Design Idea Shortlist

FONT - I've searched for an elegant font, but not too elegant, handwritten but fancy, italics, but not too neat. So here are the typefaces that came across...

-too neatly done

-too elegant

-hearts are too 'cheesy'

-doesn't look hand written

 With these fonts, they all have one thing in common, a nice flow of curls showing elegantly put together letters. But I felt that neither of these typefaces defined who Melody Davis is. They're either too perfectly neat  or it doesn't match the genre.

So I searched for more fonts on http://www.dafont.com/  and I came across 'The King & Queen' font; which I think is the perfect font for Melody Davis. Thinking about her colourful outfit, rebellious young attitude, standing out from the crowd and the location of the video (Camden Town), Melody Davis could own this font. The flow of the curls, the elegantly handwritten type and the edge is all in one with this font.


COLOURS - looking back at my analysis of the different digipaks and advertisements, I personally think black is a strong bold colour which could highlight specific areas, such as a particular image. I also quite like the black and white tone with a bit of colour because this once again could bring out the important bits of information. Another idea could be black, white and brown to represent the 'acoustic' guitar feel. Overall, a very limited amount of colour should be used with my digipak.


LAYOUT - 4 panel digipak. Limited images with limited effects. An image stretch over 2 panels.

Analysis of 3 advertisements (genre related)

Florence and the Machine - This ad is most probably to be found on a high street on a billboard or in a magazine. This poster is a promotion of their concert and also a promotion of their CD album because the image used here is the exact image used for their CD cover. Their colour scheme has followed through to their advertisement showing consistency and continuation both promoting one another. They have used clear font so it is easily readable even from a distance. The typeface for their band name has also been continued on from their album cover to attract their fans. The background colour (black) is very bold and eyecatching from a distance and it also spotlights the image used which is positioned in the middle. The information written in a bigger sized font are the main bits of information, and the smaller font are there for further information if the public are interested, they would spend more time reading it.

 Corinne Bailey Rae - This ad is most probably found in magazines or on a website because of the small size font used. Compared to the advertisment above, this one has more information in detail whereas the one above only has the main information such as the date and contact information. This one has used one image to fit the page and she is positioned to the left leaving space for the written information to the right. Corinne's music is similar to Melody's genre of country/folk. Also, as a young selling artist, I have chosen this advert in particular.

Eliza Doolittle - I can see this advertisement in magazines and possibly at bus stands. The bright colour of yellow contrasting with the black attract the public instantly along with the red font used for her name. Limited information is on this ad which means that it could pass to be shown as a poster in public. The image of her legs show her 'fun' side also trying to convey that the concert would also be fun. The bright but limited colours could possibly match Melody's genre as in her music video, Melody wears colourful clothing making her stand out from the public.

Overall... I have noticed that the essentials of an advertisement are...

• Artist/Band name
• Continuation from CD album
• Limited information (for posters)
• Contact information
• Record company/companies

Analysis of 3 digipaks (genre related)

Oasis

I've chosen to analyse this particular band's digipak as our artist, 'Melody Davis' has a quite similar genre to Oasis, especially that this digipak is an acoustic album.

I have noticed that the designer has used a colour scheme of browns and yellows throughout. This gives it the 'acoustic' feel of the wooded instruments such as the guitar. The album cover has a large image of the bottom of a guitar rather than an image of the band. This is probably because as it is a special acoustic edition, the designer would have only targeted the bands audience only, and maybe a few other fans of acoustic music which is why it is a special edition as not as many copies were made. Comparing this album to an R'n'B album cover, this Oasis album looks sophisticated as it is very minimalistic whereas an R'n'B album cover would have many effects on images and the font would also have effects. This Oasis album portrays the genre nicely, even if 'acoustic' wasn't written on there, I still would have guessed it to be an acoustic album because of the image used. Looking closely to the back panel, another image of the guitar is used, but from a different angle. The theme of the guitar and it's strings are a moving theme throughout. It looks as though the same font is used throughout as well as the colour scheme so it doesn't complicate the audience. It is important to have a limited amount of colours and fonts so it doesn't portray a different genre, sticking to one idea and one genre.

Norah Jones

I have chosen a digipak of Norah Jones as I think of her type of music as a country genre or soul music which is very similar to 'Melody Davis's' music.

Although this particular digipak doesn't portray a clear genre, it is interesting to find that the typography used has been used in her other albums. With this link, her audience could easily match her albums; this is something to keep in mind when making my own digipak. The free-hand typeface indicates her freestyle in her own music, suggesting the country style and possibly the acoustic style. Her album consists of the repetition of the images of the dogs (without a collar) portraying freedom. The back panel and the left panel has an image stretch across the two which is something to keep in mind too. The main colour scheme is white, black and brown, in other words, dark and bright. The contrasting colours compliment each other which is a sensible idea of a colour scheme. There are also some shades of green for the background to represent nature along with the images of the dogs which highlights the countryside kind of music. This colour scheme could be useful for Melody's digipak. 

KT Tunstall

I have come across this particular 2 panel digipak as the black and white colour scheme with a spot of colour struck my eye which is something I could possibly use as an idea for Melody's album.

