1st Ancillary task: Digipak ideas and designs

Knowing that we would have to complete an ancillary task to go with the music video, I chose to create a digipak, followed by a website for the band 'Delphic'. I first aimed to focus on the album cover, knowing the importance of ensuring it looked professional and would stand out when placed with other music albums in shops etc. The front cover of the digipak would be the point which would be seen first and must therefore offer appealingness along with being noticed. This would be particularly influential on the sales of the songs and the success of the band. Firstly, i visited a number of shops which focus on selling music videos, such as HMV.

I looked at a range of album covers in more detail, viewing ones that i found successfully caught my eye. I did this in trying to grasp some inspiration of what i want mine to look like, along with viewing them as a whole and thinking about what would stand out when placed against them. Viewing 'Delphic's past album covers was also important, as i would have to establish some link between them to ensure the audience became noticeable of this, this will not only cause people to buy this album because they enjoyed those previously done by 'Delphic' but will also help promote the older albums through this one. I went on to focus on albums from bands similar to Delphic such as those categorised as 'indie' bands. This helped me to get a sense of what would be appropriate and typical of their style and genre. I found that an album cover could be successful using a number of different techniques and because of this, i chose to experiment with a number of approaches by creating four or five different album covers before deciding or adapting these to a final design. Knowing that the majority of album covers place the band members on the cover, i began looking at pictures of Delphic which i believe i could include in the designs. Placing the band's faces on album covers helps promotion, as the audience know who they are listening to and can often be linked to voyeurism, explained when looking at Goodwin's theory. I chose the picture which i felt was most successful and cut out the images of the band members before placing them on alternative backgrounds. Although this was a simple approach, i was unable to reach Delphic in asking if i could photograph them myself. Here are some examples below:

The first album cover here uses the colours orange and green, this related well to my second ancillary task when looking at my websites colour scheme. Te background contains images of tools in which i draw myself with the use of a pen, this could be used to symbolize the creativeness of the band, along with adding an indie and different style to the album cover. The second is much the same, although i chose to use the colours typical of 'Delphic's previous albums, i placed the members of the band against some ink splashes, knowing that they were often referred to as 'inklings'. Again, i chose to place the title in green, ensuring some colour was added. I found myself preferring my second design, however, i still wished to experiment further. My second approach focused on a painting i knew well which has become very famous overtime. I again, used the same technique as above, going on to adapt this idea to just using the heads of the band and placing them within this famous painting, making it look like their heads were part of the bodies already painted. However, although this painting is in black and white, i chose to keep the heads of the band in colour and slightly bigger than the bodies to add some distortion. A message behind this could be showing how success the band are or are going to be, allowing themselves to be placed in the famous image. Representing their fame like this could also create a slightly cocky outlook on the band, in which i have found audience can appeal to, adding some personality to the cover, rather than it being meaningless. I was very pleased with how this idea turned out, believing it looked very stylish and unique. This is shown below;

Looking at Delphic's previous albums, i found that they used dull colours and their logo was contained in each.

The images are not completely clear and there is an element of 'wishwash' and style involved in them. My aim was to include all these elements in this design, ensuring a similarity could be seen between them all. Here are images of Delphic's album covers, followed by my own.

I was really pleased with how this design turned out, believing it shows a clear resemblance with the others and also shares the professionalism and style.

My final idea was a much brighter approach, aiming to use a number of photographs taken of Delphic throughout their giggs and tours and working within the studio as the background to the album. I would then take some photographs of a man infront of these photographs in an indie style shirt, or one in which i believe the band members of delphic would likely wear. Having to hide the knowledge of the person in fact, not being a band member, i will only include the chest in the shot, this also adds an element of mistery in the cover, along with giving it a unique feel.