipak. The second picture, of the back of the suitcases, would show the track list. The idea is the two perspectives of the suitcases and that the inside of the digipak is the contents of the cases - the CD, lyrics and pictures will represent our 'journey' and that music is all we need to carry with us.

Ellie edited the pictures to suit the rustic feel of the suitcases and to contrast it with the modern, bold font of our logo to show how unique our music is - electronic/rock is not a very common genre and we are a very unique band! In the bottom corner of the back cover, to show authenticity and copyright, has our record company and tells the reader that everything belongs to Dirty Hit Records.

Above is a CD idea that Ellie created to match the sleeve of the digipak. The colour is a pale cream to match the background behind the suitcases and is a very simple design with two plain black lines and our font, plus our record company. Ellie used multiple CDs for inspiration and as research to try and make it as authentic as possible.

If we included a lyrics booklet, the colour scheme would match the cd and the sleeve. Again, it would be simple with the two lines at the side and to add extra dimension I added a fun pattern on the right which works well with the simplicity.

The lyrics are too long to fit on the page - however above is the design of one of the lyrics pages. It has the exact same pattern as the front of the lyrics booklet - all of the pages will be identical.

As much as I love Ellie's digipak idea, I feel that her cover doesn't fit the band's aesthetic as much as I would like it. Instead, I will compose my own digipak that resembles Charli XCX's 'True Romance' digipak. It will include a big photo of Ellie looking glammed up in the centre whilst the rest of the band are further behind her. This will take our band image far away from Paramore where they feel that they are all equal.

The above photo is a rough design idea of the final album cover I hope to make. I used various photos of us from different pictures during our photo-shoots. Of course, the final album cover will have one photo of the four of us assembled together.



Album Cover Design Ideas

Zahra gathered all the photos we've taken of 'Alleyways' so far to put together potential album covers.

She edited some of the pictures to see if they would look good with any of the album covers she put together. Obviously, the ones not used on the front cover would go onto the wix website, twitter and facebook pages to promote our band image.



CD Cover/Digipak Research

 

From the above similar artists' album covers, we can tell that the main focus is the lead female vocalist or a female cartoon character. From these examples, it has become apparent that we could feature Ellie centre front on our Alleyways' EP cover. However, to 'stand out from the crowd', we could feature the entire band to gain extra publicity and/or attention.

The second Tonight Alive album, 'The Other Side' has a running theme of lime green and light leaks which is shown on both the front and the back of the CD. Lights' 'the Listening' is purple and cartoonish with a 'horror' theme on both the front and the back. Charli XCX's 'TRUE ROMANCE' has a running theme of spaced-out capital letters and there is a stark contrast between the white and purple but there is a trail of galaxy within her portrait on the front.

We are going to try and emulate these ideas linking the back and front covers of the digipak.



Website and Digipak Analyses

I analysed PVRIS, Charli XCX and The 1975's official websites in order to discover the conventions of the alternative genre's approach to sites and the roles that different elements of their webpages play.

I also analysed Lights, Charli XCX and PVRIS' digipaks to help us construct our own as legitimately as possible.

All of the above artists are our main influences for this final task.