sams digipack options

 

This was wmy first full draft of my digipack but when I was trying to put the bands name and the name of the album it just looked out of place so I asked people to give me feedback on the album, and comments ranged from. "It doesnt look like an album" to "It looks like it is set in emmerdale" so the comments were not what I was searching for. However a few nice things were said, such as "the back cover's font looks very profesional" so I decided to keep this style in my next attempt at a digipack, which is below.  

This was my second attempt at a digipack, when I had finished it even I had to admit that it is a very big improvement to my first one as it looks a lot more like something you would see on an album, the band name and the title of the album fit nicely with the background as they both stand out, I think this was to do with the saturation more than anything else as it alows all the writing to stand out (apart from black as much). Unlike the first digipack I did this one doesn't like in with the video at all, but that's ok as there's more than one song on the album so the pictures could be from different songs, and jake has linked his digipack to the weight of living song, so that could be the lp cover that is sold on ITunes separately as a single and my digipack can be the whole album and the picture can link in with other songs, which are shown on the back cover. I had to change the song list around on this backcover because the writing would have gone over Kelsea and I didn't want this to happen because I want people to be able to focus on all of the band at once and not have anything in the way to distract them, it is the same with the names of the songs, as I didn't want anything to complicated behind them and draw the audiences attention away from the songs. That is another reason why I picked a black curtain background, because of its simplicity and behind the curtain is a stage so it's like the band is about to perform. The picture of the wall is where the band were stood and it shows that the band are always moving forward and aren't going to be at the same stage of their life the whole time. Also this is where the cd will go so I didn't want to hide anything very important behind a cd so I just wanted something plain. The top left picture was originally three separate pictures and was my first thought of a front cover as I was going to do a triangle, I the decided that I would split the front cover into three using these pictures but I couldn't get them equall so i decided to cut the people out of the picture of me and Kelsea and kept jake's picture as an original and layered the cut out of me and Kelsea on top, I did this so people can have a close up of the band and it shows the band is close but they are all different as they are looking in different ways. If I only sold the album onmitunes though the only thing people would be able to see would be the front cover, but in the shops they can see everything so the back cover has everything on it from the song names to where the record was made, and who by also I included who distributed it and which websites to go to to find more details about the band and where to get merchandise for the band which shows synergy between companies as they are advertising inadvertently. 

Sam Lyon

Sams poster to go with the digipack



This is my poster that I did to go with my digipack, I used the same picture as my digipack front cover as this shows synergy between the two items, also it is easier for the audience to reconise when they have seen the poster and are looking for the album, plus I have used the the same font in the advert as I have for the digipack as this also is showing the synergy between the two as well as the simalrities between them. The poster also shows where the digipack can be bought from, it would be distrabuted to more places than the three shown but being realistic I wouldn't be able to fit them all on so the three I have chosen are the three I would have done a deal with to advrtise each other and show the synergy between eachother, also the three that I chose to put in are very big companies, I tunes is the biggest music distributer online, tesco is arguably the biggest supermarket company and hmv is the biggest music hardware store. So using these shops to distribute my product alows me to reach out to a larger audience and sell more copies and make more money. The only thing I did change on the poster was where the weight of living title was positioned this was changed so that I could fit in the "out now" and "available now" because the album may get mixed up with all the different words and the names may be swapped around so I laid it out in this way to make the poster simple but easily rememberable and you can easily tell the name of the album because I put the name in a pale orange so it stands out from the background as well as the rest of the writing that is on the poster, I also postioned the writing in this way so the writing doesn't cover any of the picture so everyone can see the band without looking through the writing.

possible pictures for my digipack and why

I have chosen this picture as my front cover after asking (a wide range of people in the sixth form college) which picture looked better for an album cover? And this photo won by 18 votes as this photo got 24 out of 30 so it won by a large margin. I also really like this photo as it show purpose and direction like the band knows where they are going and we are together as a group and not an individual, also the background is very simple so the band and album name will easily fit on to the picture. I am planning on desaturating the picture as well but so the red of the coats stand out and the names of the band and album as then the audience won't be directed just to the middle they will be directed to the names and then the coats as the names will be brighter. This picture as it is now uses a rule of thirds so I will create my poster using the picture as it is now as this shows synergy between the advertisement and the album which is what I am trying to aim for. To take the photos where the three of us are in the shot we used a dslr camera and a tripod and set the camera on a timer.

