Back Cover for CD digipak

This design shows the back of the case which the CD will be held in. This was quite simple to create as i opened Photo Shop and changed the opacity of the photograph so that I could see the plastic template as well as the photograph at the same time. I chose against placing another photograph of "Alex Lloyd" on the back cover for the CD as I feel that we have used too many photographs of him and as he is on the actual CD, it would not work. The photograph we have placed is the scene which is first shown on the video for "What we started" so the resemblance carries out. The colour scheme also fits this photograph as it is quite similar with a mix of grey, white and black.

Actual CD Design Digipak

This is our final version of our CD for "Alex Lloyd." As you can see from the research I performed below, I have used ideas and features I found on previous and existing CD's in the market to help give me an idea to what will fit in if sold at shops in retail. The use of colouring reflects the other designs I have previously created and so the house style relates through all the designs we have created for the album. The use of the track list means that even if the CD case is lost or broken, the fan or listener would still be able to listen to the CD. I am happy with the design as i feel the rest of the designs are consistent with each other.

CD design Research for Digipak

I then began to adapt and think of designs and ideas for the CD for our CD cover.

Looking at "Gotye's" CD for their album, the design is very creative and effect to the listeners and gives a sense of emotion and the feeling of losing someone. The design of the paint dribbling down in the red shows a lost sense of feeling and the feeling that the CD is about heartbreak or love. The colour scheme also reflects this but the use of the photograph of the artist on the right is a good idea as it shows the fans and listeners who it is that produced the CD and will still be able to tell if the CD case was lost. The use of the tracklist which is written on the CD is a good factor that we could think about adding to the CD as it involves the lister and tells them whats on the CD. This CD shares good ideas about what we could add to our CD for Alex Lloyd.

This CD above also represents and is similar to Gotye's CD above. This CD is produced by "Meatloaf" and has the same feautures and designn as Gotye. Looking at both, they also have a thin line of writing around the outside edge of the CD displaying small font writing that could talk about the copyright of the CD. However, after thinking about this, I feel it would be slightly too difficult to add to the CD. Seeing that both designs have the same ideas as what we would like to add, we feel that we are ready to start to design our CD cover.

Construction of Music Poster Advertisement Digipak

I then decided to get started on the music advertisement poster for the digipak. I started producing copies then came across problems. The first design I came across was:

To begin with, I designed the poster above for the music advertisements. I created the edge blur and the effects whilst using iPhoto on the Apple Mac, before opening the photograph on Photoshop. However, when I started to add the text and effects onto the photograph, I reliased that I could only use one colour font on the poster, and this was white. This was because no other colours would either show up at all or be able to be read on the poster. This caused me many problems as I found that other posters used one or more colours on the posters in order to make specific words stand out, and I felt that no words stood out in the above design for the advertisement. Because of this, I began to edit and modify this design to see what I can come up with.

I then went on to again refer to the poster created for Jessie J's album "Who You Are" and reliased that the producer and designer have put a black rectangle at the bottom of the photograph so that they can contrast the colours together and use more of a range of designs and colours. In conclusion, I brought this to the design for Alex Lloyd.

The poster above shows the new design I produced with the rectangle at the bottom of the page. I feel that the rectangle works well and allows me to contrast different colour texts to be used on the advertisement. I feel this advertisement is suitable for the final product as it represents and relates to the album cover with the same house style, effect on the photographs, the use of colours and finally the use of the fonts.
I then needed to add on the album cover as although the same house style and font/colours were used, and the final music advertisement looked like this:

We then tested out what the music advertisement would look like on a real advertisement so we played around with PhotoShop.

Back of Digipak

This shows the editting and the design of the back of our CD cover for our digipak.
This is our final design of the back of our digipak. It displays the use of colours and text perfectly.

Front of Digipak

This is the planning to the creation for our front cover of the digipak. We are showing proof of testing of the editting of the photograph, adjusting things like the contrast, saturation and brightness.
This is our final image of our album cover. We decided against adding our female character into the front cover as she is not the main artist and is only included in one of the songs on the album. The effects used bring out emotions and the saturation gives the feeling and emotion, and we have a corresponding house style.

Possible Digipak Photographs

Exsisting Examples of 4 Panel Digipaks

I have been research 4 panel digipaks in order to give me a idea to take back to our next media lesson to share with Emma for the designs of our digipak.

My first design I came accross was an album by "Nini+Ben" which are unknown to me, but have produced a design smiliar to our expectations for our CD when we go into making them. They have the same layout for the digipak we are looking for. The effect of them both on the CD and the cover gives a great effect as if the CD cover was lost and the user only found the CD, they would reliase and know where the CD is from without playing it. The same photograph that is on the CD is on the front cover, representing a house style and a consistancy running throughout the digipak. This is a good effect to have and one of the ideas both me and Emma were thinking of. The inside photograph shows both the singers and gives an insight to what the CD is going to be about; love and relationships which is exactly alike ours. The colour scheme shares a good consistancy and I feel that we should create our CD based upon this.

 

The second digipak I found online was the one on the left. These CD covers demonstrate the albums in different ways. The digipak placed at the back of the photograph to the left shows passsion and fire, whereas the "Fat Cat" CD simply shows the red colour scheme as love and passion. Both share a consistant house style and colour scheme throughout, with the images translating to the CD's themselves. Both myself have set our colour scheme as colourless to show pain and emotion, which translates throughout the digipak.

Both digipaks above shows both colour schemes, house sytyles, and consistancy between and throughut the CD, which are three of the key factors we are concentrating on. I am going to take these ideas and features on the CD covers and take them to show Emma for our next lesson before we begin the creation of the ancillary tasks.