Analysis of My Own Digipak Design

EXPLANATION OF MY DIGIPAK DESIGN:-


















IMAGERY:


Colour Scheme: Jewel colours give the appearance of quality and make the consumer want to look closer and admire the design. I chose to keep the image of the starry sky (and nebula) blue as it reminded me of The Empire of the Sun's album cover. The orange of the nebula creates interest.

Stars: This image is from Nasa.com. I was inspired by Little Boots' album cover to include this. These images of space are frequently used in 'indie' covers:- for example Friendly Fires and Empire of the Sun. To me, it illustrates to the consumer how their music will act as a means of escapism. Alternative music, to me, tries to be different and unique deliberately; the way space is seen as being so different to Earth is maybe a link into their own 'difference'.

Legs with Rollerskates:

• The rollerskates are a symbol of fun, youth and the youth's need to speed through life. The target audience of Alternative music like ours would be a young group of people who may stick to the motto: Live Fast, Die Young.
• The rollerskates also link into the idea of speed and thus the title of the album: Look At That Rabbit Go!
• The positioning of the legs makes the girl they belong to look as if she is sitting on a cloud and dangling her legs happily. This evokes a happy image of her and thus links to the band's name Happiness. (I say that she looks like she's on a cloud only because of the rest of the design being of the sky).

'Rabbit' from the video sitting down: Used for synergy and continuity.


'Rabbit' from the video standing up: Used for synergy and continuity.



The fact that the images are starry: Reinforces the other-worldly-ness. It gives continuity to the design and 'pulls' it all together.



Polaroid picture with 'Rabbit' from the video sitting down: Polaroid photographs are linked to the youth and their current obsession with speedy results, creativity and vintage goods. Polaroids are 'cool' within the young Alternative consumer group. To reinforce this, you would not stereotype a RnB consumer to use a Polaroid camera!



FORMAT:

Sans-serif font: Conotes moderninity. Would appeal to the young target audience because of this. For instance, the target audience would not be attracted if the font was Times New Roman!

The fact that the font is starry: Reinforces the other-worldly-ness. It gives continuity to the design and 'pulls' it all together. Would appeal to the young target audience.

The sticker: Inspired by other digipaks I have seen. I have given it a colour that I have already used in the imagery on my digipak, so that it 'pulls' it all together. I have made it round, mainly because other stickers are generally this shape on digipaks, but also because for aesthetic appeal. I have tilted the text on the sticker so as to give it an appearance of being casually stuck on. This casual placement reflects the casual attitude of both the band and the listeners. Casual and careless is 'cool' to youth.

The sticker giving information about bonuses: Gives the consumer a feeling that they should buy the product as they will be a part of an elite minority who has the chance to see 'Limited Edition' footage.


The list of songs: No title to show what the list is of. We assume the consumer knows from experience.

The list of bonuses: A titles is given as bonus formats are not usually given. The word 'Exclusive' in 'Exclusive Interview' attracts the consumer as they feel as if they are part of an elite minority who has the chance to see 'Exclusive' footage.


The small print: a universal feature of a digipak. Implies professionalism.


The barcode: a universal feature of a digipak. Implies professionalism.

Digipak - Progress

I've been using Adobe Photoshop to edit different components together to construct my final digipak.
*a CD
*the small print from The Futurehead's digipak
*a polaroid from Google.com/Images
*a picture of rollerskates and legs from Flickr.com
*a photo of the protagonist from our photo shoot
*stars from NASA.com





























Inspiration: Little Boots' album; Friendly Fires' album; Empire of the Sun's album.

Inspiration for Final Digipak. [[Friendly Fires]]

Inspiration for Final Digipak. [[Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream]]

Inspiration for Final Digipak. [[Little Boots - Hands]]

DIGIPAK OF 'LITTLE BOOTS' - AN ALTERNATIVE SINGER

ELEMENTS THAT I LIKE:
The use of the starry sky
The use of an image the main girl
The simplicity of the information given (just the Singer's name and the title of teh album)







The use of the stars, as well as the triangle is quite common in Alternative bands' album covers.

Maybe I could incorporate these so as to conform to the genre.











I don't wish to include numbers on my song list, as it is quite old fashioned in my opinion, and I want to portray moderninity.

I like the composition here. I would like to have an image on the right and the song list on the left.









