Final Digipak

For the front cover I sided on an image of the artist eyes inspired by the glow paint section of the music video. I thought this would be eye-catching and stick to the conventions of the pop genre of having a single picture of the artist. I feel the simply yet bright and colourful cover would be very effective, especially with the eyes as I feel they draw attention immediately. I then added what would be the logo for the artist - the paint splatter X - as this will feature heavily in the marketing campaign in the website and merchandise. The rest of the artists name I wanted to be imprinted into the cover (indented) to give the audience a draw to buy the hard copy as it has a little something extra, which was inspired by the holographic album art of Katy Perry's Prism. For the back cover I decided to use an image of the artists paint splattered boots (carrying through her grungy star image and the idea of not caring from the video) standing on the world. I thought this would link to the 'I am up in space' lyric from the video, I also then linked this to the name of her tour on the website of 'Out Of Space'. With the spine I have tried to connect the front and back covers by going in a gradient from black to white with 'Xena' going in and opposite gradient to help the name stand out.

For the actual CD I decided to follow on with the idea of the paint and use an image of paint splatters which when over the center of the circle go slightly translucent, I also continued the indent idea by making the artist name on the disk engraved into the base of the paint splatter. The inside right of the case I want to just be plain white to follow the brightness of the whole digipak and also to match the back of the digipak booklet which is what would be seen when opening the CD case. This would also help to bring all of the attention to the CD as it is the only thing with colour.

The Front cover would act as the front of the inside booklet. The back of the booklet I have made plain white with just the company copyright. I thought this was important to keep the simplicity of the whole album and to not detract attention away from the CD. It is also a key convention of digipak booklets to have the back of the booklet just a plain block colour e.g. black however I chose white as this is the style of the marketing campaign as a whole (the website is white, front cover is white, music video is bright).

For the inside images I stuck to three main themes from the video (the powder paint, London, and the opening). I made the first lyric page 'I Love It' and chose a photo of a shot from the music video. I then increased the saturation to make the colours brighter, I separated the artist from the background and then overlayed an image of light spots over the background to give the image more interest and brightness. Throughout the booklet I used the same title and lyric fonts to carry out the marketing. 

For the second page I used and image from the opening sequence of the music video, I thought this contrasted nicely with the first page. To create the image I cut artist and tea cup from the back ground and then overlayed a darker image, I then played around with the colourisation until the background was sepia toned. I also increased the saturation of the artists red dress and nails to make the colour stand out more.

 For the center fold of the booklet I used an image from the South Bank skate park, for which I increased the saturation and for the graffiti, artists lips and jeans in order to make the image brighter. I also tried to make the lyrics look as though they were 3D, with the lyrics for 'How To Be A Heartbreaker' curving around the pole and following the direction on the poles; and the lyrics for 'Bad Girls' looking as though they are written on the floor and on the curb. I thought this would make the page look more visually interesting and not just be another boring lyric page. 

For the 5th and 6th pages I went back to using the opening and powder paint photos. The 5th page I tried to continue the motif of the artist star image by using a close up picture of the artists face with all of the attention being on the eyes. To this image a overlayed an image of a rippling river over the iris' of the artists eyes to help capture the audiences attention and give some added interest to them. I then tried to make the lyrics look as though they were written onto the mug - continuing the style from the previous pages. 

The 6th and final page of the booklet I used two images - the background photo from filming the paint scene and the front image taken in front of the London eye which I cut the artist out of and overlayed on top. I moved the artist lips onto a separate layer, increase the saturation and put them above the overlay so that they would stand out the most in the picture. For all of the images I increased the brightness so as to follow the bright colourful motif of the entire marketing campaign.   

Album Cover

Digipack

1                                                    6

3                                                4

5                                                      2

album art

Here is my progress on some practices of my back cover. I was thinking of doing the image above to link to the space theme or I was also considering just taking a picture of the back of the artists head. Since the front is going to be an image of her face, I thought this might indicate that the album is symbolic of the inside of her head - her thoughts and feelings. However, my worry is that a simple image of the back of the artists head might not be very visually interesting and people might not understand what it's meant to mean. Therefore I thought this image might be better as it is very striking and still links to all of the themes throughout.

Album Art

Original Image

Today I started working on the inside pages of my digipack starting with a picture of Katy pouring tea. I overlayed it onto a larger image in order to create space for lyrics, however I felt that the artist should not also be overlayed so I created a mask of the artist and the tea and overlayed the two photos not including the artist in a sepia tone. Then I felt that the artist should should stand out more from the filter so I made the mask of the artist remain in colour, I also tried to make the background a bit brighter as I felt the darkness of the picture did not fit the genre. I finally settled upon a faded brown colour for the background (to stick to the genre but to still portray the old looking style I wanted the photo to be in) I also feathered the mask in order to make it look a little more soft.

