Evaluation: Question 4

(Enclosed on a CD-ROM)

Evaluation: Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 3 on Prezi

Evaluation: Question 2

(Enclosed on a CD-ROM)

Evaluation: Question 1

(Due to the large content of our evaluation, we are unable to publish it in a post and therefore we have enclosed the evaluation on a CD-ROM).

Video Update

Final Poster Design

For the final design of our poster, we combined the bohemian image with the text that was preferred in another contending poster. 

The image is very different from our digipak but we felt that this was effective in widening our demographic to suggest the versatility of our artist. The text at the top of the poster is unique as it attempts to blend in to the verisimilitude of the image yet it is identifiable as a repetitive pattern. This creates a synergy to our digipak in the repetition of the image on the inside cover and may suggest deeper connotations for the audience to evaluate. The artist's name is evident at the bottom of the poster as we have considered the eye of the consumer which is drawn downwards by the vertical image of our artist. 
Therefore the overall appearance of the poster is more ambiguous to audiences particularly as the female appears to be looking at something that is out of the frame, drawing the attention and curiosity of audiences. The colour scheme is brighter and less constrained like in the digipak yet it has a relation to the colours in the music video which successfully draws a relation to the entire promotional package for audiences to identify. 

Final Digipak Design

For our final digipak design, we decided to combine the two developed ideas that we created. We particularly liked the front and back cover of the second design and we felt that the front portrayed a confident and bold first appearance for our artist and the back challenged quintessential conventions of CD covers as we used a close up image of the artist which created a more intimate feel, attracting audiences. 
We adhered to a pink colour scheme that suggests a feminine demographic and it gives a more stylish and memorable appearance. For the inside, we wanted to depict a synergy to the music video through playfully manipulating the typical image of the artist. We did this by minimising the size of the image and creating a four by four tile which resembles the multi-split screen that we used in our music video. We also changed the colour to connote the symbolism of the colour schemes within the music video.
Overall, my group and I feel that we have succeed in creating an effective digipak as part of the promotional package. The entire digipak gives a sense of empowerment for a feminine target audience and it looks professional so to attract a larger target audience through the use of photo editing software.

Audience Feedback: Posters

After producing initial poster ideas for the promotion of our artist, we wanted to see what our audience thought of them. Instead of simply asking which poster they preferred the most, we decided to create an unconventional tally questionnaire. We created a table in which the six posters were options against several conventional criteria of posters currently on the market such as the location of the image. 
The questionnaire:

Results:

The results show that poster 3 was the most common, closely followed by design 5. The majority voted for the 3rd design with regards to all of the sections of the questionnaire. However we found that design 5 also had some very strong concepts that we wanted to incorporate into our final design. We agreed with the results as we felt that design one, two and four, although interesting designs, we felt that three and five looked the most professional. 

Poster Designs

Our process of designing the initial ideas for the poster came from my research into existing posters as well as the mind map of how we want to present our artist. My group and I have all designed the following posters and analysed them in order to address the aspects that are positive and negative towards the final design. 

Design 1:

This image is very casual compared to the look of the artist in the other texts. Her position in the image is very laid back. She is leaning against a wall and is looking very calm. However, her eye contact with the camera makes her look more confident and keeps the strong image that has been created for her throughout the other texts. The artist is wearing a bohemian style outfit which shows her as laid back and summery as the outfit conotates summer with the straw hat and vest. We thought that by changing the look of our artist slightly by going with her more casual side which we briefly see in the music video would help is gain a larger target audience and appeal to more. A filter has been placed on the image. It is a sepia filter which shows the image in a vintage tinted colour. It makes the photo more relaxed and brighter than the original photograph which had harsh lighting and shadows. The vintage look has connotations to the past which links with the flash backs in our music video.  This poster is very experimental with text and uses it in cooperation with the positioning of the artist in the image. The vertical font ‘You You You’ is very bold and the dark colour highlights the text against the sepia background. Jessica Drake is written in the same bold font . Both of these have pink tints on the writing. The colour is not really strong but just adds a hint of colour to the otherwise plain image. Also on the wall behind her we have placed her name over and over again as if it is written behind her. This is in a dark beige colour so it fits in with the filter on the image. This image is really nice however; we think the font maybe too complex for a poster.

