Finished Digipak

Here is our final digipak design which we created on the programme, Adobe Fireworks. 

Update 2

At the moment we are currently working towards getting our ancillary products finished ready for our deadline. We are close to finishing the advert. At the moment we are collaging on cardboard by sticking photographs which have been taken of the couple to it in the form of a heart image. We are also experimenting with different font types and colours so we can get the best result possible.  

Final advert idea

This is our final idea for our advert; we have decided to collage a selection of pictures of the boy and girl from our music video, showing different points in their relationship. We stuck these onto a cardboard cut-out of a heart which we will later stick the front cover of our album on, which is a polaroid photograph of the girl in a distraught state. She avoids eye contact with the audience on the front so that her feelings remain unreadable. Similarly the idea is simplistic like our others but it is much more emotive and touching than our previous ones. The collage will consist of both happy and distressed photographs of the couple emphasising how their relationship has gradually deteriorated. The collage makes the advert much more personal than the previous one as it acts as a photo album of their relationship.


Additionally, after researching into Christina Perri’s artwork we noticed that she uses her albums artwork as a method of documenting her relationships, we decided that this was an exciting aspect that we wanted to experience, which is why we decided to use the same method for our products.

Advert idea one - rough mockup

Similarly like our digipak, we decided we wanted to relate our advert to our music video. Our initial idea was to illustrate the literal meaning of ‘Jar of Hearts’ and portray that through image. This would result in our advert being easily recognisable for our audience as people could easily find the link between the song and advert.



The image shows a jar holding a heart; this would be a representation for the woman’s heart in the video being broken. In order to link to the digipak and disc design we would show the heart inside the jar with a little jigsaw shaped piece missing; this would then create a similar meaning to the rest of our ancillary products. It would also enable us to include a recognisable symbol of a heart in order to represent the woman. Additionally we wanted to experiment with the relationship of the two characters in our video, therefore we decided to include a string of polaroid photographs as a timeline, we decided on this because they link to the photographs used on our digipaks, they also would enable our advert to have a much more intense personal feeling than without them. We planned on using a pale colour tone with the advert as we wanted it to be pale and not to bright and excited as we felt this would portray the wrong meaning to our audience.

Overall we decided not to go with this advert idea as it was our initial idea and we hadn’t experimented with other aspects. It also didn’t show the desired amount of emotive meaning that we craved. On the other hand although the literal meaning of the advert would attract our desired audience the advert lacked the emotions.

Disk Design

We thought it would be a good idea to create a design for the discs inside our digipak. The right hand disc is the DVD that would accompany the album on the left side. In order to maintain the theme of romance and love on our ancillary products we decided to use a heart as the main image on both of our discs as it’s a constant reminder of the symbolisms of love that is featured in our music video. To keep the theme of heartbreak evident on our products we decided to show one heart with a jigsaw piece missing from it, this connotes the man stealing a piece of the girls heart. We decided to use the colour red to represent the high level of love she felt for her partner, also the colour represents her heart being full of life unlike the DVD disc which represents the man’s heart. We decided to make this disc black in colour to represent the lifeless and lack of emotion he had towards the girl. Also we see the piece of the girls red heart on his disc; this is a strong representation for her agony that has been caused due to him stealing a piece of her heart. Additionally, using the colours red and black are often signifiers of gambling, therefore using this colour scheme helped us to represent the fact that relationships are a gamble, sometimes they are worth the risk other times there not. Also the colours make each characters identity much clear to our audience as the colours contrast heavily.

Finally font wise we wanted something that looked handwritten and much more personal for discs; this would link to our desired effect of the journal. We thought that this idea would make our meaning come across as emotive as possible as the audience can see it as a way of the girl sharing her painful story.


Overall I thought that the use of hearts as symbols of their relationship links to our song choice being ‘jar of Hearts,’ It may not be a literal representation but it still links to some of the concepts in the song, such as heartbreak, trust and betrayal.

Final idea for digipak

The final idea for our digipak came as a result from our second idea, we really liked the idea of the diary holding the antagonist’s secrets within therefore we decided to stay along the same lines of a journal or scrapbook. As you can see on the rough mock up above we decided to use a long line of photographs of the couple hanging across all three pages of the digipak. The front cover itself consists of a polaroid photograph of the girl with tears and makeup running down her face as she faces away from the camera to avoid making personal eye contact with the receiver.  The photo will be in black and white in order to express the downhearted feel of the album. We decided to use polaroid style photographs in order to make the digipak much more personal, as you will often find polaroid photographs of couples very popular.


The photo will be hanging on a piece of string in the centre frame of the digipak as if they were hanging on a washing line. The string will continue onto the back cover and inside flap, the back cover will show a progression in the couples relationship through photographs which will hang in a sort of passport photograph style. They will show the distance slowly begin to increase in their relationship. The inside flap will show another polaroid photograph of the couple together where they will be shown happy and in love, unlike the other photos which will connote the decline in their relationship.

