CD Digipack - Back Cover

I wanted to make the back cover of the music video personal for the audience as it is a concept that would influence me to purchase a CD. The photobooth style images represent the artists character and also the person that she is trying to represent to her audience, mainly bubbly and silly  which will connect to a younger audience of teenagers and girls.

Final Music Video Issues

Our music video is fully edited, but we will look through it once more to see if we can add or change anything if we aren't happy with it anymore. Unfortunately, the video wouldn't upload to YouTube yet and we have tried to save it in other places to upload it, but it hasn't worked, so in the new year, we hope to have it uploaded and edited fully.

Process of Editing the Back Cover

This is a screenshot of the process of creating the back cover of the CD. Currently I used Apple iPhoto to edit and crop the photos into black and white, then I used picmonkey to make a collage. I am now in the process of adding the song list. However I a not happy with the white border that surrounds the black and white collage therefore I think I will remove it and then begin adding the song list.

CD Front Cover

This is one of my final edits of the front cover for the CD. I took a picture of Lauren and edited it on the software: picmonkey.com. I have isolated the image by colouring it in black and white and then have coloured the background in a dark pastel pink. I then used the font Geo Sans Light for both artist's name and the title of the album. I have made two copies where the second you can see the colour on her lips. I think I prefer the full black and white one, as the colour looks odd in not contrasting with the pink background. I really like the way I have used the contrasting colours because it makes both colours and image stand out, making it eye catching to the audience.

Front Cover CD First Draft

This is a first draft version of what I am thinking the front of the CD will look like. I have used Picmonkey.com as the photo editor. We have thought of the light pastel pink theme to be used throughout of the CD, so I have used that as a background colour. I really liked the contrast of the black and white colour for her facial features; however I think that the black and white needs to be a lot stronger in colour. I used Lauren's name as the artist and have flipped her name background to show some originality and have then added the title of the CD album in italics, using the same font throughout. I think this definitely needs some work done to it, but we are liking where the design is taking us.

Audience Feedback

This is out audience feedback for our draft music video.
There's relatively good reviews. Most of the improvement comments include shortening certain clips.

Magazine Advert Ideas

In our advert we are going to use the key conventions:

• title of album and artist.
• release date. 
• photo of artist.
• record label. 
• reviews (stars). 

For our magazine advert promoting our CD album, we will choose three main concepts and a positive message for the audience.

Our three main concepts are:

• fun - youthful outlook to target a specific audience. 
• love - this is a common relatable topic to be linked with the music. 
• power - the song has a strong message of girl power and we think that this is a vital concept we need to pursue. 

For the use of colours we will use: 

• vibrant colours - we need the page to stand out to attract as many people as possible, whether that is our target audience or not. 
• aesthetically pleasing colours - we want our viewers from our audience to be attracted to the colours of the album. This would be the first clear way of showing our creativeness in the music. 
• a girly colour palette - colours that link with the music and the artist herself. 

Magazine Advert Research

Magazine Advert Research

Magazine Advert Research

Magazine Advert Research from amy_tse

I have found an advert in a magazine, advertising a CD by Bob Dylan. I have analysed this using Google Slides. I looked at the layout, the font and text used and the usual conventions in a music advert.

3 CD Cover Remakes

The CD cover to the left is the original and I have recreated this by using some graph paper, which I then downloaded a typeface that was similar to the artist's name on the correct CD cover. I then added a colour over it and tried to edit it the same, but struggled with the white boarder over the letters. I really like how simple it is and how different is, because not many CD covers I have seen has used graph paper as a background. The codes and conventions used in this cover is the name of the artist. It doesn't however follow the convention of having the artist's photo on the cover. From this we could use something very simplistic, yet it would work effectively.

   Here I have made a design of a Van Halen CD. I found the baby angel with the cigarette and I used a similar text to create the artist's name. I then coloured this a red tinge, however I found it difficult to get the gradient with the shade of black running through the text. I then added the roman numerals and duplicated it so it was the same on both sides of the name title. For this album it follows the convention of having the artist's name and possibly the title of the CD; however again, it doesn't feature the image of the artist. Instead it has a picture that doesn't particularly have any relevance. This could suggest that for our CD cover we could use pictures that doesn't hold any relevance.

To the left is my remake of the Led Zeppelin CD. I found this quite difficult to remake because I couldn't find an exact match of the apartment blocks that they used to create their CD cover. I used a text overlay and a similar text to make the artist's name blend into the apartments. I also changed the brightness and contrast and added a sepia filter to match with the sepia tone used in the original CD. I then added the different lettering on the windows and similar positions to where they were on the original. I found this the most difficult because I couldn't find the exact position for them.  For this album, they included the title of the CD and the artist linking to the codes and conventions for a CD cover. However, again they went against using the artist's face for the front cover.



CD Cover Ideas

Front Cover

Inside Left

Inside Right (where CD is)

Back Cover

3 CD Covers Research

I went to HMV and looked at the CD racks and chose 3 CDs that caught my eye.

