1st Ancillary task: Evaluation

I believed that the first two album covers i had designed did not portray the professionalism i was looking for and were in fact to simple to create a good enough reaction on the shelf, using these as a slight practise before and complicating my designs. I also understood that the brightly coloured cover i have created, showing a man in a checkered shirt, would attract a more younger audience who would be interested in pop, feeling that this design did not fit either, the genre of the music or the type of audience i want to be addressing to ensure the albums are enjoyed and considered a success.

I am particularly happy with how my Digipak turned out, feeling that it matched with their previous albums effectively. This was important in showing an attatchment to all of Delphic's albums and making the audience clear of this link, helping to participate in the sales of all their work in this way. This will ensure their current audience are able to see the similarity and understand that this is a Delphic album straight away, using it much like a symbol or logo for the band. This will also allow for new audiences to notice the older albums in much the same way. Further to this, i also found that i was able to capture the style of their previous albums well and thought that this album cover looked very professional and well designed.

I was also happy with the colours used, knowing that the members of the band portray themselves as using wishwashy and somewhat dull colours. Although this may mean the album does not stand out as much as others, i feel that the look of the album would fix this, due to it looking very different to any other album cover i have seen in terms of what is included on the cover and how it is laid out. Choosing colours which are not 'in your face' also gives an impression of not trying so hard, and being almost an effortless design which could be to symbolise the fame of the band and that they do not actually need to try very hard to achieve their sales. I also felt this cover achieved a sophisticated look which would appeal to the correct audiences that the others i created did not seem to achieve.

I purposely used Delphics logo here, again to show a clear link between this and the rest of their albums. The swirls used as the backgrounds for both, the front and back cover have also been in aim of representing the patterns on their previous albums, knowing that they have included some pattern on each of their designs which helps hide or mask the other image slightly. I am also happy with my robot like design, which could be linked to my video as the image here is made to look lifeless and could be portrayed as having no emotions, using this as a contradiction between the two. I thought it would be important to include images of the band members themselves on the back cover, to ensure the audience know the artist, again using it as a promotional techigue. Again, a good link can be established here to the video too, as you can see the band members are shown more than once on the back cover in the same pose, which also happens in relation to the editing in my video. I believe this has creatively added an interesting look to the cover, again deteriorating away from what is typically seen. Chosing to show more than one of the same image of the band members can also be used to exaggurate their popularity and fame, by wanting them 'splashed' on show. The lighting i have created in the background of the piece i felt helped portray a professional style to the piece and the very slight element of blue colour on the word 'counterpoint' not only makes the songs name stand out but also provides a link to the girls 'blue face' in the video.

Although i was very happy with the design which used a famous painting, i chose to include this as an inside cover, using it as a booklet instead.

I did feel that this image would stand out when placed against other album covers and attract attention, it also looked like a well thought out design and still managed to remain unique from the rest. The band members heads were placed on the image in an artistic way which i also felt looked appealing and added style to the image. Including the faces of the band members would have enabled people to know who created the music on the particular CD and help with promotion on the members of Delphic themselves, but i did feel the images were a little to small to achieve this and found that making the heads bigger interrupted the overall style i was looking for. In considering the benefits here, I finally felt that relating my album cover to previous ones they had released would be much more beneficial, sticking to the more relatable design as seen in my previous post.

However, due to me still being very pleased with the design using the famous painting, i felt using it as the booklet cover instead did have its advantages in ensuring the inside looked just as professional as the out and allowed me to add some colour to the digipak without adding to much and spoiling the overall design of the package. With this design using the colour orange, this also allowed a link between my digipak and the website design.

When making the actual CD design itself, i aimed to relate it to both, the front and back cover and the booklet cover, using it as a means of bringing eveything together, which i believe to have achieved effectively. I particularly like the lense type effect here, where you are shown the three band members sitting on the wall of the famous painting, using this much like a close up when filming. The swirl taken from the back cover of the digipak is also evident here, along with Delphic's logo, this time written in black.

If i were given the opportunity to complete this task again, i may wish for a more noticeable link to the video. However, i would not want to take away the style of these covers in achieving that. I also would have planned my design more effeciently in which would have saved time and prevent me from having to create a number of album covers, although i felt that this was still beneficial in allowing me to gain some practise and realising interactively hat would work well. After completing the back cover, booklet and CD, i was happy with my design and felt that it looked very professional and unique, relating well to the right audience without narrowing the appeal of the CD down.