Digipak Poster - Finished

Digipak Poster - Creation

Encroaching a lighted area with text is important. Text such as CD prices/gig times etc. is what a viewer is interested in, therefore putting this information gives the viewer what they want instantly. Another crucial part to any poster is the protagonist figures within it. In my instant, the band we are replicating - 'A Day to Remember'. Therefore I plan on using vast lighting to attract the viewers attention instantly to the band name as it is an established band name and hence will create a more attractive and eye-catching poster for the viewers that are interested in this band or genre of music.

Page Size

I am going to use an A3 page for my advertisement, this is due to an A4 page requiring a predominantly portrait image and I prefer to enhance horizontal images as the pixels tends to be more lax. The band name is also very long, therefore a horizontal advertisement leaves me with more options of the spacing in which to place the band name, a vertical layout would minimise the options available to place the name.

Images

I will be using an image of the band we took a while ago. It is a predominantly horizontal image which favours the page layout I have opted for. The image also has excellent potential for lighting effects and enhancement and therefore leaves the door open for me to adapt the image to make it more attractive for viewers.

Enhancements

I intend on using many layers within the poster, taking the emphasis off one particular part (making the poster blend as a whole). However I also intend to contradict this with a bright area (lighting effects on PS) in one of the corners, to attract the viewers attention to a protagonist part of the poster.

Text

I'm going to keep the text short and sweet throughout the poster as not many viewers will spend lengthy amounts of time reading copious lines of information as this is a bore. Short, snappy sentences keep viewers entertained and hence interested in what the poster has to offer.

Digipak Poster - Research

Posters advertising a CD Digipack are a near extinct marketing technique in the modern era; the 'rock' genre within the music industry revolves around live shows and magazines, along with other convergences of the media (TV/radio etc.) to promote upcoming bands and CD releases, along with gigs and tours. Here are some examples of what a poster advertising a CD release, or gig look like; as I will use these as a basis for producing my advertisement poster and diverse to make it more fitting to the Digipack:

This poster example is that of John Mayer; and, although not an artist most would consider to fall under the 'Rock' genre, John Mayer is a well established artist throughout all terms of the music industry. This poster is a prime example of a fabulous use of lighting effects across an image to create a more well-rounded image for the poster to fall back upon. The text is simple yet effective, and the colour scheming is black and white with the use of a light green to attract the viewer to certain aspects of the poster.

This is a poster taken from the band 'CARPATHIAN'. Carpathian are not globally known throughout the music industry. This poster is a good example of an error portrayed by certain artist promotors known as 'over-crowding'. This poster does not have much going for it, the black border isn't continuous in its paterning to abstract the background colour, and the image is in far too much colour contrast to the background. There is far too much information for this poster to be a general attraction in comparison to John Mayer's poster. John Mayer's poster consists of 23 words and, in my opinion, would attract a lot more publicity than the Carpathian poster, which consists of almost 50. The Carpathian poster is trying to give viewers too much information and as a result of this the text is much too space consuming. With almost twice as many words, the Carpathian poster's text covers around 70% of the whole image; compared to the John Mayer image, where text only seems to cover around 10-15% of the whole poster. This concludes that text isn't a necessity on any advertisement, be it a poster or CD Digipack, well, not too much of it anyway!

This is an advertisement poster for Blazin'Quartet, a Jazz style band from up North. The poster is advertising their new album 'Finding A Way', in my opinion the poster is highly effective. There is a fantastic colour scheme throughout, with little contrast between the text and the images, making the poster soft on viewers' eyes.There is also no variation on the colour scheme across the images and text; and in this case that has been a huge success with the image still being attractive and not monotonous. The John Mayer poster works very well, using simple advertisment techniques, little text and a strong, attractive image. However there is a difference between the two, the CD Digipack. The CD Digipack (or representation of) on the John Mayer poster is at a huge contrast to the background image, with a massive colour difference. The Blazin'Quartet poster, on the other hand, maintains a colour scheme yet still works effectively to attract and sustain reader attention - putting the required information accross effectively.

This is a poster advertising and album release party, by the artist 'Drake'. Again a highly effective poster, maintaining a colour scheme of mostly black and white, but again, like the John Mayer poster, bringing a small colour contrast to specific information (here with red instead of green) to bring reader attention to the information most costly to the advertisers, in this case the date and location of the event. I really like this image because not only does it attract a reader' eye, it maintains one whilst putting accross valuable information about the event. Other DJs' are also advertised on the poster, and the borders to information are not parallel, making the poster more abstract and attractive to view.

