Digipak Final Draft

This is the final draft of our digipak.

Reflection

What we changed:

On the front pannel we have slightly changed the band name to mirror something more akin to the design of Metallica with the larger leading and ending letters.  On the inside panes we changed the images to be more scattered and strewn to create a sense of carelessness and create a chaotic atmosphere on the left. On the opposite pane we have only made the addition of a border between the teacher and student to show a bold divide between the ideologies of the two. On the final pane we have just added spines that feature the band name and album name.

Self Assessment:

Front Panel:

I believe that the front panel works well as a way to communicate the theme of the album (school). The schoolbus in hand works as a good abstract metaphor, which other albums such as ‘dirt’ and ‘nevermind’ are known for, that represents an unseen, omniscient and omnipotent force that controls the school system. The band name is an element that immediately draws attention due to its central placement, contrasting colour and inventive design that evokes the feeling of bands like Metallica, Pantera and Megadeth.

Inside Left Panel:

The inside left panel features a set of scattered polaroid images impyling an abstract narrative about the ‘good old days’ of the band. The scattered placement of the images connotes a carefree and reckless attitude towards objects of such importance, breaking the traditional idea of finding something nostalgic precious and worth protecting. Furthermore, the use of monochrome colours within the digipak also connotes a harshness and edginess that is found within many other piece, such as Dirt by Alice in Chains.

Inside Right Panel:

The inside right panel features a stare down between two different characters that are featured within our music video, one being an authoritarian, oppresive teacher that believes his word is law and the other, a rebellious, anarchic teenager who resists against that kind of rule and believes in anyones right to do anything. While in reality, both of these world views are too extreme on either end of the spectrum, in our chosen genre however, the anarchic rebel is glorified as a freedom fighter, as seen in our music video.

Back Panel:

The back panel features a report card that integrates the tracklist with moments of abstract narrative, seen with the grades that the student has recieved, feeding more into the idea that they are a menace within school and, at a larger scale, society. The canted angle used for the image reflects not only the sentiment to disregard the traditional norms of society that would be seen in the ubiquity of standard, central angled shots.

How well we represented the genre:

Through this digipak, we represented the genre using common elements of grunge such as dark, monochrome colours, an abstract image/idea and the glorification of rebellion against an established system. Other ways in which we represented the genre came through the idea of including abstract narrative within the digipak, specifically on the back and inside panels. Furthermore, the idea to show a idealogical battle between protagonist and antagonist was a unique idea that we found perfectly encapsulated the themes that we wanted to convey.

Digipak Draft 3

This is the third draft of our digipak

What we have added:

In this draft we have added a spine that can be visible when placed into the cd case, so that when viewed on a shelf, stack against other cases, it is obvious to potential buyers what this album is and who it is by. We have also slightly changed the band logo with a bigger F and Y at the start and end of the band name to evoke the idea of something similar to that of Metallica and songs similar to what they make. Finally, we also changed the polaroid photos to be more askew, as if they were scattered and strewn connoting an air of carelessness.

This is our third draft in a CD case

We also did a peer review and this is the feedback that we got:

In future, we will act upon this feedback and use it to create a digipak that resonates more with our target audiences values, attitudes and beliefs through the visual design.

Timeline and Marketing Ideas

This is our plan of our social media page. It forms an accurate basis and timeline of how we are going to order and write our posts out. The use of the plan as a timeline also allowed us to acertain a rough idea of how well we will ultimately build up to the release of the album and the hype and mystery created around the build up. The main idea for the social media page is to sell things to the audience, in this way, we are hoping to use AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) to achieve this goal. The first step in achieving AIDA (attention) is to share information about new projects, releases and stories on social media. We will form interest by giving updates to established ideas, done through the use of status updates, videos showing progress and synergy shown through working with other renowned artists. In terms of forming desire in our audience, we will employ an exclusivity philosophy and put a limit on being able to recieve a product, done through the use of a ‘first-come, first-served’ approach and giveaway to make people really want the product. Finally, we will achieve action through ‘a call to action’ evidenced through the use of links to shops and merch stores and giving the audience everything they need to be able to go straight to the product and buy it.

These three examples will be what we reference and take inspiration from:

This marketing campaign demonstrates how we can use a powerful motif, such as a continuous use of colour or style to our advantage and make our brand synonymous with those elements.

This campaign reveals how the use of regular livestreams or updates can be used to build hype around a product through the active participation with fans and how re-releases of well known established songs with a new spin can help to bring back older audiences after a long period of time as well as attract new audiences.

This campaign illustrates how we can build up a significant amount of hype in our audience by teasing the upcoming release of a product through cryptic messages and clues over the course of a long period of time.