The inside of our digipak will have the track list and the design for the back of both discs. The track list will be in the centre, we went for our original idea of using the letter as this proves the most effective. Behind the two disks we have a collection of lyrics from Christina Perri which are written on ripped up pieces of paper which we have collaged together. On one side the lyrics are all focused on the loving side of a relationship whereas the other side are more focused on the heartbreak and betrayal of the relationship. Overall we wanted all of these aspects of the digipak to act as a journal for our female character in our video.

Digipak idea 3 - front cover and back

Our third digipak idea was based on traditional fairytales; we thought that this would fit with our videos theme. We wanted our digipak to tell a story just like our music video does therefore, the front cover was going to look like a traditional old style book, for example we would use a serif font to connote a sense of archaic times. For the track list we decided to use roman numerals in order to show the old nature of the book and emphasise the fact it’s outdated just like the love is in our video.

Furthermore, the idea would be based on fairytales so our plan was to make the inside become the pages to the story. We would use a typical fairytale discourse structure to show the story of the romance in our video.

I think the idea itself was very effective, most people think of their first love as their reason to be and therefore a fairytale, this meant that the idea for our digipak was very well suited to represent our video. In the end we decided against using this idea due to time pressures, if we would have had more free time this would have been the idea we would have gone for. The idea itself is very complex and therefore we had no choice but to keep it as an idea.

Digipak idea 2

The second idea we had for our digipak was heavily connected to our created music video for 'Jar of Hearts.' the idea consists on the theme of a sketch book or diary which would have been written by our antagonist character, the female character whose heart is broken by the man she loves. The cover itself consists of just a simplistic ribbon across the front; this represents a lock for the front of the diary, keeping others from getting involved. It could also connote that life can be simple if we keep other people separate from our feelings. We briefly thought about actually having a silk ribbon across the front of the digipak, this would make our album cover interactive and keep it looking attractive at the same time.


We decided to write the track list on a letter which is torn and manhandled, we thought that this would create a strong link between our digipak and our music video as the letter itself is a key aspect in the video as the audience cannot help but feel empathy for it as they watch it travel to reunite lovers. In our video the letter itself is heavily personified as it plays an important role in the narrative for our video.


However though, we decided that the front cover was far too simplistic to advertise Christina Perri who is a new artist and therefore relatively unknown in the UK.

Digipak idea 1

We mocked up this album design after being inspired by Damien Rice and his digipak cover. We collected a number of symbols and representations from the internet and used them to create our own design. The Japanese symbols used all connote the idea of 'love' a key concept in the video. I researched Aboriginal art to get a brief idea of what kind of art work would be suitable to fit our album that we could make our own. In the end we decided to not use this cover as we understood what it meant but wasn’t sure if our audience would without us explaining beforehand, also it doesn’t really link well with our video.

As a group we all liked the idea of using symbols for our digipak as they are simple yet touching, like the meaning behind the song 'Jar of Hearts'. All of Christina Perri' songs are deep with emotion so at first symbols seemed a good way to make the digipak as diverse as the song choice. Later our teacher pointed out to us that it would be difficult for us to maintain the meaning through symbols all over the digipak as there was only so many we could actually use without them being random. Therefore we decided against using symbols.

Digipak Analysis 1,2& 3

Fall out boy


The imagery of this digipak shows that the characters clearly have a relationship; the fact that one is an actual bear and the other is a character in a bear suit shows a connection between the two. ‘Folie a Deux’ is French for ‘a madness shared by two’ this is represented on the cover by the positioning of the characters. Similarly, it also means a rare psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms such as paranoia or delusional belief is passed one from one individual to another. This suggests that the artists have created an album based on the madness of human beings.


This digipak uses very simplistic colours which is a common convention of album covers for the rock-pop genre. The use of very basic colours makes finding the meaning behind the album more difficult and therefore you are much more reliant on pragmatics. I don’t think that the meaning behind the imagery is evident after a first glance. An example of this would be that sometimes simple colours can be a connotation of madness; people tend to associate simplicity with problems with the mind. The colours used on the bears show that they are familiar with each other; it could also suggest they share the same state of mind as each other. Also the name of the album ‘Folie a Deux’ is the same colour as the bear suit, signifying that the album is about them two characters. The band name is in a white font, this could suggest that the artists are attempting to distance themselves away from the madness of the album itself. Additionally, the spine colours are all different; this could suggest an ever changing state of mind is present with this digipak.  


Also, the back cover connotes to the idea of being mad as the characters are shown to be a mirror image of each other, this could be very confusing for the audience. Halls theory of encoding and decoding is evident on this product as it’s up to the audience how they decide to decode the message behind the images.  Also the track names could also represent insanity, for instance some of the song names ‘Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet’ uses incorrect grammar choices, and the random capitalisation is a modern discourse structure that is evident on the track list. This could be seen as a representation of the randomness of the characters minds as the album indicates insanity. The track ‘w.a.m.s’ is written in lower case letters whereas the others are all capitalised, this is basically reversing the norm and going against typical conventions of track lists that the fans will be used to.

