Ancillary task

Digipak...

What Is A Digipak?

Digipak is essentially an album typically consisting of a gate fold/book-style paper-board or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD. Usually, it contains a lot of detailed information regarding the artist itself, a number of images of the artist and/or images relating to the artist; such as an instrument. The difference between a Digipak and an actual album is quite obvious, as the Digipak is more expensive and has more to offer, whereas albums  Here are a few examples of some of the Digipak's from various artists/bands...

Conventions Of A Digipak...

Here I am going to list a few of the conventions of a Digipak in relation to: structure, layout, content and visual presentation.

Structure

The front cover of a Digipak usually has:

     - A picture of the artist/band or instrument relating to the artist/band

     - The name of the artist/band 

     - The name of the album

Throughout the Digipak there is usually:

     - Pictures of the artist/band or instruments relating to the artist/band

     - A booklet giving information on the artist/band

     - A booklet containing lyrics to the tracks in the album (not always in Digipak's)

     - The CD itself

The back cover of a Digipak usually has:

     - The track-list

     - The record company name

     - The website available to download tracks

     - Production company logo

     - Barcode

The spine of a Digipak usually has:

     - The album number

     - Name of the album/artist

Layout

Typically, the layout of a Digipak is a book-style layout entailing:
     - A front cover
     - A booklet inside the Digipak
     - A back cover
     - A primary picture of the artist or band
     - A plastic tray for the CD itself
     - A spine 

Content

Digipak's usually contain the following content:
     - Picture of the band/artist or instrument in relation to the band/artist
     - A booklet giving detailed information on the band/artist
     - A booklet containing lyrics to the songs in the track-list
     - The CD 
     - Website URL
     - Production company details
     - Album number

Visual Presentation
In terms of a Digipak's visual presentation it usually has an overall set theme and colour scheme throughout it, which is identifiable when looking through it. This is a common convention used and taken into consideration when it comes to the production of a Digipak. In addition, there are usually secondary images inside a Digipak, such as images or a specific colour scheme behind the plastic tray.

Individual Research
This is my individual research on Digipak's. As you can see I chose to use the hip hop/pop artist's Chris Brown's 'F.A.M.E' Digipak. Whilst conducting this research I took into consideration a few key aspects, including: influence, conventions, primary and secondary images, colour palette, typography, dominant text, logo and name of the bands and lighting, objects and setting.

*Tanya's Digipak Research*

R.E.D. is Ne-Yo's fifth album; R.E.D stands for Realizing Every Dream released on November 6, 2012. The album was produced from the artist’s (NE-YO’s) personal experiences himself. He explained ‘ it came from me stepping outside myself, looking at my life as it is today and realizing that every dream I've had from the day I decided I wanted to do music, every dream that I've had from then till now, I'm definitely on the way to realizing it’.

Ne-yo’s Digipak album has the codes and conventions of genre combining elements of R&B& Pop. It has the same theme colour throughout which is Red and it has a link with the name of the album R.E.D. The picture of Ne-yo is on the front and it is throughout the album digipak off which this is one of the codes and conventions of a digipak album. The hat which Ne-yo is wearing throughout the pictures of the album fits with the codes and conventions of the RnB/Pop genre. At the back of the digipak album there is the track list of all the songs on the album with the other entire artist featuring.  A digipak is usually in book style which is the reason why there is a variety of pictures of Ne-yo on it. The dominant text is the name of the artist which is Ne-yo at the cover and the pictures also takes up a lot of space on the cover. There are no pictures at the back of the digipak it is usually the barcode and the track list. 

*Band Logo Annotations*

Recording Labels...

1. RCA Records - They produce hip hop/pop artists such as: Bow Wow, Miley Cyrus and Mario.

   2. Jive Records - Chris Brown, Dr.Dre, Justin Timberlake, Jordin Sparks and R Kelly.

  3. Columbia Records - Beyonce Knowles, DMX, Marvin Gaye

  4. Atlantic Records - Lupe Fiasco, Bruno Mars, T.I, Trey Songz, Wiz Khalifa, Kevin Lyttle

  5. Def Jam - Big Boi, Big Sean, Fabolous, Kanye west, Ne-yo, Rihanna, Rick Ross

Band Logo's Research

All of these band/artist logos are within the RnB/Pop genre. One of the main noticeable similarities between the logos is that they are all simple and very straightforward. The colours used predominantly are black and white and in some cases red. All of the colours match together well and this enables audiences just from looking at the logo to know instantly the genre of the album or what type of music an artist produces. The main and obvious difference between the logos is the fonts and the different sizes of fonts used. Different fonts have to be used so that they don’t all look the same as each other and also so that the audience can easily distinguish between the different band and artist. 

Stockists Research

ITUNES is one of the best distributors for music, movies etc. This is the distribution channel we will use to stock our artist’s music. 

Worst Album Covers Research

*The Beatles*

One of the obvious problems with the first album cover is that there is too much of a variety of colours used that clash with each other. This use of colours makes the album cover seem tacky and unprofessional. They should have used a specific colour scheme, that way all of the colours would match and it would be more intriguing. 

Another problem is the fonts used and the style of writing, as it makes it harder to read and understand. This is a major drawback as consumers are meant to be able to read the information on the cover easily and understand it. 

*Naomi Campbell*

Album Adverts...