Green Day: American Idiot

This was the first CD that caught my eye. It caught my eye because the colours really contrast with each other. The text is also very big and blocked up, similar to the image of the heart grenade. I looked at the song list and American Idiot is one of their songs; it doesn't link to the image on the side of it, however I really like the use of imagery of the heart and grenade as it suggests the type of music that is on the CD. For the codes and conventions they have followed it by using their artist name and title. This isn't in our genre as it is more punk rock and grungy, which can be seen from the style of the CD cover.

Panic! At The Disco: Death Of A Bachelor

This CD really caught my eye because of the high use of colour and the busyness of it compared to the first album that I saw. I really like the creativeness through the use of the line work to make it look animated against the real image behind it of the pool and the person to the right hand side. I also like how small the text is as it doesn't ruin the effect of the image; however it may mean that if people were looking for this artist, they would find it difficult to find because it isn't selling the artist's name in big letters like Green Day's. They have featured the artist in this CD cover, as well as stating the name of the artist and the title of the CD, therefore following the codes and conventions of a CD cover. This is partially in our genre, it has some punk influences, however there are aspects of pop in the music too.

Catfish & The Bottlemen: The Ride

Lastly, I this album caught my eye because of the simplicity of it. I really like how effective, yet simple it still is. With the use of one image it could represent the album or the artist in some way. The contrasting colours is a really simple idea again, with the use of black and white. I think that the image is also effective and eye catching because it is in the centre of the CD cover. In this they have used an image of the alligator, not following the convention of having the picture of the artist, however they have used the name and title on the cover.

HMV Interview

We went to a local HMV to ask the manager questions about the store and costumers:

1. What is your customer base at HMV?

2. Why do you arrange the store the way you do?

3. How do DVD sales compare to CD sales? Why is this?

4. How do you encourage people to come into your store?

5. What strategies do you use to compete against internet downloads?

3 CD Covers Research

I went to the local HMV shop, and on the CD aisle I scanned for the 3 CDs which first catch my eye. This is the results:

First one is from Twenty-one Pilots; Blur Face

The first thing that my eye was drawn too was the pattern on the spine, I like the contrast of the black and white. Then I looked at the grid like circles in the middle, I like the structure. Also, I like how there's also some colour dotted around, and the mixed up patterns. The title is also unique, I like the line. Overall I like the simplicity but how everything links to each other, via colour and pattern. This can help us create similar ideas make out whole album link to each other. 

Codes and Conventions- this album doesn't have the artist featuring on the front cover, it can be seen as eccentric considering the design. But this is targeting to  certain audience, it doesn't sell the image of the artists but the genre of music.    

I don't think this would work with our artist, as we want to sell the image of the artist. However, the design is interesting and I think we can be inspired by it.  

Second one by Tom Odell; Wrong Crowd

The first thing that my eyes were drawn to was the artist face, specifically the eyes as they are placed at the most conspicuous place. The overall colour scheme is grey and warm pink. The most artistic aspect is the font title. I like how it curves around the face, and also the colour. I think this type of cover is most suitable for out artist/ song type.

Code and Conventions- this album is the most similar to what we want our album to look like. It has the typical conventions with the artists face and album name. However, it doesn't have the artists face. This shows that only the target audience will recognize the face, which wouldn't work with our artists as she is still unknown.

Lastly Chvrches; Every Open Eyes

The first thing I was drawn to was the colours, I like the shades of pink. When you look closely, you see the pixilated image of flowers. This stood out to me. I found this to be very creative, and I think t could link well with out genre type.

Codes and Conventions- It has the artist name and album name, however like the first one it doesn't feature the artists face. 

But I like the concept of the design and the colour scheme matches ours.

CD COVER DRAFT



This is a very basic edit of my first initial idea of our CD cover. I have used the image of the artist on the front cover with the artist's name along the side. I have used a simple text because I feel as if, if there was too much abstract lettering it wouldn't flow right. On the flip side of the CD cover I have used the title of the main song, with the glitter layering over it, because it is simple, yet also effective. The picture where the CD goes, which contains the circle has the flowers on the outer sides, which I like that encases the CD. The black background against the flower I feel doesn't go as well as I thought it would, but this is where the songs would be listed next to it. I think I am going to have another go at a CD cover draft and explore some more ideas because I am not entirely happy with this edit. 

Draft CD cover

 

This is a draft that I made for our artist. I used the albums I researched as inspiration.

The theme I went for was love and war. I used the idea of two contrasting images and put them together: flower, innocence/ gun, corrupted. The overall theme went darker than originally expected, but I like the outcome. The genre it gives off is more rock than pop, however with a few changes this can be amended.

3 Cover Remakes

Coldplay- Vida la Vida

I used a picture of the French Revolution painting from google. Then I found the most similar font online. However I couldn't recreate the paint.

This album cover uses a well known painting of the French Revolution, then used a font like a paint brush. There's also paint splattered across the cover.

The whole theme presents the band as being eccentric, but also playful with the use of the font and paint. Because the colour is white, the overall effect isn't as dark as it would be if it were red...

The font type can be used to inspire our album, as it's playful. The overall theme of war also links to our theme or war paint...

