The Viewing of our music videos !!

OMG !!

The day is fast approaching !!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for everyone to see the video that was made by my group and I'm also excited to see the whole year. Its's just that rushing energy I'm going to have mixed with the excitement to hear feedback from my year .

WHEWWW !!!! Can't wait :D

Looking at previous student work : Digipak

So before i start to plan how to make my digipak or advertisement, i took a look at previous student work, good and bad, and also how to make a didgipak.

Here is a previous student's digipak which i really liked :

The font is clear and easy to read. There are a variety of pictures that are in focus and the overall layout make's it easy to understand what genre the student is catering for. The name of the artist is very clear and in a good place. All additional stuff like barcode, company, copyright etc etc is in an appropriate place.

Good choice of colour and a mixture of black and white which gives the overall digipak a professional finish.

Here is the advertisement that they made. I like how they used the same font for the artists name. They've only used the fonts throughout which is good and that is what I want to do with my digipak and advertisement as i think the use of consistency is very important to met. I like the range of quotes from different magazines, they haven't all given excellent grades/ five stars; however the quote from the guardian is something that im not too sure about.

 

I like this Digi-pack because its simple but still says and shows a lot. The front cover picture is really nice. This student has used only two fonts which makes the whole digipak simple yet effective. Also bounces of the genre of the musician and her personality. They've also used the rule of three so that most important part of the artist is shown. The back cover is also good as it has the barcode and record label is appropriate places, the track listing is clear and the image of her shadow is very effective with the writing. The inside images shows a personality for the artist, the image of her playing her guitar may her free open-minded spirit, the image next to it also shows that this is where she lives/grew up or the atmosphere she just generally likes to be. Its lets the fans gain a an insight and feel closer to the artist.

When i had seen this advert to this my face was like :

-_-

Like ... i was expecting something similar to the digipak. This advert is very plain compared to the digipak. Everything is put in the wrong place and sizing of fonts and etc.

It just doesn't do the job of what an advertisement should do.. There isn't really anything that stands out on this. I do like the font its clear and its the same font that they used for their digi-pack so that's good, they have consistency throughout.

RESEARCH: Analysis of student digipaks that relate to your genre

This digipak happened to be one of my favourites, and from seeing it I automatically identified the genre which is UK Hip Hop/Grime 

STRENGTHS

- Clear photos which are in focus and nice use of added colour and tone for effectiveness

- Appropriate use of images because we get a sense of personality

- Good use of mise en scene, grime/hip hop artists tend to have a lot of jewellery and are sometimes seen in hoodies which is a convention of the genre because it is seen as quite 'gritty' and very 'street'. The artist does this through wearing a big watch and a hooded sweater without making it look over cliche

- The shots are close ups which are good for promoting the artist

- Clear theme/house style

- Correct use of industry logo's on the front cover 'Parental Advisory' and on the back we see the record label, copyright, barcode and date

-Although the front and back cover differ from the inside panels (in terms of colour) black and white images are used which nicely simplify the digipak  

- Song titles are formatted in a nice way, the font colour allows the audience to read it clearly

WEAKNESSES

- The album title may have been slightly too small

- The 'Parental Advisory' logo seemed to be stretched out and slightly larger

- The FaceBook logo isn't very relevant for a digipak and there clearly wasn't much space for it, it should have just been on the advert

Student NO.2 This digipak was not one of my favourites although I was able to identify with the genre quite easily and there were both strengths and weaknesses of the ancillary products

STRENGTHS

In order to evaluate all three digipak's I will be going through the 'do's and don't's' list 

- There are appropriate industry logos, such as a bar code, copyright, titles and the artist's name  

- The images are used quite well, it is made evident that he is a UK artist and with use of such landscapes and landmarks he seems to take pride in that

- Their seems to be a theme and three colour rule which blue, white and yellow

- The photo's are in focus, good quality and nicely cut out

- He seems to stick to traditional conventions of a digipak which is a 'thank you' message on the inside panel

WEAKNESSES

- Although he abides to the 3 colour rule the colours are not appropriate for the images and background. For example the front cover is in white with a yellow border line and I think this could have been really developed

- The colours that are used seem to be something you would see on an advert for a musical, it is really bright and bubbly however the poses he portrays do not represent that

STUDENT NO.3

STRENGTHS
- The font is very clear 
- The images are very clear and in focus
- Her image sticks to the conventional female R&B artist and she uses mise en scene to emphasise this for example red lipstick, a nice statement fur jacket, gold top to make her stand out which is cut out quite low to show some voyeurism
- The inside left panel is an excellent example of photos that are an appropriate shape for that page. Her body seems quite curvy and the text follows that idea, aligned in a way that corresponds with her body type
- There seems to be a good close link to her name 'Amber GOLD' and what she wears which is a gold top
- Her background is very appropriate and includes industry logos which are positioned properly


WEAKNESSES

- Part of her name is not clear because it is partially placed on her 
- It is unclear whether 'Amber Gold' is her name or the album name
- Although she does not use unnecessary effects she could have been much more creative and not used a separate photo for each panel

RESEARCH: Design activity

After being given a short tutorial to refresh our knowledge using the basics of Photoshop we were given a task to reproduce a Digipak that had errors.