The colour red seems to be dominating the digipak, this could represent that insanity is about to take over the person who is exposed to the album. Similarly on the albums spine the same font is used that is on the front of the album, this is often a convention of album formats as it enables browsers to easily find the album. 

Nicki Minaj


This digipak visualises the reoccurring motif of the artist. Nicki Minaj is a current and very popular solo singer who is well known for her love of neon bright colours. The colours used on the digipak make it easy for her fans to relate to the album as they can associate the colours used with the colours that are represented with the artist herself. The album is part of the hip hop genre and therefore is aimed at a much different audience than the Fall Out Boy album is. The colour pink is associated with the Nicki Minaj as it’s the colour that she wears most in her videos, it’s also the name of this album, therefore emphasising that pink is her colour and this is her album so if you like it then it’s the kind of music for you, if you can relate to the artists passion for colour.


Everything on the digipak fits with the context and conventions of the artist herself, for instance her clothing is very luxurious and a common reoccurring trend that is associated with the artist. She likes to create her style through visual aspects, for example by wearing extravagant outfits that come across to the audience as being wild and out of control, the message behind this could be, don’t be afraid to be different, be whoever you want to be even if it isn’t the norm.


Mulvey’s theory of male gaze is evident on this digipak as the creator is using the artist’s attractiveness in order to visually draw in the demographic audience which wouldn’t really come across as being part of the target audience in any other aspect.


The simplistic font and text size enables the artist to remain being the centrally anchored image and therefore the sole focus of the digipak and not the lettering or wording. The word ‘pink’ is written in pink colouring to match the connotations of the word, the fact that it is in a separate font could be seen as a way of reminding the audience that the artist is part of this album as pink is associated with Nicki herself. Furthermore, the font is written in a very typical ‘girly’ fashion, it’s very cursive and feminine, some very typical conventions of the artist.


The back of the digipak follows the exact same colour scheme as the front cover, the colour pink again is a big influence over this current record, this makes the album itself obvious to its desired target audience. Her perfectly straight hair and athletic body figure will attract an audience for her appearance as well as her music; this is very similar to other female artists such as Katy Perry and Rihanna. The track list itself is very simple and muted; this keeps the focus on the artist and also adds a sense of innocence the album as the pale colours are all associated with feminism. The record labels and institutions are anchored into the bottom left hand corner so that they are one of the last things the audience sees, this is done so that the focus is on the music and the artist and not the record company its self.

Finally the album has other typical conventions, such as the record company’s details, the record label and a barcode. These discourse markers are found on all albums as they make them easier to be identified it also is a way of advertisement for the record companies as they know that all the fans of the artists are going to see their name on the back, therefore expanding their fan base.


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Arctic Monkeys

 I have looked at digipaks from three different genre types; this one is from the indie genre. The cover itself is very simple and very basic. The only thing that stands out on the cover is the text; the idea behind this is so that it grabs the attention of the fans because it’s so plain. The quote on the front cover is positioned perfectly in the centre of the page so that the audience’s eyes are automatically drawn to that arrangement. The use of bold block capitals contrasts massively with the cream coloured background of the digipak; this makes the quote itself noticeable to an audience member interested in the album.

The back of the digipak is very similar to the front cover; the back is cream with a very similar font style to the front. The album seems to have gone against regular conventions of merchandise by putting the name of the band ‘Arctic Monkeys’ on the back of the album and nowhere on the front. This is evidence of the bands individuality and personality coming out for their fans to see.

The name of the album is ‘suck it and see’, this has been used in order to add a hint of humour to the album for the fans, this again could be some of the artist’s personality coming out. The quote could have some connotations which are not suitable for young audiences; therefore I think that the name of the album makes the target audience much more 16+. The songs on the track list are very simply written, they are in a column, a very typical way or arranging tracks, there is nothing unusual about the layout of them. The column is right in the centre underneath the artists name so that its one of the most obvious things to the audience so that it creates a strong selling point.

The inside of the digipak is one large image which stretches along the two sides; we have used this technique in our own digipak for ‘Love strong’ by Christina Perri. The image is of the band in an open environment, it looks as if they are on a hilltop. There is a distorted, colour grain effect over the image which makes it difficult to get a clear picture of the band members, this technique is intended so that they are not revealing themselves fully to the audience, and this fits with the album being very simplistic. The framing of the band shot is perfect as it’s more to the right hand side; this enables the audience to admire the bands surroundings as well as the artists. The image in the centre is very colourful compared to the front and back which is very neutral, I think that this is a representation for sometimes you have to look for what’s inside of something and not just what’s on the outside as colours come from within. This is just my interpretation for this digipak.

Update

We are now thinking about our auxiliary products; we have decided to do a digipak and a magazine advert promoting the release of the album, we choose this as we already have experience in creating adverts from our previous year.


We looked at Christina Perri’s album cover for inspiration but found that the album design wasn’t really what we were looking for as we didn’t have access to a model who we could take photos of that would allow our album to be as meaningful as hers.