Creating Spine of Album

Our Digi pack has four aspects which need to be completed, they are the front cover, the back cover the CD disk and the spine of the cover. In this post I will convey how I created the spine of the cover. This was the most simple aspect of the Digi pack as it was the smallest. Considering that the album was in itself black and white my group and I decided to make the spine black with white writing. 

The print screen above conveys the black spine of the album and the white writing which resembles the artists name and album name. We have used the same font throughout the whole ancillary task to convey continuity and to allow the audience to become aware of the artists style. I have highlighted this in the print screen above by framing the specific parts in a red square. 

This is the finished spine of the album, it relates to the rest of the Digi pack and they all fit well together. I have used the exact same font, size and spacing between letters as the front cover to provide strong continuity throughout our product.

Creating the CD disk

As well as creating the front, back and spine of the album we also have to produce a CD disk to go inside the album case. We decided as a group to produce a simple disk which relates to both our music video and our Digi pack. As the majority of our Digi pack is black we decided to have a black disk with white writing. The font used is the exact same as the front and back cover which conveys our continuity throughout the ancillary tasks. 

After spacing out the text using the 'Character' box on In Design I was able to place the text at the top of the CD so it would be the first aspect of the disk that the audience would see. We used an extra white circle in the middle of the CD to break up the dark colour.

We prominently based our CD disk layout around the Rihanna 'Talk That Talk' CD disk as we thought this layout suited our theme best. The dark background matches our photographs and other ancillary task and by using the same fonts we are able to convey strong continuity. We have placed the name of the album and artist name in the same place as Rihanna however we have switched the two to make the album name more prominent as this is the main focus of the album and our music video. We also added the producer information and broadcasting details at the bottom of the CD covers copyright laws, this is a direct link to real media products.   

This is our final CD disk:

The plastic behind this CD disk will be clear with no colour because we do not want anything to distract the attention away from the CD disk - we also feel as a group that this would be the most professional outcome on our final product.

Sketches of Digi Pack

In order to create the Digi Pack we have to sketch out our ideas, this would help us in the production of the product. We can decide on the layout of the product and the colours we want to use in order for the ancillary task to look as professional as possible.

The first drawing was a practice of a few of our ideas, the front cover conveys Alice covering her face with her hands and the back cover presents the song titles out in clear and a smaller picture of Alice sitting with her hands on her face at the bottom of the back cover. This cover is really simple however we decided against it as we wanted Alice's face to be visible on the album cover.

 The second sketch was more successful as we took a look back at the photo shoot and chose a photo to use. We want the photograph on the album cover to be in black and white as this will link to our previous research into album covers. We decided to have the title of the album spread out across the bottom of the case and Alice's initial in the top left hand corner. Alice is wearing the same make up and clothing as in the music video which conveys the continuity throughout our work as this single would be the main song in the album, as the title of the album reflects the song lyrics.

 The back cover on the album contains another photo of Alice in black and white, similar to the frontal image. However in this image Alice has smeared make up and a saddened emotion on her face. We chose this image as it links directly to the music video. We also decided to place Alice's name vertically on the back cover as her name was not featured on the front cover, it also links to the way Adele prints her name on the back of her cover. The background will be black and the song titles will be in white using the same font throughout the digi pack.

The actual CD disk we decided should be fairly plain, much similar to the disks we have been researching. We decided to use a gradient effect from black to white/grey to make the disk look more original rather than all black and for it to still link together with the case. We have strong continuity too as the album title and Alice's name will be placed on the disk using the same font and spacing technique.

The inside of the Digi Pack will be clear; as well as the space behind the CD disk and we feel this would be the most professional way to present our final product. We will not be having another photo or a colour as it is unnecessary and we think it will look better without this.

Creating Front Album Cover

I have been creating the ancillary tasks with the photographs we have taken of Alice. As a group we chose the images we preferred and began to use our research in order to select the best photograph and come to a group decision.

This is our chosen photograph for our CD cover:

By opening the photograph in PhotoShop, I was able to turn it black and white with the effects from the programme.

After changing the effects of the photographs me and my group looked at the changes and decided that we preferred it in black and white as it matched our further research into CD covers. We chose this image because her expression is one vulnerability due to her hand being close to her face. We liked this as the song we are using concerns itself with feelings of depression and vulnerability. Alice's facial expression conveys a sadness and the other songs on her album may represent this feeling as the title is ironically named 'Perfect' after the single 'Less Than Perfect.'

Our font research was minimal as we were aware of the types of font we wanted from our previous research. We wanted the font to be simple and sharp edged, very clear cut much similar to Adele's album '21'. As a group we decided that the first five fonts were our favourite. So I went on to develop these select few.

