InDesign Digipack practice

After researching common digi packs of artists, I am now using the program InDesign to create draft copies of my own digi pack. I am using templates to create a CD art work, and then a 4 plate CD album cover.

For my draft copy of Florence and the Machine who is a indie style female solo artist i have used a cover of her preforming live for the CD design, as it highlights how the CD contains her music and the intimate effect that her music has with her listeners. 

I have also followed the conventions of the CD design by using an oval to devise a text tool to write within the outer circle of the CD the usual rights and copyright warnings and practices that are found on public CD's.

I have chosen to use 2 different fonts for the artists title on the album, I thought this was a cool way to do it because of the difference between Florence Welch the singer and 'The Machine' which is other contributors to her album. As well as this i put Florence's name in a handwriting type of scribble almost which shows her indie and free vibes whereas the machine is in block capitals and has a engineered quality to it, which connoates the word itself! I have imported a Barcode for the back cover of the digi pack, to show other conventions for an album.

Poster Research

For my media music  video i will also advertist o be creating designing a poster for the promotion of the album. The most common and iconic advertisements for albums come from HMV's which are both print and televised. 

This is a HMV advert for Lady Gaga's new album. This advert is very effective because of the black and white colour scheme throughout. This gives the advert and artist a clear identity and definition. The black and white create an edgy and controversial, which is everything lady gaga is associated with.
I also like the bold and block capitals which inform the audience the name of the artist and the new album. It's very clear to read which is important when you are trying to influence album sales. It's also very clever how the font colour switches from white to black, keeping with the colour scheme but adding diversity to the poster.
The full length shot of lady gaga on the left side of the album allows the audience to clearly see the artist, and the leather outfit and over the top make-up compliments the edgy and stylish theme of the poster.

The poster also has the images of the digipack, they take up about one quarter of the image and this will be important when i think about the format of my own poster. The digipack images fit the theme of the poster with the black and white images. 

This is another example of a HMV advert for an artists album. I have previously done research on Florence and the machine, and know that my music video will come under a similar genre and appeal therefore to a similar demographic to hers. So the vintage effect of the advert with the ageing effect on the image is something that i could use. This poster also has a theme and continuous features like the previous poster. The floral effect with the dark blues is similar to the digipack colours.
What else is noticeable is that both the lady gaga and florence poster from HMV have the same iconic HMV font, and therefore when i create my own poster from a HMV distributer i should adopt this as it is a convention of the company. This means that the pink font and simplistic writing will be instantly recognisable to the target audience as a place which specialises in album distributers. 

In this poster from HMV it has there slogan of 'get closer', this phrase is therefore associated with HMV distribution and therefore should be something i could include on my poster design to meet the convention of HMV. They have both images of the digipack and therefore the target audience can easily recognise the album when looking to purchase it.
It also has the price of the album, this is important as the poster is also meant to be used to inform the audience, so they are aware of the price and the availability of the album. 

This is another example of a promotional poster for a female solo artist. I like the way the darkness of her hair carries on to create the black background, so that there is a clear space for the information to be formatted into. The image of marina is a close up of her face, which is very common when it comes to solo albums, i like this effect as it is very engaging to have a clear image of the face. 

I also like the painted on effect of the white font for 'Marina & the diamonds', it adds to the vintage, alternative effect, which is a convention of the alternate genre. The contrast of the black and the white is very effective as they are complete opposites, and because there is no background images underneath it, it keeps the audiences attention to the information and increases the ease to pick up information and therefore is very efficient for it's purpose. 

This is a poster for Lily Allen's concert. This is a completely different style of poster as it does not have any images of the artist herself, and instead uses graphic design to capture attention. Within the previous posters they have used a clear background so that writing was easy to read and understand from the audience. However within this poster, the font of the artist and tour name is quite hard to read and therefore means that the audience may not get the information. However it could be seen that an attractive image like this would cause for the individuals to pay closer attention and therefore it would work well as an advertisement for Lily Allen. 

The poster follows many conventions when it comes to a colour scheme, the most prominent colours are pink as well as green and black. This then carries on with the font colour on the lower part of the poster as well as artists name. This shows to me the importance of a theme throughout the poster to increase continuity. 

I personally don't feel like this poster is as effective as the others that i have previously looked at, i prefer having an image of the artist so that the individuals can recognise the artists face with her name and what the brand of her is trying to sell wether it's a single, album or concert dates. 

Here is another poster for a female solo artists; Kate Nash. She appeals to a female teen demographic, which is the same target audience as i will be aiming my music video towards. 

I like the way that this poster has managed to incorporate the graphic style that was the same within the Lily Allen poster, with the image of the artist which has been in the majority of posters i have researched. This therefore allows for the audience to recognise her face which is important when trying to sell albums, and gauging interest for music videos. 

This poster also follows a colour scheme of black, with pale yellow and purple. For this poster it is very effective as the quirky colours reflect the upbeat indie style of music and performance to be expected by Kate Nash. This shows me the importance of choosing the right colours to reflect the type of product you are wanting to promote. 

The poster also provides a clear background for information to be displayed on, I believe this works better because it is easy to receive the information and understand it. 

Digipack Research

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold paperboard, which has one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD attached to the inside. Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums.


Here is the Digipack for Florence + The Machine's album 'Lungs' which was released in the July of 2009, this is an example of a very successful and popular female indie artist's design and marketing to her target audience. The album has spent sixty-five consecutive weeks within the top forty album charts.