Design 2:

This is the only design in which we used the greyscale effect. This has a resonance to the music video as the narrative scenes are all shown in greyscale to suggest a change in time but also more symbolically of the 'grey' lifestyle that the artist was living with her boyfriend. This image therefore suggests a more poignant feel as it is captured in her possible reflection of her colourless life with her boyfriend. This suggests why the artist is not looking directly at the camera, depicting a more vulnerable figure that female audiences will relate to within their own past relationships. This design shows a longer shot of the artist as we are able to see from above the knee which exposes her more as a real person. The setting for the shot is identified as a brick wall with terrace. This suggests connotations of an urban juxtaposition with the rural which increases our target audience as the artist depicts a classic yet natural look. This is evident from her costume that is present in many of the posters - shorts, t-shirt, hat. The overall costume suggests a casual, summer nature yet she is also wearing a fairly formal wrap over her shoulders which adds more formality and again this sense of vulnerability. The composure of the frame is effective as the actress dominates around two thirds of the frame and this is the first aspect that grabs the audience. However, her pose is leaning to one side which creates a diagonal line across the poster. Also the artist is looking down which may suggest a nostalgia on her life but the audience is drawn with her to the bottom of the poster. Here is where we have placed the words of the album title 'YOU YOU YOU' which go vertically across the frame. This uses up the space that the artist does not dominate with the words in bold capitals that are also in pink writing. This starkly contrasts to the greyscale image and so the viewer's eye is drawn to this. Finally as the eye is drawn further down to the bottom of the poster, the artist's name is placed which frames with the album name to form a coloured right angle frame. The text 'Jessica Drake' is in white with a pick layering as well which almost embosses the text. The significance of the white and colour joining together may be symbolic of the artist's personal journey bringing multiple interpretations to her life. The combination of both greyscale and colour may symbolise the formation of both stages in her life that make up herself, thus her name. This may even depict a positive image for other females that there is a coloured lining that appears out of a bad relationship. 

Therefore, the poster connects with audiences on numerous levels: not only is the image appealing due to the posed image of the actress but also the deeper suggestion of the artist's vulnerability of her past relationships that will evidently relate to others - particularly our target audience. 

Design 3:

This poster has a very girly and warm feeling to it unlike some of the others. The image sticks to conventions of posters as you can see almost a full body shot of the artist. However, she is not looking as the camera as artists do such as Adele and Katy Perry. Also, the pose is very casual unlike other posters. The brick wall background seems rustic and casual which does not really fit with our music video and digipak but, by using this we may be able to expand to a wider audience and may attract women of an older age that our previous demography. The outfit in this poster is very casual and girly and is very summery. The artist looks happy and this is very different from our music video as that has a very serious tone to it. However, once again, using this poster could expand our audience. The font fits with the poster and the laid back feeling of it but it lacks synergy with the rest of our media texts and therefore if we use this poster we may have to change the font to arial and keep it similar to the digipak. Whilst editing this image, we changed the contrast which made the colours of the outfit stand out more, especially the white of the t-shirt and this has a link with our music video and the strong and powerful lighting during the studio scenes.

Design 4:

This design intended to emphasise the more informal appearance of our artist. The main focus of the poster is on the image of the artist in a Bohemian style outfit. The costume connotes a summer feel with the straw hat and vest top. The artist has a casual pose as she is leaning against a wall with her arm up to her head which suggests a laid back personality. Our intention of presenting our artist in this way is to increase the target audience by having little synergy to the digipak. We found in our research that this was an effective technique in showing a different side to the artist so that other audiences will be attracted to her music rather than soley those who liked the digipak. Therefore although the different image of the artist loses the iconography, we wanted to experiment with a poster that purposely deviated from the digipak and music video, like we have in the other poster designs. Thus we wanted the lighting and colour scheme to reflect a more casual representation and so we used a filter effect during the photo editing which gave the image a more rustic tone. The filter makes the image not too colourful and bold yet makes the image attractive and calm. However the artist is still looking directly at the audience which still conveys the artist's confidence which is a personality trait that we have maintained throughout all our products. Ultimately, we wanted to reflect another aspect of the song that we used for our music video that was the sense of woman empowerment that will particuarlarly appeal to female audiences in relating to a genuine artist who has had bad past relationships. Therefore the artist's appearance and the rustic effect suggest the idea of reflection on the past. 

We also wanted to make the poster more interesting by experimenting with the text. The eye of the consumer is firstly drawn to the image of the artist that dominates the left side of the frame but we tried breaking the verisimilitude by placing the artists name across the wall behind the artist. We wanted to use a colour that did not stand out too much but one that was visible on the background so we used a beige that was a few shades darker than the background. The text of the artist's name is then visible in a larger font to the right of the artist in a darker pink. This shows that we have tried to create some synergy between the poster and digipak as the pink colour scheme is still present even if it is presented more subtly. There are also two tones of pinks which may suggests more than one side of the artist with the purple connoting confidence whilst the lighter pink connotes femininity. The eye is finally drawn to the name of the album 'You you you' that is written vertically across the right side of the frame. This pronounces the line of the artist and uses more of the space not taken up by the image of the artist.