Choosing between these two picture (above and underneath) was very difficult for me as they are very similar and after looking at them closely I have decided to go for the one on top because of the facial expression the jake has got, and that was what made me choose that picture, also there is more room on the left hand side of this picture, this is good as I was going to use it as my back cover for my album so there need to be some room for the songs to go down the side of the album. The writing of the song will be in white this is because the writing will stand out a lot more from the black curtain background. Another thing in this picture is the attitude that the audience gets from the three of us is very menacing, it's like we are saying what are you even doing looking at us? Which is a look most people stereotype with a teenager so this shows we are still a young band.

The three pictures above are what I'm planning on putting into my inside left cover. I am going to do this by splitting the three pictures up and putting them together so the faces are looking in different directions. I have done this as its very artistic and different, also it fits in with what jake has done with his front cover which was my idea to split the pictures up in to three. 

This is the picture of the wall I will use for the inside left cover, I will use this because it shows the band has moved on and that they are moving at a fast pace. I will cut it down so its just the wall in it, I will do this in photoshop. The Cd will go here so I dont want some thing very complicated that it can be covered up by the cd, that is also another reason why I chose to use this picture. 

Sam Lyon

sam lyons album ideas

my album cover

My album cover was very poor as the background was to complex and the colours of the background made it hard for me to get the colour of the writing right and for the writing not to look out of place, so this picture of one direction is something I am now aiming to imitate in the way of simplicity, as this allows me to get my band name and title in easily without it looking out of place and weird, instead the simplicity of the backgroung and the way the boys are lined up allows the title to stand out to the audience. Also unlike the other albums one directions name is a different font to the name of the album as well as the album name being very small  

I don't want to repeat the one direction album completely as that isn't really the style that I am looking for so I am going to attempt to a bit of attitude in to the picture by using the style of green days album warning. The way they are walking past the camera like it isn't even there is what I would like to try and do but with a simple background, I also like the fact that there's no colour in the album apart from the name of the artist and the name of the album as this draws your attention to the names even though they aren't central and the album name agian is quite small but the colour is helping it stand out because of the saturation. 

This picture of paramore is also something that jake and I can easily relate to as in the band that we have there is 1 girl and 2 boys, so this picture is good as it shows they are close but not in a weird way and it isn't cheesy like the one direction but it is more direct towards the audience unlike the green day one which doesn't address the audience where as this picture shows some members of paramore addressing the audience but at the same time showing attitude in a very simple picture that could easily be used as an album cover with its simplicity as well. The three pictures also dont really have the feet in as they are using more of a mid shot so this makes the audience focus more on the band members faces. Also for a debut album people want to know what the band looks like so this also is why I have decided to keep the three of us in it.

Sam Lyon

Sam's album layout idea (drawn out)

Sam Lyon

Ed Sheeran poster and cd synergy

Sam Lyon

The songs I have used on my digipack

I have used 14 different songs on my didgipack and i have picked them all from the same sort of genre so the songs arent out of place and the album seems more realistic, as you wouldn't get Eminem on the same album as you me at six or Bastille. So the songs I have chosen are:

1. The weight of living Bastille

 2. She moves in her own way The Kooks

 3. Of the night Bastille 4.Take aim Kasabian

 5. Fire Kasabian

 6. Lyla Oasis

 7. Sex on fire Kings of Leon

 8. When the sun goes down Arctic Monkeys

 9. Pompeii Bastille

 10. My number The Foals

 11. On our way The Royal concept

 12. The city The 1975

 13. Lived a lie You me at six

 14. She wants me The Pigeon Detectives

 On the actual digipack though I didnt include the bands names as its supposed to be all by the same artist and not a compalation so I set the album out as if the band has done all the songs. Plus I put the songs in a certain order so that they fit around the football boot that is also on the back cover as I thought this would look really good, and the people I showed it too thought that this was a very good idea as it doesnt miss out on any detail.

Sam Lyon

digipck trail

This was my first attempt at making my digipack on photoshop, I tried linking in each theme from the music video on to the album. After getting to this stage (even without the front cover) I could tell that didn't look good at all so I have decided to go with one theme, which is the football theme. The digipack doesnt look good because the images contrast massively and clash in style. I really like my back cover though so i will keep that and stick with the football theme and I think I should include a picture of the band on a football pitch but with musical instruments so you can tell they are the band and not just some random people. I am going to take a picture of me jake and kelsea with items that are musically linked in front of a goal. This will link in with the football theme. For the inside covers I will use a football pitch to go over both of them as this alos links in with the football theme and means there is no blank spaces, plus I didnt want anything to complicated to go behind where the cd would have been.

Sam Lyon