I need some screen-grabs saved on to the NAS to complete this post

I spent a while manipulating the front of CD photograph of Aykut, only to find I still just wasn't happy with it, 

it didn't really stick to the rule of thirds well enough and there was just too much empty space.



So I started manipulating this photo of him, first selecting his entire person away from the background, and then removing the background using the eraser tool, 

 I then started working on making Aykut look like he would on a real CD cover, using the spot healing tool and a fine point on the blur tool I effectively airbrushed his face to look smooth,

 I also used the dodge tool to add highlights to his cheeks, lowlights to his dimples and correct any patches of shadow that looked like they'd bring the photo's flawless appearance down, I also changed the hue slightly to Aykut's face,

 as the flash on my camera had made him look a little red, so I used the smallest tint of green to give his skin an even and not red faced appearance. I used the spot healing brush and the sponge tool which desaturates to give Aykut's teeth a pop star smile ensuring that the photo used on the front of my Album cover was going to look realistic to ones used on professional made albums. 

Pop star smile!

Font ideas...

I was looking for something interesting, completely readable but very 'Tumbleweed' like, something that represented the band as best a font could..

I liked JASS LET because of it's detailing, I also think it is visually interesting due to the different widths used in the characters and so might draw our audience in a little more.

Downsides are the harsh lines with it and the fact that it might be quite difficult to read when it's any smaller...

Another 'fun' font, this one has a more curvy style and I liked the way it looks fun so I put it in as a maybe, I am not a big fan of the 'S' which will be part of the album name but with the right manipulation this font count work, I think if I was going for a more crazy and busy look on my album it would work, but I want mine to be colourful, creative but fairly minimal for something of it's genre. 

I thought this font worked because of its kitsch appeal, I like the fairly tacky appearance of it and think it could totally work for us, what with the zip-wire and the shiny red plastic coat in our video. But its not the kind of chunky font I wanted in the first place, and I don't think it would go with my album and poster designs and if I used this font I would have to theme the entire thing around it as thats the only way to make it work.. 

I love this font its great, bold and interesting looking, also I thought filling it with the accent colour could be great for some of the type such as the names of magazines reviewing the album to really draw attention to them. This is the font I am most pleased with however I don't like the way its only available for upper case lettering and also still isn't exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for! 

More font searching will commence soon!

Oh and I've already decided that for anything too small to read in whichever font I choose, or quotes I will use Helvetica, I watched a two hour long video about this font last year for graphics so I cannot stress how wonderful a font it is for the basic stuff in my ancillary work!

Colour ideas

Here are the initial colour ideas for 'A pot full of sunshine' I wanted bright colours which would go well with the folky, happy theme in the album. 

the outer ring is the base colour idea, with the inner circle being writing and the smaller circle inside being for information such as the copyright disclaimer at the bottom.

Im going with my gut feeling of sky blue with a buttery yellow colour for the inside, I also changed the idea for the saturation levels of each colour slightly so it would be brighter and not so painfully bold to look at.

Creating my digipak

I used "levels" to increase the brightness of the image to make the image look better.

Digipaks from the genre...

Okay so really our genre is a kinda merge of indie, folk and pop... However analysing a pop album's cover isn't going to work for us as about 90% of them would be totally unsuitable!
So I found some artists who have a similar kind of style to ours...

Mika - The Boy Who Knew Too Much full album cover...

Although this picture is tiny, the use of bright colours, angled text and cartoons are all suitable and reflective of the artist, the album has two disks so the majority of the back is text, its good for me to note that the writing on the spine is reading downwards, as although to me that seemed most logically and visually appealing I wasn't entirely sure if there was a convention with CDs for this, at the bottom right hand side the bar codes placed and next to it is copyright and the website.

Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion.

This is Another of Mika's albums, the use of cartoon and photo together, and more muted shades of the bright colours (compared to 'The Boy Who Knew Too Much') are similar to what I intend to put in my digipak. However I think this is way too busy an ensemble for my actual digipak as it involves so much that I wouldn't be able to make look of a good quality so easily. 
Theres lots to learn from these examples including the use of few fonts, the same block 'MIKA' writing is present on both album covers, but then one other font is used, as I am only creating one album, and think matching the fonts for the title and album name is a MUST as ones I have been thinking of are quite chunky and bobbly, so although they would work smaller they'd be what I as a consumer would view as illegible. 