We liked the colour scheme and image of the artist however we were concerned with the complexity of the design and that it was too busy with all the text. 

Design 5:

This poster uses typography to enhance the mise en scene of the shot. We decided to use the font Ariel as it is what we used on our digpak- thus creating synergy between them. The top band of repeated 'You you you' imediately draws  the eye's attention to the album title. The central blue title creates yet more of an attraction, thus alerting our audience of its name and presence. The name of our artist, Jessica Drake, is written in the font as the album name and the digipak cover. It is situated in the bottom right corner which connotes her shy nature which could be due to how her boyfriend treated her.

The pose that we used for this poster is suggestive of the emotions behind her album. Having the hood up could connote the fact that she is trying to conceal or hide her face, suggesting shyness or fear, however hoodies are stereotyped as being mischievous and cheeky. Another aspect of the pose that connotes a shy nature is how she is using her legs to shield her, this could also connote her being defensive, as the song suggests that she has been let down by her boyfriend, therefore her legs up and crossed might be representative of a shield. Furthermore the cross created by her legs connotes danger.

This photo was set on rustic style backdrop with a creased painters sheet on the floor. This helped us keep with the casual look that we were aiming for. The unpainted wall could also be a metaphor of the artist's heart as it is not yet complete, just as her heart isn't without her boyfriend. The lighting in this shot is simply used to enhance the features of the artist and to make the shoot look more professional. Half of the artist's face is in shadow which could connote a darker side to her thoughts.

Photoshoot for Poster

We chose to conduct another photoshoot for the poster of our promotional package due to the fact that after our research we found that the conventional image for a poster is a long shot of the artist as opposed to the numerous close-ups that we took in the initial photoshoot.

Therefore we arranged another day for a shoot in which our artist would be wearing a different costume to the digipak photos. We thought this to be particularly crucial as we discovered from our existing research that artists in their posters present a different look to their album in order to gain a greater audience. Therefore we intentionally decided to create a different look for our artist in the poster, yet we wanted to maintain some synergy to the digipak and music video and so during the editing of the photos we will adhere some ideas to these concepts. 

We felt that the shoot went well as we tried numerous outfits in different locations such as a Bohemian outside look. Therefore, we will know begin to look through the photos and choose the most effective ones to edit in post-production.   

Existing Posters Analysis

After conducting research into existing album covers, we have established common conventions. However our task for the promotional package is to also create a poster to advertise the artist's CD. 

Katy Perry
Katy's Perry's poster for her album Teenage Dream is similar to her CD cover that I previously analysed. The artist is wearing the same costume of a futuristic look with the bright neon colours. Also her hair is purple which coordinates with her outfit and emphasises the bold aesthetics. Katy is shown to represent her femininity due to her lack of clothing and the advertises have tried to promote her looks to increase her target audience of a role model and admirer. It seems important to note that the poster is portrait which allows a longer shot of the body, showing her shape and appearance as the main part of the promotional package. It is also evident that the poster deviates from typical conventions due to its bright background. However this attracts the consumer's eye by being so bright and gives an overall pop image of her album. Katy's stance like on her CD is an important factor in gaining the general personality of the artist. Her stance is confident and comfortable and she is looking up in this poster as opposed to the artist looking directly at the camera in the album cover. As Katy is looking up rather than away, there are connotations of the futuristic feel, supported by the name of the album Teenage Dream connoting dreams and imagination. The text adheres well to the colour scheme yet is eye catching as well as Katy's name at the bottom of the poster. It appears that the difference between poster and digipak lie in the main focus being Katy's appearance than the promotion of the song. This is shown as the text is a lot smaller in comparison to Katy's figure which is intended for the consumers who by the poster will want a picture of the artist rather than the text.



Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson's poster for her new album Stronger is interesting as it shows little resemblance to her album cover. Unlike the CD cover, the poster has a dark background and portrays a different image of the artist. Due to the portrait orientation of the poster, the frame allows a longer shot and here like Katy Perry's there is a shot roughly from the waist upwards. The black background gives the impression of opposites which may link to the album named stronger. The synergy is identified in the artist's name which is the same colour as the digipak. What is interesting about the poster is that the name is written vertically across the poster. This shows the lines of the frame yet it also suggests that consumers will be able to identify Kelly from the image; thus it is not necessary for such a well known artist to emphasise the name. The image of Kelly is a professional one which captures another side to the artist. Here Kelly is wearing a statement dress which connotes more formality and the low cut dress portrays the sex appeal of the artist, attracting a larger audience. The evident fan which was used give a professional look to the image yet also shows some action rather than a standard still photoshoot. The stance of this poster appears to be most interesting to me as the angle is not definitive in knowing if Kelly is lying down or if the shot was taken from a low angle. Either way the advertisers have created a diagonal eye line by the slight tilt of the image showing more sophistication. Therefore I think this poster is effective in showing another side of the artist. 


Adele

Adele, being a less mainstream artist, has a different style of poster. Again like both previous posters it does not conform to the album cover, enabling more attraction from different audiences. The dark background again is used which is better for a less well known artist to establish the image as the central focus. Likewise a portrait orientation is used however unlike the American artists, Adele's poster connotes a more genuine image as she is not standing in a certain pose but merely facing the camera. This will appeal to audiences who admire her as a down to earth artist who does not follow mainstream conventions. In this way the poster is also quite bold as Adele has a serious expression yet with her eyes fixed on the camera she almost challenges consumers to address her as an artist. Her appearance suggests a more subtle genre of music. Her hair and make up conveys a typical female of twenties which some audiences may look up to. Roughly under a third of the poster is layered with a white strip boldly showing Adele's name in block capitals. Although the poster does not really show a synergy with her album cover, the font remains the same. This means that it is identifiable to audiences who can see the synergy between products. 

Digipak Ideas

After producing some initial ideas for our digipak cover, my group and I decided to create different ideas that we would present to the other members of the group. We each created a four panel digipak and used different photos from the photoshoot that we arranged. We then decided after creating these, that we would show them to the group and pitch the ideas as to why we presented our artist in a certain way. 

The first digipak is the one that I created. (Note: The digipak is analysed by me however for the other three digipaks, I will quote the member of my group's analysis of their idea).

My Digipak design:

         The initial concept of my digipak stems from the mind map that I produced when considering how we wanted to present our artist. I felt that it was important to present Jessica Drake's confident sound but also her feminine side to attract our target audience. Therefore for the front cover I chose a close-up image of our actress. This is because it is particularly conventional to use such a prominent image like Rihanna's new album 'Loud', however as this is a debut album, we need to find a balance between confident but intriguing to create an appeal to consumers. The image on the front of the digipak is one that we took in our photoshoot but I have cropped the image so that the artist is placed to one side of the frame yet dominates the majority of the cover with her head tilted to one side. From my previous research into existing album covers, I found that the stance of the artist is very important in conveying the correct image. Therefore the stance in this image suggests multiple concepts. Firstly, some could interpret the pose as shy because the artist's head is tilted to one side which may connote her shy personality, also due to her shoulder being pulled up to her face suggesting a timid confidence. Consumers could interpret this as her vulnerability and therefore audiences, particularly our young female demographic, will relate to the image of the artist and may be intrigued to buy the album. However the tilted head can also be seen as a confident yet promiscuous stance as the artist is looking directly at the camera which creates a entirely different feel. This is because by looking directly at the audience, the image takes on a more confident feel and suggests a boldness that almost challenges consumers. Therefore if her eyes were diverted, this could convey a more poignant feel such as Adele's cover '21' which suggests the album's storyline of her broken heart. However our artist almost asserts an authority which demands the attention of consumers, thus making audiences interested in the CD. 

        Another aspect which is dominant of the front cover is the artist's hair. We particularly wanted to create a professional effect by using a fan to the actress' hair. This is because  it gives more life to the image by making it appear to be a moving image which creates more interest for the audience. Also in this image we used the light gels which we placed in front of the light behind the artist to create a soft pink light from the background. I think this worked really well in the image as it gives the front cover a more colourful appearance that nicely frames the artist's head. The pink colour is also used throughout the digipak as a main colour scheme which more of a magenta pink to suggest fun and femininity. The other colour present on the cover is the artist's costume. This was one of the numerous costumes that we tried and I particularly liked this dress as it gives a bit more colour to the artist and the hooped earrings again suggest her femininity and appeal to mainly females. The costume also gives an indication to the targeted age range as the artist wears the dress off the shoulder which suggests her promiscuity. Another aspect which is important to the overall appearance of the artist is her make up. For the photoshoot the actress clearly applied make-up particularly on her eyes which connotes a bold image and even suggests a less conventional genre of music, possibly conveying more of a rock aspect to her music. However in the post-production stages I also edited the image to add a bit more of a flawless look to the actress' complexion. However I was aware that too much make-up may be disadvantageous to us as audiences may be unable to relate to our artist and so we wanted to find a balance between the two so that the artist is not too unidentifiable to audiences. 