This is the album art work for Florence's album, the album is called 'Lungs', this is used as a theme for the digipack, as the photo of florence uses dark forest greens which contrast the rich reds, adding to the grunge effect, which is one of the connotations of lungs and organs anyway. Florence's skin has been edited to show it's whiteness which is associated with death and purity, opposite concepts that come together within this cover. As her sleeping position looks almost serene.  I also like the typography for the artists name, the white font contrasts the dark black background.

This is the CD artwork, I like the way that the same white font is used for the album title, this creates a clear sense of identity for the whole album. This also is added to by the actual image itself, the hands holding the heart is very similar to the previous image of florence with the lungs showing. The image itself is very strong because of it's gruesomeness, this is very unusual because florence and the machine appeals to a female demographic, and an image like this could be seen as  quite repulsive for them. 

                            

The back of the digi-pack, adopts the colour scheme of black and white. These colours are quite common because of the contrast between them, which allows the information and font to clearly stand out and be easy to read by the individual. 

The back informs the individual to all of the track names and where they are on the album by placing theme with numbers. This is a convention for the back of an album. I really like the way that the numbers also link up to the arrows on the diagram of the heart, it's quite a cool way to interlink the information with the diagram. 

The diagram of the heart continues the theme of body parts and physical representations of love songs, which are normally associated with the heart. For an artist that has such romantic/grunge songs it is a very unique way of combining the two concepts together. 

Here is the front cover of Kate Nash's album called 'Made of Bricks'. Kate Nash is a quirky female solo artists, which is very like the type of artist i will be using within my music video. 

It's very clever how the title of the album is related to the cover art, showing the connection between the bricks that have made the house which is the main feature on the cover as it is even centred with the framing. This creates continuity within the album, and a clear sense of identity which is useful when marketing. 

I also like the childish font for the album title and artist, the way that it isn't contained and is quite free, is very like the happy vibe the album has to offer, and most of all highlights how this isn't an album about heart break or deep feelings, it highlights the cover's surrealism, as it's meant to be perceived as a type of alice in wonderland effect, with kate almost looking doll like. It's a happy album and will have a feel good factor. 

To highlight the childlike qualities of the cover they have used 3 primary colours of yellow green and blue and red. These are related to childhood because of their simplicity, this then has connotations of fun and happiness. It's also clever because the artist is a very small part of the cover art because of her size compared to the house, however because she is the only part of the image in red she still clearly stands out without taking up the whole of the cover. 

This is the back of the album cover, it contrasts the business which consumes the front cover and is very simplistic within it's format. The grey-blue colour on the back allows clearly for the information of the album to be displayed on. 

I like the way that the track lists are not in a generic format of justified to one side, this messiness creates a playful style which highlights the quirky and fun music that Kate Nash is recognisable for. 

This is the album cover for Marina and the Diamonds album, The Family Jewels. The main focus of the cover is a close up shot of Marina, as she is the lead singer of the band. I think this is very effective as it shows her as the focus and makes the album easily recognisable for consumers. 

I also really like the white font, as it is quiet bold and almost in a scribble handwritten type of font, this gives it a modern and informal type of vibe which highlights the laid back vibe of the album.

I also like the vintage fabric background as it identifies with the conventions if indie and hipster type of fashion and therefore for a young target audience this is very relevant and relatable to.

This is the back of Marina and the Diamonds album. It have a very eye catching close up shot of Marina and The Diamonds. The way that Marina is leaning back, gives her body a distorted type of image, this is kind of similar to the grunge style of Florence's album. Showing me that this type of indie grunge is very common and is successful for female artists.

I also like the way that the same font is used on the back as it gives the album a clear identity. Instead of the typical convention of having the album's track list in a straight line down the back with corresponding numbers, the titles are curved around Marina's head, this joins the artist and the font together and makes it fit together more. 

I'd really like to do something like this, linking the back cover image to the text in a unique and interesting way as i believe it is more appealing to the buyer.  

This is the CD artwork for Marina and the Diamonds, the CD is a very basic format and not like other products where there is a image that is the main feature. The plain silver style is similar to dated albums, and therefore carries on the vintage style, which is very popular within the target demographic that acts like Marina appeal to. 

I also like the way the album uses the same font from the cover, but in black, which co ordinates with the black format of the disc. 

This is the album cover for Eliza Doolittle's album. I like the way that it mixes graphic design in a collage type effect with an image of Eliza. This collage/scrap book effect is similar to the quirky scene style of music, as it captures the fun and 'un-comforming' type of music that would be within the album. 

However it still keeps to the convention of having a clear colour scheme, as the blue sky like background is noticeable as well as the black and white bold printed album titles. 

This is the back cover of Eliza Doolittle's album, it carries on the colour theme by having the sky blue background. Although the fonts are in many different styles, they all still follow the black and white format. The differing fonts highlight the different montage of images that were on the front cover and therefore carry on this quirky effect. 

The full length shot of Eliza shows her clothing and this instantly allows for consumers to label her accordingly, this quirky style of miss match colours and outfits would appeal to someone recognise this as a modern interpretation of fashion, and would therefore also understand the style of music.

This CD artwork is similar to Marin and the Diamonds, as it keeps the plain CD image, again it is similarly used to highlight the 'individual' style of indie and quirky style of female artists who are the new generation of solo artists. 

It has the same bold style of writing that was in the cover fonts, but uses a different colour to again highlight the montage effect used throughout the album, as the CD itself does not appear to fit with the album.

Research 12

This music video by Birdy for her cover of Skinny Love, combines the indie-like vintage vibe that is very current and appropriate at this time with a young female artist that i can easily recreate within my video being from the same generation. I also like the style of music and the key role the piano plays within the song.