Introduction

Finally I had my illastration done and had a narrowed down selection of kaliedascope images that I needed to decide which one I would use. After deciding with my partner which photo we preffered I went onto Abobe Photoshop to alter the incorporated colours. I also needed to increase the vibrancy of my illastration on photoshop and merge it with the kaleidascope image. Here are some editing pages that presents what I did on photoshop to make the back graphic and front graphic:

Reflection

I am very happy with how my front cover graphic turned out I know that this graphic will be placed on the center of my front cover on InDesign. All that will be left to do for that page will be to add the name of the artist and albumn which I want to huge around the circle. For my back cover graphic I am not so sure, I worry that trying to fit the text inside the bird may be a problem and may also not look right. However I can always try this and if it does not work I may go back the the orgional merge I did without overlapping two birds, one being fully white. This would simply just mean that I would have to use white text and add the song names around the bird.

Introduction

After photographing the kaleidascope patterns, I began sketching out and painting the illastrations that would be combined for the front cover using Adove InDesign. Here is a contact sheet of the kaleidascope patterns:

Favourite 3 images from shoot:

These images were my favourite due to the fact they had the most detail and looked rounded off. Also I wanted to make it easier for me when it came to editing and playing around with my colours as our colour pallet consisted of purples, yellows, blues, pinks and oranges so I also tried to pick the images that already had the most of these colours incorporated.

Process of illastration:

Reflection

Now that we have our chosen image and finished illastration the next step is the combine these on  Photoshop. The plan is to fill the white space inside the circle of the illastration with that kalleidascope patterns which will make it look as if you are peeping through a kaliedascope at the painting. I also will need to boost the saturation and colour of the bird as adding in the extra details has weakened the vibrancy of the bird. I would also like to enhance the colours of the kaleidescope patterns and selectively change specific colours so that the colour pallet will mainly consist of purple, yellows and a hint of blue, orange and pink. Once all of that is complete I can then take the combined images and starting assembling the front cover on Indesgin.

Intoroduction

For our digipack I filled out a production meeting agenda form and risk assessment bellow. Click on each title to see the whole document:

 

Reflection

We felt that an illustration would be best fitting for our genre therefore these forms were not exactly necessary however that does not mean we are not involving some photography it will be a mixture of art and photos. These photos do not require much thought about shot distances and angles however as I want to just capture the kaleidoscope patterns which means I am restricted to only photographing through the eye hole.

 

   

 

 

 

Introduction

From our previous research on EDM media and conventions me and my partner already knew what we wanted our colour pallet to be. We wanted to include purples, blues, pinks, yellows and maybe some oranges. We also knew that we wanted our typeface to be sans serif and in capital letters as it reflects the hypergentic atmosphere of the music and people. Lastly we discussed the art work that we wanted to include on the front and back cover. All we knew is that we wanted some sort of hand drawn/early gamer graphics sort of pop art. Here are our very brief sketches of our potential front and back covers for our digipack:

Reflection

For our front cover we decided to name our album Kaleidoscope. This reflects how primarily everything before seemed dull and boring, but the kaleidoscope provides a fresh pair of eyes which interprets the world under a new light/perspective with new found bright colours and patterns making your outlook on life feel more intriguing and exciting. The kaleidoscope relates EDM as it is a tool to help you escape from the tedious and ordinary reality by raising your frequency on a whole other level unlocking senses and feelings that we are unable to understand or describe, luring you into a whole other fantasy and wavelength. Underneath the mast head we have included the stars name which will be in the same caps lock sans serif font will both be white text to stand out from amongst the colourful background.

There will be a frame in the shape of a circle with the imagery inside it, this will imply that you are looking into the round kaleidoscope and what you will see is the kaleidoscope patterns as the background, the colours will be purple, blue, yellow pink and orange. In the centre there will be a balck figure on a head with headphones on and musical notes around them representing this figure is listening to EDM. There is no imagery of the actual artist because the focus is purely dedicated to the music. There is an opened cage on the forehead that has yellow beams of light coming out and a colourful phoenix flying out. There is a cloud behind the pheonix to install this enlightened heavenly idea. The imagery illustrates how your mind has been unlocked and freed from listening to EDM. The bird coming out of the mind demonstrates letting go of all of the worries and negativity and rising up from all of that and ultimately spreading your wings and taking a look at life from a higher (birds eye) perspective. The colourful phoenix reflects those indescribable mix of feelings, energies and emotions felt as a result of the music. A phoenix represents renewal, enlightenment and is also associated with the sun. The sun relays a clear vision due to the light and describes happiness and being able to unravel (like a wildfire). Fire also forces you to have to let go of things such as material objects, and in this case the ego which latches on the social expectations, especially when it comes to your own identity and what is considered ‘normal’.