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in ages...

Hear me out though, I seemed to be given three sociology essays, one english essay and my english coursework (which is a drama script, the whole of which I had to plan and write in two weeks) for the last week of college so I hardly touched the internet in the past weeks although I have actually put a lot of time, thought and effort in to my digipak so far! I've sent myself my digipak so far though and I'm planning to complete it over the winter break, giving me a head start on my poster when the new year comes! 

Inspiration for digipak

Mika's digipak is very colourful like I want my to be. It uses cartoon imagery and is quite childish and playful, a bit like his music. His front cover is similar to his actual CD which is what I plan to do.

Sketch designs of digipak

Digipak so far

Progress.....

Digipak on photoshop is coming along nicely :)

This is the front and back of the album

This is the inside cover

Analysis of digipaks relating to our genre

I would call the genre of our song folky/pop which not many artists are these days.
The examples I found of music like ares consist of Mumford and sons, Lenka and Laura Marling.

This is Laura Marling's Album cover and CD. The genre isn't so clear just looking at the album cover because its just a picture of her however you can tell its not some genres of music because its so plain and simple, unlike how rock or punk or r'n'b would be. This is a very simplistic CD cover and CD, i cannot work out what the picture on the CD is but it goes with the album cover of Laura Marling. The colours on the front, inside her name make it seem more interesting, they are basic colours although they add a lot of the digipak because they have been placed there.

The next album cover I analysed was Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More. This band is slightly more on the rock side in comparison to our Noah and the Whale song. However their music is still very folky. The album cover is irrelevant to their music i think and their album title. It represents them as a band because they're holding their instruments however they are quite small in comparison to the whole photo. I guess it is meant to mean that they are for sale because they are in a shop window, like an item for sale would be. It is quite an effective album cover when you think about what it represents although it doesn't show clearly what type of music it is, although you could probably guess from the instruments their holding. The CD is plain and simple, advertising the album title and the little detail at the bottom is just for effect i think, just to use up a bit of space so it doesn't seem boring.

The last digipak analysed was Lenka. Her music is more pop than folk but i still think its relevant to our song because of her image. She has been advertised as a very funky, fun, pleasant way, which is how we're trying to make our band seem. The album cover has a nice colourful picture of her with cartoon rain, clouds, wind, maybe expressing that she is seen in several different lights and she doesn't have one particular image. The CD is very simplistic again, with her name on it, with a cloud, which matched the album cover. This piece of ancillary work would make we want to buy the album because of our colourful it is, yet at the same time is hasn't been over complicated. It represents the type of music she sings while advertising what she looks like.

Importance of digipaks

Last week in lesson we started to talk about the importance of digipaks to an artist and their image. A digipak does several things for an artist. An album promotes the artists music and image at the same time. The front cover of the album will usually have a picture of the artist or a symbol that they are trying to promote or mention during their music. CD covers nowadays are becoming more alternative and artists are always trying experimenting with new ideas and making their album cover more interesting than the last or somebody else's they've seen. Students like me, and others in my class don't tend to go out and buy a CD because we don't feel the actual CD in our hands is much better than having the music on our ipod which has been downloaded off iTunes, etc. CDs are becoming much less popular to our generation, however our teacher mary sad she likes the CD in her hand because she feels like she has more then just the song playing on her ipod. Digipaks include more than a CD though, they contain the lyrics sometimes of each song, thank yous towards people who have helped out with the making of the CD and songs. They are a very important and essential part of the music industry but i believe are fading away because less and less people are buying them.

