Production: first day of creating digpak

After the group discussion where we discussed alternative album names and colour themes and song titles, I began creating the front and back of the digipak on Photo shop.

 To begin I looked to my draft of initial ideas which gave me a rough idea of the font I wanted, and colours, originally I decided on the album name Autumn, this is due to the music video scenery, which was shoot in the autumn season; I believed an earthy colour scheme would suit this name well, therefore I looked towards using natural colours such as berry red, browns, orange tones, I experimented with these colours in my first session of the digipak production. 

The aim for my first day of editing was to set up the base of of a digipak, for example the spine, and border, I also wanted to get familiar with the software, I experimented with different fonts I felt suit the image I wanted to portray.

Unfortunately I hadn't had the artist photo shoot hence I couldn't edit the pictures into the digipak. 

Overall I believe this session allowed me to develop my familiarity with the Photoshop, also I could understand what I had to do to achieve the final digipak.

Ancillary: Photoshoot

In preparation for the ancillary products it was vital we had images of the artist, hence I planned a photo-shoot  in 'Abney Park' a location used in the music video. I felt this location would be idealist as the scenery is amazing as well as the location connecting the digipak and poster to the music video, people would be able to relate the artist to both.

here is an hand full of photos taken on the day of the photo-shoot, there were over a hundred pictures taken and therefore I had enough to choose from, we had to retake pictures in similar poses to ensure the lighting is good and to give more option. The artist was fully prepared for the photo-shot we discussed the style we wanted to maintain the style she portrayed in the music video yet a little more glamorous, she provided a change of costume and worked well to deliver the shots which would work on the ancillary products.

Ancillary: Mock up for Poster

This is the poster mock up, I felt it was vital to include the artist I wanted a shot of the artist preferable centre, so the audience are drawn straight towards her, and I wanted to use a font which contrast to the background so it stands our, as you can see the background is pale whilst all text is vibrant, the important information such as the name of the album, the artist name and when it's release I felt was vital to have in larger fonts in positions it is easily read, for example I placed the artist name as well as the Album name 'autumn' at the top, because naturally our eyes will read from top to bottom therefore established what it was and conveyed that information first. I felt included the same location as both the digipak and video would make sense.

Ancillary: Mock up for Digipak

Here is the mock up for the digipak, previously I planned the colour scheme and the album name also the location; I followed my initial ideas to create a mock up which represents my ideas, I included my planned colour schemed and wrote my planned song names on the back. I followed conventions such as having bar codes, writing on the back, a clear shot of the artist on the front and necessary information. Although my main mistake is on the back I put the production details on the top, when it's idealistically on the bottom. I felt my mock up gave me a good insight on what I wanted to create whilst using photoshop.      

The inside of my digipak I planned to also include pictures from the same location as the music video. The cd I intended to have some sort of relevance to the artist and the video so I though a picture of a statue used in the music video would be nice, on the left hand side I wanted to make it personally to Emine, therefore I put her signature as well as some personal words quoted from the artist herself, commenting on her music.                 

This is again another aspect of the production process. This is not of the album, but of the print advertisement which will be included in a range of magazines and/or newspapers. So far, the advertisement is completed but also requires the image of the artist. The final image used for the advert will be my favourite of the two photos used  on the digipak. 

Digipak: Inspirational Ideas.

Whilst creating my digi-pak, firstly I wanted to express my artist character, hence I considered where she is from, she is a London girl hence I decided it would make sense, to convey this in the album, I then thought I would incorporate this by creating pictures in the location of London.

I want to show her personality so whilst taking the pictures for the digi-pak I plan to direct the artist to create natural poses which show different side of her personality.

Most digi-paks have some representation of a music video or a song within the album, the song 'Heaven' which my group created a music video for. Keeping this in mind I plan for my artist to have religious items on and dressed conserved. This is represenative of her personal beliefs also, her audience may relate.

As the title name is autumn, the colours of this season have inspired the colour scheme for my digi-pak

Digipak: Group Planning.

Group planning for the digi-pak was apart of the process of creating an individual digi-pak. This was beneficial as is evoked more ideas, and allowed others to advise and critique ideas.

In our group we came up with as shortlist of album names, although we discussed different names. We never agreed on a single name, for example I decided of having the album name 'Autumn' I felt drawn to this title because the pictures of the artist  I'm using have an autumn theme.

Then we had to discuss a colour scheme although we all had idea's we also decided on settling on our own choices. Personally I felt I wanted to go for warm earthy colours which compliment the title 'autumn'.

We came up with a list of names for the songs:

1. Beauty(intro)
2.Patience
3.Heaven
4. I need
5.Again
6.Always here
7.Brunette
8.Love

Ancillary Product: Introduction.

Whilst looking at the music industry, statistics shows overall artist make most profit within selling merchandise rather than musics, with the increase of illegal downloading and access to listen to songs through internet means profit is being lost within music. Therefore looking at the advertisement side of the music industry it is prominent to promote artist by distribution other products than CD's.

Products include:

These products are important, to engage a wider fan base, for example those who see a top with an artist face on are likely to gain interest in discovering the artist. Clothes and posters are a good example of promoting the artist identity. These products are usually sold at concerts or online, and each thing usually sells for a limited time, this makes sure they gain maximum profit as people won't delay buying products.

Research: Examining Previous Ancillary Work.

During our introduction to the Ancillary production, we were asked to examine previous student work, this way we can identify what makes a successful piece of work.

Holly Grant:

First of all we have the promotional poster, considering the artist genre of pop the design is complimentary, the colours are bright and contrast well, vital information such as the release date, reviews, the artist name and the name of the album are clearly presented, although there's a number of fonts used they work well together. The artist has her signature which makes the advertisement more personal touch. The artist character is portrayed well and the artist is easily identified.

Secondly the digi-pak is presented, the theme is consistant to the advertisement, personal touches like the signature is presented again, hence the audience will be able to identify her brand, it's important to capture the artist personality and this digi-pak does so, likewise to the poster the colour theme portrays its pop culture perfectly. The artist is seen in different shots which give the digi-pak more character, cute logos also set the genre well. The border is simple yet works well all information is clear therefore this makes successful digi pak and promotion.

Here is another example of a student digi-pak from the previous year, unlike the first one this present a colour theme which doesn't contrast well, the tones are too similar and the font colour is also too close to the background, therefore it is hard to comprehend the conveyed text. The font is too small to read, and the pictures are unrepresentative of it's genre, there is no clear genre portrayed, the thought behind creating this lacked creativity and acknowledgement towards it's genre, all information is included yet is hard to see. The positives of this include the photoshop skills.

This digi-pak, portrays the artist character well, includes and conveys all necessary information clearly, with fonts which compliment eachother, the choice of font colour against the grey background was clever as all information stands out, the font for the title portrays a genre well, connoting a rapping style, the creativity is simple yet works well. 

Screenshot of digipak in production - photoshop

Here is a brief step by step guide of the production process behind creating my digipak. It was quite hard and stressful at the time because as I said before I am not too good with photoshop. However though, I have done quite well to the extent that what I visioned has come to life; I wanted to create an elegant yet timeless brand that would represent the artist Emine Parker. The black and white theme was still used and even with all the edit effects etc that I came across I still stuck to what I thought would be suitable. As of yet, I have not taken a range of photos of the artist so this is all that is required then I will be done! If this is not done during the holidays I will do this during the first lesson back.