Analysis of individual digipak - Miss Georgiou

Analysis of individual digipak

Introduction

I have created an individual digipak to help promote my artist from the creation of her album. The digipak that i have created concludes of six slides, portraying different emotions and elements through pictures and text. The order is shown clearly stating the front cover to the album, a single image, the CD, message to fans, single image and the back cover showing the album track list. My previous research from digipaks from artists have helped me to produce similar and conventional images to my genre of soul. My previous research was shown through Duffy's digipak who used conventions to the soul genre which i have taken inspiration from. My research really helped me to produce my ideas into six different slides. There are many purposes of a digipak and these include to promote an album, to list the content of an album, to make the CD eye-catching, to use art and images to express a message, to tell us something about the artist and musician and the music behind it, to attract a wider audience as well-as the artists own.

Main

The colours that i have included revolve around red, white and black. The reasons for including these colours throughout my whole digipak is because they contrast and reflect the expressions and emotions being sent out by the artist Amy.The red being used as a reoccurring theme shows Amy's emotions of love, passion, power and also anger. The anger represents when Amy is not in her hometown anymore and is angry and sad that she isn't happy in the place that she is living and wants to be around family and friends and be happy like she was in her past. I have include the colour red in bold on the 18 on the front cover. This colour stands out brightly to the audience as it overlaps amy's name in white, although both still understandable. The red 18 links in contrast with the red curtain within the next slide to the digipak, showing an image of Amy standing on the stage performing. The red curtain represents her as having all here emotions behind her whilst she is performing her song on stage. The red is also included on some of the text in the message to fans. The words "you" and the "A" on Amy is written in the colour red to represent a personal effect to the audience, and the red on the letter "A" is a reoccurring theme through out as its also included on the single image of amy on the stage. The type of red that i have included in the typing is a darker red, showing a deep passion but also in contrast with anger of not being in her hometown, relating to the songs included on the album. In Addition, the fitters and colours back and white are used in every slide to the digipak. The main focus to the black and white is the filters i have included on some of the images. The front cover and back are both in a black and white filter so they connect and show relation to each other. The colour black is used within every one of my 6 slide digipak which shows to the audience its an important colour throughout the music video. The colour black in my digipak represents the connotations of sadness, hidden meanings, elegance, power and grief. This colour also helps to portray Amy's dark thoughts and meanings being sent out to her audience. The connection between the front and back cover in relation to colour shows that there is an importance in the images. My CD itself is in a block colour of black, with a small amount of writing showing white and red. The black to the background shows a darker side to my artist. All of the colours I have included within my digipak are conventional to the soul genre, and all hold there own meanings and connect to the soul genre in many ways.

The conventions of the soul genre I have included within my digipak is the images I have included, which includes a close-up of my artist on the front cover. Close-ups are conventional to the soul genre as it means the artist can connect and portray their emotions easily to the audience through facial expressions and emotions. This is why I have included a close up on my front cover of my digipak as it means my audience can create a relationship with the artist and can understand the way she is feeling and the meanings within each song that has been included on the album. The audience will also be able to see the expression being shown from the artists face, and this will represent her past emotion. Close-ups are used all the time within the soul genre, including male and female artists. Another convention of the genre that I have applied within my digipak is the colours black and red. The colour red shows my artists power and authority within her songs and how she is a strong and independent woman. The colour black in contrast with this shows the darker meanings behind her thoughts and messages being sent out through the lyrics and images she is portraying through the digipak.The personal message from the artist to the audience is also very direct and is directed specifically at each reader. Soul songs conventionally are seen to be very personal and direct to the reader to help with the relationship that is going to be created between the two. This personal message helps with the audience grasping the concept of the artists feelings, and how this message means a lot to them and helping with the aid of promotion. Including conventions from the soul genre within my digipak helps the audience to recognise reoccurring themes from the genre, this helping a relationship to be created.

The images i have included within my final creation of my digipak. The first image is the front cover, showing a close-up of Amy looking downwards away from the camera. This hides her emotions from the audience, leaving them guessing what she is feeling and meaning they have to try and work it out.  This also links to the back cover, showing my artist also looking away but this is shown through a mid-shot of Amy looking over the river in London. I have chosen an image of Amy looking downwards away from the camera as this shows an insecurity of the artist, hiding her emotions from the audience, this creating a relationship between the audience and the artist as they have to dig deeper into what the artist is feeling and the reasons why. I haven't used an image on my CD front cover as i wanted it create a simple effect with the black colour standing out to the audience. Moreover, every image i have used within my digipak shows Amy to be looking away every time. This is conventional to the soul genre as it is used by a lot of soul artists as it hides emotions and feelings from the audience easily and docent reveal them easily. The three images i have included are all taken in the location of London, these are the images from the first slide, fifth and sixth, showing that they relate and connect to each other. I feel that the images I have included within my digipak all hold a meaning that connects to the artist as well as the album, and the song Hometown Glory. All of these images when seen by the audience will help create a relationship from the audience to the artist as they can link to the song Hometown Glory.