Last Years Digipack And Advert

http://candipop10group35.blogspot.com/2011/01/production-advert-and-digipak.html

Looking at group 35s digipack i thought it was a very nicely present album cover with a colour scheme that works well, and fits well with their bands genre of indie Rock. Looking at the front of their album cover you can tell straight away that these guys are a rock band due to there being a huge guitar leading on an amp. Their band name is printed in a bold black font, which many Rock bands such as metallica, slipknot and trivium use for their album covers. Also the colour scheme is carried on towards the back of the album, just like the front its a white background, Black for ground and hints of red in places. Also carrying on with the guitar theme of the front at the bottom their is a big guitar lead, again showing continuity with the front cover. The fonts and colours used for the track list are the same as the fonts and colours used in the front cover, however there is a mix up of black and red for each song on the list making it less plain. On the inside panel their is a nice picture of the band jamming with their instruments, with a colour filter so every thing is white with black out lines and red shading, just like the pictures of the guitar and guitar lead in the front and back covers, keeping that continuity. Also instead of a thank you like most pop artists, because of  the genre of music these guys play they have got each member of the band and wat instrument they play. 

The advertisement is a poster for the albums release, they keep the black, white and red theme by making the entire background of the poster the front cover of the album. So straight away you are drawn to this big guitar in the middle and release what kind of music these guys play. Again the fonts used for the album are the same for the writing on the poster, with star ratings from two rock magazines, as well as the stars are also coloured one black one red like the track list in the album. Information about the albums release is also on the poster along with where to purchase the album, along with the bands webb site in fine print and logo of the record company on the bottom right band corner. Just as you would find in a real advert poster. 

Began Research for Digipack

Last week we began talking about digipacks and why they are still used by bands/artists today in an age of mp3 and internet downloads. Digipacks are used to promote an artists image, an image the artist/band are trying to put out, the album art could peek a persons interest and make them buy an album. 

We also went through mistakes that students in the past have done for their digipacks. Mistakes often include stretching pictures of the artist/band instead of cropping them, using too many different fonts in album covers, that they use more then 3 different colours for the album. Finally the thank you in the inside album cover of the albums being too long.

Analysis of previous students digipaks

This digipak was made by Group 17 last year. When you first look at the album cover and inside its quite capturing because of the bright colours and quirky girl on the front. The size of the girl on the cover and inside is appropriate to the size of the album cover, not too big and not too small. All the photos are in focus and mostly fine for the size of the CD. The font is the same throughout although from a distance would be hard to read. The digipak uses more than three colours but because it fits with the genre its more understandable why there are more then just three. The industry logos like barcode and copyright are properly positioned. 

This is a good digipak over all but it does have some down falls. The way the shoe on the back of the cover has been cut out comes to my attention because the shoe just comes out of nowhere, even if its clear they are her shoes. 

The advertisement that goes with the dikipak is also very good and capturing. Its clear that the digipak is being advertised through this poster because of the colour scheme of blue background and pink polka dots and of course the girl on the front! This is a very simple advertisement but sometimes the most simple are the best. It has used the iTunes symbol on the bottom to signify you can buy it off iTunes and said how else you can get the album. The photo of the girl is very good because it makes you think that the music is very uplifting and catchy without having heard it.

The second digipak I examined was by group 9 of last year. the album cover, front and back follow a clear white colour scheme which makes the album and the artist appear fresh and clean. The font of the front is alternative and draws attention because of its difference. However this group has used a major don't which is putting text across the artists face, although in this context I think because the face has been whited out on purpose for the text to have been put there. This is probably an exception to that rule because it doesn't look so awkward, it looks strange because you can't see her nose or mouth but artists nowadays are doing lots of wacky things so this is far from extreme. The photo of the girl is in proportion to the album cover. The text on the background is a different colour to the front but it works quite well because red and blue compliment each other. The text is also very clear as well as layout. The logos on the back are well placed and look like a proper CD cover. 

When i look at the inside cover it really confuses me because it seems to have nothing to do with the front at all. I can see that the tree without leaves on the left has grown into the tree on the right because of the structure of the branches. Some of the track songs relate to the inside cover vaguely, like echoes and the outsider, other than that i really can't understand the link. There are several thank you's on this page, a whole list of them which is nice but probably all the names mentioned aren't completely relevant.  

