Individual Digipak Analysis - Miss Gourgiou

Individual Digipak Analysis

I created an individual digipak in order to promote my artists album 'Amy18'. Firstly I was influenced and inspired by an artist from the soul genre, because my artist is from the soul genre. I saw Duffy's digipak and instantly I was intrigued into the artists feelings and emotions being displayed, I was connected to these representations due to the artist not making eye contact with the camera, this showed to me and the audience, that the artist is insecure. Insecurity is a typical representation within the soul genre, as the music is based around sadness and depression. Therefore Duffy inspired me to use pictures of my artist not looking at the camera. Due to the quality of the photos I had to include photos where the artist is making eye contact, but I made sure that I included non eye contact photos as well.

Colours

During my I incorporated a large amount of dull dark colours, such as black white and grey. This was so that it would show to the audience, that the artist is reflecting on her past, as black and white symbolise the past. This will lead to the audience having a better understanding as to, what to expect within the album, which therefore will allow to audience to gain a better understanding of the album 'Amy18'.  Overall I believe the dull dark colours will help to appeal my target audience effectively, as they will understand what the connotations of these colours are.
Secondly I have included some red into my digipak. The colour red connotes: danger and love. Both of these connotation are feelings that my artist wants to portray in her album 'Amy18'. Firstly the red shows and represents that the artist has been hurt from a loving relationship. This then leads to the audience having an understanding of how the artist is feeling, if they have gone through similar circumstances, which is likely because the target audience are above the age of sixteen. Therefore the audience can emotionally connect with the artist and then  work out if the artist is relating to her family of boyfriend, from listening to the album, overall This will intrigue the audience to purchase the album. Therefore promoting the album.

Conventions of genre

Throughout my digipak I have conformed to the conventions of the soul genre. This has been displayed by the themes and isolation of the artist being portrayed to the audience via my images used. Firstly my colours used are conventional to the soul genre as I mentioned in the paragraph above. I did not want to challenge any conventions of the soul genre, and I wanted to stay conventional to the soul genre, because I wanted my target audience to be able to clearly identify that my digipak was in the soul genre. Therefore I included spotlight effects within my digipak to emphasis the fame and isolation of the artist. This allows the audience to be able to understand how her professionalism has cost her to be isolated from others, this is a theme which other artist within the soul genre also convey through there digipak's, my example being Duffy. Therefor I successfully was conventionally to the soul genre within my digipak, which I believe will appeal my target audience into looking into my artist and what she represents.

Images used

The images I used within my digipak did not all go to plan, as I was going to follow a theme of stage, and curtains within my digipak. But because the front cover did not have any stage like resemblance, it would not have matched my back of the album. Therefore I changed the theme to be a spotlight theme. The images I used did not fully correspond with my planning as I did not use the fifth shot, of the artist outside her school. This was because I wanted to make the most out of photoshop and construct an image that would be unique and more conventional to the soul genre. I included a range of closes up and mid shots and a long shot so that the audience can see the whole artist. The close ups allow the audience to engage and connect with the artist emotionally. I then used the mid shots and long shots of the artist so the audience can begin to idolise the artist, because of her professional look. Overall the images I used were to enable the audience to be able to build up a relationship with the artist in a way, where they can feel connected and also look up to as a role model.

Layout / Design

The layout and design was a very important element of my Digipak, this was because I constructed a theme of being under the spotlight. Therefore through out my digipak I had to ensure that the designs matched and would match if my album was to be constructed into an actual cd. Digipak being six sides long, meant that create a specific theme that I followed throughout would be difficult, because each slide can not look too similar to another. Therefore I constructed a layout of including my cd within the middle of my digipak to separate the five images used. I then designed the slides using a constructive tools on photoshop. The main tool that is very effective from photoshop is layering. By layering my images and text, I was able to design each slide efficiently to look professional and real.



Typography

The typography used within my digipak is mainly the song names and the artist name. The only other text involved was the 'www.amy18music.co.uk' I added this text in to create a realism of the product, and show to the audience that my artist has fame. The audience can understand this because they can see from her having her own website that she is successful. This leads to the audience building up there likability for the artist and idolising her. Additionally the fonts I used were found from a website called dufont.com. This website had a large range of fonts and enabled me to choose the font that I thought looked the most conventional to the soul genre. The font that the song names are in, helps to show to the audience that they are constructed from her thoughts and feelings. The audience can understand this because the font, looks cloud like, which represents a speech bubble, which connotes her thoughts. Therefore the audience are able to build up an understanding that this digipak is reflecting on her past. Also the text is in white throughout the digipak. Firstly this is due to the dark backgrounds, so the font will stand out and be easily readable. Secondly the colour white represents innocence and shows to the audience that the artist is innocent in the stores that she will be explaining through her music.



Language

The language I used within the digipak is centralised around the message to fans. The language I use is to make the target audience feel appreciated and to make them feel like the message is personal to themselves. Within the message to fans I use the word 'You' twice. This is so that the audience really feel as though the artist is speaking to them, which is effective in making the audience become a fan of the artist. The audience also feel appreciated as the artist states how 'thankful' she is, and also addresses the audience by her 'dearest friends'. This makes the audience feel loved and taken notice of. also within the message the artist states how she 'could not of done this without you' this is the last line of the message to the fans, and is the most effective in portraying a sense of appreciation to the audience. She highlights that she could not of done this without the support of fans which effectively connotes how the artist may not have the support from friends and family. This leads to the audience being able to understand that the artist feels isolated and money, which therefore makes the audience want to stay connected to the artist to make sure they will be okay. Overall the language used complements the target audience and makes them feel loved and appreciated.




Strengths and Weaknesses of photoshop


My strengths of photoshop are something I found difficult at the beginning attempts of using photoshop, but with practise have become a strength of mine. Firstly The erase tool is now a strength of mine as I have become steady handed,  and can erase in a straight line which helps to not cut out the part of the image I need, and also helps in making the edges of the photo look real. Secondly I have been able to successful layer my layers in the order that I needed them to construct a successful soul related image.
On the other hand I found certain tools difficult with photoshop when I first began and still do found them very difficult now. My first weakness is the blur tool. I do not understand how much blur to use in order to make it effectively blurred, without looking ridiculous and fake. After several attempts I either blurred my photos too much or too little, therefore my first and main weakness is the blur tool. Another one of my weaknesses was being able to enlarge my image. I was only able to enlarge my image when I first placed it into photoshop and once I had placed it, could not enlarge it again, this was sufficiently frustrating as I had to keep deleting and re importing my images time and time again.



Conclusion 


Overall I believe through my: colours, conventions, images, layout, design, typography and language I have successfully made a conventional digipak that appeals to my target audience. The reasons for my digipak being conventional is because it follows typical representations seen in other soul genre digipak's. These representation are: black and white, isolation, insecurity, personal, relatable, sadness all stereotypical soul representation, which therefore builds up my conventionalism to the soul genre. I also believe that my digipak will appeal to my target audience because it looks professional in the design and way it is played out. I believe the the spotlight theme boosted my appealability and demonstrates to the audience that the artist is new to fame, and is under to spot light on her own, which also connotes the isolation factor. Overall portraying that it is a soul genre digipak.

After receiving feedback from my target audience I adapted and changed my digipak to look more professional and to portray clear representation of my artist that link throughout my ancillaries and music video. One side of my digipak that has changed the most dramatically is the side of the artist standing with the red curtains behind here. The editing, the use of the lasso tool was average in my first attempt and I have now improved the lighting effect to look cleaner and shaper. I have also added text which is lyrics from her song, so that it links with the music video.