What have you learnt from your audience feedback from your overall Digipak?

After the completion of any new product, it is vital to collect audience feedback as this permits you to bring ideas together. In order to do this, I put together a questionnaire and handed this out to a group of people via Facebook. These are the three questions I asked,

• What characteristics do you like best about the digipak?
• What characterisitcs do you not like about the digipak?
• How would you improve this digipak?And why would you improve this?

I composed all the answers I collected for each question and worked on them, making an overal conclusion. Here are the views I gathered for the three questions above,

Candice Modeste: 'This album cover is likeable as it has a simle and appealing design and the album cover is not too crowded. The picture is also attractive and stays in line with the design. Thealbum cover may however prove too simple for some potential buyers who would prefer a 'busier' album cover where there is more to look at. If anything could be changed it would maybe be the background colour or design so that it would strike a happy medium to suit audiences who like both 'simple' and 'busier' looking album covers.'

Roza Zobedey: 'The album cover has a nice unique design with an attractive picture at the centre and simple designs surrounding the central picture. However, it can also be seen to be too simple and plain which some people may find boring, and so to improve I would suggest a change in the background colour, make it brighter with more detailed designs to appeal to a wide range of people'.

Sarah Williams: 'I find this digipak appealing as its simple designs gives the album a simple and elegant outlook. I like the choice of light colours as the album doesn't look too packed. In order to improve this album cover, I beleive a more striking background will enable it to improve the album cover's outlook. Overall, I would purchase this album cover for its simple outlook!'

Liah Campbell: 'The album cover is simple yet it still manages to catch the eye, the picture is pleasant looking and really pulls the entire cover together. The background however, could be a little more interesting to look at in order to engage people and attracts them to it.'

Overall, from the ideas I have collected above, it is obvious the background of the digipak comes across as 'plain'. My initial intention was to choose a white background in order to allow the album cover come across as neat, I was also influenced by Mariah Carey's 'Memoirs from an imperfect angel' album cover. The fact that the digipak is not too crowded was a positive point made by people. I think if I had to create another digipak, I would most deffinately choose a designed background as this seems to be an important and realisable aspect on a digipak.

Final Album Cover

Front Cover

Back Cover


Spine of album cover

After several attempts on various programmes including Macromedia, Photoshop and Paint I have decided on my final album cover. I have chosen to use this album cover as my final piece, as I feel it is the best design. The use of butterflies on the front and back album cover expresses the feminine feel to the album. It also corresponds to the love songs in the album. In our music video, we see our main character Sarah towards the end of the video moving on, therefore it can be said the butterflies represent Sarah as they spread their wings and fly away, hence moving on. The choice of gold ontop of a white background was from the influence of Mariah Carey's album, "Memoirs of an imperfect angel". I feel in comparison to my black and gold design, the white and gold allows the album to gain a more effective look, permitting the album to obtain a wide range of an audience. The italic writing is a typical convention from the 'RnB' genre, and therefore I have embedded this into my album cover design. Evidently, the italic writing also allows the album to have a feminine outlook, and it is for this reason why many 'RnB' albums choose to use an italic font in order to depict the feminine artist. The italic writing can be said to give the album a more natural look and I have also used this as many people preferred an italic font when I carried out my questionnaire. I have chosen to use this picture on my album cover as she looks directly at you, engaging a wide range of an audience. This effective looks makes the album cover feel more personal and allows the audience to feel as though they have a connection with the artist.

Working on My Album Cover

With the use of the Macromedia software I have been able to work on editing my pictures for my final album cover. The software has allowed me to place pictures on top of pictures without any evident errors. Macromedia has also permitted me to gain ideas as it provides you with a variety of different layouts/designs. This helped me to come up with different background designs during the first stages of beginning my design. With the different amount of editing techniques equipped onto the software I have not struggled in designing my album cover as it is a very complexed software, easy to work with and understand.

Editing on Macromedia Software

Album Cover Attempt 3

Above is another design of my digipak. However, I am not 100% happy with it. I feel there can be a lot done to this album cover as it still looks quite unfinished. I am pleased with the way the picture fits in with the background as the uneven bits are made hidden. Though I think the background looks somewhat plain and too simple as it looks like it would help with a design placed onto it. I intend to work on this album cover even more and maybe start a new design with a more exciting and eye catching background.

Pictures For Album Cover & Magazine Advert

I have chosen to use the following pictures for my digipak design and magazine design as they fit into the conventions of 'RnB'. There are several different shots here for me to choose and work from, some being medium shots, long shots and close-up shots. I have began to edit a few of the pictures in preparation for the design of my digipak.

Here, I have made the background of the original picture in one black and the other white. I did this to see which one gave a more professional look, and came to a conclusion the black background did. In order to do this I used Photoshop which I downloaded onto my laptop.

Evidently I have changed the saturation of both pictures here. I did this in order to make the picture more appealing and attractive to my targeted audience.

I have made the background to this picture white, giving it a professional look. This has been done for me to keep as a picture which I can use for either my digipak or magazine advert allowing my designs to look proficient.

Above, I have cropped the original picture and made more of a focus to the face. I have also changed the tone, making it a more vibrant red colour. I have done this as red has many connotations in the genre of 'RnB' therefore if I do intend to use this picture in any of my designs it will be easy for me to explain why I have. The red allows the picture to look more eye-catching and promiscious.

This picture has been given a "pencil" effect along with a white background. This has been done whilst experimenting with the Photoshop software. I've decided this can be one of the pictures I can use.

• Other pictures which I have not yet worked on but intend to use for my designs are:

Album Cover Attempt 2

Below is an example I have made of another album cover. The use of a white background and gold writing is from the influence of Mariah Carey's album "Memoirs of an imperfect angel". I found this album very effective and attractive. Its simple design productively succeeds in grabbing the attention of the audience. Therefore, I have chosen to design this album cover with these two colours to create an effeciant look. I have chosen to add butterflies to represent the love songs in the album, and also reflecting on the lyrics we have made up of the character as she has to move on, symbolising a butterfly spreading their wings and flying away. The butterflies can also represent a change in life as the character in our music video has to change things for herself.

Album Cover Attempt

Having researched a range of album covers from the genre 'RnB', I have commenced on to creating my own versions of possible album covers. Below is an album cover I have made on the software Paint. The picture of the artist has not yet been placed onto the album cover as we still need to take a few snapshots of her against a white or black background. I have chosen a gold and black theme as it gives the album a simplistic look and also fits in with the conventions of the 'RnB' genre. The choice of italic writing has been used in order to reflect the female artisit and fit into the 'RnB' conventions. While researching other album covers, I found a typical convention used at the back of album covers was the artist is website. Therefore, I have included a website at the bottom of the back of the album cover to follow this convention.

Beginning Ideas For Digipak

In order to begin my ancillary task, I have began to design possible album covers. I have not yet designed these on a software yet, however after several designs on paper along with a few notes, I intend to produce these designs. Here a few pictures of my designs so far :

Design Number 1 :

Design Number 2 :

Female Artists - Album Covers

The following album covers have inspired me with several different ideas for the design of our own album cover. Researching different female artist album covers has given me a clear understanding on the typical conventions used in female artist albums. I have found that italic writing is a typical characteristic used along with full body shots or medium shots. Evidently, this reflects the feminine character. Some of the album covers include a close-up shot of the artist, depicting them as the main focus of the album. The audience feel as though the artist is looking directly at them and therefore this allows the album to feel more personal.