I then worked on the other pages, repeating the mask of the artist style to make her stand out from the overlayed background, I also increased the saturation of the photo to make the colours brighter and more vivid especially highlighting the eye shadow and the powder paint. I then just added the I Love It lyrics in a simple style just to get a feel for what it would look like (I will most likely change the lyrics on this page later).  

I then added the lyrics to the second page choosing a song that I felt would match the somewhat girl power feel we have given to the artist, continuing the same fonts from the first page.

Finally I worked on a double page increasing the saturation of the graffiti, the artists jeans, lip stick, coloured eyeliner and eyes. I then added two songs which again I felt suited our artists image. I tried to make the title How To Be A Heartbreaker look as though it was written on the poles and the lyrics following the lines of the poles. Similarly I tried to make Bad Girls look like it's written on the step and the lyrics look as though they were on the ground. I thought this would help to make the double page look more visually interesting to the audience. I would say I am most pleased with this page, however there are a few things I should go back and fix just to make it look a little better (e.g. 'how' is curved incorrectly).

pop digipack research

The Femme Fatale album by Britney Spears is typical of female pop artists, again having a close up image of the artists face as the front cover, and then a body shot of the artist as the back cover. With this album the artist is still trying to regain her star image, and so is has styled the album in a very sophisticated manner to try to detract from her public reputation. Therefore showing how recording companies try to rebrand and market stars so as to get the best reaction from the audience and sell records.

pop digipack reseach

The album art for Rihanna's Unapologetic album has a voyeuristic nature to it, featuring images of the artist naked (front cover), and nearly naked (back cover). Again showing how important it is for their to be an image of the artist on the front of a pop album as they are the star, they have star image, and then fans want and expect to see the artist. Rihanna's star image is that of a slightly rebellious sex icon, therefore keeping up this image in her album art as it is what the fans expect. However the cover has a different meaning too as nakedness doesn't always reflect sexual objectification, and in this album it seems to more represent vulnerability showing the artists softer side; shes showing her entire body, all of her metaphorical flaws, you can see everything and as the title suggests ('Unapologetic') she is not ashamed. Therefore, yes, presenting the sexy star image of Rihanna that we all know and expect but also showing deeper meaning and context to perhaps what the songs on the album are like.

Pop Digipak research

Again with Adele's 21 album both the front and back cover feature a picture of the artist. However unlike most female pop albums the cover is in black and white with the artist appearing to be deep in thought. This may be to hint to the artists sophistication and therefore appeal to a much wider age range encompassing older audience members as well. Then once you open the case and get the CD it is a bright green clearly showing the conventions of pop by keeping that bright colour, just on the inside as the outside has to appeal to the large audience range of both young and old. The green on the CD links to the green 21 on the front cover, therefore connecting the two in a recognisable style, therefore if you saw just the CD or just the case you'd know which album it belonged to.

Pop Digipak reseach

Although Jessie J's album art for the 'Who you are' album seems quite simplistic, it uses this to make it eye catching and help self the artist. Sticking to the genre the cover features a single photo of the artist, her facial expressions of determination immediately catch the attention of the audience. There is also a strong contrast between the black and white helping to draw attention to the artist and focus the attention of the audience to the CD, which is important for album art considering hard copies would be surrounded by loads of other CDs in shops. The album also includes key motifs of the artist which help the audience to identify her e.g. nails and interesting lip make-up which is key to Jessie J's star image. Finally the importance of the artist is further raised by the logo of her name both being used (calls upon the familiar audience) and the fact that its the largest writing and most colorful thing in the picture, which helps to draw attention to it.  

Pop Digipak research

Katy Perry's Prism is a great example of a pop album. The cover features a picture of the artist, in which it shows her as beautiful and fragile surrounded by nature and covering her body. The cover is very bright with pastel colours. The album cover is particularly effective as it is out of the ordinary for the artist to have a more natural image. This theme is carried out throughout the digipack. The cover uses two texts, one for the artist name and one for the album title. They both seem to contradict the natural picture as they both look quite technological, I feel that this font type is important in confirming the genre.




The album is made using a holographic effect which helps to reflect the ideas of light (in the name prism) and nature. Within the CD you also get a pack of seeds which further shows the meaning behind the album and represents the artist views and attitudes towards the environment. It also draws more appeal to the audience to actually buy the hard copy of the CD.