DIGIPACK FONTS RESEARCH

From previous research into indie artists digipack albums, I already recognise that most if not all use capital letters and have 'logo' fonts for their band/artist name. It's important we look into an ideal font for our digipack, one that grabs the attention of our audience but is simple and easy to read. It must look effective and be pleasing to the eye. Below are some initial fonts I have found that fit into this criteria and look interesting.

CD ARTWORK IDEAS

After looking into a range of different CD artwork and thinking about conventions within the indie genre my initial idea is to have our CD designed to look like a vinyl record. Vinyls are old fashioned so definitely fit in on the vintage vibe. I think it would produce a unique looking CD that apart from black could contain any other colour depending on the rest of the colours used throughout our digipack.

DIGIPACK CD ARTWORK

Above are all examples of cover art work for the CD's. We will be required to design our own for our digipack so these are all useful for design inspiration.

ANALYSIS OF INDIE DIGIPACKS 4

These three back covers are for indie artists. They all contain have a bar code and links to the record company, and artist website as well as copy right text and company logos.

Fonts: Only three different fonts used, the 'Kate Nash' logo font as it's the artists name and the font for the title of the album and song list, then the font used for all the important text at the bottom.
Colours: Black and pink colour scheme used.
Composition: Everything is centered apart from the bar code which is oddly placed in the top right corner.
Content: No pictures, just a plain colour and text.

Fonts: Again, three different fonts used in four different sizes. The artist name is in her recognised font and the largest out of them all, then the album name is below in capital lettering, this is probably the same as it is on the front cover. The song titles are bold and in lowercase. The last font is for the important legal information at the bottom.
Composition: Everything is centered.
Colours: Black and white, monochrome colour scheme.
Content: No pictures, just all the necessary content and even a logo.



Fonts: Handwritten song titles and then two other fonts for the artist website links and important information.
Colours: Red and white.
Composition: Song titles are to the left, the rest of the text is centered to the left. Then the bar code is in the top right corner.
Content: Just a plain background and text with scribbles.

Fonts: A hand written style font for the song titles and small text font for the important info.
Colours: White and sky/sea blue.
Composition: Everything is centered.
Content: Just the song names, artist name, bar code and information on legal parts behind the album.










Fonts: The name of the Artist is in their signature font with the rest of the text in the same font. Lungs, the title of the album is in capital letters.
Colours: Black and white.
Composition: Everything is centered on the page with the bar code placed at the bottom right.
Content: Diagram of lungs and text, the background also looks textured.

Fonts: Same font used on the front and have been made smaller or bigger to contrast them. Simple font for the rest of the text. Bold, capitalised artist name.
Colours: Sky blue, pinks, black and white.
Composition: All centered. Then the barcode is on the right side centered.
Content: Picture of the artist, song titles and relevant text.

DIGIPACK ELEMENTS

As we want our digipack front and back cover to flow, we know we have to use the same font throughout and after seeing Katy Perry's album 'Teenage Dream' the idea of one picture going across both sides really appealed to us. The way in which she's on the front sitting on clouds and the clouds then go across the next page is something we feel that could be recreated using a forest location. There is also a muted colour scheme, of blues, pinks and reds which produces a really effective and consistent album art work.

PROPS LIST

In our music video we want to feature quite a lot of vintage/retro pieces as well as main props that link directly to the lyrics so we can put an image to the words when editing it all together.

Props relating to video..

- a window 'cos you always liked the windows opened wide' 

- picture frame 'pictures still hung up'

- lamp light/lamp 'under lamplight'

- pillow 'sleeping with a pillow'

- phone 'all you have to do is pick up the phone'

- home 'here when you make it home'

Other props..

- chair/sofa

- guitar

- bedside table/small table

- old radio

- mirror

- lanterns

I walked around my house looking out for anything that we could use or get inspiration from and took photos of odd pieces and potential props.

MISE EN SCENE

Jack is playing the artist, Lewis Watson, in our music video and will be throughout the photos for our digipack and magazine advert.

