5 Front Page Digipak Ideas and Audience Feedback

After having analysed many relating album covers we have learnt what are the main conventions for a album cover. We do not necessarily have to adhear to all of the conventions as we may choose to develop or challenge some. We have come up with the front cover to 5 albums and beofore we develop these ideas further, I'm going to carry out some audience reseach, to see which is the most appealing to our demography.

After questioning 50 people among our demography, which one they prefer the most, we asked a few people to comment on why they thought the one they chose...

9 People chose this one because..

- 'The black and white is powerful'

- 'Its a confident pose'

- 'I like the writing up the side, it works well'

- 'The windy look on the hair looks professional'

5 People chose this one because..

- 'The colours are interesting'

- 'It's a cute pose'

- 'The makeup is really powerful'

But people said it wasn't good because..

 - 'She's not looking at the camera so it looks shy'

13 People Chose this one because..

- 'The colours work well because they match the hair highlights'

- 'The spots make it interesting, but they might be a bit too busy for it'

5 People chose this one because..

- 'The photo used looks smooth and professional'

- 'The makeup and necklace grab attention'

However people said..

- 'The writing is a bit weak and too flouncy'

- 'It's not striking enough for a front cover really'

18 people chose this one because..

- 'Her eyes grabbed my attention'

- 'The shadows and light work really well'

- 'The colour of the hair and the font matching makes it look interesting and unique'

Photoshoot

When we researched existing album covers we noticed that all of the images used were specifically taken photos, not a freeze frame taken from their video. To ensure that our digipak was up to professional quality we needed a photography studio.

Our Studio

We don't have access to a professional photography studio so we created one in my spare bedroom. The studio was constructed by putting a large piece of matt, black material over black out curtains. We stretched the fabric to make sure there were no creases in the shot. We had 2 juxtaposing walls with a black screen to aid the lighting that we wanted.

Lighting

For the lighting, we borrowed 2, 3 bulbed, photography lights from school. We used one of these lights behind the actress to create a silhouette, and also to light her undirectly. And we used the other light on the table pointing upwards to reflect of the white ceiling and to create a bright, fresh glow in the room. We also used a variety of colours of lighting gels. We tried having these behind the actress, infront of the camera, and over the light on the table.

Our Camera

 

To get a professional finish for our photos we needed to use a good quality camera. My dad recently started photography and so had a SLR Canon still camera. The camera had a tripod attachment which we used with a school tripd to get a clear focused shot. This camera had numerous helpful settings including a speed setting which enabled us to take over 20 shots per second. 

The following is a small selection of the photos that we took:

We will now look through the photos that were taken and start selecting which ones are suitable for our digipak.

Questionnaire on Existing Album Covers

To find out what our target market prefer among the existing products we have conducted a questionnaire.

We questioned 28 people from our demography and gained the following results: 



From looking at these results I can decipher trends of gender preferences. Most females prefered albums which featured the head and shoulders of the artist. This is such a strong convention that it is one that we will follow. If we challange such a strong convention then we are at risk of it not appealing to our demography. The males generally steered towards the album covers without faces, this suggests that they are more interested in the music than the artist's persona. From previous research, I believe this to be because the girls are looking for a role model character, thus making them interested in the artists character.

              

Pixie lott              -    Males: 0    Females: 7
Youmeatsix          -    Males: 0    Females: 4Rihanna               -    Males: 2    Females: 2
Oasis                   -    Males: 2    Females: 0
Katy Perry            -    Males: 0    Females: 3
Adele                   -    Males: 0    Females: 3
Lady Gaga            -    Males: 0    Females: 2
Chase and Status  -    Males: 2    Females: 0
Avril Lavigne         -    Males:0     Females: 1

The Presentation of our Artist

When we begin to process our ideas for our digipak, we need to consider how our artist wishes to be portrayed in the market. Being able to portray our artist sucessfully will allow us to gain the attention of our specific demography. Every aspect of  digipak covers or album covers is critisised to ensure that the mise en scene conveys them in the certain way. When we are designing our digipak we will take this into account and ensure that we represent our artist correctly.

There are hundreds of album covers juxtaposed next to each other in the retailing venues such as HMV, Supermarkets and WH Smith. We need to make sure that our digipak cover stands out from the crowd, but for all of the right reasons.  

