A promo pack is all of the material that is used to promote the artists album and song, so this will include some publicity such as advertisements, posters that could feature in a music magazine, radio adverts. A digipack is a DVD sized package which is made out of cardboard, that a CD would fit as this would be the artist's album. The digipak is useful towards the artist as it will help promote the future releases that the artist will release. The digipak will be highly linked to the music video of the single that is being promoted, as the shots that will be shown, will be taken directly from the music video, this is good, as it shows the theme the artist has decided to take with this track, also gives the audience a preview of what will be featured in the music video, before it is released, if the audience has not already seen the music video.
A suitable digipak to analyse
Madonna's Magic as it is a slightly similar genre to Ellie Goulding. Unfortunately I was unable to get hold of a digipak that was in Ellie Goulding's genre which is Folktronica, as digipak's are not a popular choice to advertise a artist's song, so there was a limited choice to choose from. The colours that are used in this pack are quite natural, as the pinks blend in well with the golden colours, which feature in the hay, the light pink colour is used to attract the audience to the pack as it is featured on a cowboy's hat, this is interesting to a Madonna fan, as this shows Madonna has taken a new direction with a music as it could interest a country type audience. I am not keen on the rainbow stripe on the front cover of the pack, as it does not suit the rest of the digipak. The camera shots that have been taken are close ups of the main character and the prop, this is to show the detail in the shot, to show the audience that what theme is featured for this digipak. I think the font is used on 'Music' is good, as it is a typical font that is associated with the cowboy country theme, also the colour matches other parts of the digipak so this is good, that only a few colours are used to keep it more simple. Also the font that is used on the back of the pack, which is described as a small description of the producers of the album, the white font contrasts well with the busy background that is golden brown. The bar code is situated in the bottom left hand corner on the back of the digipak, I feel this place stands out too much, as needs to be less noticeable otherwise, the more important information on the album may not be as noticeable. On the spine of the digipak, I think that the font is suitable, I am not very impressed with the rainbow background colour, also I think the image of the star looks tacky, as does not look very professional, and does not suit the essence that is conveyed on the digipak. This digipak can be useful to my own digipak as it has given me the idea, of how to promote different aspects, and use the genre, as a possible idea, of how different images are presented.
Another digipak I thought suitable to analyse is
Moby's - Live. Moby shares a slightly similar style of music to
Ellie Goulding as they are both slightly a electropop act. Also I am impressed with how the colour scheme is used on the
Moby digipak as the colours, is a mixture of light and dark tones, of brown and black, I think this is good, as it looks more professional, as really makes the images, look more interesting for the audience. The shots that have been taken are a mixture of long and medium shots, they are used to show the artist performing live music, also to show a live audience, that has been taken from the music video. This style showing images, from the artist playing a live performance as part of the video is good, as it shows off the artist's talent, and that have more talents. The white font that is used on the back of the digipak contrasts well with the darker background, this is good, as the font is noticeable and the audience is more likely to be interested in reading the information. I like the presentation of the front of the pack as the simple font that is basic but memorable, therefore it stands out. The image that is used on the back of the pack, has been cleverly taken, as the shadow, has been cleverly formulated so the track listing on the album can be positioned. The image uses a long shot, as it shows all of the artist this is good as it also shows the background surrounding the artist, which is the artist in his natural environment playing a gig. The spine is white and plain, with no information on it. It is good as it looks professional and quite clinical, this can also be a problem as if you are trying to find this digipak in a shop or with other digipaks, it will be harder to find as it does not say the artist or the album name. I think I can gain some inspiration from this digipak, with using simple fonts, and sticking to a few colours, for the colour scheme, otherwise, it will not stick to the genre of music which is folktronica.