In order for him to look authentic in the sense that he comes across as our chosen indie artist, the clothes he wears is an important factor of his image. Most indie artists wear quite casual clothing, with the likely hood that some of it is one off pieces found in vintage shops like Rokit, Beyond Retro and the Renewal section in Urban Outfitters. This mixture of a casual high street, vintage mix presents a look which is individual to the person. Below I made a little mood board gif of the style I see our artist dressing like.

Jack will definitely be wearing dark skinny jeans as these are a great base trouser to style and work with. I think the colour pallet he should wear should be quite earthy with out doors colours such as burgundy, navy, dark green and blues. These all compliment each other well. Layering will play a big part of Jacks image, through tees, shirts, jumpers and a coat. Vans will be a suitable shoe choice as they are instantly recognisable and a lot if his fans will wear these too. Below is an outfit set I created on polyvore, this gives a good idea of what we expect Jack to wear, I know he has a few similar items to the ones below anyway.

RISK ASSESSMENT

In order to make sure our filming goes as smooth as possible and is carried out safely I have looked into possible risks which we may be faced with..

Getting to our location provides a few health and safety risks. I will be driving so I need to make sure I do so safely and park up in a suitable place so it's easy to get to our chosen location. We may have to cross a main road in order to get to it so carrying all the props across and keeping all the equipment safe as well as ourselves will be a main priority of ours.

During setting up and filming we need to make sure we stay safe by looking where we walk and tread, making sure we don't trip over or knock into any branches or trees as these are possible risks of filming in a forest because of the uneven ground and branches scattered everywhere.

WEATHER FORECAST

Realistically we would like some sun for our video as we feel it would look good in the shots we intend to use but the English weather has been very gloomy, foggy and cold over the past week or so. We have our chosen filming dates and now all we can do is hope it doesn't rain or snow on these dates! I have checked the weather forecast and it does look promising however closer to the days we'll be able to get a better idea of what the weather will be like and then we can plan what day to film what as some shots will look better with a little sun and others don't matter as much. Below are two screenshots from the BBC Weather page and there forecast looks promising.

FILMING DATES

As a goup we have decided on two filming days, Wednesday the 7th and Thursday the 8th of November. We all compared timetables and these days present us with the most possible time to film as on the Wednesday we have all have lessons till 3rd period (12ish) so I will drive us to our location after our lessons to start filming. Then on Thursday we all have lessons 5th period which starts at 2pm so that gives us a reasonable amount of filming time across two days.

INITIAL STORYBOARD

MUSIC VIDEO INCLUSIONS

INDIE MAGAZINE ADVERTS

INDIE MAGAZINE ADVERTS on Prezi

ANALYSIS OF INDIE DIGIPACKS 2

Artist: Penny Black
Album: Further Seems Forever
Colours: dull grey back ground highlights orange and yellows in the centre of the album cover. Disjunctive and incomplete image of the face implies an emotional or personal style of song. The image is also looks as if it has been painted on; artist themselves may have painted it which gives it more of a personal touch.
Font: Capitalised, times new roman font implies a statement from the artist. Also, as the font is an old style of orthography, it gives the impression that the artist has been around for a long time.
Editing: The saturation has been altered to emphasise a contrast between both the dull grey and the bright orange and yellow colours.
Symbolism: The female face which has been painted could either be the artist herself 'Penny Black' or some other person which the album could have been dedicated to. 
Connotations: Unfinished painting implies a piece of work half done, the album itself could be one half of another album possible to follow it from the artist.
Composition: Side on painting of the female, audience have an impersonal relationship with the artist. 
Lighting: bright colours imply a positive style of music which the artist has produced.


Artist: Stars
Album: The Five Ghosts
Colours: Black and white effect implies a old style to the band; either the band themselves have been around for a long time or it links to the idea of 'ghosts' which is the album name. However the red font colour for the bands name 'Stars' highlights the bands name despite it being positioned in the top left hand corner.
Font: the times new roman font echoes the ghostly old feel to the album cover as well as further implying that the band have been around for a long time.
Editing: The overlay of the of the 4 children gives the impression that they are indeed ghosts which correlates to the album name. However the faded overlay makes the audience search for the ghosts and shows an obvious and unsubtle hidden meaning.
Symbolism: symbolises being haunted and being watched. Gives a horror or chilling aspect to the band. It could also symbolise a tragedy taken place, either a real life one which the band know about or a fiction one.
Lighting: there is a heavy presence of low key lighting within the picture with accentuate the ghosts in the album cover; it also links to the Victorian imagery in the album cover. The low key lighting also gives a dull and washed out impression to the album cover.
Props: The bouquet of flowers which the young girl is holding shows her innocence and her youth. Making her seem young and pure which evokes sympathy for her as well as the other ghosts in the image.