We have completed some research into existing album covers to gain and secure knowledge on what is conventional. One of the main characteristics that we found was the relation between the artist and their audience. This relationship is more evident in solo female artists as we have found that their audiences look to them as more of a role model figure, and someone who they idolise.

We need to represent our artist accurately so we decided to look back at some audience research that we carried out when we first chose our song. People said that the song was 'catchy and had an upbeat feel'. They described the artist as sounding young, energetic and fun. They described the song as having a 'pop/rock feel but not being 100% mainstream'.

The following mindmap has all of the characteristics that we want to convey in our digipak:

How we could present some of these traits:

Confidence is a crucial element to portray in our digipak. There are various ways in which we could convey this, the most obvious one being the post of the actress. Body language is a really simple way of portraying this however from our research we have found that it is conventionally only the head and shoulders of the artist on the front cover. Another way inwhich we could connote confidence is through eye contact. If we have a direct line of strong eye contact, this will portray her confidence.

For example Pixie Lott's album cover conveyed confidence through her gaze which was representative of her authority and power throughout her ablum songs. However Adele, has a less confident feel to her songs, and this is portrayed on her album cover. She is looking down, avoiding the gaze of the audience.

It is also important to portray the genre of the song in the mise en scene of the digipak.  Our demography described our song 'You you you' as being a pop/ rock song. We can convey this in numerous ways for example int he clothing, hair style, makeup, lighting, background and pose. We will use all of these characteristics in our digipak to ensure that we portray our song and artist correctly. A convention that we found in our existing research was the use and exaggeration of makeup. A common known fact is that makeup has to be exaggerated for a photoshoot or film to make it recognisable. Our actress will have smokey eyes on the cover, however we will expand the flicks further out, and also we will use more blacks over softer coloured greys. This will help to gain the overall rock chick/pop look more.

Therefore, before we take the photo for the digipak cover, we will consider and use the mise en scene of the shot to portray the artist correctly. We will also use the gaze of the artist to promote her confidence and to engage the audience.

Existing Digipak and Poster Analysis

Now that we have finsihed storyboarding and filming, we need to begin to concentrate on the digipak and poster. To get a more accurate idea of what is conventional for our style of artist and song, I've decided to look at a couple of existing ones...

Album Covers

Kelly Clarkson, 'Stronger'

When we were carring out audience research about our song Kelly Clarkson arose numerous times as having a similar style and sound, so I feel her front cover is an appropriate example to look at. This cover features the head and shoulders of the artist which I recognise to be a convention of female artist's covers. Another distinguishing feature is her placement on the cover- she is on the right side only. This placement works really well as it makes it more elegant and our eyes are automatically drawn to the right of the page. Another convention that she follows with this cover is the use of a grey scale picture as it connotes that there aren't just 2 sides to her (black and white) but there is confusion as well, depicted by the grey toned areas. The use of colour here is very subtle as the bracelet that she is wearing has been edited to be in colour. The artist's name is in colour too, matching that of the bracelet. This limited colour palette works really well as it creates a mood and matches the album's theme well.

 Avril Lavigne 'What The Hell'

Another artist that our song was related to was Avril Lavigne. This was because it was said that Avril Lavigne looked like what our artist should look like. In this album cover Avril is looking directly at the camera lens. This is a Strong convention as it engages the demography with the cover as it looks like she is looking directly at them. The cover only shows slightly more than her head and shoulders. A further aspect that follows conventions on this cover is the placement of the artist to one side. The background to this cover is in black and white and is simple enough not to detract any attention from the face of the artist. This is a common convention that we have found. Avril Lavigne isn't a main stream artist but she is recognised widely by her attitude and hey punk-rock style. The typography on this cover is descriptive of this. The artist' name is in a black, stencil style font with her first name lying wonky on top; this again suggests her personality. The album title beneath it is the main splash of colour on the page so although it is small, it grabs the attention.

Adele '21'

Another artist who suits the same demography as our artist (Jessica Drake) is Adele. Although Adele has a softer more fluid style than our artist we have found that many of our audience also like this style. Adele has kept to one of the striongest characteristics on this cover as the main image is a close up of her face. This makes the demography feel more involved and closer to the artist, thus incoraging the audience to purchase the album. This album cover is also very conventional because the main image is black and white, with just the album name being in colour. This works well for female artist album covers as the greyscale face is more striking than the orignianl colour version as her feature are exaaggerated more. In this example, her lips and mascara look more defined. One convention that this album cover challenges is by  not having the artist looking directly at the audience. Adele has challenged this convention perhaps because of the feel of the songs on the album; they are all powerful but sorroful songs, so a confident direct gaze wouldnt suit the cover. Our album has more confident, revengeful songs on it so this challenge of conventions may not work for our digipak. 

