Development of Fonts.

Fonts for Digipak and Poster

Evaluating digipak and poster.

Evaluating digipak & poster draft

View more presentations from Eleanor 'Norry' Watson

Music Video Draft.

Editing techniques.

We want to create an illusion of moving crowd around Katie who is standing still, we have practised speeding the clip up to see which speed works best.

Sped up x8

Sped up x6

Sped up x2

London Trip Behind the Scenes.

A collection of pictures and videos of our filming trip in London as a lot of bands do behind the scenes footage we thought this would be a good way to show our progress and other aspects of filming.

(For some reason I can't get rid of the green part of the screen on some of the videos I've tried changing the videos into different formats and everything but its not cut it out)

Final Poster.

Final Digipak Draft.

This is my final draft for the digipak. I also create some other pages which I could have used however decided the simple photographs were better than the photograph with lyrics.

I also created an alternative back cover page but I prefer the one with the country road photograph layered with Big Ben than this one with the leaves.

Final Digipak Draft

Front Cover

Back

Inside 1

Inside 2

For my digipak, I have decided to combine the concept of our music into it. I have chosen to choose only images of the city on the outside of the digipak and trees on the inside. I think that this will create a clear contrast between the Country and the City. 

Band Poster

Information included on the digipak.

Album Name: City & Colour

Song List:

• New Day
• Riding The Storm
• Good Life
• Chaos
• Endless Traffic
• Falling Leaves
• Cold Touch
• Transmission
• Lonely Road
• These City Lights
• Sore Eyes

Red Rose Records

Acknowledgements and band information - The Empty Crowd:

• Tom Ledger - vocals, guitar, piano
• Zach Brown - bass
• Charlie Fletcher - drums

Inspirational Posters

Analysis Of Posters

The image used here is mid shot of Rihanna, her facial expression is very emotive. It kind of look like she's angry but by putting her hand on one of her eye shows that she is kind of afraid at the same time. I think that this is a very effective photo because it draws in the audience and makes you want to take a closer look if you were only seeing it by a glance. The photo has also been edited by transforming it into Black & White, in my opinion I think that it is attractive to look at, it keeps the poster simple and lets you focus on the main artist. I also think that the reason why she chose Black & White for her image is the fact that this particular album that she released 'Rated R' was the first album she had recorded since the whole Chris Brown incident and in the album she talked about the feelings and how she overcame it. When this album came out, she had also had a total style makeover, her image was totally changed. She had a much edgier shorter haircut and also started wearing different kinds of clothes which revealed more flesh. The 'R' was Rihanna's official logo, it was a great way of branding herself and being recognise by people even if they didn't see her face. The colour scheme of the poster is kept pretty simple, only white and red has been used for the text, I think that this looks very good because it clear and easy to read, and the read really helps draw the audience to it.

Overall, I think that this poster is effective in many ways, it features the artist predominantly which is a must because the audience would have to immediately have to know who the poster is about and why it is there. The layout of the poster is kept considerably simple, it features all of the important information to let the audience know what it is on about and it is also in keep with the current image that she wanted to portray to the public at that particular time.

'Only By The Night' by Kings Of Leon and released in 2008. The image used here is a close up of the band member's faces and an eagle, but they have been edited to combine all of the faces into one. Another editing technique, the colour of the pictures have been changed, the natural colours have been stripped out and the designer's have replaced it with a light green tint. I really like this particular image because it really draws my eyes onto it, when I first looked at it, I was kind of confused. But when I had a closer look, I saw that it was the faces of the band and an eagle, this kind of bizarre imaging may also be one of the reasons why it was chosen to go on the poster, because it would grab people's attention and make them look. The colour scheme is kept again quite simple, not too many colours just white, green and red. The white used for the band's name 'Kings Of Leon' is very clear and simple to read, the position of the band's name is also very important. I think that by having it at the top of the poster makes it easier for the viewer to distinguish who the poster belong's to. The other text on the poster also contains relevant information like the name of the album 'Only By The Night', when the album is released and the songs on the album.