Due to the good composure of the image, it was easy to add a text. As the artist tilts her head she creates the eye of the consumer to be drawn from her eyes, diagonally down to the bottom right hand corner. I decided to deviate from conventions and put the name of the album 'YOU' as the larger text and then put the artist's name slightly smaller underneath. The album name in capitals relates to the bold image of the artist looking directly at the camera and it suggests the impression of the songs to be empowering to girls who have come out of a relationship. From the lines created by the image the text consistently flows down to the bottom of the frame so that the object seen after the artist is the title 'you'. I chose a white font for both texts and the typography was a fairly basic one. I think this gives the cover a more professional look so to suggest a more sophisticated side to the artist. I also added a star on the top of the 'i' in the text in order to establish an iconography for the artist, this will make audiences recognise the font and it also gives it a personalised feel which gives the overall impression of the cover to be fun. 

         For the back of the digipak many of the album covers had a long shot of the artist. However I decided to deviate from this convention, similar to Adele's album and had a close-up image. The synergy to the font cover is evident by the pink light which forms round the artist's head and the pink theme continues through the text of each single on the album. The picture only shows half of the artist and I think this leaves an enigma, presenting a more mysterious side to the artist. In this image her eyes are looking down conveying a more vulnerable pose yet she is smiling which may suggest a playfulness. Her eye line however looks over her shoulder towards the placed text which shows a relation with her to her songs. I also decided to slightly alter the shape of the text as they curve to the right which suggests a bit more informality and reflects the image of the artist's body showing a relation between the two. 

         On both the inside panels of the digipak I wanted to do something that synergised with the music video. Instead of using a full scale image I decided to break convention and use a different technique of repetition of the photo on the back cover. The aspect that I wanted to relate to the video was our use of effects from the narration to the performance scenes. Therefore I edited all the images into a greyscale effect which suggests a relation to her past life with her ex-boyfriend and connotes a general dull feel. However on one of the small images I let it remain in colour being the only one, this was to suggest how Jessica Drake stands out in a crowd and shows the dichotomy between her past and present life. Clearly as she has a life in colour, this connotes brightness suggesting her emotions. Therefore the inside cover has a deeper symbolism which may relate to other teenage girls who are in similar situations. Due to the repetition of the images, it suggests that such greyscale living is not uncommon and Jessica Drake appears to be fighting against this, suggesting a message of 'girl power' and general women empowerment after coming out of a relationship. 

         Ultimately, I think my digipak captures numerous sides to our artist and presents her as a bold yet vulnerable character that will be able to relate to our demographic.     

Charlie's digipak design:

"For my design I decided to use a colour scheme of magenta throughout the front cover, back cover and inside spread. During our photoshoot we experimented with using lighting gels and one of the colours that we found worked best with my skin and with the lighting we had set up was the magenta one. Because the main light was situated behind me, the magenta gel gave the outside of my hair a magenta glow. If we hadn't used the gel the glow would be white, connoting innocence- which isn't how we wanted to portray out artist. Magenta is a shade of purple however which stereotypically connotes rage. Rage and revenge are 2 of the strongest emotions throughout the album so I feel the magenta works really effectively. To keep the magenta theme prominent throughout, when I was editing the front and back cover pictures, I used a makeup tool to tint the lipgloss that colour too. This subtle feature helps connote the deviation within the album also. Furthermore, I used this colour for all of my writing on the digipak. On the righthand side of the inside spread I placed a semi transluscent circle of magenta. This indicates where the CD would go; so when the CD is out of the digipak (being listened to), the inside spread wouldn't look bare or uncomplete. I decided to use a transluscent circle here as it made it look more professional, and also the transluscent nature is representative of her relationships, as in the album she describes how her relationships never work out, or how she regrets them- they were never a solid fixture of her life.