For the back cover this is where we wanted to include more information such as the collaborations, copyright information, barcode, record label name and record label logo (which has been properly drawn on the front cover but we have decided we now want it on the back). There is also a plug on the back that will spark more of our target audience to want to buy the album as it aligns with their morals for wanting to help the environment.  Around the edges of the back cover are the kaleidoscope patterns which gravitate toward the middle and form an outline of a phoenix. The insight filling of this phoenix is just plain white but includes sans serif caps lock purple font that lists the names of the songs included within the album. For every song name we wanted it to relate to the same topics that we are preaching within the music video introspective that relate to a corrupt, artificial world that has human beings happily living like guinea pigs who have lost sight of life’s beautiful wonders. We forget and ignore our opportunities to experience and live our lives to the fullest and have replaced work and fitting in with society as our main priority. The songs include the artists names that have been featured next to different song titles. All of these chosen artists are very alternative and awakened people who have the same interests and beliefs that our artist wishes to preach. This will also attract a broader audience from our featured artists fans. The last finale song number 10 is Introspective. It is written in yellow text to highlight that this song is our summary for the artists message, it is like the album ‘Pink Floyd, Another Brick In The Wall’, the album was named after a single song included which was their main message and what they wished would be the main establisher that interested the audience to buy the whole album. Lastly on the spine of the digipak we have included more kaleidoscope colours along the bottom half and on the top half we created our own logo to denote the star’s brand as well as the album title and star’s name. Our logo is of the phoenix with a music note tail, this might be altered a little but the idea is for the music to be the key to preach the symbolic attributes of the phoenix and what it stands for. Overall I think for our first brainstorm I am very happy with both front and back cover and we now have a clear plan and idea of how we will achieve this, this will includes hand drawn images as well as some graphic design and photography of a kaleidoscope patterns that I will be taking, however the kaleidoscope I own does not include all the desired colours for our colour pallete therefore will will also have to alter the colours in photoshop.

Introduction

Today we learnt about what you would conventions you would find on a digipak and how the conventions may also relate to our specific genre.  For example one convention would be a masthead (the title of the album), however what font and colour will you used to resonate with your genre of music? Here is my analysis of a front and back cover from an EDM album by M.I.A:

Reflection

After doing this task it has not only helped me to understand to conventions of an album cover but has also helped me to use these conventions in certain styles that would help relate to my genre of music. For example a typical EDM albumn art style would be a blend of many different art methods such as Russian propaganda, early gamer graphic deisgns and pop art. EDM covers also tend to use sans serif and capital letters a lot as well as including many vibrant colours onto the page (most notibly purple). I love how over the top this cover as if someone who was really hyper was going crazy with patterns and colours on the page which reflects the EDM scene well as listening to it and being in that atmosphere makes you also feel very hyper. This has given me a lot of inspiration for my album colour and I will definately be using simlar features.

Introduction

For the previous task I posted on my blog, I minorly touched on analysing 2 other EDM artist’s profiles and album covers. This time we have dug even deeper into our EDM artists media content, me and my partner both made 10 padlets that analysed the styles, fonts, images, colours to inspire ideas and help us notice trends associated with the genre. We looked at a more broader scope of media content such as youtube music videos, artists merchandise, tour posters, etc… Here are the 10 the padlets I made:

Reflection

Immediantely it has become extremerly clear what the main colour pallet for the EDM genre is. These consist of  blues, pinks, oranges, yellows but most importantly purple is used in nearly every source I have looked at, which indicates that I must include these colours if not all them, defianately purple. Yet again we discovered that capital letters and the use of sans serif is very popular. The profiles of the artists are full of images focusing on the party, night life and include many vibrant photos. The Avicii poster has also inspired me to create our own symbol/logo to represent the star and their brand which will help more people to recognise us. I also want this symbol to have a hidden message behind it that will reflect our key aims within our mission and symbolise hope, enlightenment and fresh renewal. Overall I can start to have a picture in my head of what my albumn will look like; the main focus being some statement image, packed with bright colours and will include big capital white text which will stand out against the colourful back ground.

Introduction

After our music video we had begun to think about our digipak which was part of a bigger whole in order to sell the star image. We made a presentation that focused on us understanding our EDM audience’s demographics, pschographics and using this to make a plan of action to spark their attention, interest, desire and action to buy. I also analysed some other EDM artists work such as their album covers and social media profiles, so I could recognise the common thread within the genre such as colour pallet, type of feed, font, artwork etc. Lastly We started developing our unique selling point that will hhelp our EDM ablum to sell and stand out from the rest as well as our mission statement.

Reflection

This task has been extremerly helpful. I now have a really good understanding of who my audience are in terms of demographics and pschographics. I have been able to develop a plan of action that would appeal to my target audience based on my research of what they support within their values, attitudes and beliefs. This has also allowed me to constructively come up with a unique selling point that would attract new audiences by including callaborations with other artists, this idea was sparked as I found out that my target audience has a large presence online and commonly like to keep up to date with other celebraties lives. They tend to talk about these celebraties often amongst family and friends, therefore buy including other famous artists will bring more attention to the album, and therefore will get people talking about it and sharing it to other relations. Not only this but you will gain those other artist’s fans also meaning you could be attracting new audiences that may previously listened to artists from another genre such as rap and therefore have helped them to discover a new range in taste. Lastly I esembled together a mission statement which helps the audience to understand exactly what my aims and goals are through my music and message of my album release. Since my target audience has a work hard-party hard agenda I have chosen to resonate with my audience and play on this idea to establish that our music is the key to release and ease all that built up stress and anxiety as well as sending messages along the way to open up their mind and help them to look beyond the social pressures and realise we are being’s that were not put on the earth to just live to work, we can not that let that take over our experiances in life there is more to life that is so important and that is why you should never prioritise your work, if an oppurtunity arises you need to learn how to take that oppurtunity and live you free life and not let the confinments of your job restrict you from life changing and mind opening experiances.