 

 New Order- Power, Corruption, Lies

I took a photo of flowers, then on a PowerPoint document I copied the photo into two. I first photo I used at the background: into grayscale and used an effect. The second one I reduced the vibrancy of the flowers and got rid of the background, then placed it on top of the first photo. I then used shapes to create the boxes on the top right.  

This album cover is very simple, using only a picture and few symbols.

The overall image of this picture is primarily less dark to when you read the title. Because there is no title, it's dark to guess what the music inside may be about.

The idea of flowers does link with out artist. 

 

VHS Orbeta- Bring on the Comets

I used acrylic paint and made interesting textures, which I then took a picture of and edited online. I changed the vibrancy, and then added a textbox to create the text.

 

 The album has an explosion of colours, which can link to out artists theme of war paint. The vibrancy of the colours is effective, we could use this. The overall image is very simple, overall the last three albums has a feel of more rock genres. But there are certain aspects which we can use as inspiration.  

 

Word Cloud

We created this word cloud by separately coming up with as many words as possible and then combining them together. This then made it obvious that  many of our words such as 'love' and 'girl power' were similar.

Cover re-make (The Hives)

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I used Adobe Fireworks to re-create this album cover. I found it quite challenging as the album cover is square and the photo that we took was very wide and therefore it was challenging to fit it all in. I like the use of black and white however it was slightly too dark for the album cover. If I were to do this again I would edit the photo into black and white first and then start the editing. If I had more time I would crop all the people from the photo and add them together again but put them closer together. I would make the girl with the piece sign larger and more at the front to show the 'V' clearer.

CD cover remake: Rihanna

The album has a picture of the artist, who is presented as posing sensually. The title is in a big font which helps it stand out. The colour of the font is red, which again is linked to the theme of sensuality. name of the album is 'good girl gone bad', which is relatively small and in white font. Overall, what stands out the most is her red name title, this especially against the contrasting bright green background.

The genre of the album is pop. This is shown by the themes of the cover: firstly the artists is dressed glamorously, similar that to artists within popular culture. Furthermore, the colours used are vibrant.

 

Codes and Conventions- Picture of the artist, Name of the artist, and album title. However the whole layout it simple.

The genre of this artist is also pop, which makes this cover relevant to our artist. It's very image based cover. Also the image she is presented in is sensuality, however the image we want to present our artist is girl confidence (more modest.)

 

When editing, I found it hard to gradient the background on the software I used. Also the colours are not completely similar. The best thing about the remake was the title, I think I got the font right as well as the colours.   

CD Recreation: Paolo Nutini

I have recreated the Paolo Nutini album - 'These Streets' on Adobe Fireworks. I have layered each of the different colours and darkened each rectangle that I layered. I also downloaded the Paolo Nutini fonts and layered that on top. The top photo is my edit of the real one, which is below. I have also found a separate font to produce the title of the album. To create the high contrast image, I used picmonkey.com and edited the picture first.  




They have used a variety of bright colours and have sectioned them for each band member. This could suggest their image of being a fun, bubbly band. They have followed the convention of having their artist name and title of the album on the front cover. I don't this album would be effective for our genre as it looks more acoustic by looking at the acoustic guitars as props for their album cover.

CD Analysis

Cd analysis from amy_tse

I have analysed a CD of my choice and have looked at how the artist's CD is laid out, the colours used and if it fits the genre. I think that this could possibly be effective to help us design our own album cover because the singer is pop based.

JLS CD Analysis

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-XjE2l2tdcDXdAG7BZtEb61kvJrPf-XNDHfMMDYVcIo/edit#slide=id.p

Digipack genre analysis

Mary: Editing and Filming update

For the past 2 weeks we have been filming, and then editing.
While we edit we started to realise that we had limited footage, so we had to go out and film more shots.

Furthermore, we re-filmed a certain location because we found that the dimmed lighting made the quality of the footage go grainy. So instead of using a darker background we put our singer in front of a white background. I personally think that this works out better for the overall theme of the music video. And the quality is much better.

    

These clips shows us playing around with some glitter. We wanted to use the idea of colours and glitter as a concept. We tried to show glitter falling down, but we found that the glitter was too fine to be picked out by the camera. But when we zoomed in, the glitter creates reflected coloured circles which we liked and put on our video as an overlay. This is scene in the first clip as the title comes in. We also experimented with putting overlays of flowers blooming, which we liked so it's featured a lot.

Rough Cut ^                                                         Raw Clip 3 ^


The third raw clip was filmed in school on a frosty day, we decided to take advantage of the weather and took some scenery footage.

Examiner Report Digipack

We have started our research for .....
After reading the examiners report from last year, we have come to 6 conclusions.
Three aims to do, to create a good product.
And also, Three things to avoid or watch out for.


In the next week we will start to research more about the current industry and what types of covers are affective. We will then make one ourselves, based on the research we made.

Editing

We haven't uploaded a post in a while and this is because we have been spending our time editing. We have found lip syncing is quite difficult, but when it reaches the correct point of the song it is starting to build together. We have also been coming up with more creative ideas, where we have used glitter for an overlay as seen in the right hand editing screen. We are still filming some pieces to add to the video because we find that there are still some pieces missing.