The above example is not in relation to Music Industry, showing clear use of added light to effect the overall contrast of an image, and how this can bring reader' attention to specific zones on a poster/image. I intend on using this technique within my advertisement poster, as I believe it can bring a real contrast to a sum what boring poster that may be abundant within this genre of music. Light is the key to the attraction of a poster, for example, if  a whole image had no light contrasts, it would be a simple black and white gradient with no hue or graduation to colour - making it monotonous and un-attractive to any viewer!

CD Digipak - Finished

Front Cover

Back Cover

Trims

Pure black, as described and seen on the CD cases above.

CD Digipak - Creation

When creating my CD Digipack I am going to follow certain guidelines to help me achieve the best possible look that is appropriate to both the music style I am portraying, and the overall attractiveness of the CD Digipack itself. Of course a Digipack doesn't just include a front cover to a CD case; it includes all aspects of the case, both front and back covers along with the trims.

These are the dimensions of a CD Digipack, as you can see there is a monumental amount of room to work with throughout both the front and back covers; however there is also many things to include in these areas. Titles, song names, song lengths, the CD name itself, pictures etc. Therefore the space is quickly dismissed.

I have many photos that I have taken myself to use for the CD Digipack, our group also had a photographer take action shots of the band whilst we recorded the music video, I am going to use some of these action shots when designing the front cover to my Digipack.

Front Cover

I am going to use these three photos from the action shots taken whilst doing a small piece of recording with the band for the front cover of my Album cover, I am going to manipulate the images to create an overall blur of the band as a whole along the bottom of the CD case, with a dark mysterious background. I will use these images as well as another of a blurred lighting shot, I will use this specific shot to cover the top left corner of the CD case, as this space was vastly open without. A black background will be maintained to sustain a look of mystery about the band, I also think darker colours work much better in contrast with the effect I am trying to attain by using blurred images. I am going to add 'A Day To Remember' and 'MONUMENT' to the front cover of the Digipack in white text to contrast the black background, making it easier for potential buyers to read and instantly grabbing their attention so as they know what they are looking at!

Back Cover

For the back cover I will use many different lighting shots to maintain the image portrayed on the front cover, this keeps the feel of the CD Digipack more realistic for a potential buyer. If a Digipack back and front cover are in complete contrast it can be confusing to look at; whereas a cover that flows throughout has a much better overall effect. I am going to include the three pieces of music/art the the album contains and maintain the same text style/colour as the front cover to maintain a pattern throughout the Digipack. I am going to use the blurred lighting effect to bring 'life' to the words, making them seem more lifelike and giving the overall view of the back cover a more creative feel - in perfect harmony with the style of music, Rock.

Trims

For the trims I will be continuing the theme of the whole Digipack by keeping them black, I am not going to add any form of art across the trims as they are covered with a lightly creased plastic packaging and hence any art would be distorted.

CD Digipak - Research

The Program/s


To create my CD Digipack I am going to use a variety of programs and resources, including the Internet, album cover copies and photos and Text creator programs such as 'Cooltext.com'; however the main program I will be using is Adobe Photoshop. PS is a program which I am incredibly familiar with due to time spent getting used to the program and also previous tasks I have completed using the program.

"Image editing software developed and manufactured by Adobe Systems Inc. Photoshop is considered one of the leaders in photo editing software. The software allows users to manipulate, crop, re size, and correct colour on digital photos. The software is particularly popular amongst professional photographers." - http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/Photoshop.html


Photoshop will allow me to do certain things with the images I wish to use that other programs would struggle to do; or be able to do at all. Certain things such as adding a grain to a photograph, due to the nature of the CD Digipack that I am going to be creating a grain to pictures will be vital on both the Digipack and the advertising poster.

The Image/s


The images I am going to be using I will take myself, scenery will play a very vital part in the nature of creating my Digipack as I believe a good image creates a very promiscuous feel to any CD cover, intriguing potential buyers. Other images may be created using such programs as PS and others may be edits from the Internet, although the pictures binding the cover as a whole will be a mixture of shots taken by myself.

Due to the band we are using for our music video, the picture needs to tell a story. 'A Day to Remember' are a band that are worldwide renowned for having meaning behind their lyrics and not just creating music that sounds good but music that can help people through both difficult periods in their lives and to enjoy the good times. The band is also under the 'Rock' genre, therefore the album cover needs to be fitting the to style of music played by the band. The pictures portray the style of music on any album cover so this is a crucial.

The Equipment

• Nikon D510016.2
• megapixel DX-format CMOS image sensor
• 7.5 cm (3-in.), 921k-dot vari-angle LCD monitor with wide viewing angle
• Special Effects mode: shoot still images and movies with special effects
• D-Movie: full (1080p) high-definition movie clips
• Home Computer - Alienware Aurora Desktop
• Alienware’s most powerful MicroATX desktop, Aurora delivers strategic component layout, maximising internal cooling and upgradeability for high performance.
• School Computer/s