Artist: Noah & The Whale
Album: Last Night On Earth
Colours: As the band are a vintage indie genre band; the washed out, dull colours are a typical vintage type of colours giving them a, somewhat, old fashioned personality.
Font: The capitalised font gives a tabloid/ broadsheet headline feel which implies that the band are wanted to be known and in the 'headlines', a subversion of the indie genre. The italics of the album name 'Last Night On Earth' implies an artistic style to the band; which is a convention of the indie genre. The then times new roman font under the bands name, implies that they have been around for a while despite the band themselves still being relatively young.
Editing: The overlay between the picture of the band and the night time city scene, implies that the band are urban based and originate from a urban place. The camera flare in the top right hand corner of the image is another typical feature of the indie genre, therefore further establishes them as a indie band.
Costumes: The band are all in smart attire, shirts and/ or a suit, implying a certain formality of the band as well as a possible target audience. However, the undone top buttons and rolled up sleeves shows that they are, somewhat, subverting from the smart and sophisticated style. Also, as the overlay image shows, it is a night scene and therefore the picture of the band is at the end of the day therefore they have become less smart.
Sight lines: Each member of the band is not looking directly at the camera which has taken the picture therefore implying a impersonal relationship with their audience; making them harder to engage as a band and establish a relationship with them.


Artist: Efterklang 
Album: Piramida
Colour: There is a monochrome colour scheme throughout the album cover, which despite being a dull looking colour it also implies simplicity; which the band want to possible want to be known for. Symbolism: The random, obscure and abstract background of the swirling and jagged images within the background of the circle allows for an open interpretation. The artistic style to the album cover is a common feature of the indie genre, therefore the band are clearly conforming to this genre.  The 3 dimensional triangle in the centre of the circle further emphasises the abstractness of the album cover and further allows for open interpretation.
Font: the capitalised band name is a common feature of the indie genre however as it isn't bold and enlarged it subverts the convention to some extent as well as further accentuating the simplicity style which the band seem to be going for. The lower case, slight italic font of the album name is off centre and barely draws any attention to it and therefore the audience focus is directed to the main subject of the album cover; the abstract drawing.

ANALYSIS OF INDIE DIGIPACKS 1

Artist: Noah and The Whale

Album: The First Days of Spring
Location: Outdoors, in the country side, they're stood in long grass on what appears to be a windy day. The location also relates to the title, as it says the first days of spring and the photo looks quite sunny and as if it was taken in spring.
Colours: The colours are actually quite neutral and typical of being in the countryside, as the photo has blues and greens as main colours in it.
Font: Use of bold font for the band name really brings the audiences focus onto the actual band and you have to look into the album title more as the font is smaller and lowercase.
Editing: The photo itself has been edited to give a vintage feel to it through the use of the saturation.
Symbolism: As the three in the background are looking up towards, this could symbolise worshiping.
Composition: The camera is slightly looking up to them and they're not in the center of the image as they are placed nearer the bottom, with only the top halves of their bodies showing.
Lighting: The use of lighting is very natural and fresh looking, as it is soft lighting.
Props: The only props used in the cover is a old camera which fits in to the convention of the indie genre as it is vintage and old looking.
Mise en Scene: They are dressed in simple, casual clothing, in shirts and denim
Position: The lead/front man is stood further forwards and is more in focus than the other three in the band which could mean he is the singer, although he isn't the center of attention as he is positioned to the right.