Overall, I think that is album is effective at grabbing people's attention. The use of editing to create this bizarre face can be easily used to grab people's attention and make them read the information. I like colour scheme used, it's simple and by adding the red I think it gives the poster more life to it. The relevant information is on there so the audience is able to easily know when the album is coming out and who it is by.

Digipak Practice

I have actually changed my mind about carrying on with the Country VS. City concept, I think it looks better with just one picture on the front cover. 

Playing with the Layout.

After deciding on the best photo composition I have been playing around with the layout to find the best place for the title and band name. I am still not sure on the colour and fonts though.

Digipak Concept

I will be using the same concept for my Digipak as we did for our group music video, Country Vs. City. I want to carry on this concept because I thought that it would be more artistic and imaginative instead of just having an image of the band on the cover. I definitely admire the editing techniques used on Kings Of Leons 'Come Around Sundown' because it emphasises the beauty of nature with the colours of the sun faded out the picture.

For the front cover, I am thinking of incorporating the model we used for our music video. This inspiration came from Vampire Weekend's 'Contra', which featured a female model on the front cover and I think that this was very effective in attracting audiences to look at it even though the woman on the front had no relation to the band or their music. I am only going to be inspired by this cover, I will not be making a replica or copy of it for my band.

What I was actually thinking of doing is having a split screen on the cover, Country on one side and the City on the other. Then I want to have our model Katie shot from the back standing in the middle of the pictures, so it looks like she is in two different worlds. I will be keeping the City shot in black & white as this will emphasise the dull grey atmosphere of it and for the Country shot, I am going to take influences from the King's Of Leon 'Come Around Sundown' by editing the picture so it looks very hazy and less saturated.

Pull-out layout.

I really like the folding style of pullout as it gives the audience the option to look at it all at the same time. They are also encouraged to look at every page. It also shows the contentious theme better as the audience can take it all in at once.

Examples of this in use:

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History

Kings of Leon - Only By The Night

Analysis Of DigiPak

Come Around Sundown - Kings Of Leon (Analysis)

This album is the fifth studio album by the rock band Kings Of Leon released in 2010.
The album went to number one in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. During it's release in the UK it sold 183,000 copies in its first week as well as breaking the record fir the biggest first week digital album sales by selling over 49,00 album downloads. It was the 11th biggest selling album of 2010 in the UK with 694,300 sales.

I really like this particular because of its use of colours to attract the audience. Kings Of Leon are a rock band therefore they would have to try and transfer their image of themselves onto their albums to attract their audiences to buy it. The CD cover has to also be recognisable as their own, as Kings Of Leon is all about the music and not really all about the show unlike Lady Gaga for example. The audiences who would buy this album would buy it for the music that is inside, not for the theatrical elements of it. I really liked the colour scheme used on this cover, the picture used is reminiscent of a distant memory, like this is where the band have been and they wanted to let their audiences see it as well. It also fits the album name 'Come Around Sundown' as the picture looks like the sun is going down, but I'm sure that there would have been some definite editing to the colour and lighting to create this particular effect.

The picture used on this cover is a mid shot, in my personal opinion I think that this particular shot has been used because it looks something that the band would've seen. Like it has been shot through their eyes, by doing this, it draws in their audiences closer to them and makes them feel more connected. The font used on this CD cover is very minimal, it's nothing too special and doesn't get that much attention. But I think that is what Kings Of Leon is about, they're pretty much low key, they don't do a lot of interviews and press stuff like that. 

The overall design of the cover is very interesting, it fits into the genre of the artists. Its nothing too showy; it's not self centered, it's just very low key. The colour effect on the CD is very nice to look at, it gives you the idea of looking at an old photo.