The pose and eye contact on the front cover of my digipak design aims to reflect the artists personality and tone of song. She is looking directly at the camera, which is a convention which we found to be prominent thoughout existing album covers. This strong eye contact makes the digipak more personal as the artist looks like they are looking directly at the demography. This consequently encourages them to purchase the album. Another feature which the eye contact shows is the artist's confidence; which is one of the ways that we wished to portray our artist as. On the back cover the eye contact is looking up at the top right corner. This direction of sight is stereotypically associated with innocence and 'it wasn'tme'. This works really well witht the message of the song as she is blaming their brakeup on her boyfriend- suggesting that it wasn't her fault. Innocence is also a characteristic we wanted to portray our artist as.

Whilst researching into existing album covers we found one of the most prominent conventions to be the type of shot used. There is a wide range used on general album covers however for solo, female artists we have found a Close up shot to be the convention. This shot shows the closeness to the artist, thus making it feel more personal. Also, it suggests that she has nothing to hide (as we can see every tiny detail of her), so the demography would feel more related to her, making her a stronger role model. We wanted to vary the shot that we used on the back cover, so we decided to do this in relation to how well the back cover depicts the artist. The front cover tells us the artists name, and the title of the album, so we know a little about her; the back cover however gives this in more detail- titling each individual song- so we used a closer in shot, allowing us to see more detail on her face. The inside double spread is a shot, replicated from the final shot of our video- suggesting an ending to one (the video), is an opening to another (the album). This is how the system should work- the demography watch the music video, and as a consequence of this, they buy the album. This shot on the inside is a long shot of the artist walking away The long shot allows us to see an overview of her, connoting she's not all as she seams.

Typography is another aspect that we recognised as being important when we were researching conventions. It is important to keep the same font throughout our digipak. I initially thought about layering a handwritting font onto it as i thought it would fit in well with the stray strands of hair, also it would continue to connote girly, which the magenta undertones have set up previously. However, I need the font to represent the song and the artist. We need the font to be a simple style (which is representative of her problems being black and white), and also a font which has straight lines and pointed corners (this would connote the heart ache and agression which is portrayed through the song). I finally decided on 'Areil' for my font as it held all of the characteristics that I needed. I used capital letters for the album title as i wanted it to prominate and stand out.

We used strong photographic lighting in these shots to create highlights and shadows. On the front cover, half of her face is in shadow, connoting a slightly evil side to her thoughts. The side which is left highlighted could suggest the other, oposite side to her; although she may have dark thoughts, these may have been provoked by someone taking advantage of her vulnerable and innocent nature.

The front and back cover to my digipak design are set in a black studio. We found this to be a convention for many solo, female artists. It makes the photo look more professional and further, it makes the lighting more definate. The location for the inside spread photo is a location taken from our music video. The last shot in our video is her walking up to an old lampost, swinging round it, and walking back again. This could connote that she is going back on what she said. The location works well because it synergises with the music video."

Alice's digipak design:

                                      

"This was my digipak design. For my design I focussed on a pink and purple colour palette with strong lights and a lot of shadows. I think this keeps a synegy with the music video as during the performance studio scenes our artist wore a magenta dress and there was also very strong backlights. For the photos, we attempted to create a pink light behind the artists head using a pink light gel. Although this did not make the whole light pink, it tinted the edges of her head and this was a really nice effect. All of the pictures used are very glamourous and this once again links with our music video and the performance scene.

Different effects have been added to each picture on the digipak, The first picture is relatively untouched except we made the artists skin appear flawless. On top of the original photo, I placed another image and reduced the opacity of it to create a layered effect. I had to carefully position the layered image to make sure none of the spots cover her face prominently. The layered technique gives the image a professional look to it. The second picture (top right) has a blurred edges effect and also the contrast has been changed. The photo is very direct as she is looking directly at the camera and show the confident side of our artist. The effects on the picture make it a little more mysterious as the contrast change heightens the shadows and the blurring makes it seem mystical. the colours once again match the colour scheme as purple seems to be the prominent colour. The song titles are placed in a purple box below the artists face. I like that the songs are not listed vertically as we can see on other album covers/digipaks but instead are shown vertically. I think this arrangement fits well with the picture as the writing stereo-typically is placed down the left hand side. 

The third picture (bottom left) is a combination of several photos. The arrangement of the photos links with the multisplit screen technique used in our music video. It is showing the same conventions and creating a synegy between the two. The pictures also have the strong lighting within them which is a main characteristic with both the music video and digipak. These photos were edited by changing the contrast setting. It was darkened to make the shadows more prominent and the lit areas brighter. This gives a very dark and seductive look to our artists which is similar to in the music video. The picture in the muiltisplit screen of the lights is the same picture used on the front but it is completely opaque. This image is also used on the side of the digipak where the cd is held. I do not think it is important to have a image here that shows the artist but instead an image which ties together the whole digipak. I think by using the same image as on the front the image looks important instead of random and irrelevant. The  image has connotations to lights which is a link with our music video and also it is colourful and fun which the pop genre of our artist suggests.

