Digipak Design

(Ideas by all, execution by Agatha Torres)

FRONT COVER

First Draft

 This first draft was a very basic design, we wanted the band standing in a row, with the title and album name at the top of the page, with a distinct size difference between the two. We thought it would look best if the band members heads were direct centre of the page.

Second Draft

The second draft, we'd realised that the row wouldn't work so well, du to the extreme height differences of the band members - Robert, the tallest is 6'5ish; Hannah, the shortest is 5'2ish. Even with perspective in mind, it would still be problematic getting them in a perfect row. It's also much more interesting to look at when they're at different levels. We changed the font for the album name to make sure that there isn't any confusion between it and the band name.

Third Draft

We added the photos, and changed the colour of the font, trying to keep to the colour scheme used in the logo - red, blue and white. We also decided to move the album name to the bottom of the cover, as in the position at the top it cut off the top of the band members' heads.

Final Product

We photoshopped the image, making it brighter and adding contrast. This draws attention to their faces, and distinguishes them from the black background. We also looked online (dafont.com) for similar, but more professional looking fonts ('Friday Night Lights' and 'Dead Island'). Then moved them further left, as again, it gave the image more interesting dynamics (and didn't get lost in the white of Robert's shirt).


INSIDE COVER

First Draft

Our first draft was just meant to be the four band members stood together, smiling or laughing. To fit the band's brand colour scheme, we also planned to have a border around the edge too.

Second Draft

The second draft, we added colour. We wanted high contrast, so we'd have the band members well lit on a black background. The border is a bluish-purple, just like the band logo uses. We also thought it was too defined, so added a rough edge to the border, making it look more edgy and gritty.

Final Draft

After taking the photos, we decided that this picture is a lot more fun and interesting than our original 4-in-a-row plan, and suits the band a little more. This photo has been edited to increase contrast and brightness.

CD

First Draft

 Again, we began with the basic outline. The logo at the front, large and bold. The band members would be in the background, in a row. This connotes unity, yet they were to be standing slightly apart, not touching, to show a punky, defiant nature.

Second Draft

 We were then reminded of the height difference of band members, so the unity symbolism wouldn't have been so powerful, so we had them linking up, putting their arms around each other. This helped to strengthen the unity, but scrapped the whole defiance idea. Again we went with the dark background, high contrast colour scheme.

Final Draft

Only minor variations from the plan, which was nice - the cymbal at the front of shot helps to fill up open space left by the logo, which we shrunk after using photoshop. This was because we wanted it with a transparent background - for some reason, we couldn't get rid of the white outline, so we reduced it in size, making it less noticeable.

BACK COVER DESIGN

First Draft

 We had the idea of using a snapshot from the music video of the albums Top Single (Rumor Mill), as the storyline matches the name of the album - Difficult to Define (the theme of not fitting into stereotypes), so we thought a group photo featuring the band members and the character actors would be perfect we decided to frame it, rather than have it as the full background. Outside of the frame, we'd have the usual stuff from a back cover - bar code, song names and the album title at the bottom.

Second Draft

Again, we wanted it to match the branding of the band, so changed the scheme to black with red writing. We also planned the actual shot we were going to use, which was a photo put on facebook of the characters breaking the fourth wall and addressing the "facebook stalkers" who are spreading rumours about the characters (watch the video, you'll understand).

Final Draft

 Finally, we added the font used for the Album title on the front cover, named the songs, and added bullet points before them - this frames them a little better, fills up space, and gives us a chance to use more brand colours. Finally, we rougher up the border of the photo, helping it blend with the format of the rest of the album art.