The purpose of a digipak is to ensure that the audience are getting the most exclusive content from their favourite artists in the music industry, they are essentially albums with additional content, more information surrounding the artist, and some even include additional photographs for the digipak which are called artwork pictures, there are two of these photos in every digipak so that the audience feel as if they're getting their money's worth. They promote the artist because they include more inforamtion about the artist, this information may enable the audience to relate or respect the artist further as they may see the artists as down to earth, to do this, the artist includes a thank you note to his fans to ensure that the audience builds a relationship with the artist and likes the artists music further. To create my digipak for my artist I used photoshop CS6 because it had such a wide range of editing options for each photo, you could add blurs, change the contrast colours or the brightness of the picture, you could add filters to photos, you could download additonal fonts to make it look as if it belonged to the indie genre and you could even edit out all of the background the you didn't need/ had to get rid of. To come up with my idea of the digipak I researched two existing ones that belonged to the same genre as our artist, that being Jack Johnson as in his digipak he had many photos, artwork and a track list for the audience, this inspired me to implement the same styles like the guitar being present with the artist, an artwork photo of the artist looking straight at the camera which were all conventions of the indie genre. I will now analyze all 6 slides of my digipak and what I used to create the pictures and how this demonstrated my understanding of the indie genre conventions.
The colour of the digipak's front cover was used so that only a slim amount of colour could be noticeable. The most obvious pf the colour present are black and white while the orange blends in with the orange brick wall. The purpose of the colour choice was to make the white and black stand out the most of all the colours, this is so the artist is clearly visible as well as the name of the album and the artist. The colour black for the artist connotes that he is dark and that his music is dark which is emphasized by the black guitar and black clothes, the writing at the bottom left also conveys this which just further emphasizes that he is a dark artist. I used two images for this first slide for a few reasons. The first image is the one with the artist, but because the background involved certain items that were not necessary i had to cut out the background and replace it with image 2 which the brick wall behind the artist. The reason why i used the effect of two images was so that the front cover/slide of the digipak seemed more realistic to the audience and they will then purchase the digipak based on the authenticity of it. The connotation of these two images put together is that the artist comes from an urban/rural area in which he had to play the guitar in order to get himself out of that lifestyle, urban/rural areas are often poorer than other areas, this ties in well with the indie convention of coming from a poor background. The layout/design of the front cover slide of the digipak was very important because every detail had to make it look realistic. One such detail was adding a shadow to the image with the artist which reflected onto the wall, the reason for this was so that it looked as if the artist was actually resting near the wall. The layout of the text was done so that it wasn't in the way of the artist so the audience knew what artist they were buying, it also created the effect that the text was like a piece of graffiti. The layout of the text and pictures that were used all tie in with the convention that the artist came from a poor area and because of this his music can come across as a bit more real or darker than other artists music which will make audiences buy his digipak so they can listen to something new. The typography was very important because I had to download a few extras to capture an indie effect. The typography that I used were all indie related fonts from a website, this was so that my digipak conformed to the indie genre. The typography in the digipak are all conventions of the indie genre but the connotation is that it's graffiti in a poor rural area, the poor rural area is a convention that's commonly used amongst a lot of graffiti artists.