The image used for the cover is an interesting photograph of her - baggy jumper and messy hair. This image could suggest a rock genre. Although Melody isn't the complete 'rock' type, her song 'I wish I was a punk rocker' has connotations of being the 'rock' type. I could use a few ideas from this digipak which could help me to portray a 'rock' genre to connect with her song. Looking at the typeface used for the tracklist is used in parallel with the black and white colour scheme to suggest an 'old aged' look with the album. Also with the black and white colour scheme, it helps to highlight main information such as the album name and the look-like post-it note with information about this limited edition digipak. There are two images of her used for the front and the back both positioned at the outer side creating the empty space which suggests her independence as an artist. Once again, the typeface used for her name on the front suggests her freestyle in her music and possibly her creativity as a young selling artist, just like Melody Davis.  

Overall...

Overall, each digipak analysed consisted of the main features of a professional digipak. 

• Artist/Band name
• Album title (unless self-named)
• Images
• Barcode 
• Record label and its information
• Copyright information
• Track List
• Use of spine consisted of main information on the cover
• A 3 or 4 coloured colour scheme 
• Website

Analysis of 3 adverts

I have picked three adverts from the same genre that relates to my music video.

This is a advert for the release of Sandi Thom's album:

 

 

Unlike her other album cover witch are always colorful this is the total opposite. This advert is all black and white. When designing my advert i will relate it similarly to what my digipak looks like. I will be doing this because i want both advert and digipak to match each other. Reason being for this is so the audience is aware of the same product that is being produced. Also i want the advert to symbolize the digipak so it appeals to the audience. Sandi Thom's advert has an image of her self which i think is and looks really good. soon as you see the poster you know automatically what it is about. So i will also be using an image when creating my advert. 

 

 

 

This is the Oasis advert unlike the Sandi Thom advert this one contains color, which i will be using as well. I believe color makes things look more interesting and very eye catching. Also good use of text has been used in this advert. As you can see on the top it says very clearly and very brightly the name of the band. This makes it clear to understand what this advert it about. Also at the bottom the information given in clear and straight to the point (there is no long paragraph) which is good so the audience can straight away get the information they need to now. I will try avoiding putting to much text on my advert when creating it because nobody is going to stand around reading something for that long and i don't want the audience to get bored.  

 

 Duffy's advert is similar to Sandi Thom's advert as it is also in black and white. I like the way how Duffy's name is in a different font to the font that is used to give the information. It makes her name stand out and also compliments her photo as they are the only two things in the advert that stand out. However the information needs to be clear and in this advert i think it could use some improvement, due to the color of the font is is white and the font is placed on top of Duffy's hair which is blond therefor it camouflages the important text on the advert. When designing my advert i will most definitely take this into consideration.    

 

This is the Ladytron advert. It is very different to the other adverts above. To me this advert looks like its a fashion advert for a retail store due to the band members lying down on the floor with nice garments on. Also i think there is too much information that any viewer wont want to read every single word. However i do like the font that has been used to write the name of the band. This is what i think is the only thing that will attract there target audience. So when designing my advert i will have a clear image of the artist and clear font saying the name of the artist and enough information for the audience to know what the advert is about. Also i will use a clear font so its understandable. I will need to take consideration of what colors match the genre and what colors would be appealing. On my advert i will also write the name of the best selling song from the album so it catches peoples attention as its already a best seller.   

 

   

Shot list of fonts

Fonts that i can use when designing my digipak.

 

These are the possible fonts i could use whilst designing my digipak. Due to having an image of a flower on my digipak i would like to pick a font that relates to my image of the flower. Also having a pink and gray theme my font needs to compliment the color. Therefor i am thinking to use the balmorial font as i believe it does go with the color scheme as well as the genre. I was believe that it would appeal to the target audience.  

Color scheme

My color scheme.  

The colors that i will be using when designing my digipak are pinks and grays. From the set of photographs that were taken whilst filming the music video there was an image of a flower which i really liked and the color of the flower was pink. This is the reason why i will use pink. Pink is going to be the color that i will continue using through out my digipak. This color will link each part of the digipak to another as i will have some pink on each part of the digipak. Relating to what the song says "i wish i was a punk rocker" it talks about society and how things have changed and people are less caring nowadays. This shows how the society has become miserable and upsetting. Due to this i will be using the color gray as i believe it represent sadness.   

Also i have to think about how these colors will relate to the genre and i think pink is a color that does relate to indie pop and also gray relates well as i have researched on other indie pop artists and have looked at there appearance as well as what there album cover/digipaks look like. The color scheme must relate to the genre so that is it attractive to the right target audience.  

    This is a color scheme i will be working around :

This is a pattern i could use in my digipak as it consists of flowers which relate to the lyrics in my pop video "i wish i was a punk rocker with Flowers in my hair": 

 

 

 Gray pattern:

Pink pattern:

 

The definition of a digipak

What is a digipak ?

A digipak is a case that is made from paperboard. Unlike a plastic CD case a digipak folds like a book. These digipaks usually consists of one or more plastic trays capable of holding CD's or DVD's. These are usually for CD's that are special edition. There are taller paperboard digipaks for special edition DVD's. Major record companies started using digipaks more commonly in comparison to the jewel case, this was simply due to the fact that sometimes the jewel cases were more vulnerable to cracking. This would lead the CD or DVD inside to get crushed. The paperboard digipaks had a disc tray inside the packaging. The teeth of the hub secured the disc in place in order for it not to get damaged. As time went by the digipak style became very popular amongst major record company's and recording artists in early 2000s.