Album Digipak - Why?

In this post I am going to explain why I chose to manipulate the images in the way that I did for the album digipak. It was important for me to create the album cover so that it was realistic and convincing. I wanted the target audience to be able to identify the type of artist Diana Vickers was by looking at her album.

Front Cover

The Image - I chose to use this image for the front cover because the artist is looking directly down the camera which shows she is bold and confident. I wanted to use an image that represented her as confident because it was important to entice the target audience. As the target audience is aged between 13 and 25, they like artists who are full of attitude and show a lot of confidence. I believe that the image I have used represents the artist in this way.

Photoshop - The main tool that I used on Photoshop was the Gaussian Blur effect. This basically means airbrushing the image. If you look carefully at the artists skin in the final edit of the front cover there is a slight blur which gives the effect of a clearer looking skin. I used this effect because I wanted my album cover to look realistic and convincing and every professional front cover will have some kind of airbrushing effect used on them. I also used the dodge tool to increase the brightness of the artists eyes. I did this because as I said earlier, having the artist looking directly into the camera shows she is confident and by brightening the eyes, it draws the audience in as it is as if she is looking directly at you.

The Text - I used a plain, simple font for the artists name and the album title. I decided to do this because I did not want the title font to be overpowering. As the image I used is so dominant, I did not want to take away from this with a flashy overwhelming font. I used two basic plain colours for the text, white and pink. I chose to use the white because it again, doesn't distract from the main image. I chose to use pink because I thought it was important to show the audience that although the artist has a confident and bold side to her, but she is also very girly and feminine.

Back Cover

The Image - I used a long shot for the back cover because I wanted the costume that the artist was wearing to help show her style and personality. The t-shirt she is wearing has an American flag which is slightly faded. Although the artist isn't American, I think this helps to show another side to her. It presents her as being slightly edgy and bold, this again links to her confidence and attitude.

Photoshop - To create this image, I didn't use as many tools on Photoshop as I did the first image. I used the lasso tool to cut out the image and the spot healing brush tool to clear some blemishes on the skin. I chose not to put too many effects on the image because I wanted the costume to do the talking and I didn't want to draw attention away from the outfit.

The Text - The text that I used on the back cover is what makes this unconventional. I thought it was important to represent the artist as a bit different and quirky, so I did this through the way I presented the track names. I used the free transform tool on Photoshop to put them at an angle surrounding the main image. This again helped to represent the artist as bold and confident but with a girly side due to the pink font.

Background Colour - On both the front and back cover I used a plain dark grey for the background colour. I chose to use this plain colour because I wanted the images and texts to stand out. If I had used a brighter colour or a patterned background then the images I used would not be as dominant which would therefore not represent the artist in the same way.

      Left Inside Cover                                                                                                                                                                     Right Inside Cover

As you can see, there is a big contrast between the two inside covers and the two outside covers. I chose to do this because although I have represented the artist as confident and bold on the outside covers, this makes her look very serious. Her music is upbeat and happy and I do not think this is portrayed on the outer covers. This is why I chose to use the images of brightly coloured balloons so that when the album is opened up, the audience can see what her music is really about. The brightly coloured balloons represent the artists happiness and music style. Its as if the two outside covers are the artists front and persona and once the audience opens the album its like they are revealing the real personality of the artist, the happy, care-free, girly girl.

I decided not to design what would be on the actual CD because it would simply be the same image that is on the right inside cover (the space for the CD to be held).