The next slide of my digipak is my first artwork photo of the digipak, in every artists digipak there are at least two of these which are just additional pieces of content for the audience, nearly every one of these artwork photos are used to convey a deeper meaning that the audience are supposed to understand. Firstly lets take a look at the use of colours for the picture, when creating this specific artwork photo i deliberately increased the contrast so the colours were more colourful and each colour could therefore stand out much more, this is clear with the one of the buildings in the background being bright and blue where as the coins are clearly a dark tint of orange which makes it stand out from the rest of the colours in the picture, the brightness effected the colour of the pavement so that it wasn't too bright as it was before. The blue in the background will appeal to my target audience as blue is a conventional colour of the indie genre, the colours in this artwork slide are all dark colours, the pavement is dark the people in the background of the money box are dark apart from the sky and the building. Blue is the colour that represents sadness or depression, as most indie songs and artists have storys that are quite depressing or have a depressing tone, however these depressing songs/ stories that music artists tell come across as more real or relatable for the audience, which is why the target audience of indie fans would enjoy this digipak as they can understand it's the indie genre. The slide promotes our artist effectively because the audience will understand the connotation of our artist starting his career having little to nothing in terms of money but having to go to the city in order to make it big, they will also appreciate the songs as they can understand they're probably real events while he was starting out. There are only two images used in this slide but the images are exactly the same. The first one is the background of the original , i added a blur effect to it so it made the second image of the money box stand out from the background, i was then able to change certain details of the box so that it was either brighter or more colourful than the rest of the background behind it. The effect this has the audience is that they focus on the money box, it's central in the frame and is the most clear in frame, the audience will then think that the digipak is mostly about the artists struggles he had before becoming famous as he is now and that the digipak is a much more personal story. The layout/design were both very important for this picture to get right because if it wasn't, it would result in the picture looking unprofessional. The layout needed to be precise because the image showing the money box had to perfectly overlap the blurred background picture so the audience don't see the same thing twice. The design was incredibly important as well because the colours needed to show the difference in the two pictures so that the audience know what is supposed to stand out, the blur effect of the background makes the audience focus on the foreground which is the money box, the audiences attention is locked onto the box because it's much clearer than the rest of the slide. The layout will appeal to my target audience because they will understand the connotation of the money box being the absolute minimum of what our artist had yet the fact that my artist had no money will be central to the songs included in the digipak. This promotes my artist effectively because he comes across as a regular person who was lucky enough to make it into the music industry which will show the audience he wants to make music he know the audience will like as they are all indie fans.
This slide of the digipak is the disk slide, meaning that this will contain the disc that contains every song in the artist's album/digipak that the audience can listen to. The first element to look at is the colours of the picture, the audience from the disk can see orange, green, black and white. However the green is faded and blurred which means this isn't the important part of the disk. The colours black and white illustrate the genre conventions as they are dull colours or blank ones, however the orange of the album name pops out, this could mean while in a genre that is mostly dark with many artists' stories of how hard it was to get famous, the orange evokes that this artist is different in the genre and is unique. The audience will listen to the digipak's songs because of the orange colour which makes him stand out from other artists in the same genre. For this slide i used two images one being the picture of the artist and one which acts as a disk template, the white circle in the middle as well as the outer edge of the artists picture. The effect this created for the audience was that it made the digipak look more authentic so the audience were able to relate to it being more of an actual digipak. This appeals to my target audience as well as any audience because the images make it look realistic to an actual digipak. The way the picture of the artist looking out into the lake, represents him as looking into what the future could bring for him as he is looking forward, this relates back to the concept of the digipak about being stories of his hardships because the way he is looking could mean he's looking forward in the hopes that there are no difficult hurdles he must overcome. The layout/design of this slide was also extremely important due to the fact that there would be a CD in place so i had to make sure that everything about the CD would match to a real life one. Some choices i made are very much conventional to a standard digipak CD, the digipak name on the CD, the record producer is also featured on the disk and finally the little text on the left hand side of the disk is all about the use of copyright to the disk, this makes it look as though it is a real CD as they all include a copyright warning along the edge of the disk. The audience see that this is a real disk with an artists work on it, they want to listen to the album because of the layout as it looks like a real digipak CD, as long as it looks realistic enough, the target audience will listen to it. I used 2 types of typography/font on the disk slide. The first is the same used for the name of the digipak on the front, just the colour is different, again the orange being used to show he's different, the other use of font is a very plain and formal one on the side with all the copyright warnings along the edge of the CD. All of these design choices are so that the audience can actually believe this is a CD for a digipak that an artist created so this is why the typography is kept normal, as this is conventional to an actual CD. The language of the CD was kept formal, this is because when copyright warnings are made they are always formal. The effect this has on the audience is that they believe that this could be an actual CD for the digipak and it shows that the artist in question takes his music very seriously which makes the audience respect him a bit more.