Inspirational Front Covers

I really like this particular front cover, the use of editing to enhance and fade the colour of the sunset is very attractive to look at. The photo makes me think of a memory which the band have shared together, like it's something seen through their eyes. The simplicity of the cover also appeals to me, it's kept really simple and I think that this is really effective because it portrays the image of the band. Kings Of  Leon are just about the music, they don't care for the theatrical aspects of the music industry unlike other artists like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. A clear example of this would be when the American Network 'FOX' tried to get the rights to use on of their songs for the TV Show 'Glee' and the band would not allow it because it would cheapen their image, they didn't want to be a sell out. Influences I could take from this particular cover is the use of editing on the image, I think that this would really work for the country shots to emphasise the beauty of nature with the colour of the sun fazing the image.

There are a few aspects this cover that I like, I particularly like the image used for it, it's very simple and emotive. I think that this is really effective because draws you in and it portrays in emotions of the album very well. I also like the use of editing here, by making the picture black and white, it some how emphasises the artist more in a way, it strips away the theatrics and makes it more engaging with the viewer. The lighting used for this photo is also very important, at first glance you may not see it but looking at it at it photographically, you can see that the light would've been put up very close to her face to create the shadows and different tones on her skin. I also like the idea of using just two colours for the font, this helps keep the cover very simple and clean, but in my opinion, I would've chosen a different colour for the '21' because it is not something that I would've chosen. But for this cover, I think that it is effective.

Out of the three, I think I definitely like this one the most. The artist is featured predominantly on the cover and when you see it on a CD shelf at a shop or somehwere else, you can immediatley identify the artist and who she is. Looking at th chalk board behind her, there is a clear contrast between the light and dark. I think the designer of the cover did this because he/ she wanted to portray the name of the album visually emphasising the name of it to the audience. Again, like the first 2, this album is kept very simple. I think that this is a very common style running through the designs of the covers. I think that this is the most important aspect of what I have learnt from looking at these covers, you have to keep the design within the same band as the artist's or band's image. What I am thinking of doing for mine is not having the band on the cover at all, I want to go down the route of having a scenery picture to portray the concept of the album which is Country Vs. City.

Example of No Band Photos in Digipaks.

As we have decided not to use photographs of the band in our digipaks we have researched other examples of this being used by other bands.

Snow Patrol do not have any photos of themselves in their album A Hundred Million Suns.

The pullout booklet the image of origami on each page which varies slightly with the lyrics written over the top. Then there is 3 pages worth of acknowledgements and messages from the band.

Neither does Coldplay's Viva La Vida which is a concept album.

From this we think it is possible to create a successful digipak without images of the band in and it works well it is a concept album because it is about showing the concept rather than creating an image for the band.

Analysis of Posters.

  

Typical features of a music poster advert:

• Artist/ band title at the top
• Large photograph taking up 2/3 or more of the space
• Often pictures of the band or the album artwork
• Reviews from notable well-known music magazines/ newspapers
• Clear release date
• Important information (release date/ band name/ album name) all readable and visible from a distance
• Colours reflect the style/ concept of the album and will reflect the music genre
• Simple clear fonts - sans serif
• Include a name of the most popular single on the album
• Text stand out from background using a different colour

These features also apply to tour date posters which have to make sure the listing is clear but the main focus is still the band or album artwork which has to be large and the main focus to draw the audience in.

Layering photos.

After creating different effects with the photographs from our locations, I decided to see what they would look like layered on top of each other with one layer opaque. I think this is a nice way of linking the photographs of the different locations and shows the city/country together. I created a border around the photos to make it look like a polaroid and used an earthy colour to bring out the photo of the trees. The photograph of the London Eye is slightly out of focus but I think it works well in this context.

I think the first one works better because the photograph of the trees in the background is more subtle which makes it look less crowded.than the second version. However I think the close-up shot of the London Eye and the skyscraper works better.

I might use this as the front cover for my digipak however I am going to have to play around with the font and layout of the lettering and find a font that looks more professional and unique to the band.

I got the idea of layering the photographs from the digipak for Parachute's album Losing Sleep.