I then looked at the advertisement for this sale of their album which has the album cover, of the girl with the 'Imagin' written on her face to show people what the album actually looks like if they wanted to buy it. This group have put several magazines comments down the side of the poster to show people reading it what other people thought about it. They also have a rating out of 5 which is a universal indicator to whether something is good or not. Near the bottom there is "Mercury Prize" which states they won a prize which isn't true, its just been put there for effect, to make it look like their band is popular and the have brilliant song. This is a good advertisement because the way its been laid out looks realistic and at the same time promotes the band.

Analysis of previous students digipaks

The digipak above has both its strengths and weaknesses.  strengths include the continuity in each panel, the student has edited the images in a way that does not make them look like separate images, even though they are. This digipak has a clear colour scheme and the images suit this theme. Weaknesses of this digipak is that it uses too many fonts and there is no number on the spine.

This poster is very similar to the digipak as it is the front of the digipak but put into a advert form. This makes the advert have continuity with the digipak which is a good thing. Due to the size of the advert, the low quality of the picture can be seen better. The advert lacks information such as tour dates and where the album is available.

This digipak above has more weaknesses than strengths. The font used is the same throughout but the font itself does not work with the image. The colour of the text does not stand out over the images and this makes it hard to read. Again there is no number on the spine and also the text on the spine is not positioned well. The image used is one photo which has been repeated, this makes the digipak very repetitive. 

Again this advert uses the same image that has been repeated on the digipak. This makes it seem uncreative as the image itself is not that exciting. The font used in this advert is the same as the digipak, which in itself is not great. However the text can be clearly read here and the reviews give the advert some depth. The information given on the advert is good such as where to download but it does lack tour dates. 

Previous student's work....

After going over some dos and don't with digipaks we were left to analyse some previous students work to help reinforce what looks good and what just doesn't. 

This digipak uses the rule of three, has an ongoing colour scheme, sticks to the same font which fits it's genre and includes a really clear photo on the front of the album, with the text placed appropriately, it also includes all the correct conventions (bar code, cd number with the record label, back record label listing, copyright and an artist website). The only downside I could see for this was the quality of the other two photos which I found grainy however this may just be to do with the quality once uploaded to the blog? Either way I know grainy photos (with lots of static) do not make for a good digipak!

This advert clearly links to the CD album cover using the same colour scheme throughout and the same font, the record label is included as well as a Facebook site symbol, the date of album release is listed and using another font for 'The New Album' does not look out of place, however the album names not listed. 

This digipak has a colour-scheme running throughout and uses the same fonts repeatedly, and  just changing the colour of them, the digipak has clear photos and the front and back of the case are clearly tied together by the swirls of white. The conventions of a digipak are met, with the barcode, label, copyright and website. The only downside is the lack of a spine to the CD which is a feature stressed for importance when creating our own digipaks as it is a key feature in a realistic looking digipak. 

This poster has a clear link to the album, using the same fonts and colour scheme! The album is featured on the front of the poster and it recommends places to buy it. The poster is also advertising the release to be on valentines day which combined with the red theme makes those who see it think of romance and love songs, so it could end up drawing new customers in as well. I think this is great other than the cutting out of the artists, who look a little jagged. 

This digipak is not to the same quality as the other two, the idea for the front is interesting and they made a good use of the parental advisory sticker, the conventions were mostly met and the colour scheme was consistent. But - the photos are of bad quality and repeated inside, the spine is missing the number and the label, there are too many fonts and the back is illegible (both the fonts and the sizing add to this) the spine only has colour on a small bit of it which does not look good, theres also no clear representation of the singer in the photos, she does not appear to belong to a particular genre which although refreshing does not fit a stereotypical digipak style... 

The clear colour scheme and use of places to buy the album, the album's label and social networking sites to find it on are really good, there is also a clear link to the CD in this advert but the photo is such bad quality, not even the same as the one on the album or with the same style that one had, theres no blur between the photo and the background on one side which there is at the top. I am not a big fan of the multiple fonts and colours used for them, or the way they are all in different coloured boxes which takes away from the band's own logo used for that album which runs through to this poster as well..