Category: Digipak

Here is our Draft 3 of our digipak:

I am happy with the progress we have made as a group with our digipak so far, although there are a few changes I would like to make before submition. We also collated some feedback from peers, by showing them a variety of genres, and then asking which one they think ours is. This was to see if our work is conventional, or if it would be rejected by an audience.

Here are the results of our tally:

Overall, I have learnt how important the representation of a genre is, and what the effects of poor representation can have on the way a product is recieved by the audience. We wanted our genre to be clear to our audience, so we researched the typical conventions of Pop/Pop Rock, and also the demographics/psychographics of the audience. This meant that we could optimize our chance of the digipak being accepted, rather than rejected for being too uconventional. Although, we did challenge certain conventions such as subverting from the general innocence and hyper-feminine mise-en-scene often scene in music videos, photoshoots etc. Whilst we embraced our stars femininity, we strayed from using pink costumes or overly revealing outfits to focus on a darker and more intense mood.

Front Pane:

Inside panes:

Back pane:

Screencastify with feedback:

Summary of feedback:

• Nice graphics
• Check combination of fonts on front pane
• Try a canted angle of front pane image
• Play around with photo manipulation in PhotoShop
• Add drop shadow on circle
• Add graphics into the inside on CD/back
• Add ‘Violet’ to spines
• Try alternating colours of the tracklist
• Make image bigger on the front
• Add coloured highlights to hair

Below is the first draft of our digipak, we have so far completed a front and back pane. Whilst designing these, we considered what we wanted our brand to be, and how we would construct our star image. We researched the typical conventions of Pop/Pop Rock, and looked at what colour palettes, fonts/typefaces, graphics, photo manipulation, illustrations etc are commonly used in the genre. I am pleased with this first draft, and we have collated feedback which we can use to better our product and we continue designing.

This is some self assessment based on crtieria from the slideshow above:

Targets for improvement:

• We could try including alternating clours on the tracklist e.g. pink and white
• Or a compeletely different colour for the tracklist
• Add more drop shadow on the title ‘Violet’
• Add a record label logo
• Try more photo manipulation methods

Overall, I think that we had a successful photoshoot. We were organised beforehand due to completing a production meeting agenda/risk assessment, and we had carried out lots of research to look for inspiration. We did this research on software like Padlet, Pinterest, professional digipaks, artist websites e.g. Dua Lipa/Jessie J, and more. I believe that this really helped us to come up with our own ideas that we could use during the shoot. We produced around 300 images, giving us a great range of choice for our final images.  We produced equal efforts to make this shoot as successful as possible, by all conducting individual research that we would report back to the group, and we each brought costumes, makeup, props etc that we used during the shoot.

What went well:

• We were organised before and throughout the shoot
• We communicated well, whether it was in person or over social media when planning
• Good efforts towards mise-en-scene
• A wide variety of shots were taken
• We listened to eachothers ideas and comprimised when we all had different ideas
• We set up early to avoid wasting studio time

What I would do next time:

• Include another outfit for variety/choice
• Include a wider variety of poses/facial expressions
• More extreme close-ups
• Play with lighting
• Book the studio for longer to avoid rushing

My group and I have been researching how we can create a graphic to include in our digipak. Following the themes and connotations of our genre, we have decided to design a wings and halo graphic on Photoshop. We will play around with different colours, styles etc, but we will most likely make it a shade of pink to match the rest of our digipak’s colour scheme. Below is a tutorial we watched, this shows the rough style of what we want to create:

Below are all of the images we took on our digipak photoshoot. At the very bottom I have included the iages we selected as our favourites which we will consider using in the actual digipak.

Our favourite images:

Below are my group’s Production Meeting Agenda and Risk Assessment for our next photoshoot. This will be to collect images for our digipak project. It is important to complete these documents before photoshoots as we were able to organise ourselves and we have planned exactly what we will be doing during the shoot, meaning we won’t waste anytime when on the real shoot. Risk assessments are vital when considering any potential dangers and reducing the chance of any injuries occuring.

Please click on image to access PDF:

Our risk assessment (Please click on image to access PDF):

This is my drawn idea for what our digipak could look like:

Our chosen colour scheme:

We have now got a good plan of what direction we will go in during the production process of our digipak. We have looked at professional examples, colour schemes, graphic ideas, typical conventions, how we can make ours unique by deviating from conventions etc. We want to produce an eye-catching digipak that is of a high quality and has interestng graphics, colours, fonts, tracklist to name a few. It is essential that our star is represnted as extraordinary, and we will aim to achieve this through the use of mise-en-scene and editing techniques. We will us software such as InDesign and Photoshop to do this.

I decided to look at a Miley Cyrus digipak cover as this is a professional example that I can study. I considered what typical conventions were used based on the genre as this is the same as my own groups (Pop Rock). I talked about conventions used such as bold fonts, colour schemes, posing, costume, layout etc. This was beneficial for me as I now have a greater understaning of what a conventional Pop Rock digipak looks like. This allows me to refer back to my annotations when designing my own digipak, meaning that I will be able to create my own version, whilst using similar aspects so that it is conventional, but I will include creative twists to make it different from the rest. It is important that a digipak is still conventional in some aspects though so that the buyer will be able to identify what genre it is, and therefore they can make an informed decision on whether or not they would like to buy it. If it is too unconventional, it may become misleading.

This is my groups Digipak Look Book, it shows a variety of inspirations for our final Digipak. It shows the colour schemes, poses, designs, editing techniques, hairstyles, makeup, fonts, outfits etc that interest us. This will be a good starting pount for our project, as we have gained insight into what styles are relevant to our music genre.