Updated Print Productions and the Reasoning Behind My Changes

After collecting feedback from my tutor and my class, I realised that I needed more colour in my print productions. Firstly, the name of the artist - The Colours - would be given an increased focus by using more colour. I have used this effect before - for example, in the lyric card of my music video, where the lyric cards are made out of various colours of card instead of the traditional white card used in the music video for Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Possibly the biggest advantage of using colour, though, is the way in which it would make my print productions fit into the pop genre. Bright colours are common in the pop genre, as they appeal to most of the target audience - teenagers, mostly female. I have decided to use bright pink in my print productions, as this is the colour I have observed to be the most common when researching.

Maroon 5, a boy band from the pop genre that I have likened to The Colours, are a good example of this use of colour. When analysing their print productions in my research, I noticed how bright colours - primarily pink - were frequently used. If you look at the front panel of the digipak for their album Overexposed (shown below), you can see how often pink is used.

The front panel of the digipak for Overexposed, the fourth album by Maroon 5.
Notice the strong use of bright pink

The colour pink is also used on the front panel of Coldplay's (Coldplay is another similar artist to The Colours) well-known album Mylo Xyloto. Once again, I noticed this due to my study of their print productions in my research. It is used less heavily but you can still see how it is a commonly used colour in the Print Productions of the pop genre. I have shown the front panel of this digipak on the left and right (there was reversible artwork).

Furthermore, other major parts of the pop music industry use bright colours - especially pink - in their graphic designs. HMV is a significant example of this. The logo for HMV is completely pink, helping it to appeal to its target audience, stand out, and conform to the conventions of the genre (pop) it is trying to fit into. HMV's focus on pop music - e.g. a point of sale display of One Direction (a popular boy band from the pop genre) merchandise is in one of my local stores - means that they need to advertise themselves to fans of the pop genre as much as possible.

All of this influenced my decision to include some colour into the two black and white parts of my print productions: the front panel of my digipak, and my magazine advert. I wanted to keep the unique black and white aspect of my print productions - which is linked to The Script - that stood out and challenged the generic conventions of the pop genre. Because of this, I decided to just make some of the titles bright pink. I made both of the logos for the artist - The Colours - bright pink, as well as the text on my magazine advert that read:

"The Debut Album"

"Available April 2013"

After this, I felt that the font of these pieces of text needed to be changed along with the colour. I changed the font of these pieces of text to a font that fitted into the generic conventions of the pop genre in a similar way to the new colour of the text. The new font resembles the font used for the logos of many pop artists, such as Coldplay and Lady Gaga. This link furthers strengthens the connection between my print productions - and therefore my whole brand - and the pop genre.

After changing the colour and font of certain pieces of font in my print productions, I made some other adjustments. I had too few tracks listed on the back panel (panel four) of my digipak, so I added some more tracks. I also changed the sizes of the new pieces of font so that their size was optimal for the effect I was trying to make.

The new designs for my Print Productions are below:

Digipak:

Panel 1:

Panel 2:

Panel 3:

Panel 4:

Magazine Advert:

Similarities Between a Similar Artist's Digipaks and My Print Productions

One of the digipaks from similar artists which I examined when researching and planning my print productions was #3 by The Script. I am going to examine the similarities between my print productions is their current state and this digipak from a similar artist (a boy band, with songs that fit into the pop genre).

Both my digipak and the digipak for #3 by The Script use black and white images to make the digipak stand out from the standard pop genre digipak, while still conforming to pop genre conventions that enable it to be identified as pop music. The focus on the band and their image is perhaps the most significant pop genre convention used, as the artist and their image is a massive part of how popular, loved, and successful an artist becomes.

The front panel of my digipak

The front panel of the digipak for #3 by The Script

Every part of my print productions uses the main performer - the boy - as the main focus as he is the human symbol associated with the brand. Similarly, the digipak uses the artist as the main focus by blending the three members of the boy band, The Script, into a human shape that is the sole focus - excluding the logos or the artist and album name - of the front panel of the digipak.

The artistic look of both digipaks is also a way in which they are related. The paintbrush-like effect I have used on the image, and its integration with the graffiti in the background, emphasises the unique nature of it. The front panel of the digipak for #3 by The Script uses the way it integrates the images of the three band members together as its way of attracting its target audience - teenagers, mainly female, who will likely enjoy some forms of art - using creativity. The coat of the band member on the far right (Mark Sheehan) is faded into that of the largest - and most famous - band member (Danny O'Donoghue) to create an interesting effect that resembles scales on O'Donoghue's neck.

