Digipak Journey Nat

1. My idea started with the hand written signature from Gabrielle Aplin's album

2. This lead me on to looking at particular artist's image I could replicate for my cover, which resulted in me researching into Birdy

3. A black and white theme was something I decided to incorporate into my design a I came across this theme significantly when on Tumblr

4. I researched into lyric booklets and panels to see if they would look good in my design, however I used the idea of having text and tiled this across my three inside panels instead

5. The idea of femenising this digipak played to mind which is why I researched into flower patterns (I ditched this idea after creating my below average draft version)

6. The Jessie Ware album began to make me think about the graphology features of the digipak and where I was going to place everything

7. The idea of an old styled record came into mind when planning my final digipak,as the vintage aesthetic was something which played on my mind from the beginning

8. The piano was something I debated on photographing with my artist for my cover, however I believed it would be too complex for the simplistic edge I wanted

9. Originally we had one female dancer in our video, and I tried to incorporate this in the album, as our single was the major song, however this idea wouldn't have created the correct image

10. After changing from one female dancer to a male and a female, I thought due to the album being emotional filled I could try to use this image to symbolise love. Unfortunately I didn't feel in the end this was necessary

11. I grabbed inspiration for lipstick from this image, as I believed this look would work for my artist, and make her more bold.

12. I used the large back combed hair look from this photo on my artist in the photoshoot, as the pop genre usually contains either big focal points of the eyes or hair to attract the male gaze

13. From this album it inspired me into looking at experimenting with fonts to create a smart aesthetic

14. This image from tumblr inspired me to have a white thick border on my cover, as it creates a neat simple aesthetic

15. The Taylor Swift album cover gave me the idea to thicken the bottom white blocked border to have the artist name. The image used also inspired me, as it was different to normal pop photo conventions

16. The photoshoot allowed me to play around with different camera angles and artist poses to see which worked. I decided to incorporate the Taylor Swift idea, and challenge the conventions of the male gaze

17. I finalised my font to Perpetua Titling which I also happened to use in my music magazine coursework at AS. This was because of its tidy aesthetic

18. I settled on a colour scheme of orange and brown because it was different, but I decided to focus on using colour for my final design as pop albums are mainly vibrantly marketed

19. I researched into autumn leaves as I decided to change my album name to this. It also made me think of how Gabrielle Aplin used the English countryside in her 'English Rain' album

20. I then decided to look into camera angle of leaves (e.g close ups) which would be effective to pan across my three inside panels, as this still created a simple aesthetic

21. My final digipak challenged conventions and met many conventions. I found it a long process of research to come up with my final design, because in my opinion the pop genre is difficult to replicate with a limited budget as it solely revolves around 'the perfect image', because how an artist looks will sell their music

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Digipak and Advert Commentary

The digipak I created was inspired by both Taylor Swift's album 1989 and Gabrielle Aplin's English Rain. The reason as to why I was inspired by these were due to the simplicity and delicate aesthetic which is present across both. Unlike the mainstream pop genre albums which focus on the male gaze predominantly, these two albums focus on the theme of the album, in a less 'in your face' way. This means that the professionalism of the product is in a way easier to recreate as a student, due to our artist not being of the aesthetic which Rihanna is represented like in the media.
The warm filtered theme which runs across my digipak and advert is based around the album title 'Autumn Leaves'. Like Gabrielle Aplin's adaptation of the English countryside I decided to keep a theme of the autumn season. A typical convention of a pop digipak and advert is vibrant colour, therefore I ensured I used this where possible to keep to the conventions. However, overpowering of colour is something I tried to divert from as our artist is known as being indie-pop, so simplicity was still key. Unlike most indie-pop digipaks and adverts they don't present the artist generally on either the CD cover or advert. This made it difficult to make the decision as to whether it was important to have the artists image on mine. Due to pop conventions of presenting the artist across both pieces of media I believed it was important to at least have use at least two different images.
Another convention of a pop digipak and advert is the artist's image attracting the male gaze. With research from Aplin and Swift's albums stating this isn't the case I decided to divert the photography away from the idea of attraction and more towards the tone and emotion of the album. I believe in my opinion this would attract the target audience I have, more so than a different 'in your face' gaze style would.
The inspiration of how our artist is dressed came from multiple artists such as Gabrielle Aplin, Birdy, Taylor Swift, Shannon Saunders and Hannah Grace. Regardless of only three of these artists having record deals presently, I believe the two YouTube starts Saunders and Grace put across an individual style which fits the genre they produce music in, and is effectively simply stereotypical. With a target market of teenage girls primarily, I believe the more simple she is dressed the easier the audience will relate to the artist.


My Digipak and Advert:

Digipak Inspiration 2

I have created another mood board, however this time it includes all sorts of images which inspire the reproduction of my digipak. After receiving feedback about my draft it became very clear that the the whole design didn't reflect the pop genre. Another thing which needed improving was the image of our artist. So therefore I have found images to inspire a new style of clothing and hair which will reflect our artist in the best way.

Lyrical Analysis

Lyrics Analysis by Nat Clarke

Playlist

Our Genre

The genre of our song 'Standing In The Way Of The Light' is a part of the indie pop genre. The artist who in which originally sings the song (Birdy) is classified with in this genre, and is someone whom we wish to portray with Billy-White. We believe she is the 'perfect' artist which sums up indie pop, due to her vintage fashion style, talent for playing multiple instruments, and emotional song lyrics which contain uptempo beats throughout the song.

The vintage styled fashion way of dressing is simplistic, which is the whole orientation of our video. Therefore we believe that this element of the genre is something that is complimented by our song choice. We also believe that artists who also correspond with this genre (For example: Emeli Sande, Paloma Faith and Gabrielle Aplin) have clean similarities, and there is no huge distinctive difference in the type of music they produce and how their image is projected through the industry.

The pop genre is known for using the notion of looking as a convention, which is something that indie-pop steers away from in every aspect. Artists that are known for being 'pop' tend to use their image as a sales market when their music isn't at its best in the charts, whereas indie-pop artists continue to tour and write their own music. This in the past has linked with the making of their own one episode documentary which airs on MTV.

A significant correlation between artists in the music industry within this genre is the simplicity at which the artists are represented. This links well with regards to the videos that are produced for their songs. There is a constant simple setting and simple narrative, concept or performance throughout, and there is never too much on a screen. In the present day other genres tend to go a little over the top with the amount of things that are put in music videos, the amount of merchandise they produce for sales, as well as the length of tours they go on globally is significantly larger than those of the indie-pop genre, due to it having a more niche market than the mainstream pop or rock genres.

The indie pop genre is mainly associated with bands such as The Smiths, so therefore by having a solo artist it makes our artist significantly different to what's already on the market. Hereby meaning that we are creating an even more niche market with in the industry. This could result in meaning that conventions will be something we need to stick to, in order to capture the attention of the market we are trying to address.