Thursday 16 April 2015

Digipak Second Draft

I decided to put into practice new skills I have acquired from tinkering with my chosen software by re-designing my digipak in a more suitable manner to better adhere to the codes and conventions of rock/indie digipaks and creating something closer to the final product that will be put out to market/promote the band.





After researching digipaks/album covers and artwork I have finally put together a first draft of how I would like my digipak to look. It is composed of six photos that have been thoroughly edited on Adobe Photoshop CS3 in order to achieve the monochrome effect I wanted. I feel the cover is somewhat analogous to "The A Team" single cover by Ed Sheeran which has essentially brought a sense of bricolage to my work, whilst also incorporating elements of pastiche into the production process which (arguably) makes the digipak in itself postmodern. I have made a the changes I wanted to make - these were discussed in the review of the first draft of my digipak that I made without having conducted sufficient research into other products of a similar genre/archetype.

Firstly and more fundamentally, I needed to include track listings on the back of my product as the product needs to be informative as well as aesthetically pleasing - it is also logical that when browsing through CD's in music outlets, potential consumers will inevitably flip the digipak round to analyse the posterior of the product to see whether or not their favorite tracks are featured on the album. I also had to edit the photo on the posterior so that I could arrange the text around the photo of the girl, although this was very basic editing that required re-positioning the layer. On the other hand, the 'sketch' effect on the front of the digipak required significantly more time and effort to achieve using more advanced editing techniques - which I feel documents how my capabilities to use the editing software has in turn given me more creative freedom. I feel my ability to use editing software has allowed me to create a more appropriate product, although this is only my second draft I feel it has developed incredibly well in retrospect of the first draft of the digipak.

I have allowed my research/analysis of other digipaks to inform the production process of this digipak, for example, approaching the cover of the digipak with far more of a minimalist approach than when designing/producing the last product. This idea was derived from Ed Sheeran's album cover, and the typography (simple, bold, very minimalist) and positioning of the text was influenced heavily by both Sheeran and The Killers' album covers, positioning the name of the artist in the top left hand corner of the cover and placing the name of the album in the bottom right hand corner of the cover.

With regards to the actual production of the image on the front of the digipak, I encountered a large learning curve but after researching the techniques/editing tools required I was able to create some rather interesting textures/effects - by developing a more eclectic knowledge of Photoshop CS3, it allowed me to expand creatively and get my ideas across more easily - an example of how the technology itself plays an integral role in allowing the user to make the product postmodern/poststructuralist etc. in essence, technology is a tool that allows us to create postmodernism.


The cover was created through a number of processes of which I was previously unaware: firstly I had to change the blending mode of the layer to "colour dodge" before I right clicked the layer and selected "luminosity". I then clicked "filter" followed by "blur" and then "gaussian blur" - this gave the image the slightly distorted and contrasted look that I wanted to achieve. However, I still had to make certain adaptations in order to give the cover a more complete edge.


I then clicked on the layer settings and reduced the opacity of the image, which added to this 'penciled' effect that I wanted my cover to have in order to bear a slight resemblance to "The A Team" cover. Obviously I did not want the image to be completely transparent, this would be ludicrous, so I reduced the opacity until the image was at a point were outlines in the photograph were still clear but other elements of the image had a tarnished effect to give it an eroded 'indie' effect similar to the effect seen in my ancillary research.


I then selected "create a new fill or adjustment layer" followed by "hue/saturation". This allowed me to adjust the saturation of the image to give it either a more full or more tarnished effect - I opted for the latter for the more minimalist option/aesthetic.The 'tarnished' and indie quality to the cover came as a result of reducing the saturation as depicted below, whilst hue remained neutral. Upon research, I found out that the terms "hue" and "saturation" refer to the colour and purity of the image respectively.


The main reason my digipak has improved is not my ability to think up abstract ideas of how I want the image to look: I have always had quite a vivid idea of how I want my digipak to look as collating my ideas manually has never been a problem for me; it is more the fact that I have developed a stronger understanding of the software which has allowed me to actually apply my ideas and start producing them in tangible format. This shpows that there is certainly a correlation between proficiency with using software and also creative freedom - it allows you to be slightly more expressive in your ideas even if (like me) the individual is aiming for a minimalist approach.

However, upon teacher feedback, I was informed that the digipak needs the levels adjusted to make the covers more black and white than the dull grey it currently is - meaning I can use my development in technology skills to help me adhere more closely to conventions. The covers also needed to be flipped as well as some of the cover(notably the top row of panels) would appear upside down on the real product if I do not flip them which will lose the artist credibility and make the overall product look more professional. In addition to this my teacher recommended that I add a spine into the digipak to make it look professional as well as original and allow it to be picked out more clearly from a shelf were it to be sold in a record shop.

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