Artist: Two Door Cinema Club
Album: Tourist History
Subject: Floor tiles and a cat, the cat is actually quite an indie thing because of the representation behind it and in a lot of tumblr or even twitter bios from people that listen to the genre of music the link 'i love cats' tends to be present.
Location: Is somewhat unknown, you can only assume that it would be in a location that commonly has tiles so probably at home in a kitchen or bathroom focusing on the floor. This provokes some thought from the audience to where it actually has been taken and the meaning for it which is typical of indie artists as they like a good hidden meaning.
Colours: Despite having quite a few colours within it the overall concept is a minimal colour scheme as at first glance it could appear to be in black and white, only the markings on the cats fur and on the tiles and the cats eyes really look colourful.
Font: The font used is big, bold and white and of course it is in capital letters, a trait most, if not all indie artists tend to do on their album covers. The bands name is also written in their signature, logo looking font which is used on all of their future/past albums. The album name itself is hard to recognise but is still written in the same way as the bands name which makes it effective, just a lot smaller.
Editing: The top of the image is very dark and looks as if they have used a half vignette effect, it has definitely been contrasted a lot and the colour has been altered to give off a vintage vibe as the whole album itself looks very retro.
Symbolism: There isn't any obvious concepts or symbols within the album cover, the image doesn't obviously link with the album name or band.
Composition: All the text on the image is centered.
Lighting: The lighting is very dark in the image, however it has probably been editing to look like this.

Artist: The XX
Album: Coexist
Subject: The letter/symbol 'x' filled with a picture of what appears to be petrol/oil residue on the ground.
Colours: White background, rainbow colours used within the 'x'.
Font: Not a specific font, but still big and bold which is common of this genre.
Editing: An image has been cut into the shape of an 'x' this has made the outcome to be really unique.
Symbolism: The X simply is part of the bands name, but it could be taken to mean very different things for example uses of it in every day life is as a letter, the plus symbol and the times symbol.
Composition: Centered subject which makes it more pleasing to the eye.


Artist: Hedgehog
Album: Blue Day Dreaming
Subject: 3 people, the middle woman is looking up to the sky which could relate to the word day dreaming from the name of the album as she is not focused on a clear object it looks like she is day dreaming. The other two people in the background are both looking in different directions, one down and one straight forward although you can only tell from where their heads are as you can't see the eyes.
Colours: There is minimal colours with green and orange added onto the artwork as well as blue which relates back to the album title again, 'blue day dreaming' which is also in blue. Blue as a colour comes across as cold, and sad so maybe it means that the songs on there album have sad hidden meanings.
Fonts: Again, they have used big, bold and capital fonts for the bands name and used a mixture of upper and lower case for the album name.
Composition: The cover is split bottom half for the artwork image and upper half for the text. This also makes it look that the centered woman is looking up at the lyrics which could show that she is the lead, probably the singer. It's usual for the front/lead artist in the band to be centered and further forward than anyone or anything else on an album in the indie genre so they've followed certain conventions as they have also used artwork which creates a very unique and individual cover.
Props: Sunglasses, hide the eyes of what we can see of the faces of the two people in the background.

POSSIBLE FILMING LOCATIONS

As we have decided that we will definitely be filming outside, and that it will most likely be in a forest/field location we looked into some possible places that would be acceptable to film in. Both locations below are vast forest and field locations, with one located by my house and the other by Rebecca's. We will need to go and look into the good/bad points of each place further and see which one we will be filming in.

Coopersale, Epping Forest

Foxes Wood, Bardfield Saling

ANALYSIS OF DIGIPACKS 3

Artist: Ben Howard

Album: Every Kingdom

Colours: Blues and whites

Font: Large, simple, capitals. Artists name takes up a quarter of the album compared to the album name which is much smaller.

Editing: It looks as if it's been painted with watercolours which is significant as the image on the album is of a diver in the water.

Symbolism: By diving underwater it looks like Ben is travelling to another kingdom which relates to the album title 'Every Kingdom'.

Connotation: The image looks like he could be drowning or sinking or perhaps going to find something.

Composition: He is at the bottom of the image but in the centre. Even though he's not in the light he's still the focus.

Lighting: The top of the image is very light as it shows that he is diving down away from the sunlight.

Location: The location is underwater in the ocean.

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB DIGIPACK

INDIE DIGIPACKS.. BACK COVERS

INDIE DIGIPACKS.. FRONT COVERS