The location of each picture is a black screen studio. This is a connection with our music video as the performance scene is set in a black studio location. The images are all close-up shots that are very typical of album cover photos as it is showing the artist. As this is the artists debut album I think it is important to introduce the audience to the artist and make the digipak appealing as this is the image that the audience are going to relate to the music. Andrew Goodwin's Theory about the image and the audio relating can be used here although we are talking about a digipak. Our artists music is from the pop genre with a hint of rock in there too. Therefore the digipak should show this also, My design shows her as seductive and mysterious (rock) abut also fun and colourful (pop). I think by using this we are appealing to our target audience and hopefully this will draw them in.

I think a weakness of this digipak is the typography. After doing some research we found that the font usually identifies the artist throughout their career and i do not think that this font is portraying the correct things about the artist to the audience. It seems very simplistic rather than fun as the music suggests. 

Ultimately, I think that my digiopak intriduces the audience to the artist without being to upfront about it but still shows what her music is like and portrays her as an appealing artist".

Initial Front Cover Digipak Ideas

After conducting our research and considering how we wanted to present our artist, we created some digipak ideas. Each portray different qualities in our artist and we will ask consumers which they deem to be the best. 

We liked the concept of this cover because of the professional look. The advantage of using the Light Gels enabled the pink light around the artist which looks effective. The use of colour shows a relation to the text and I like the composition of the shot as the eyes look down as if they are looking at the text. The artist is portrayed as stylish being all in black and we particularly like the eye make-up which is prevalent in all the images. The translucent effect of the dots gives more colour to the image and connotes the idea of spotlights which appeals to audiences. 

This image shows more experimentation with effects editing. The colours show great contrast with a two colour scheme - pink and black. The image emphasises the dark eyes which suggests more of a darker side to the artist and her stance appears to be more apathetic. The vertical presentation of the font gives a more unconventional look to the cover and contrasts well with the black. However it seems that the intense colour almost has a distancing effect of the audience as the artist is not as genuine and the eye of the consumer is drawn to numerous places creating a less professional look. 




This album cover has a bold statement to the others. Although in greyscale, there are intense contrasts between shades as the bright white light contrasts with the dark eyes. The artist portrays a more confident stance even though she is looking away from the camera as she has a confident posture with her arms up. The title of the album is also vertically prominent and this deviates from conventional covers as the artist's name is usually larger than the name. However the entire cover suggests a more bold image which may attract a audience who want to have a confident role model. 




This album cover is the most enigmatic out of the ideas. The light around the artist again shows a relation to the text and includes more colour in the image. This cover focuses more on lighting as one side of her face is more lit than the other. This connotes there being more than one side to the artist yet her confidence reassures the audience of her appeal. Also this is the only image we have used of our artist looking directly at the camera which is a common convention of mainstream album covers. The font also conveys a girly yet classic look suggesting her as a more sophisticated artist which will intrigue audiences. 


We liked the colours in this cover as it has a good tone. The top is a pink colour which portrays her femininity appealing to female audiences. The artist's face is the predominant feature of the image yet she is looking down which suggests a vulnerability about her however she also has a confident stance. We experimented with some editing software which altered the make up of the artist and although it looks professional, there is a worry that this may distance her from teenage girls and make audiences unable to relate to her. 






We are now going to shows these images to people in our college to see which they prefer and to gain some feedback.

Audience Feedback

To gain some audience research from the digipak stage of our project, we created a questionnaire of exisiting CD album covers. We aimed to establish what our target audience look for when buying a CD album. However we are aware that many audiences buy a CD based on the artist's songs. Yet for a debut album like our artist's we feel that new audiences need to be attracted to the cover of our digipak. Therefore in our questionnaire, we asked our sample to chose one out of the nine covers which they would buy solely based on the album cover rather than the artist or song. We arranged the questionnaire so that there was a mixture of covers that we could place under certain categories. For example we used such album covers that showed a picture of the artist such as Rihanna's album LOUD. We also had a cover such as Youmeatsix which did not show a picture of the artist but a colourful logo. Additionally we had other album covers that were completely unrelated to the band such as Chase and Status' cover which had an image of a dog. 

The following slides show the images of the questionnaire and the number of people who chose the cover as their favourite (with a sample size of 28).  

