Digipak: Finished!

 Front Cover:

Inside Left:

Inside Right:

Back Cover:

Overall, we are really pleased with how our images have turned out. It is really rewarding to see it all come together and makes all the hard work worthwhile. 

Poster: Finished!

Poster 1:

 Poster 2:

These are the final posters we have designed to go alongside our music video and album cover.

We took our inspiration from existing posters within magazines, identifying the key conventions and embedding them onto our background. Firstly, we added the image and played around with the positioning a bit. Then once we were happy with the layout, we added the tour dates alongside John Newman's web address and social network links. At the bottom, we added a small promotion for the 'Love Me Again' album, below which we put the ticket offices website and contact details in small print. 

We ended up drafting two album covers to demonstrate that you don't always have to use the exact image for both articles, which is something we noticed in our research. Within both posters, you can still recognise that they are for the dance genre due to the use of bold, vibrant colours and contrasts. However, I do prefer the first poster to the second one personally. I like the way it fades into the background and makes eye contact with the audience; it just seems like a stronger, more powerful image to me. 

We are really pleased with the result of our posters; it is a huge relief to see all of our hard work come together. 

Editing Update: CD and Interior

We have now started to format the graphics for the inside features and they are coming along nicely. 

For the left inside, we have selected an extreme close up of a powder pain influenced eye. We all love this photos due to the focus and depth it has. The only formatting we will do to this is adding some small print at the bottom of the image to cover copyrighting.

The inside right (behind the CD) was a bit more of a challenge. We were torn between choosing another of our favourite images from the photo shoot - like a close up of the lips, or leaving it blank. We also discussed the idea of the CD having the same image on it as the background so that it almost camouflaged in.

After trying each method out, we decided that plain black would work best as otherwise there is a lot of colour to take in; it balances out nicely. 

CD-wise, we are going to keep it to plain black with a matte finish which will look quite futuristic and modern. 

Editing Update: Font Placement

One of the most challenging elements we have come across so far whilst constructing our digipak is the issue of where to put what font.

It is difficult because sometimes it just doesn't quite work. However, we have found a trial and error method works best; we try the font in a new place, and save that image as a separate file into a different folder. We then look through all of these saved images and discuss and compare which layouts work best.

This has happened on both the front and back covers, which we have been focusing on for now, as the inside is pretty simple. 

The only error with our system is that it is quite time consuming, however we have been able to schedule it in and can justify the time it takes with the (hopefully successful) outcome. 

Editing Update: Choosing The Images

Having taken so many photos during the shoot, we had a huge selection to choose from. We did this by copying certain photos each of us liked into an additional folder, which narrowed it down to about 20 images. From here, we just discussed what we thought would work best, and also asked fellow classmates for their opinion too.

We have decided the front cover will be a close up of the main actor in the music video with the powder paint splatted over her face. It is a very strong visually eye-catching piece and really suits the iconography of both our music video and album in general.

For the inside left, we have chosen to have an extreme close up of her eye, which is again another very powerful photo.

For the inside right (which sits behind the CD) we have gone for a close up of her lips, which links to those which appear in our music video. However, we are also considering keeping this and the CD plain matte black, as too much colour may be overwhelming.

Finally, for the back cover, we have chosen a back view of the actor, i.e. it is the back of her head. We will align this either to the left or the right, leaving a black space for the song list to go.

We are really happy with the images so far, and have been tweaking them in photoshop - slightly altering the lighting, contrast and saturation levels to make the photos reach their full potential.

Ancillary Photoshoot: Review

Today we did the photo shoot for our digipak with the intention of taking a wide range of photos so as we could narrow it down to four final images to be used on the CD cover, insides and back cover.

First we had to get the actor/model ready for the shoot, so we applied normal make up (as most of it wouldn't be seen!) and backcombed her hair which gave it more volume and energy. We then lightly splatted paint at her face. We were aiming to spread it diagonally from one side to the other - like a gradient - and use it sparingly, as less was definitely more in this case.

We shot this in the dark room which had black walls. We set up a tripod, mounted the camera and then attached the LED spotlight we would be using as our light source.

We turned off the lights and got started, asking the actor to do a variety of different poses so that we would have a large choice to choose from. The shot angles ranged from a head and shoulders close up to extreme close ups of her eye.

Overall, the photo shoot was very successful and we took more photos than we needed which enabled us to have a wide range of choice when choosing the four images. We now have one week to edit all of our photos as our deadline is in a week's time.

Ancillary Photoshoot: Research

GENERAL LOGISTICS
We will have to clear up any paint that doesn't go on the actors' face, however we will be doing this in the art block, so it should be relatively straightforward to clear. 

LOCATION
Again we need dark, black surroundings so we are going to use the dark room in the photography suite. 

COSTUME
Costume is not necessarily needed, however we have asked our actor to wear a plain black, strapless top and bottoms which she doesn't mind getting messy. 

ACTORS
We will be using the same female actor from our music video.

HAIR/MAKE UP
We are going to keep the make-up relatively simple, as by the time we have thrown the paint, it won't be entirely visible anyway, so isn't too much of a concern. We want the hair to be messy, backcombed and loud, again to highlight the volume and confidence which comes across in the songs. 

PROPS
We will only need powder paint for this shoot. 

LIGHTING
We will use the LED light that attaches to our camera on full brightness to light the shots.

Typography: Font Choice

We of course wanted to find the perfect typography for our digipak and poster. After trying out many of the default ones in Photoshop and Word, we realised that none of them fit our genre so well. We also experimented by hand with different styles, and although these turned out to be quite successful, it would be a huge, lengthy task to create every letter and import it into a font maker (which would enable us to alter size/colour etc). Therefore, we would had to venture out onto the internet to find an appropriate font. 

After lots of searching, we came across a font called 'Waterflow' which we all agreed really suited both the conventions of the genre that already existed as well as those we had created ourselves within our music video. It is blocky, modern, sharp, angular and bold - all of which represent the sound within the album which is lively, crisp and upbeat. 

Overall, we are really glad that we've found the right font and are excited to see it come together. 

Typeography: Experimenting

Here are some examples of where I experimented with typography by hand after researching into them a bit further.