Print Productions // Completed Digipak + Advert

This is the completed Digipak I have produced for the imaginary album 'Suede' by un-imaginary independent British producer Vanilla. It is a simple 6 panel design that folds out and packages a single disc. With my design I wished to continue to explore the theme of how we interact with technology, with romance and with the two together.

This is the layout that I have used for my Digipak, and when explaining each panel, these are the numbers each panel will correspond to.

Digipak Exterior

Panel 1

As the front panel, and therefore the first panel the target audience would see when handling the product, I wanted to make this panel as clear and as clutter free as possible, whilst also making the artist and Album obvious. I designed a simple and clean artist logo, such as the sort used by bands like Black Flag and Daft Punk, which would be used over several releases in order to help build and maintain a sense of audience loyalty. I put this at the top of the CD as this is the part of the CD that is visible when displayed on a CD shelf in a store. Then I chose a simple, clean Sans Serif Font and used it to display the albums title. I placed it along the bottom in order to leave it out of the way of the main splash, but also to give it a sense of symmetry. I placed the focus on the main splash, which takes up the majority of the cover, so as to attract negotiated audience with it's offbeat and hopefully interesting image. The image, which makes use of typical romance genre conventions in the lighting, bed-sheets and rose petals, but with an atypical focus, an iPad. This confounds the audience expectations, heightening their interest in the product. In addition, this cover suggests the genre of the album, an electronic one, by featuring technology.

Panel 6

With the back panel, I wanted to conform to typical Digipak characteristics and provide the track listing. I was aware that a splash image that was too busy could make the information that needed to be communicated, so decided to go for one with a blank background. The splash builds upon the front cover, showing someone watching the iPad seen on the front, with the same lighting. With the track titles, I decided to use a mixture of sans-serif and serif fonts, so as to distinguish the normal tracks from the interludes and make the text more aesthetically pleasing. I also repeated the 'Vanilla' logo from the front, in order to help with audience retention, as well as the label logo I designed. 

Panel 5

This was a very simple design, more echoing the general aesthetic and mise en scene of my music video and print production than aiming for any particular message. I used this space for a 'thank yous' section and some additional legal information, as I felt they would not work on the back cover, but would also disrupt the general theme of the interior panels. The splash is a simple visual experiment using several resources from my music video, including the same actress who played the digital character of Scarlett in the music video and a shot that I found very visually appealing.

Digipak Interior 

Panel 2

Panel 3

Panel 4

For the interior panels, I decided to pursue a more unified visual theme, incorporating my idealised Hollywood romance ending with  TV static. The CD itself would be cradled in panel 3, over the image, meaning the consumer would get an unexpected surprise when they removed the disc.

Magazine Advert

Magazine Advert.

To advertise the product, I decided to pursue a minimalistic, but very striking and clear visual direction. I often find that some of the best adverts are the simplest, and give only the necessary information, such as release date, featured tracks and where to get the product. I also feel this minimalist design would attract the A-B target audience. I had experimented with a more complicated design for this poster, incorporating all new photography and a multitude of positive reviews, but I felt that this was inappropriate and ineffective as it didn't communicate the necessary information as well I would like and didn't link in clearly enough with the aesthetic theme of the music video or Digipak. I placed a clear focus on the record label at the bottom of the poster as I felt the independent label aspect would attract the target audience and allow them to support the artist more directly.