This slide of the digipak is all about the artist thanking the audience for their purchase and their support for his efforts, this means there is much more text and language here than any other slide on the digipak, yet is just a short message for the audience. Firstly the colours that are present here have been present throughout the digipak, the 3 central ones are orange, white and black, there is green but it's faded so the audiences eyes aren't concentrated to that part of the slide. However these 3 colours orange, black, and white are all repeating colours in this digipak, the black and white relate to the conventions of the indie genre which makes indie fans believe it is an indie digipak which encourages them to listen to it, and the orange makes him stand out from the genre or the black and white so indie audiences want to listen to it so they can understand what is so original about this artist in particular. This means that the colours effectively promote my artist as an original artist in the indie genre and the audience will want to listen to him and buy the digipak to found out why he has been represented this way. There was only one image used here but I copied one and blurred the background of all the trees and pavement, this is so the audience focus on the artists positioning and the writing, the blur makes sure that side of the slide hasn't got too much of the focus. The images show that the important part of the slide is the right, where the artists appreciation of his audience is, this makes him come across as likable as he shows he only cares about his fans and how they see him as an artist which encourages them to talk about the artist or to buy the digipak. The layout and design were very important when creating this slide, the layout of the text had to make sure it didn't overlap the artist because this would make it look unrealistic, the design was important because the right hand side of the slide needed to look unimportant, this is why the blur effect has been used, to convey that the most important part of the slide is the artists words to his audience. The artists target audience will like this because they would probably by the digipak in the efforts to listen to his music but instead are thanked and cherished by the artist for buying the digipak which comes across as likable and down to earth. The typography was very important to get right for this slide, firstly i used the font/typography on the right as it looked like graffiti which conveys the poor area as poor areas commonly have a lot of graffiti, however the white writing is supposed to look handwritten but the artist himself almost as if he is giving the digipak his personal touch. This will appeal to the audience as it shows he used true stories of his own to write the music and he feels very proud of this digipak, this makes the audience build a relationship with the artist as he uses true stories for his songs. This promotes my artist as being passionate for his own craft in that he wants to be appreciated by his audience and wants them to know he worked very hard on the creation of the digipak. The language of this slide of the digipak isn't at all formal, however this was also important to consider. As stated, the language is informal and humble, he even shares a personal thanks from himself like when he writes "from the bottom of my heart" makes the audience feel as though the writing is genuine. This would appeal to my artists target audience because they would be flattered at the fact that the artist has gone out of his time to create a piece of additional piece of content and thanked them for their support which will build a relationship from the audience as well as the artist.
This slide is the second of the artwork pictures in the digipak as well as the last one for the artwork. This has a total lack of colour, most obvious one is black, there is also dark gray for the pavement and dark orange for the brick wall behind my artist. The whole look of this artwork image is bleak or gloomy, I decided this because the indie genre about being a bit darker than other genres. This artwork would appeal to my artist's audience because they will be fans of the indie genre and will like this style to an artwork as it shows the artists true feelings, as audiences of the indie genre like these deeper meanings. This promotes my artist as coming across as dark amongst his audience and his way of expressing his true emotions. The image that I have selected is an image where my artist is sitting down looking straight at the camera with a brick wall behind him. The image is conveying that the artist while writing his music and while the audience are listening to it, it's almost as if he is sitting down and talking about these stories and actually putting his emotions into what he is writing. The audience will like this because if he writes as if it is a personal story to another person and the audience members themselves, then they are able to build up a bigger relationship with the artist and his music. It promotes my artist as a person that just wants to tell his fans his story before he got famous which makes come across as a nice person because he wants people to hear his story. The layout and design of this slide was important when creating this slide, the brick wall behind the artist was to show that he came from a poor area, because it's behind him it's almost as if the layout suggests he tried to leave it behind him, the design choice of less colour was to symbolize the dark nature of the artist also because this colour made it seem conventional to the indie genre. The audience of my artist will appreciate these layout and design choices because indie audiences like knowing the deeper meaning to an artist, and most of time these artists portray something that is of a dark nature.