 The back cover to this album cover is another close up of the artist's face, but with her looking directly out. A convention that she has maintained here is by having the list of songs on the left hand side. This convention works because it follows the audience's gaze. When you read anything, you read top to bottom, left to right; so placing the songs on the left catches the demography's attention immediately.

Pixie Lott 'Turn it up Louder'

When we gained our audience feedback regarding our artist and song choice, an artist that ours was likened to was Pixie Lott. Pixie Lott is how our demography imagined our artist to look like. Her album cover is conventional as it doesnt deviat from the norms of album covers. The first convention that she has maintained to is use a close up shot of the artist's face. She is central in the shot which connotes her power and authority. It also strikes the audience with a bolder first impression of her album. Another convention that she has adeared to is to have a greyscale main image, and having the typography in writing. This works extremely well in this case because Pixie Lott is an artist who is known by her name, and the typography that she used to write it. The typography she uses is consistant throughout all of her pieces, thus making it recognisable. This is a concept that we may decide to follow. Having the same font throughout the digipak and poster will create synergy and improve noticability. A further convention that she has maintained is by having clear eye contact with what will be the buyer. This eye contact makes the overall image more powerful as it almost wills the demography to purchase the album.

Posters

Kelly Clarkson 'Stronger'

Kelly Clarkson's poster for her new album, 'stronger' is a potrait image. The Mise en Scene of the shot includes a low angle, medium close up shot of the artist wearing a rich coloured dress. The dress has an open V-neckline, which draws our eyes around the poster. The image of Kelly used is at an angle on the page to make it more interesting and also to keep the attention on her face, as oposed to her dress. The typography for this poster matches that on the album cover. This helps to create synergy makes it easier for the demography to find the album on the shelves if they've been tempted by the poster. As the poster is portrait, the artist's and album's name are written up the side. This allows the writting to be as large as possible, making it clear to the demography what is being advertised. The aspect which makes this poster interesting to the eye is the movement that is shown in her hair.  A wind machine was used during the photoshoot for this and I feel it works really well as it connotes that she is strong enough to stand up against it.

Pixie Lott  'Turn it up Louder'

 A convention that Pixie deviates from with this poster is its shape. The majority of posters with a male demography, or which advertise a band are landscape; and the majority of posters aimed at a female audience, or advertising solo artists are portrait, however it is unconventional to find a square poster. However it works well for Pixie Lott as she is known as a quirky, fun girl, so the square connotes this. To keep the synergy among the poster and album cover Pixie has used her typical typography. This font that she always uses for her name holds a great synergy for all of her products. A convention that she has maintained in this poster is by having a medium close up image of the artist as the main attention. Pixie is striking a pose in this shot which works really well as it dennotes her fun personality, but also her facial expreassion connates her serious feelings for her music. The outfit that she is wearing in the poster is unique- not seen in the video, or the album cover. This makes the poster look fresh and unique as it isnt just a copy of the album cover. Although the poster is in full colour, the main colours that she is wearing, used in typography and for the background are black and white. This also keeps the synergy among the poster and album.

From all of this research I have developed my knowledge of th conventions. Instead of creating a poster and digipak which complies with all of these, we will develop and challenge some of the conventions. This will allow us to use our creativity and also make our promotion package individual and unique. The main conventions that we found for female solo artists of a similar genre are:

Poster

- Medium close up shot of artist (waist upwards).

- Interesting dresses or outfits, not worn in music video or digipak.

- Artist striking a bold pose.

- Same typography as digipak/album cover.

- Portrait.


- Atleast one aspect that synergises with the album cover.


- Professional, flawless makeup and ski

- Close up shot of the artist's face on front cover.

- Have the artist looking out, directly at the demography.

- Uses the rule of thirds, have the image to one side, or offset.

- Play around with colours, either enhance, or greyscale.

- Not smiling.

- Strong makeup, often smokey eyes.

- Use of light to create suggestive shadows.