Digipak- CD

Firstly we found a template of a CD on the internet, Adam saved it and loaded it up on Photoshop. We chose to use a plain template so that we could add our gradient in order to maintain our house style.

Adam added the gradient onto the plain disc, we used the same colour gradient in order to maintain house style and consistency throughout our digipak. Adam used the magic wand tool to select the disc, so we could put the gradient over the area we wanted it to go. Once this are was selected Adam dragged the gradient top left to bottom right. This is what way we dragged the gradient on all the other panels so this was a neccessary thing for us to do.

We then need to add the key information that is required to make the CD look authentic. We have followed the main conventions, we have done this by including the song name and band name in the same colour and font that is used on the front cover. Again this is to maintain a consistent house style. We also decided to add the record label at the bottom, most artists tend to recognise the record label on the CD so we have. Our design is similar to the actual CD of Noel Gallaghers album, however we have added our own stamp by putting the gradient on it.

Below is our final CD, we have changed the font because we did on our front cover. If we had two different fonts we would have failed in creating a consistency that is a key convention of digipaks. We believe that if a stranger was presented with our CD and front cover amongst a table full of our competitors an muddled them up they would be able to pair our two together. We believe we have created a strong house style.

Back Cover Improvements

Here is our finished back cover. As you can see we have added the same gradient to the back cover which is on the front cover. This helps us maintain our house style and continuity. I believe this image is very effective again it is another action shot which fits with our song. This portrays life as it is happening, we have managed to capture people living their lifes. The gradient works very effectivley, because the green section covers the river thames, which is its natural colour. The orange then covers the building whichs natural colour is similar to the orange. This makes the gradient look natural and subtle.

You can also see we have moved the copyright to the bottom as matt suggested, personally I feel that it looks much better there. It is a feature that must be subtle you do not want it to overshadow the picture nad the song list like it did in its previous position.

Back Cover Idea 1

This is the first attempt of our back cover. We have taken an image that is used in our video, this again strengthens the link between our video and digipak. For our song list Adam decided to use the mistral font which we have used on the front cover. This helps maintain consistency and makes our digipak link across our four panels. The font is also similar to that used on the back of Noel Gallaghers Album, this helps increase the authenticity of our media product and the make our product genre specific.

Another convention of back covers is a bar code, this will also improve the authenticity, if we had missed this out then our product would not have looked professional. We then added the record label onto our back cover this is again essential for us to put on our back cover. For this we looked at the font Sour Mash Records is written and looked at similar fonts on dafonts website, we found a font called 'Boingo'.

Adam then changed the vibrance of the picture he changed it up to +23. Again making the image sharper and giving the picture that professional finish. We then needed to add the legal content that is another small but crucial element of a CD. I found my Oasis album and copied this copyright information altering the information to make it specific. We originally put this on the right but Matt believed that we should put it along the bottom which we eventually decided to do.

Digipak- Inside Cover

After researching numerous albums from artists such as Oasis, Professor Green and Plan B Adam discovered that the first inside panel generally contains a simple image. As this is a convention we followed this, we wanted an image that would represent our artist and genre of music. Adam looked through some pictures of the guitar we took when filming and found this image that fitted perfectly.

The image needed manipulating to create the effect we wanted. Adam selected the wall and put a gradient in the form of a linear burn which we used on the front cover. This helped keep the consistency that is needed when generating a house style. He then changed the vibrance and brightness of the guitar to make it stand out and give it emphasis. These changes made the image sharper and clearer for the customer. They yellow of the guitar know stands out and is a deeper colour.

Once the image was edited and we were all happy, Adam started looking at what other conventions inside panels have. We felt that there was something missing from our inside cover. We found that some artists put upcoming tour dates on the inside, however we felt this would not work for us. Adam decided to add the website of Noel Gallagher which helps us promote the artist, without destracting from the main picture on the panel. It also allows our customer to find out more about the band online which encourages interactivity.

Adam decided on a plain font for this as we did not want it to be to bold. He used calibri with a stroke of 2.

Below is the final inside cover, we feel that the gradient links it to the front cover and helps keep our consistency and maintain our house style.

Idea Two Improved

After recieving feedback from peers and our teacher we decided that our second idea was good but was too bland. Adam decided to add the gradient again as we felt that this would be the missing piece to the puzzle. Our original idea was not eye catching, it would not jump of the shelf to our customers and it lacked the wow factor. 