Reflection

This task has helped show us how we can use social media in inventive and unique ways to build hype, appeal to older fans and attract new audiences. This research has been invaluable in helping us gain inspiration and an understanding of how brands interact with their audiences that will assist us in the planning of posts on our social media page.

Digipak Draft 2

This is the Second Draft of our Digipak:

Reflection

What we’ve done:

In this draft we have enlarged the band name at the top of the cover as well as rearranging the background to be properly centered. Furthermore, we have changed the name of the album along with the font, size, colour and adding a box around it to make it stand out. Also within this draft, we have added the two inside panes featuring the protagonist and antagonistic force staring each other down on one side and a collection of images from our music video made to look similar to polaroids. Finally, we have also added the copyright info, warnings and barcode.

What we will do:

For draft 3 we plan on changing the layout of the inside panes slightly, on the left we want to angle the images slightly askew and overlay them to give an impression of having been carelessly scattered on a surface with added a subtle drop shadow to make the images seem like distinct objects that have a 3d presence and not just flat 2d objects. On the right we want to add some sort of visual to represent the split between the teacher and student, currently we have considered some sort of visual in the shape of lightning to give the impression of a clash/feud between the two.

Rough sketch ideas of border split:

Digipack Draft 1

This is Draft 1 of our Digipack:

Reflection

In this first draft we have implemented a rough idea for our front and back panes on the case. We used a serif font for the band name to separate ourselves from the majority of artists within our chosen genre, such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden who all use sans serif fonts and aline ourselves, stylisticly, with a band like Nirvana. The abstract image of the schoolbus within the hand connotes a control of the education system by some omniscient overseer who, represented through the dark clothing and background, is implied to be some sort of antagonistic force to the philosophy found within grunge music. Furthermore, the back pane of the report card provides not only a way of keeping the tracklist within the theme of the album (school) but also provides some additional narrative to our music video by reinforcing the bad track-record of the student in his school life.

What we will change:

In future drafts we plan on rearranging the background for the front pane as it is not aligned properly and is off centre, throwing off the focus of the viewer. We will also add the proper copyright info, barcode and advisory warnings to create some verisimilitude. Furthermore, we will implement designs for our inside panes in draft 2. We also plan on changing not only the name of the album but also the font, colour and giving it a box to make it stand out. Our current ideas for this change consist of changing the font to something more akin to a hand written font, as such it will be sans serif which perfectly reflects and encapsulstes the genre as a whole, seen in albums such as ‘Facelift’, ‘In Utero’ and ‘Core’.

Audience Interaction with a Social Media Page

This is our screencastify for our analysis of how an audience interacts with a social media page:

Reflection

This task allowed us to analyse a similar artists SMP and take inspiration from the way in which they utilize AIDA and Blumler and Katz’ uses and gratifications theory to use in our own SMP. Furthermore, we look at how they form a parasocial relationship with their audience and as such are both present and absent in our lives. We also analysed how they present an ordinary and extraordinary side through the use of the metanarrative.

Social Media Page – Key Terminology

Reflection

This task, has helped me understand and consolidated the terms and conventions in reference to a Social Media Page, going forward, when designing our bands Social Media Page we will use what we have learned here in terms of how to best display relevant and important information and access to products in reference to AIDA.

Digipak Shoot 1 Risk Assessment and PMA

This our Risk Assessment and PMA for the original design of our digipak. Since then however, we have changed the design of our digipack and subsequently the subject of our shoot.

Original

New

This is a mockup of our digipack, so as to gain an idea as to how we want the digipack to look and the meanings we want it to convey.

This plan is essential to informing the creative evolution of our digipack front and back covers. It provides us with a solid foundation to improve upon so that we can create a digipack cover that accurately reflects the genre. The cover we are intending to use will feature a black background with a light shining onto a hand holding a ferris wheel. The artist name will likely be in a serif font and the album name in sans serif. The ferris wheel will likely be drawn while the hand will be a normal picture that we have taken, through doing this, we hope to achieve a contrasting effect similar to that of the drawn and real worlds in A-ha’s ‘Take on me’ music video. This mockup has been a useful way for us to visually demonstrate our ideas so that my partner and I can settle on something that we both think aligns with the genre. The abstract visual identity of the cover, via both the mediums involved and the image as a whole, epitomises the ideals of the genre as a whole and as such we feel it is a good fit within the genre. Furthermore, our use of shadow followed by the language, “freak” connotes a harshness and edginess that is synonymous with the genre as seen in the likes of Nirvana and albums such as “In Utero” which, via the language used, contains a societal taboo within.

Digipack Conventions Analysis

This task helped me greatly in understanding the conventional features of a digipack that reflects our genre, grunge, it contrasts greatly against digipacks of other genres as it eschews the norms evident in them such as the established formats, arrangements and clear readable fonts.