Final Digipak and Advert - Lauren Bolton

As you can see here, this is my final digipak and advert design. Everything still looks rather similar to my draft design, however that is because it worked so well. The only major change to the actual digipak itself is the removal of the band members from the bottom of the inside cover. Also I have changed the font from looking too 'deco' to something a bit more quirky and relatable to the genre of music that I am channeling. Other than that, there is nothing really that has changed too dramatically and I am pleased with the overall finish. I have taken my main inspiration for the whole look from a number of places, mainly the simplicity of The XX's albums have been something that I have really enjoyed seeing and getting inspired from their originality and effortless design. 

However, I would say that I have tried to be as original as possible because I have never seen this type of design before and therefore it is something that I am pleased to have created, as I feel as though it represents the chosen genre and style of music really well. The circle design that I have created for both my digipak and advert represents the album name which is 'eclipse' and the smaller circle rising up to the larger one shows the power that the 'underdog' can have. Which for the band we have created, and this being their fourth album, it is referencing to their rise to fame and success. Thinking of a design like this wasn't too difficult because I already knew the type of image that I wanted to create and because I knew that I wanted it to be very clean cut and eye catching, that led me to this idea.

The circle image is a motif that can be seen throughout both the digipak and advert, it is good to be connecting these two designs together because if the advert even looked slightly different then it wouldn't be good promotion for the album because the consumers would get confused as to what the advert was trying to tell them.

The advert itself is a very different and original design, I decided to not put any information onto this piece because I have seen many album adverts in the past that have done this with good effect. The sole reason why I decided to do it then was for the fact that this is Parables fourth album; they would already have legions of fans as well as new coming fans that would recognise what this meant. This design is just meant to stir up excitement for what is to come and it also inspires the readers of the magazine that this advert would be in to research what this all meant. It's sublimely advertising to make the consumers find out the information themselves and for them to realise that by going and looking for the information that they are intrigued enough that they want to hear the final album because of that initial curiosity.

Throughout the digipak and advert as well, I have used the motif of the textured grey background; it is in use on the actual digipak, the digipak insert and also the advert. I really liked the whole look of this texture rather than it being a solid block colour, it allows for the design to have some well needed depth because as this band is heavily inspired by Arcade Fire it means that they need the same amount of depth as they have. 

The whole design is very simple, and looks very effortless. This band Parables are one of those bands that do things in an effortless fashion, knowing that for what they do would take other bands years of experience to match them. Thinking about all of this information and drawing up a good and clarified back story has allowed me to create the digipak and advert with ease because I was able to get myself into the mindset of what this band would want and do. The precision of the circles and the depth of field they give allow the consumer to be sucked into their world of music. Just like Arcade Fire do.

The font I have chosen as well for the digipak is something that looks very quirky, and it can be said that it doesn't entirely match the look of the circles and their simplicity. It is a very busy font, however that is what I wanted because I wanted that contrast of the simple and the busy.

I added an insert into my digipak design because I wanted there to be more information about the band and what they did to create the album, again creating that back story to make them more believable and real. I do think I could have added more information to the insert however to keep it more in tune with the design as a whole I stripped it back to being the most basic information so that the secrecy that the band has is kept.