Attached below is draft 3 of my Digipak, where we’ve printed it off and put it into its case. To see whether out product is an accurate representative of out chosen genre, we handed out a survey to our friends, presenting them with a list of various different genre’s, asking them to categorise our product based off their opinion.

 

 

From the results we received from our peers, our Digipak evidently portrays the genre pop/RnB well through the design, our branding has conveyed our mission statement correctly, providing the audience with a preferred reading.

Attached below is my digipak draft 2, where my teacher gave me some constructive criticism towards it, highlighting what went well and where I can make more improvements.

 

Teacher feedback

WHAT WENT WELL

• The old fashioned font works well with the artists genre
• The chosen colour scheme correlates well with the imagery

IMPROVEMENTS TO BE MADE

• Use the ampersand instead of ‘and’
• The artists name at the bottom of the page at the bottom needs to be bigger
• All imagery overall needs to be bigger
• Essentials like the bar code and copyright needs to be included
• The album song names need to be re arranged- move off artists face
• The two middle panes need to line up correctly
• The world needs to have more of a clearer meaning within the digipak
• Include more orange in the front pane so it matches the middle panes
• Make the planets more visible

Focusing forward, there is clearly a lot of work to be made to the digipak. When it comes to my draft 3, my partner and I will take into consideration the improvements that need to be made, in order to convey our star image strongly, with a unique brand face.

Attached below is my partner and I’s front and back cover drafting one of our digipak. The draft produced is clearly not completed to its final potential at all, our first draft was focused more on getting a feel of the digipak, what colour schemes we’re going to use, how our digipak is going to be laid out and what images of our star image are going where.

 

When producing our first draft, a specific assessment criteria was given in order to ensure our work is produced to the best of our ability.

Success criteria:

• The use of camera and Photoshop to take and manipulate engaging images
• The selection of mise-en-scene in the photos and the meaning it communicates
• The creative use of DTP to integrate images and text and use colour/typefaces

Following the criteria given above, heavy photoshop and the use of colour gradient has been used on our front cover to manipulate the original photo, creating an engaging image for our target audience. The use of mise-en-scene has been applied more in our back cover, with our star image in silk matching baby pink pyjamas. Moreover, we dressed our star image in a red crop top, creating contrast between the two colours (red and pink) and as Barthes would argue, using red and pink to follow the myth that the two colours ‘clash’, following the ideology of our target audience.

Focusing forward, many improvements need to be made to our digipak, such as:

• Change positioning and size of title
• Ensure the last success criteria is included when it comes to our final draft
• Include more details (artist name, barcodes etc.)
• Developing the star image, adding more effects
• Try out with different fonts of typeface
• Include copyright information

 

 

Digipak contact sheets:

Attached above are all contact sheets from our digipak shoot. Before the shoot, we created a PMA to ensure the shoot runs smoothly and nothing is forgotten, as well as looking at previous digipak’s from the same genre, seeing what basic conventions need to be replicated such as camera angles, lighting and mise-en-scene. The conventions that were generally conveyed were bright colours, low key lighting and the artist’s name displayed somewhere on the front cover.

During our shoot, we used various different materials as a background, giving the images more life and engagement for the audience. We also made sure we took a variety of shots from different angles and distances, ensuring we had images to experiment with when it came to our first draft.

Overall, our shoot went well, we managed to various different shots as we intended, as well as play around with different materials, costumes, the white and black studio rooms and different accessories. Focusing forward, me and my partner will look through our photos, picking out our best photos that we are going to include in our digipak, ensuring an abundant amount of photos are included in our digipak.

To make sure my partner and I are organised for our digipak shoot, we created a PMA (production meeting agenda) listing the requirements needed for a successful shoot. This will help result in our shoot running as smoothly as possible, ensuring nothing is left out.

 

By allocating specific tasks to my partner and I, it’ll ensure that we’re both putting the equal amount of work into our shoot, making the work load even. As our shoot is taking place in the school building, a risk assessment was not needed for this shoot.

Focusing forward, when it comes to our shoot day, we will use our PMA as a guide, ensuring no equipment/props is forgotten about, maximising the use of our shoot.

 

When creating a digipak, I need to ensure that my target audience are provided with their preferred readings, interpreting my chosen genre’s basic conventions as well as developing on them, thinking thoroughly about what repertoire of elements I am going to change in order to weave my personal ideas into my work successfully, giving my digipak a USP, making it stand out from others.

 

As shown above, my partner and I have illustrated a mock up of our intended digipak to give us an idea if it is conventionally possible to create. In order to see if our ideas would compliment our chosen genre, we have added denotations and connotations to the mock up, showing the significance of the included props, as well as what colour themes we’re going to follow.

 

Focusing forward, when it comes to our first digipak draft, we will review our original ideas, making alterations where needed to match our target audiences preferred reading as much as possible, as well as conveying the appropriate repertoire of elements.

To ensure there is a coherent look throughout my digipak and social media page, me and my partner have analysed various posters and album covers that are part of our artists genre, providing our target audience with their preferred reading, ensuring they get what they are expecting, matching their preferred demo and psychographics.

Developing on this, by doing this task I have gathered a good idea of the blueprint/basic genre conventions that apply to my genre:

• Bright colours/pastel colours
• The star image on the front cover is never just a ‘basic’ photo, there’s either an object/ big accessories and/or layering of multiple photos into one.
• With this particular genre, it is more about the star image rather than the title

Focusing forward, I will be referring to this post when it comes to creating my overall ‘package’ for inspiration, conveying the correct conventions for my genre with a personal twist to it, satisfying my target audience and providing them with their preferred reading.

Attached below is a slideshow of my analysis of a CD cover and back cover (Tyler the Creator) to give me a rough idea as to what needs to be included to satisfy my target audience, as well as include all of the legal information. I added denotations and connotations to the images, analysing if the repertoire of elements have been used and if not, what other alternatives have been used.

By analysing this cover, it has given me an idea of all the conventions that have to be taken into consideration in order to portray the genre and artist to a well enough level that’ll satisfy the music industry and audience. When it comes to making my own, I will be referring to this blog post, comparing and contrasting what technical conventions are used in this genre and what needs to be included in mine.