On the back page of this flat plan I decided to list the tracks that are featured on
Ellie Goulding's latest album
Bright Lights as the track that I will be using in featured on there. I decided not to use this back page as I am not keen featuring the artist's name on the back in large bold, letters I feel I want to keep the back page simple. Also I am not keen on the position of the bar code. The front image I decided to use a close up shot of the artist to show emotion to suggest that the artist is passionate about her music, also the 'big' hair it used to show that the artist is standing on some cliffs and looking 'windswept'. I chose not to use this design for my front cover as I unsure if I like the font been distracted with the really wavy hair I would want it to stand out. The inside cover image I like the idea of the character sitting in a middle of a field as it is very natural, also the track has been connoted from being in a dream, so being outside in a open space is quite dream like, this is why I have chosen to use it for my inside image. For the CD background image, I used an idea of a image of the back of
Ellie Goulding's head I chose it because I just thought it would be different, but decided against it as it does not really fit in.
The back page is almost the same as the other flat plan except for moving the bar code at the top of the page. I decided not to use this page as I thought the bar code looked stupid at the top. The cover image I chose is also a close up like the previous flat plan, the only difference is that the font is at the top of the page, I prefer the font there as it is a lot clearer to read. I decided against this design as I thought the font would look better central, also not keen on the artist have wavy hair in the main image. The inside image is quite a simple shot, I decided not to chose this image, as it would be difficult to take images, in front of a couple of trees, also not very imaginative. The CD image, with the font surrounding the font, I like this idea as it is a simple and clearly shows who the artist, also I chose this idea as a image would be pointless as the CD would be covering up the image.
I like the back page on this flat plan as it looks very organised all of the icons and important details are situated at the bottom of the page, along with the bar code, also the track listing is the centre of attention, which is most important. The front cover image is another close up of the artist I like it as the shot is a side view, also the hair is more controlled, I like this aspect as then the main focus is on the artist's face. Also I think the font really stands out, as is just below the centre of the page, also the hair on the artist does not distract the artist. The inside pages I decided to do an image of The Downs, so the image could of been a still or a preview to the music video. I decided against it as I thought it showed no storyline.
This flat plan is the final design of how I want my digipak to look, I feel that all the camera shots that will be taken work well together. The only slight alterations I might make is to give the front cover image a themed background that would consist of fields or cliffs.
Here is a link to my finished digipak the inside and outside pages:
Evaluation
The artists mainly female audience like the album as it has her trademark font and the style compliments her muscial style. The font is gold lettering that stands out well on the background of the artist and the trees, to gain the font I used
PhotoShop to import it, as I drew the font out by hand. I used my own image used as it clearly shows the artist, the forest like background, as it gives a hint of what the style the album is going for. I edited colour strength on the trees, as it was too fierce and was drew attention away from the artist. The back cover looks quite professional, as changing the brightness of the background to transparent black, gives a shadowed effect, against the trees. Throughout the digipak I have chosen to use the same shade of gold on the font, as the colour, is a trademark font associated with Ellie Goulding, this is important to keep the product having originality. The left inside page I chose to position the artist in a field with a guitar as I thought it would give an idea to state the type of environment the artist is shown in. The green shades are effective as they balance out well against the guitar and the person, so they look important, and the main attraction on the image. The opposite page, I have curved the lettering, so it looks like the position of where the CD will be place, is the centre of attention. When I was creating the lettering, I had trouble positioning it as the shape of it is awkward, as I imported the font in myself. Overall a time consuming process to make the final piece, research, planning and developing it. To gain some inspiration I looked at existing digipaks, this is when I decided that I wanted to keep the structure simple. Using the planning and researching helped me to develop how I wanted the final product to look. By using a flat plans it allowed me to explore different ideas, and to gain opportunities to be creative.
FeedbackThe general feedback that I received via Facebook on the front and back pages was that the back cover looks professional and is effective, the text used has been mentioned that it works well with the background. The general style has been mentioned by someone that it represents the artist and genre really well. Some people have given some constructive thoughts, that the image on the front page the person could of been looking more directly towards the camera.
The feedback received from the inside pages, the general conclusion was that someone really liked the effect of using handwritten text, as it gives a personal touch from the artist. Where I photoshopped image there has been criticism, as you can see that I did not edit the image properly. Also somebody likes that the font has been curved so it shows there is a space for the CD to be placed.
The promotional pack
