Digipak Brainstorming

On 7.01.11, my team members brainstormed ideas for our first ancillary task - the digipak cover. I was absent this lesson due to the illness, but after reviewing their ideas on blogger I am happy with the progress they have made.

The key points to their plan for the front cover were:

1. To have a mid-length/full-length image of us four girls together.

2. Either a black or white background.

3. Outfits would be dresses, and each girl have a different colour dress.

4. Pose in a standard 'girl band' way.

5. Fonts have not yet been decided upon yet.

The key points for the inside of the pack were:

1. Pictures of all the girls individually.

2. Fact File/ Personal information about each girl featured underneath.

3. My own suggestion is also that we feature the lyrics to the song in the digi-pak.

Digi-pak Layouts

Looking at a selection of CDs I have at home, I have established the key elements that are needed to make a successful digipak. Using the latest JLS album, I shall show what elements these are. Obviously, a CD case is needed, but within the case you need:

A Front Cover

 This front cover will appear on the front of the CD Case behind the plastic cover. It is however, the front cover of the inside booklet.

An Inside Booklet

This booklet will have varying contents depending on the artists. In the case of this JLS album, they have the various songs on their album and credits to who wrote, produced and recordeed them etc. Between these, their is different images of the band in black and white in the recording studio. Another popular feature for these booklets are lyrics to the song.

The CD Itself

Obviously, the music disc needs to be present. Here the band have their name of their group and the album printed onto it. They also have their record label 'Epic' printed onto the bottom in smaller font with some copyright details, which are obligatory by law.

The Back Cover

The back cover normally has the track list on it, so that the audience know what songs are on the CD and in what order. As well as this they have more legal content on there, such as JLS management company, the music company and the copyright notice.

Digi-packs: The Current Cover Trends

This week, I have looked at the Top 5 Songs in the UK Music chart, and looked at the front cover of each (as for me, the front cover is key in drawing in audience attention).

Rihanna - What's My Name



Matt Cardle - When We Collide

 

Black Eyed Peas - The Time

Ellie Goulding - Your Song

Katy B (Feat. Ms Dynamite) - Lights On.

As you can see, there is a variety of designs here for the 5 artists. I have noted some particular common themes that are current at the moment:

1. A lot of artists feature their own image on the front.

2. All of these single covers state the name of the song and the artist.

3.All but one of these single covers have evidence of SFX and/or lighting effects.

4. All have a specific and standardised font.

5. Each one has an individual colour scheme.

I have looked at these 5 as they are the best-selling songs in the chart, it might be an idea for us to look at these when thinking about our own to ensure that we abide to the current trend. Saying this, it is also important to focus upon our particular genre of music - for us, this is Pop music sung by Girl Groups.

Here are some examples of Girl Group Covers

These are examples from 3 different girl groups, and they all bare their similiarities. For example:

1. All members of the group are featured in the picture.

2. Their group name and the track name are also present - the font they are written in is also specific to their group.

3. They are all linked in some way, either by their style or colour schemes.

4. All have pretty plain backgrounds, and the main focus is on the girls themselves.
These are also things we'll take into account when deciding our cover, because although these aren't necessarily common in the top 5 songs in the UK at the moment they are common to the theme which we are going for.

Initial Ideas for Anciliary Tasks: Brand Identity

It is important for us to conisder brand identity when planning our ancillary tasks.

We need to ensure that all features we use relate to the image of our brand to create our unique identity, this includes things such as:

- Font Font Font Font

- Colour of Font

- Pictures & Images

- Themes of all the above

Existing Media Products.Many existing products ensure to maintain an obvious link between the video and the digi-pack, whether this be the lyrics, the visuals or the general theme. This is the same for the magazine advert, which will try and adapt the same principles.
Example:



This is the digipak cover for one of The Saturdays single called 'Ego'. As you can see, this hits the criteria that I listed above in terms of relation to the lyrics. The song itself is all about a man having a large ego, and on the photo here they have been pictured in a very powerful pose with bold, large font which represents the idea of themselves having a big ego.



This magazine advert of The Saturdays is one that I saw being shot on the documentary 'Saturdays:24/7'. This picture is infact super-imposed, whereby the shots of all the girls were actually taken seperately and edited together at a later stage. This is a nice theme as it is contradictory to their 'good girl' image, and the colour scheme is striking due to orange and green being complimentary colours.

Our own Digipak & Magazine Advert
We are yet to think of any specific ideas for our ancillary tasks, however we have decided on a few things:
1. We need to have images of the artists on there, as that is essential to the element of girl group and the target audience we are going for.

2. We need to special hair and make-up to make us look more extravagent.
3. We aren't planning to directly relate to the lyrics, as that would detract from our costumes and make-up.

4. We want to make it colourful and sophistacted.
After we have finished filming, we are planning on spending more time thinking about our ancillary tasks; but for now, they are just basic ideas