The last slide of my digipak is the tracklist which is a lost of all the songs featured in the digipak. In terms of colours, I have again decided on using the 3 main colours from earlier, black, white, and orange, the black and white connotes the indie genre and again the orange connotes the artist standing out in this genre, the website name which is my artists name is the part in orange which shows a clear direct correlation between the artist and his uniqueness when it comes to his music. The audience will understand this design choice and will want to listen to the songs because it shows that the artist stands out from the genre. The artists representation seen here is that he is a new and unique addition to the indie genre and that he wants people to listen to his digipak so that they can understand him. The image i have used for this slide is of the guitar rested up against a brick wall, the connotation of this image is that there is a direct correlation between the guitar and the wall, which is that the brick wall represents the artists past in his old urban town while the guitar represents the music my artist loves to make. The audience will find this appealing because they like these connotations that have been put into the digipak for their ideas on what certain slides are supposed to mean, which sparks discussion about the artists digipak which makes more people respect the artistic vision of the artist when he created it. This promotes my artist because as discussion between audiences begin of what certain pictures mean in the digipak, more people will then want to see why they're talking about it and also get involved in the fans discussions. The layout and design of this slide was important, the layout was made so that the track list was specifically to the left of the guitar as well as making sure the text didn't go over the guitar in the first place, the barcode and record label were also placed at the bottom because this wasn't meant to attract the audiences attention as well as the website. The design was done so that the text for the track list stood out specifically and the background image i designed so that the contrast was lower, meaning that a bit of colour was taken out from it. These layout and design choices compliment each other because they both accomplish the same task, which was to make the track list stand out against the background image. The audience will appreciate this because they can clearly see the order of the digipak's songs so then they could then talk about the song with their friends and recommend certain ones to them. This promotes the artist effectively because his audience are actually doing some of the advertising for him because they're recommending their friends to listen to certain songs. The typography was important to consider for this slide, i used the handwritten font that the artist's name was written in at the start of digipak an i also used a very plain and regular font for the website at the bottom. There are 2 effects of these fonts, the handwritten painted one comes across as if the artist himself has painted it on the wall and it also ties in well with the area he grew up in being poor so graffiti would probably be common on a lot of walls around that area, the plain font for the website was so that it looked professional for the audience and makes the digipak look more realistic. The audience will find this appealing because they will want to do some more research on this artist by going to the website to find out more about what hes doing next, tours etc. This promotes the artist because the audience are trying find about more about him and what he's doing next so that the fans can support him in his efforts. Finally the language for this slide is pretty basic and conventional in terms of track lists when it comes to creating digipaks, it is written in a list format and only includes the song titles/names so the first song for example is called "Two Fingers". The reason for this language choice is because that it looks realistic and would be the sort of language one would find on a track list for the digipak. The audience will find this appealing because it's informative as well as simple, they know what song is what because of the order that is specified in the track list. This promotes my artist due to the fact that fans will know the song titles and will start talking about them to their friends which gives my artist more fans.
One weakness i had using photoshop was cropping certain photos so details that weren't important were not in the frame. However i found this was very challenging and complicated because it seemed like whatever i did wasn't working. To overcome this, i asked someone for help who had experience and showed me that you only needed to press a certain button or to use a specific tool. One strength i had using photoshop was controlling the contrast and brightness of the images so that it would look much more conventional to an indie digipak in real life. I believe that utilizing this tool for the images to the best of ability was helpful to creating the digipak because it made my pictures look darker and overall, better looking than before.
I believe my digipak conforms to the indie genre conventions because there are many different elements included like close ups of the artists face, the instrument the artist plays, specific uses of different colours i.e. blue for sadness, orange to show he is unique. I think the this digipak would appeal to my target audience because they are indie fans and like music from that specific genre, however the digipak shows that he is a new addition and is original through the use of the orange text so they will listen to it in hopes for a new talent in their favourite genre. The digipak will make the audience build a relationship with the artist as it contains additional information about my artist that fans will like and it also includes a thank you for his fans which means he comes across as down to earth. It is, for these reasons, why i think my audience will relate to my artist.
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| Final Product |
After receiving the feedback form my target audience, i decided to go back and change/add some specific details to further advertise the artist to the audience so that the digipak is more appealing to their needs. The first slide I made a change to, in the order on the picture to the left, was the second slide or the first artwork photo, I added a lyric I thought was relevant to the video and the image, "run down some dark alleys, in my own head", the lyric is in the video and the image relates to times being hard for my artist like not having much money as emphasised by the empty money pot. The disc slide or the third slide I changed by adding a picture of a brick wall instead of the picture where my artist looked out into the lake, the reason for this was because the target audience, as well as myself, noticed there wasn't a clear connection between every picture of the digipak and that picture so it was replaced by a brick wall to connect the digipak with the CD slide. The next slide I changed for the digipak was the personal message slide, I only changed the colour of the fonts so the artist's name is orange and the message is white because when the message was orange, audiences found that it was hard to read so this is why i changed it. The last change made was to the 5th slide and I added a graffiti font in the background with some more lyrics for the song so that it doesn't look empty and pointless, I added a filter effect over the picture as well so that it looks grainy which shows my understanding of the genre and so that it shows my skills using photoshop.
