Looking At Other Digipacks/CD‘s Emily Batts

Pop Artists CD Covers.

What Colours Are Used? Using the collection of different pop artists Digipack covers from the previous page I will look at them as a whole and evaluate them looking at the conventions of the digipacks. There are a variety of different colourings used throughout these digipacks, these including; pinks, reds, blacks, blues, white, grey and browns. There are a few though, that are present in more than others, for example, white and black (grey) are used in nearly every one of these digipacks. Although not used as much as the black and white, the colours pink, and blue also appear a lot within these covers. Below are two of the covers, one which is mainly colour and the other black and white. In my opinion the black and white colouring looks good and works well with every cover, but the bright colours, such as pink work well as they stand out a lot more to the ones that use little colouring. Although I think that a digipack with colour stands out more, I prefer the idea of having little colour within my digipack. But when designing it I will consider using both colour, and no colour, then can see which one looks better and appeals to more people.

Positioning Of The Title and Text. The font positioning varies throughout the different covers, it is at the top of the case, the bottom, across the middle and in the middle, to the side. There are some artists within the selection that are more like my chosen artist then the others so I have decided to focus on their cover more than the others for this part. Below are the covers which match my artist, as you can see they are all male. The positioning isn’t the same for all of them, but three of them are in similar positions. In the centre of the case, to the right hand side. When designing my digipack I will consider these covers because they are the same genre and they are all similar to my artist.

Pictures-Positioning, Shot Type, Who/What? The positioning of the person within the cover is usually positioned within the centre of the page. This is the majority, but there are some where they are positioned to the left of the shot, and one the right. Below are some examples of these. The majority are mid-shots of the artist, where you can see their face and some of their body, but there are also a few which are close ups of the artists face. The picture within the cases are all of the artists themselves, but one. This one is of someone throwing a small child into the air and you can see their hands. Below I have taken some of the covers that appeal to me the most. Looking at these digipack’s I like the idea of the artist being on the side of the case, this is because I don’t like the writing over the artist and prefer it on a plain background.

Different Fonts Used and Size. A lot of the front covers of these cases only have the artists name on the front cover so there is only one type of font used. Their name is large in order to stand out so you know whose product this is. Where there is additional information of the front cover, such as the song title they have used a different size and style of font. Below I have shown the covers where the font and size changes. There is one exception for this, this being Britney Spears product, she has written the song title larger than her name. I have already looked and experienced with different fonts which I could use for my product, like these fonts match with the genre, the song and the artist, I have tried to do the same.

Background. All but three of the digipacks from the first page have a plain background. The backgrounds are in some cases in colour, but they have nothing on them. Although the artists which are most like my chosen artist have a background, shown below, I personally don’t like having one because I think it takes the focus away from the artist. It also doesn’t personally appeal to me, and when text is used on top of it I think it looks too busy.

Digipack Back Covers. Here I have got the back covers of some of the digipacks from the first slide. The ones that I have chosen are all from male artists, they are also the most similar to my chosen artist. This is so that I can be more specific with the conventions, which are most similar to my artist.

What Colours Are Used? Like in the front covers, black and white frequently appear within these back covers. Blue and red are also used within some of these covers and appear a lot, the amount isn’t as much as the black and white but because they are bold they stand out more. Looking at them with their front cover they fit in with one another with the colourings. Below is an example of a front cover and a back cover showing the colour theme. I would like to use the recurring colour scheme, making my front cover and back cover look as similar as possible.

Positioning Of The Title and Text. Looking at the four back covers they are all varied where the text is positioned. They are all as a list, but one is at the bottom with the song titles listed in a line, where as the rest are listed under one another. There is one which is positioned within the middle, but slightly to the right, one on the left hand side and the other in the middle, to the left. This suggests to me that my back cover design can be designed in any way, as long as it fits in with the rest of the cover though.

Pictures-Positioning, Shot Type, Who/What? Only two of these have images of the artist on them, and they are positioned on the left hand side of the page. One is a mid-shot and the other is a full body shot. The other products have no image or the an image of something else, in the case where another image is used, this image is of a lion and is positioned to the right of the page. For my product I intend to use an image of my artist, but I would like the image to be a long shot, but with little background. So a bit like the Jason Derulo one shown below.

Different Fonts Used and Size. There is no large text involved within these back cases, in their own product they are all the same size and style used. Looking at them and comparing them to the front cover two of them are the same font as the front, but a different size. But the other two are different sizes and fonts. All that is present on these pages are the list of songs, and they don’t mention the name of the artist. Because I am doing mine for one song only I am going to use the name of the artist on my back cover, even though this doesn’t appear in any of the products I have looked at. Below I have found a CD with the artist name on the back cover, they are a pop artist, but they are female so aren’t that similar with the music they produce.

Background. Two of these have a plain background, but with a picture of the artist on the back cover. The other two are images of a view, for example, one is of a sunset, whilst the other is of buildings in the distance. The buildings aren’t in the whole of the picture, but at the bottom so the cover does appear to be a plain background. Like I said previously I don’t really want to have a large image on the back of the case, I would like to use an image of the artist though but with a plain background, like in Jason Derulo’s cover.

The CD’s Here I have found a few of the CD’s from the artists digipacks from the first slide, they were hard to find which is why there aren’t many.

What Colours Are Used? There isn’t really any colouring used within these CD’s, with one being an exception but this is because it matches the digipacks case. There is a lot of grey used, with black which is also used with the front and back covers. But overall there isn’t really much variety of colouring. Where there is, it is red/pink. They all seem to match what has been done on their front and back covers, so when designing mine I will consider this.

Positioning Of The Title and Text. There is no CD where the positioning of the text is the same, for each one it is different. The different positions within these cases are; - Along the bottom. - Around the CD. - On the side. -Along the top and the side. Therefore when designing my digipack I do not need to be specific where I put my text.

Pictures-Positioning, Shot Type, Who/What? Background. There are no images used within these CD’s, there are patterns such as on the Madonna CD, and there are bits of snow on the Justin Bieber CD. These are patterns, or symbols that have appeared in the front or back cover too. When I designing mine I was considering using an image, but also following the theme which I have used on the front and back cover. By using an image from the CD’s I have looked at, I will be going against conventions.

Different Fonts Used and Size. The fonts are the same of which are on the front cover of each CD, they are different sizes to the front because this is a smaller surface. Where there is additional information, like on Jason Derulo’s CD, where he has listed the songs the font, and size has changed to his name on the CD. I personally don’t feel like the CD should contain much information, I would like to involve something which would relate the CD to the cover itself, such as a symbol. This is creating a type of motif for my artist, giving their audience something to recognise them by and associate them with.

Inside Panel When researching inside panels of a digipak there were very little that came up, and the ones that did, didn’t fit with my genre of music. But where I came across them they were either just an image of the artist, with no information included, or there was a lot of writing on top of an image. When designing mine I may use a selection of this, having writing, but also including images.