*Album Cover Annotations*

Conventions Of Album Advertisements
Here are the main conventions of album advertisements which I will be incorporating into my own design;

  - The release date of the album
  - Album title
  - Image of album cover (usually covers the whole of the advert or the majority of it)
  - Artist name
  - Information about the album
  - Where the album is available
  - Record label logo
  - Quotes/reviews

Album Adverts Research...
Here is my research into various album adverts of the R'n'B/Pop genre. The adverts i chose to conduct research into was Jessie J's 'Who You Are' and Trey Song'z 'Ready'. This research task will be of assistance when it comes to producing my own album advert, as I will be able to identify the different conventions used within various adverts and incorporate them into my own album advert design.

JESSIE J - WHO YOU ARE

TREY SONGZ - READY

*Tanya's Album Research*

RIHANNA - RUSSIAN ROULETTE

BEYONCE - I AM SASHA FIERCE

Brand Identity Research
Here I have put together a mood board signifying the brand identity of our music video artist 'Quincy Brown'.  

Artist Name Ideas
I brainstormed a list of names that I thought would be suitable for our artist. 

Album Songs
Here are a list of my 10 chosen songs for my album:

     - Never Again
     - Your Choice
     - Up To You
     - Me & You
     - What Goes Around Comes Around
     - Justice
     - Forgive me
     - Let You Go
     - The One
     - Back For More
     - Want You


Digipak Template Sketch
This is my first Digipak template sketch of the ideas I have for what I want our final Digipak to look like. Tanya also produced her own Digipak template sketch of the ideas she had for the Digipak.

*Tanya's Digipak Template Sketch*

Feedback
We each received feedback from our peers on what was good and what can be done to further improve the Digipak sketch. The feedback provided was useful and we made sure that we produced the final design according to the feedback given.

*Tanya's Digipak Sketch*

Pitch Final 

During our final pitch we discussed and made necessary decisions on the layout and design of our final Digipak idea. Our final decisions were based around a number of key codes and conventions of a Digipak, including: the artist's name, the brand image, colour scheme and images. As we had both produced individual designs for our Digipak, we decided to merge our ideas together by taking specific elements from each design. A key aspect that we both thought was relevant and necessary to include in our final Digipak was that it should link in with the RnB/Pop genre clearly, so that audiences can easily identify the genre. Here is a list of the final decisions we made:

• Artist Name - 'Quincy Brown'
• Colour Scheme - Grey, black and red
• Images - We took two images from each of our initial ideas
• Song List - We took 5 song names from each of our ideas
• Recording Label - Jive Records

Final Digipak Sketch
From looking at each of our designs and ideas for the final Digipak, we merged ideas and took elements from each of our designs and put it into the final design. We took deep consideration into the codes and conventions associated with our genre, such as matching colour scheme and the clothing the artist is wearing.

Individual Album Advert Designs
This is my individual design for our album advert. I made sure I adhered to most of the codes and conventions, such as the image of the artist taking up the majority of the advert  itself and the artist's name being big and bold to make it easier for audiences to identify who the artist actually is. 

*Tanya's Advert Design*

Feedback
We received feedback on what was good about our designs and what could be done to further improve on it. The feedback we were provided with was very useful and we incorporated some of the ideas given to us into our final design. 

*Tanya's Advert Design*

Final Advert
This is our final advert sketch for our music video and album.

Final Digipak

Final Advert

Checklist

Ancillary Tasks

Lesson 1

• What is a digipak?
• What are the conventions of a digipak?
• DETAILED research into digipak conventions AND analysis

-       Chris Brown Digipak (Gemma)

-       Ne-yo Digipak (Tanya)

Lesson 2

• Band Logo Handout with annotations
• Research what recording studio would produce an artist like yours (Tanya)
• Research band logos for your genre. (Gemma)
• Research different stockists that could distribute your album. (Tanya)
• NME have compiled a list of the 75 worst-album-covers-ever. (Gemma)

Lesson 3

·         Album adverts handout with annotations.

·         Conventions of Album Advertisements

·         Application of album conventions through research AND analysis.

-       Jessie J – Who You Are (Gemma)

-       Trey Songz – Ready (Gemma)

-       Rihanna – Russian Roulette (Tanya)

-       Beyoncé – I Am Sasha Fierce (Tanya)

Lesson 4

·         Brand identity research of artists in your genre.

·         Paragraph about whether you agree with your original idea for your artists brand image following research.

·         Brainstorm of name ideas and brand image ideas.

·         Feedback for the above.

·         Homework

·         10 chosen songs for album: 

     - Never Again

           - Your Choice

     - Up To You

     - Me & You

     - Justice
 (Gemma)
     - What Goes Around Comes Around

     - Lie To Me

           - Say Goodbye

           - Let Go

     - Aint Thinking About You

     - Cry Me A River

  (Tanya)

·         Digipak template sketch.

Lesson 5

·         Individual Digipak feedback from lesson

·         Consolidate ideas for digipak- final decisions must be clear as well as how you plan to meet the digipak conventions.

Lesson 6

·         Pitch final idea

·         Final Sketch Template
             - Front Cover, Inside Cover, Inside Left  (Gemma)
             - Back Cover, Inside Right, Extra Panel (Tanya)

Lesson 7

·         Individual Designs for album advert.

Lesson 8

·         Feedback from advert

·         Final album advert.