I wish to have the same theme of background running through my digipak. Here, you can see that the pastel coloured sky is used for each section of the 'pak.

Second Try at Designing the Album Cover - JUXTAPOSITION

For this try-out I have experimented with an image that juxtaposes the word 'Happiness'.

I have used sans-serif text to appeal to the modern target audience.

Hoever, it seems quite lacking - Compared to other Alternative covers which are generally quite messy and don't use much white space.

I need my composition to be a lot more crammed (if that's the word?) so to appeal to the target audience. The target audience would be a youth group who would favour carelessness and casualness over neat and tidy.

However, I will keep the modern sans-serif text in my final design.

First Try at Designing the Album Cover

Researching for Inspiring Images [for album cover]

I began my research by scanning through flickr.com and google.com/images by entering keywords such as: CRYING; ROLLER SKATES; DURACELL BUNNY; SAD CHILD; STARS; VAGABOND; HOMELESS WITH SIGN; PAINT POTS; MONEY; SMILING.

I chose to search for words that either: -

implied happiness, like the bands' name.

or

contrasted hapiness.

CRYING; = JUXTAPOSITION

ROLLER SKATES; = CONFORMS

DURACELL BUNNY; = LINKS IN TO IDEA OF 'LOOK AT THAT RABBIT GO'

SAD CHILD; = JUXTAPOSITION

STARS; = CONFORMS AND WAS INSPIRED BY 'LITTLE BOOTS' ALBUM COVER

VAGABOND; = JUXTAPOSITION

HOMELESS WITH SIGN; = JUXTAPOSITION

PAINT POTS; = CONFORMS

MONEY; = CONFORMS

SMILING. = CONFORMS

Synergy in Real Media Texts - (Not so much)

Considering the fact that the survey said that 70.0% were more attracted to an interesting design that doesn't include the face of the protagonist from the video, I found myself inclined to research into other real media texts that did not include this aspect of synergy.

I have now noticed that in the Indie genre, it is not a convention that there must be firm synergy between the album cover and the music video.

There is evidence of this as shown below.

To me, I feel justified to design my digipak in such a way that:-
*does not hold strict synergy with the video
*does not hold this synergy with the video, especially on the front cover
*does not feature an image of the protagonist from the video on the front cover
*favours good design and interesting imagery over a recognisable face

I am doing this as this is what my target audience are evidently interested in.

I am doing the above because I received unenthusiastic comments towards featuring a face in the design, like:-

• when it's their face it's pretty unoriginal and unquirky, maybe?
• i like it when there's a weird picture to look at
• it's boring if it's just their face!
• indie covers usually dont have anyone on the front
• i don't care as long as the music is good!!
• a nice illustration or peice of photography is nice
• the face isnt important to me, i like interesting imagery
• i like art work

However, at the same time, I will be including the protagonist on the other sides of the digipak and on the discs, because I cannot ignore the fact that others said:-

• it's nice to have a face to put to the name
• they're usually quite nice on the eye
• when i see the video, it's easier to purchase the cd if i can make a connection between the faces. sometimes i'll buy a cd if i recognise the face especially if i cant remember the name of the band!

DELPHIC
































FRIENDLY FIRES

Results from the survey about digipak designs.

I advertised my survey on Facebook via http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P7MXYC3

SURVEY ON PEOPLE'S PREFERENCES ON DIGIPAK DESIGNS.

NOTE: I stated at the beginning of the survey that "you should only take this survey if you have an interest in the music genre: Alternative/Indie". This meant that I could find my target audience.

1. 16-25 year olds are are target audience

2. Females and males are our target audience

3. They are at university or college.

4. The majority did not realise what a digipak was before reading the explanation.

5. They preferred the digipak packaging to the jewel case packaging.

6. A complex design, bonus videos and any bonuses on a separate DVD are what they seek.

7. They prefer the design of 2 disc digipaks.

8. They seek interesting imagery, band name, album name, bonus material and song names when reading a digipak.

9. All 3 album cover designs were appreciated and they would buy them regardless of the music.

10. 67% found interesting designs that did not include the face of the protagonist from the video were more attractive.

Obviously, I will bear these in mind when I create my digipak. For example, ensuring that the essential information that they seek from a digipak is included and prioritised in size - meaning I would not favour the small print, record label or website in the design. Another example would be that I will take into consideration that my target audience appreciate an interesting design even if it doesn't include the face of the protagonist from the music video.