However our original gradient was too overpowering so we would have to tone this down in order for it to look effective. Our peers felt that the original gradient dominated the picture as it too away from the original image we had taken.

This is what Adam did to improve the front cover. He increased the opacity so that the gradient was not as overpowering as before. The mode was also changed from colour burn to linear burn which also helped tone down the gradient and make it more subtle and effective. As a group we felt that this front cover was an improvement. The gradient would give us the oppurtunity to emulate Noels digipak and create our own house style throughout. The image before had no stand out colours that we could pick out and use on the other panels. The gradient has allowed us to use the green and orange across our digipal, which will help our audience link all our digipak together succesfully. Adam also decided to underline the title 'What a Life', because it is on a dark background, this makes is easier to read and stand out more.

CD Cover Idea 3

We decided that we should try without the gradient tool. We decided that the image we chose was best as it ticked all the boxes. Instead of the gradient Adam manipulated the contrast, vibrance and brightness of the picture. Adam felt that the gradient dominated the picture and matt and I agreed and felt we should experiement without the gradient.
The brightness made the picture look alot cleaner, the brightness of the image when compared to the original is staggering. The the whole image becomes more recognisable and the features of the picture stand out the our audience rather than the powerful gradient. The sky is lighter which means the title text stands out more.

The contrast makes the building on the left stand out more, this gives the image a stronger colour and sharpens up the whole image to make it look authentic. The contrast has drawn out colours that were not a vibrant in the original dull image. This gives us the effect of using a professional camera.

CD Cover Idea 2

Here is our second idea for an album cover. We have reviewed our previous idea and kept aspects we liked and removed some that we felt did not work. We decided to experiement with a different picture, personally I prefered this picture, it is a location we have used in the video. It also has a notion of looking, Glenn is watching other people in their everyday life. We found when researching the artist is not always looking at the camera. Adam changed the opactity of the gradient to 28%, he applied the gradient twice but this time changed the mode to colour burn. We felt our previous cover was too bland the image was not sharp, this is because the previous mode was overlay, the image was not effected it was almost as if someone had put a see through cover over our picture. Colour burn actually changes the sharpness of the picture. We felt this worked better and looked more like Noels digipak.  Adam then changed the title font, he added effects like the stroke and contour to make the font stand out more against the light background.

We feel this image will help our target audience link our video to the album, because Glenn is on the fron cover, and aswell as this the location is we have used is in the video. I feel this shot was an action shot, we did not want our covers image to look set up completley. Because it is a narrative our image must capture Glenn in his observing of life.

Changing the CD

We looked back at our digipak and were very happy, however one thing was bugging us the black background that was behind our CD was dull and did not fit our house style. As a group decision we decided to change the back ground for something more appropriate. We had used a brick wall on our inside panel so we decided to do this on this panel just without a guitar. Adam took a grab of the wall from on of the locations we used in our video and uploaded it to photoshop. He then moved the layers around so that the brick wall was in the background, this gives is a subtlty.

CD Cover Idea 1

Adam started using Photoshop to experiment with some front cover ideas. He took a picture of Glenns guitar that we had taken when filming. He then added the gradient that we had identified on Noel Gallaghers digipak. Adam transfered the gradient that I had created onto his computer. Before he did this Adam changed the opacity of the picture as the original image was too bold and needed to be subtle.

Adam then added the text that was neccessary to make our cover look authentic. Collectivley we looked through Da Fonts website a identified the fonts that we thought best matched the image and the house style we were trying to create. The fonts we used were Coaster for the band and artist title and Mistral for the other text on the cover. We also noticed that on Noel Gallaghers digipak he has the 'o' in Noel smaller with an underline. This would increase the likness of our product to Noels digipak. To create this effect we highlighted the 'o' then chose the "superscript" option.

Here is what Adam produced as our first idea for a front cover. We felt as a group that our front cover should be simple, because we felt it is difficult to represent the song title "What A Life" with a single image. We believe that the image of the guitar links with our video as Glenn uses the guitar in the video, this enables our target audience to link the two together something which is very important when creating a media brand. Adam decided to add strokes around the text to help them stand out against the background, as this is what we what our target audience to see, we need the key information to stand out.

Finished Cover