Because of the image we were given to use we had to think of a suitable genre which then gave us inspiration for a colour scheme and font type. Below is the front cover of the Digipak and a few screenshots 

Above is the front cover of the Digipak I created

We were given an image to use although I wanted the image to fit the screen. As a result I had to crop the image to a square (it was a rectangle before) because, the digipak template is in a form of a square and I understand the importance of NOT stretching an image as is distorts the artists face/body. After doing so I decided I wanted my genre to be Indie. Indie digipaks usually have art and effects on images although they still remain very simple. Therefore I decided to use the stylise tab which allowed me to change the style of the image and as I wanted it to be very simple and plain I used a grey colour scheme throughout both panels.

Sometimes artists may not put their name or album title on the front of their digipaks and this is also mainly well-known Indie artists, who know their audience can easily identify with them.. sadly however this was not the situation for me. I added a very simple font in the colour white, and the artist name much larger than the album title because as an upcoming artist it is important that the audience notice who he is.

I applied the text and because the front cover of the digipak is mostly of his face I had to rotate the text because a big downfall of digipak's are placing text across the artists face

RESEARCH: Summary of class discussion around the importance and function of digipaks to the music industry

A digipak is a cardboard modern approach to a CD/DVD packaging which gives artists the opportunity to give more viewing pleasures to their audience, this is done through artists including more information about themselves or their group, or having a graphic artistic theme run along each panel which I intend to do and in some cases additional extras including photo shoot images for the artists album (depending on how many panels they have). 


The function of digipak's to the music industry
+ Digipak's can be used as a form of promoting an artist
+ In many cases especially digipak's from r&b and hip hop artists the audience can familiarise themselves with the genre easier 
+ Indication of artist direction
+ It is another form of advertisement
+ The art identification may attract a wider audience for many genres such as Indie, Rock etc 


How important are the ancillary products to the artists
+ Many fans want 'more' from an artist therefore additional images inside the pockets of a digipak can be seen as an additional product 
+ They promote artists even further and to a wider audience through different marketing areas such as the internet, owning their own website which is usually dedicated much to do with their album, billboard and magazine adverts to either target a global or a niche audience
+ Without such promotion very little would be known about the artist therefore, it is important that they are always in the public's eye 

Analysis of three adverts that relate to my artist and genre

This is a magazine advert of Devlin along with two other artists. It caught my attention because even though it is a front cover of three artists from the same genre in the same background, they all have their own different styles and  it is shown through their pose, facial expression and attire. There are a number of different fonts varying in sizes; some may say that this is overbearing with different styles to read. Even though Devlin shares the front cover with other artists and his head is blocking part of the magazines name, it doesn't matter too much since it is a well known magazine for the audience that it attracts. I like that there are only two colors used throughout:white and clear, everything is easy to read. This relates to my genre because its a simple image, nothing too bold and fancy and its an image that can relate to readers.

This is a front cover of Tinie Tempah for project magazine. It caught my attention because the magazine layout is very simple,there is a less writing than usual and the positioning of the words are not as bold and flamboyant as normal front covers that do stuff like that but it is still effective. There are a number of different fonts varying in sizes; but it is not overbearing with different styles and is readable. Unlike the one before, the image of the artist does not block the writing of the magazine so they are both separate. I like that there are not too many bold colours which would distract the audience from the main photo and title of the magazine. The colours used throughout: whit, gold, black and blue, everything is easy to read. This relates to my genre because its a simple image, nothing too bold and fancy, the placement of the photo uses the rule of three and its an image that can relate to readers.

Here is another advert for one of Devlin's single being released .The advert for this single is very simple but creates an effective piece.In the first part of the advert, no injection of colour but just the use of black and white. I think it makes the advert more effective as it helps the audience to focus on the image and the text. The black and white creates a fairly blunt advert yet it includes the key information needed. In the below image i think it is a good idea to include some of the most popoluar artists in the advert as this will encourage people to buy it. 

Good examples of Digi-paks

Wiz Khalifa

I really like this Digi-pak by Rap artist Wiz Khalifa as it shows the artist his personality and most importantly what he is known for 'Tats' aka Tatoo's :

* Clear Font
* Bold Text
* The Colours Blend
* Clear Image (Professional Quality) in focus
* Image has not been stretched
* Clear Background
* Attractive Colours
* Colours represent his hometown (Pittsburgh - Black and Yellow)
* Font does not cover the image
* Fabulous use of Mis-en Scence (Crown,Diamonds)
* No more then 2 colours used .

* Jewelery colour matches font colour.