The layout and design I have chosen to use for my digipak is including six different sides, and to lay them out in a simplistic way for the audience to understand. The layout shows the front cover, single image, CD, message to fans, single image and back cover showing the track list. The reason for choosing this image is because when laid out all together there is a clear connection between all six, and once the digipak is folded and put into the CD itself, it will be clear when opened to why they are in that order. The layouts and designs on each of the slides have been placed in certain ways due to the way i feel they work/don't work. I placed the album name "Amy 18" at the bottom of the front cover so the artists face can still be seen and the emotions still portrayed. Also carrying the running theme of Adele's albums where she used numbers after name in her last 3 running album's so I took inspiration from her. The second slide shows Amy centred in the middle of the stage, and i have placed a line of lyric in the top left hand corner so it stands out from the red background, and easily recognised by the audience as its a lyric from the song. This is also similar to where i have positioned the album name on the CD. I have placed the name at the top in the centre so its easily seen by the audience and they know what it is. This is a good thing within the album as it means the audience can see a clear design the whole way through and a reoccurring theme from the album. The layout I have chosen on my CD is simplistic, easy to recognise and easy to understand, which is good for my audience, meaning an easy target audience to catch. I feel I have chosen a simplistic layout not only for my target audience to understand but a wider audience that will enjoy the CD itself, as well as the digipak inside.

The typography i have included shows different fonts throughout to portray different emotions to the audience. The fonts I have included are stereotypical to the soul genre. The font i have used on the front cover is bold and upper case. The font is a large size and stands out to the audience as well as being positioned centrally. The bold writing on the front cover shows that this album is strong and forceful and shows a lot of meaning to the audience. Although within the soul genre its not conventionally seen to want to stand out, but I have chosen this to show a unique effect towards the audience. On my chosen image, message to fans and back cover showing the track list I have used a handwriting type font which adds a personal touch from the artist herself. This is conventional to the soul genre as it means the audience can create a relationship easily with the artist. The personal approach leads the audience into thinking it has been written just for them; helping with the method of promotion and a direct/strong target audience. The curly handwriting also represents my artists simplicity and elegance. The two colours I have used on my message to fans; red and white, work together well and contrast two different meanings to the audience. The colour red presents love to her audience, and a personal touch whereas in contrast to the colour white which shows her innocence and difficulties. This shows the audience understanding two different meanings and sides to the artist. 

The language I have included within my digipak is simplistic and easy to understand by my artists own target audience, as well as a wider outlook too. I haven't included many words, only the ones that need to be there. The front cover simply consists of the album name, the image on the second slide included one sentence of a lyric from the song hometown glory included on the album, the CD only includes the album name the same as the front cover to the album, the message to fans is a short message that only holds a few words but a lot of meanings, the next image does not include any language and the back cover only includes the track list of songs included on this album. As there is only a small amount of information on the digipak this means the audience are not overwhelmed by a lot of writing and aren't put off when looking/reading. Including simplistic language within my digipak is conventional to the soul genre, as from previous research I have found that soul artists only use small and simple uses of language to attract a wider audience.

To create my digipak I used the programme Photoshop. This is an programme on the computer which allows you to edit images. I found that this programme was very helpful and allowed me to produce and create many things which conform to the genre of soul. Some aspects to this programme were hard to use, leaving me with a few weaknesses. The first being finding it hard to use the quick selection tool. I was able to use the quick selection tool by selecting it on the side bar of the Photoshop page. This tool allowed me to select different parts of the image; meaning I could move that part of the image, cut it out, put it onto a different image or change its colour. When cutting the part of the image out I wanted the tool would often select more than I wanted, and I found it hard to put it back without starting all over again. The image which I selected was my artists face which i cut out from a different background and placed it on my background of London, which showed her looking down at London and reflecting on her life, linking to the music video itself. With research and guidance I found that by holding the control button on the keyboard whilst highlighting you could minus the selection you have done, and go back to where I wanted to be. Another weakness I found was after I had used the quick selection tool. I found that once using this, the image I had moved or cut out had a radged edge, and didn't look smooth. For this to be corrected I had to use the rubber and smoothen out the edges. What I didn't know until guidance and research was I had to zoom into the image first before using the rubber, as this way I could get a more professional finish. Although, within the programme Photoshop I also had a few strengths. My first strength was downloading fonts onto Photoshop from the internet, as I found some of the fonts on Photoshop didn't work with my images, and didn't conform to the soul genre. Downloading fonts meant I could drag and drop them into the programme, and from then I could simply type the text I wanted and once entering using the enter bar on the keyboard my font would appear on the text I had typed. I found this was a useful way of choosing a different text I wanted, and also being unique from other peers within my class.

The link between my three products shows a clear correlation. I have included the same colours in all three, showing red, white and black. The black and white filter is reoccurring showing that they are all recognisable when put together and when apart and can be seen the same by the target audience. The colour red is represented through the backgrounds of London as well as on her lips when the black and white filter is applied. The red lipstick is worn in most scenes of the music video and is also shown on both ancillaries, representing the music video. Portraying the music video through ancillaries shows the artist being promoted, leading to more sales and fame.

In my digipak I have included several different fonts on each slide. The slide showing Amy's personal message to her fans shows a handwritten font. This font is called 'French script MJ'. This shows specifically towards the audience that it has been written to them personally and can be seen as a direct message - leading fans to buy the album and look at the ancillaries more.

Conclusion

I feel that after the completion to my digipak I have conformed to many different conventions of the soul genre. Within all six slides to my digipak I have included a different convention within each, which represent the artist in a few ways. The images I have included represent my artist stereotypically to the soul genre, and this can be seen easily by her audience as they stand out. I have used only three colours throughout mu creation to my digipak, which not only means that all 6 slides to the digipak connect, but shows meaning to the audience that these three colours represent the artist and mean something too her. Each colour represents an emotion from the artist's feelings. The location of my digipak also relates to songs included in the album. The location that most of the pictures are taken in is London, which means the audience can engage with the artist as they are recognisable locations and mean something to the artist. I feel that my digipak does appeal to my target audience as its simplistic and easy to recognise within the soul genre. My digipak holds a unique touch throughout, which hopefully not only my artists target audience will like, but also a wider audience too.