The results suggest that the majority of our sample preferred Pixie Lott's album cover. This may be because it shows an attractive image of the artist that is also interesting. We found that the majority of people chose the album covers that had an image of the artist, possibly because they are able to relate to them. It is also important to note the gender difference between preference as mostly females chose albums with an image of the artist whereas most males chose an covers such as Chase and Status' album with an unrelated image of a bulldog.
As our demographic is females aged around 16-24 year olds, we have identified that the album cover must conventionally have an image of the artist. Therefore we feel that this is an important convention to adhere to as females will admire the artist and see relatable traits thus may be more inclined to buy the song. 

Presenting our Artist

In the process of designing our digipak, advertisers must consider the image of the artist that they wish to portray in order to attract a certain audience. Album covers are scrutinised by advertisers to ensure every aspect of the album has a specific representation to the artist in conveying them in a certain way. Therefore when we are designing the digipak for our artist, we need to consider that the entire mise-en-scene on the digipak are there to represent and symbolise an image of the artist which will attract a certain demographic. 

After our audience research into album covers we found the importance of certain things such as how well the artist relates to the audience. We found this particularly important for females consumers who they look to as a friend and as a role model. 


When we did our initial feeback about our song, many people stated that the song was catchy and had an upbeat feel. The artist sounded young and fun yet had a pop/rock feel that slightly deviated from mainstream conventions. 




The following is what traits we want to portray in the sales of our digipak:

How we can present these traits:

It is important for us to present our artist as confident to accurately present her image in her songs. 'You You You' is a song in which the artist is getting back at her ex-boyfriend because of his selfish nature. Therefore she is presenting herself as a confident character in 'getting over' her ex.
The main aspect of a confident representation on a digipak or poster is in the stance. Such as the album cover I analysed by Katy Perry, she had a confident stance as she had a strong pose with her head tilted upwards. However in other albums such as Adele's she portrays a more vulnerable trait as she has a weaker stance which suggests her hurt within her songs. Therefore, we need our artist to display a confidence due to her female empowerment however we also want to portray a genuineness about our artist so that she is relatable to audiences.    
Another trait that we wish to emphasis about our artist is that she is stylish. After our initial audience research about our song, we found our demographic to be females of around 14-24. Therefore in these typical teenage years, individuals begin to develop their style and personality. It is psychologically proven that this age group is more susceptable to rely on celebrities as role models. Therefore we want Jessica Drake to appeal to females to act as a postive role model and so presenting her as stylish will appeal to females who like her style as well as those that like her songs.

Ultimately, all these traits increase Jessica Drake's target audience and make her relateable to consumers. It seems important, particularly for a new artist, to develop a fan base that see her as a relateable rather than a 'picture perfect' artist that cannot relate to their lives. Therefore, existing artists such as Adele portray a certain vulnerablility that relates to audiences. Also like Kelly Clarkson's album, the artist wears make-up but not too much so that she appears genuine. Therefore, for Jessica Drake our artist needs to appear like a typical girl by not wearing too much make-up and appearing genuine to her audience. 

Therefore, from looking at what our audience said about our artist and analysising existing representations of artists, my group and I will be able to discern how we want to present our artist. 
We have found that we want to portray a confident, stylish artist yet who also has a slightly vulnerablility so that she appears genuine and relatable to our audience. We can do this through the presentation of her stance and whether she looks at the camera in her pictures.

Video Update

Photoshoot

My group and I organised a photoshoot so that we could gain still images for our digipak and poster rather than taking a frame out of our final music video piece. This means that the images have a greater likelihood of appearing more professional like the existing album covers that I analysed.

However, we did not have the opportunity to use a professional photography studio due to cost and so we created one at one of my group member's houses. This consisted of us using some black material from our college which we used to cover a large amount of background so that our artist had a black screen behind her. 

Our Studio

We used two sets of photography lights however we had to place them carefully, as we did for our music video so to get the right lighting on the face as one of the lights we used in the frame, behind the artist. With the lights we experimented with use of lights gels which coloured the light shining round our actress; we thought this looked effective and unique. We also used a tripod to safely secure the camera for numerous pictures. This additionally made shots steady so that we could get the most out of our pictures. 
We wanted to use a camera with the best quality so that our pictures would look professional and imitate a real music video for a real artist in the music industry. Therefore we used this SLR camera which was advantageous to our project as it performed so well. 

The following is a small selection of the photos that we took:

After our photoshoot we will now look for the ones that we think will be the most appropriate for our artist in making them fit the presentation of our artist.