Here is my final design for my digipak.
Showing posts with label digipak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digipak. Show all posts
Digipak - Production Logo
I have realised every album or digipak contains the studio logo that the artist is under near the bottom of the back cover. I have also looked into creating my own production logo with our production name 'JLJ Productions'. I have used Universal Records' logo as an inspiration and created something similar.
This is what I came up with and I had to create 2 versions with slightly different colouring to see which one goes well with my back cover.
Digipak - Improved CD Design
To improve my design for the CD I have drawn some doodle illustration (similar to music video's graphics) onto paper and then scanned it on to the computer to incorporate into my design.
I created 2 designs with the illustration.
This is my favourite because it looks less confusing and it fits the genre more.
Digipak - CD Design
As I was thinking how I could create the CD design, I thought of using balloons (which is one of the codes and conventions of the artist) as the background and the CD cover just like how Katy Perry used candy and doughnut as hers for Teenage Dream.
However, I thought the CD did not stand out therefore I made it white and written the title and artists' name on it instead. I might also improve the design by adding illustration drawings around the CD to make it more interesting.
Digipak - Lyrics Page
For my lyrics page in the digipak I wanted to include pictures of the artist like they do in other digipaks I looked at. I have chosen to use some of the photos that we took during our Brick Lane shooting.
One of the problems was that the lyrics for the song is quite long therefore I had to find a way to make it easily visible but still look good so I thought of splitting it into 2 pages that will be in the centre of the digipak so it will be right next to each other when opened up. I also chose photos that have the artist on one side so I could place them together and put the lyrics on the side that more empty.
Another problem I had was that the background is quite colourful and vibrant therefore the lyrics didn't show up well, even when using a different colour from the background. I had to create a box to place behind the lyrics and lower the opacity so the lyrics could be shown.
Here is my first attempt. However, I did not like the way 'Brokenhearted Lyrics' looked when joined the 2 pages together therefore I had to change something to make it work.
To improve from the previous attempt I have made 'Brokenhearted' bigger and deleted 'Lyrics' which made it appear to be much more attractive. I have also applied a glow to the title so it will show up better.
Digipak - Final Front Album Cover
Digipak - Experiments
After researching about album covers I also tried out some of the techniques myself to see if they are good for my album cover and whether it matches the genre.
For the first one, I have lighten the background and increased the constrast to make her stand out from the background. I have chose to use 'Northwest' as the font because the other fonts makes it too messy. It also matches the theme more with the simple, clean finish. I have used yellow for 'Brokenhearted' make it even more colourful and fun. I do like this version but I feel like the photo gives too much of a strong character, which is not something that's very visible in the music video therefore I think I'll need to use a different photo.
This is the second version that I designed. I like the use of shapes that was inspired by one of the album covers that I researched. I used Illustration to create the shapes so its sharper and it is also easier to get them in the right scale with the help of guidelines that I can't get on Photoshop. I then duplicated the layer of the face so it will stand out. However one of the problems I had was there wasn't enough space for the titles and it made it look very packed together when added on. I don't think I will be using this technique for my final design because it doesn't match the insides of the digipak and it doesn't seem like a Pop genre album cover.
Digipak - Editing the Photos
Before using any of the photos for the digipak, there are some bits that I needed to edit and correct to make it look better on Photoshop. On each photo I have edited the brightness and contrast of the photo to make it brighter and more professional looking. The trick to this is to create a paler face to make it seem airbrushed naturally. This also enhance the boldness of the photos with its good quality.
The face may seem quite flawless after you turn the brightness up but there are always some blemishes or spots that will still be there to make the face appear to be a little bumpy. Here I have used the spot healing brush tool to edit out the freckles on her nose and her cheeks near her eyes. This will further allow her to appear to be perfect and flawless.
Other than the subject itself, there will be some things that could be corrected in the background or around her. In this particular photo, there are some holes in the background we used so I again used the spot healing brush tool to cover it up.
In some of the photos her lipstick may be slightly imperfect from the dryness or it has started coming off so I have selected the colour of her lips and painted it over her lips with a paint brush on a new layer. After getting it accurately painted, you will see that it appear to be too fake and artificially edited therefore I have lowered the opacity of that layer to something like 30-50% so the original texture of her lips still show through along with the colour enhancement.
Another editing point may be the dark circles under her eyes. I have used the healing brush tool to fix this by selecting a section around that area by pressing 'alt' and slowly painting over those darker areas to brighten it up. This will also allow her face to appear cleaner and less tired.
These photos could also be used for the website too and that will keep the consistency of the website and digipak.
Digipak Initial Sketches/ Ideas
After the research and practise, I have come up with some sketches to what my final digipak will look like. I will have the artist as a main image of the cover with different style fonts to match the genre and theme of my digipak. For the lyrics page within the booklet, I thought of using one of the images that has a bigger side space so I could fit the lyrics on the page. Lastly, I wanted the back cover to again have another image of the artist as the main focus and the side with the songs for the whole album. I will also have the copyright written at the bottom in a much smaller font along with the studio logos.
Digipak Templates
I went on Disk Wizard to get a 6 panel template for my design. Although the template is correct but it only came in a PDF version so I needed to input all the information again on Photoshop and create a new template there.
After searching around I have found another website called Disk Makers which also have the same kind of templates. The templates come in all different kind of Adobe designing software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design and others which made it easier when designing.
I wasn't sure which one I wanted to use yet so I downloaded both the 4 panel and 6 panel just in case. If I have more photos to include in my digipak then I'll use the 6 panel but if 6 panel is not needed then a 4 panel digipak will also be good.
Digipak - Typeface
I have looked at some fonts that might be suitable on dafont.com. I then typed out the name of the artist 'Matilda Childs' and tested whether the letters and the font work well together considering factors such as what it will look like on the actual front cover on top of a photo of her and on the lyrics pages etc...
The fonts that I thought might be suitable are...
Story Book
Sweet Pea
Atlantic Cruise
Aku & Kamu
Mix Brush
Northwest
The Matic
The Million Mile Man
I found that the most suitable fonts are simple, bold, San Serif fonts, especially when the image is quite busy already with lots of colours and objects. However, funky, curly fonts can be great if the cover image is quite simple and the type can make it more fascinating. This means that the font that I use will mainly depend on which photo I am choosing as my front cover and how busy that is.
Digipaks Inspiration - Inside & Lyrics
These are examples of what the lyrics page and CD design looks like. One thing I have noticed is they all use one element throughout the whole album to make it seem like it's one whole thing. For example, the use of crosses or patterns. They also stick to one colour scheme like black with turquoise or white with blue/purple.
Digipaks Inspiration - Front & Back Cover
For the album cover the main image is very important and it has to be used in the right way to be effective. This means it can just be simple with a picture and font but it can also be changed up with the use of filters or shapes to make it more fascinating.
This is an example of just using a simple image and having the names/info on top. However, this means that the placement and colour choice of the font will have to be done right to look good.
This is something a little more interesting with the use of a silhouette of the artist and recreating the image with other images that links to the song. I could use this in my work by using the same idea but replace the images with balloons or graffiti to match the video.
This is slightly different to the other album covers but I like the use of filled shapes and circles to make the images more interesting and it will be good for our song because the colours will make it look quite cheerful which is what a Pop song need.
Lastly, I think this is one of my inspirational album covers because I like the use of triangles and how they played around with shapes by changing the placement and composition to create something that looks very modern and unique. I think this idea could be used because it links well with the graphics we have used in our video.
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