I placed our chosen fonts next to the cover I am basing our font selection on to be sure we were making the correct decisions. The font on Adele's album is thin and precise and the fonts we have chosen are thicker, however we liked this about them. We will be using the element of colour on our album cover, for example the '21' on the cover is pale green and we were deliberating whether or not to make our cover name red, so it would stand out and draw attention to the meaning of the album.

I then proceeded to use the same fonts and use them for our album cover name as we want our album cover to contain continuity and preferably use the same font throughout. I change the colour of the middle font red to see the effects of this, and we were finding it difficult to make the cover look professional.

I placed the photograph we are going to use on the template of a CD cover to give us the impression of a real product. I will then begin to add our chosen fonts to help us make better decisions.

At first we wanted to put the title of the album in the right hand corner of the cover, however we did not like it. Also by looking back at our research the cover from Adele's album was at the bottom, although so was her name. Seen as our title is longer than our artists name we were contemplating just using an 'A' instead of Alice's whole name. We would put the 'A' in the corner at the top of the cover and space out the album name across the bottom; similar to Rihanna's R rated album.

I have been looking back at our research into album covers and have been comparing it together. I have been focussed on the placing of the text.

The red font was looking out of place and so I decided to make it black and white like the album cover of Rihanna and this was the outcome. I used the Character help box to guide the font into how we planned it to look. I will continue to experiment with black and white colours and thickness in order to get the best outcome.

I have been experimenting with different fonts for the 'A' all whilst constantly communicating with my group through a group message to ensure that we all like the final product.

After speaking to my group we came to the conclusion of using this font for the 'A' on our final cover.

We are happy with this ancillary task so far and I will now go on to producing and creating the spine of the album cover, the CD itself and the back of the cover.

The opposite side of this cover (the side which when opened will be next to the actual CD disk) will be clear. We did not want it to be a colour as our only colours used are black, white and red - using any of the these colours would look unprofessional and tacky and so we decided that the most professional way to create this would be to just have clear plastic.

Further Specific Research: Digi Pack

I have continued to look further into the making and presenting of digi packs and as a group we have made a decision of how we would want the photograph of Alice on the front to look. We have considered the meaning of the actual music we are using by evaluating the lyrics and have come to the decision that the front cover should be in black and white as this will link back to the actual video we have produced with the black and white scenes. As it is a digi pack and the CD will have other songs, and so the cover will have to link to the other songs as well. Considering that the song we are using is called 'Less Than Perfect' and the ending is optimistic, we are still going to have quite a depressed and belittled image on the front cover of Alice as the lyrics are meaningful and the main theme of the song we are using focuses on self harm, and so the other songs on the album are likely to be similar.

 

I have begun further research into black and white CD covers and photographs:

 

 

This cover is of Avril Lavigne conveys a feeling of depression because of her facial expression and the font used. My group and I like the idea of using a dominant colour on the photograph however this would not link well with the continuity of our music video.

The way that Duffy is positioned on this cover is much similar to how we are planning to position Alice, as it conveys an element of hopelessness and inferiority. The font used at the top of the cover looks like hand writing or a signature with is quite effective, whereas the font used at the bottom of the cover is harder and more distinctive. On our music cover we are planning on using the same few fonts as this would keep continuity solid throughout our work.

 

The cover from Wretch 32, although he is male, conveys distress. He is facing to the side which presents an element of secrecy. Having his eyes closed portrays a feeling of distress as well, because he looks unhappy. The font being in a rectangle box in the corner looks quite boring and almost like a stamp. I don't think this style of font would be beneficial to our work.

 

Rihanna's album cover is simple in black and white, although her facial expression is not quite like we have planned for Alice. She looks energetic and has a lot of expression, however we wanted Alice to have a blank expression or even have her face covered by her hands to convey her shame. The font used is effective as the 'R' links to Rihanna as an iconic symbol. I like the idea of having the artists name and the album name separate or conveyed separatley on the cover.

 

This cover from Adele is simple and her expression of holding her head up in her hands with a cigarette conveys her emotion and the lyrics in the album well. By using a plain font allows the audience to become aware immeadiatley of the cover and the colour change in the title of the album goes well with the rest of the image. One of our ideas was to use Alice holding her face in her hands in the image to convey distress and this image will be useful when comparing our work back to research.

 

This is the back of Adele's CD cover and the theme of black and white is carried throughout which works really well. A different image is used which conveys Adele looking more glamorous and looking down. We will be using more than one image of Alice, however we want her to look similar in both photographs for the steady continuity in our work.

 

After looking further into album covers and digi packs we are ready to photograph Alice, as we are now aware of which angles to use and how to position the camera in order to get the best shots possible.