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. 

Creating the final dance

Creating this final dance was a challenge as we didn't have a lot of time, we only had 2 days for 1 and 1 1/2 hours at a time so this was a challenge to get everything in, however we were both focused on task and managed to get some of the tasks done however we didn't finished it all so on the day of filming we had to make some sections up on the spot although on the final piece it looks slick and well rehearsed.

Equipment used

Camera - The camera that we used was a .... its not a professional camera so hasn't got the best of qualities, however once all our shots have gone through final cut pro we have changed the colour of the film to black and white as it fits in better with our theme to show the emotions across more.

Tripod - The tripod helped us keep a steady shot throughout the side shots we were filming also we were able to adjust the height so that we had the dancers central of the screen. A tripod is a portable three-legged frame, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. A tripod provides stability against downward forces and horizontal forces and movements about horizontal axes.

Shoulder stand - We ordered in a shoulder stand so that we could keep a steady shot when moving around the room to create stability for the camera filmer.

Lights - Light's radiant energy, in these circumstances they are producing shadows on the back wall also we learnt about three-point lighting, this is a standard method used in visual media such as theatre,video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery.

Feedback

Inspiration covers

Final digi pack

Recently i have been given feed back on my first drat of my digipack. This is my CD cover digipack for my cover that i am making for the album that our song will be appearing on. i feel that it has developed a huge amount form my first idea as i have taken the lines out as they looked scruffy and a bit all over the place and had no purpose to be there. i have decided to still use lines however block square lines to give more structure i have looked through some books and taken bits i feel will work as i wanted the look to be quite plain and simple to match the atmosphere of the music on the playlist. 

I feel that from the feedback that i was originally given i have developed my idea a lot and it appears less busy and more structured. i think that by using just the two colour allows you to look at all of the poster and digipack without being distracted by one single colour.

Feedback from Draft Digipak and Advert - Lauren Bolton

I have recently been given feedback from the first draft of my digipak and advert, having this feedback is something that I find very useful because I now know things I should and shouldn't be doing and it has given me clarification as to what kind of thing I want to create.
For my poster the only feedback was to get rid of the QR code in the corner, I do want to leave it as minimalistic as possible because that is the tone I am looking for and I don't want to over complicate something that could look very effortless and stylish. I am yet to decide how else I can develop it however it has given me a good starting base on what to go on to make it as professional as possible.
With my digipak, however, there is a lot more to go on and more developments that I need to make to ensure that I am creating the most professional digipak I can. For example, the font I used on my digipak was not right for the look of my album so therefore I am going to have to develop that into something that is more impressive and makes more of a statement. Also another aspect that I knew needed to be changed anyway was the illegible writing at the bottom of the inside left tray. This is something that I made too small therefore even when enlarged and seeing a bigger image, the writing was still illegible. I need to do a lot of redesigning still because even though this is the kind of look I am going for, I still need to develop my ideas further and make sure I am producing something that wouldn't look out of place on a CD shelf; and even though I don't think this design would look out of place it still isn't quite right and the font as well as other features need to be developed further to be successful.
Obviously there is still a lot to do and I am going to be developing the final idea now.