So, both of these digipaks use creative techniques, such as black and white and other artistic effects, such as the way text and image integrate together, to make them stand out from the competition in their genre while still conforming to genre conventions, such as the focus on the artist, to make them immediately identifiable with the pop genre.

How the Music Video for Hall of Fame Featuring will.i.am Relates

to the Respective Digipak

The image shown below is the front panel of the digipak for the single Hall of Fame featuring will.i.am. This song is part of the album #3, mentioned above.

Once again, you can see the stylish, creative design. The aspect I would like to focus on is how this digipak is connected to the respective music video, shown underneath the image of the front panel of the digipak.

Both of these products focus heavily on the artist, with the artist being the primary focus of the front panel of the digipak and there being many performance shots of the band members (including will.i.am). This shows both of the products conforming to the pop genre conventions I mentioned previously in this post. The pop genre conventions shared by all of these products link them together and allow them to work more effectively as a whole.

Both products also emphasise the message of being dedicated to your aspirations in life - the confetti-like effect on the front panel of the digipak is a strong link to the confetti shown for the ballerina who has achieved her dream at the end of the music video. The band members (including will.i.am) are always shown in a strong, positive way too. For example, when they sing in the performance shots, they are regularly shown in close-up shots, and the focus of the front panel of the digipak is Danny O'Donoghue's face. The fact that O'Donoghue is the most famous member of The Script, partly due to his role as a judge on the TV show the Voice UK, is not a coincidence - by focusing on the most recognisable member of the band, they emphasise the generic pop convention of focusing on the artist, who is often the biggest part of marketing the product(s). Once again, using the same techniques in more than one product concerning the track itself - in this case, the music video and the digipak - emphasises these techniques and makes them work more effectively. This is a technique used for my own range of products concerning my chosen track, Tonight I Let You Go by The Colours.

Provisionally Finished Print Productions

Below I have shown the provisional final designs for my print productions: the digipak and the magazine advert. 

Digipak:

Panel 1:

Panel 2:

Panel 3:

Panel 4:

Magazine Advert:

Current Ideas for Digipak and Magazine Cover

My current plan for both my digipak and magazine cover (my print productions) have some from the two digipak design I have constructed.

The first, which I have previously uploaded onto my blog, uses the walking idea that is heavily implemented into our music video as a basis for the panels. Each panel shows a different part of his journey, and when you open the digipak up, you see the different panels connect and make on larger picture of him walking through the music video. This would work well as a digipak design - my tutor, Ms. Barton, approved of the idea - , and so I will use this as my digipak design.

The second digipak design (below) uses the lyric cards from our music video as inspiration. For example, one of the logos I made for my print productions that was liked by the rest of the class was the one using lyric cards, where one lyric card shows one word of Tonight I Let You Go (by The Colours), the name of the song used for my music video. I used this logo as the main focus of the front panel of this design, and also used lyric cards as inspiration for the back panel of the digipak, where each track name is placed onto a lyric card. This idea for the track list was the favourite bit of this design for both my tutor and the rest of the class. However, the rest of the design was not liked as much as the first design (above). Therefore, I have decided to use the walking idea for the digipak, but also utilise the idea of using lyric cards for the track list. The rest of the lyric card-focused second digipak design will be used for the magazine cover part of my print productions, where the image of the boy going through the lyric cards against the red postbox (a cultural signifier), another boy with a phone (another cultural signifier), and a backdrop of both nature (the grass, trees, bushes, etc.) and an urban environment (the cars, the road, the fence, etc.) could be very successful.

Top Panel: Panel 4
Bottom Panel: Panel 1

Top Panel: Panel 2
Bottom Panel: Panel 3

Similar Artists' Digipak Front Panel Designs

For my digipak design, I have observed the designs of digipak designs for several similar artists, such as Coldplay and Maroon 5 - some other boy band, pop genre artists.

Coldplay

Mylo Xyloto

Maroon 5

Overexposed

The Script

#3

Initial Digipak Design

The images below show my first idea for my digipak. The four panels show the main character from my music video walking through four locations that he walks through in the music video. These are:

• Bus stop
• Estate garages
• By train tracks in the city
• The girl's house

These four locations show the progression of the story - in this initial design, I have shown the character as being further along the page in each panel, depicting the progression that is a central theme to the song Tonight I Let You Go and my music video. The final panel of this digipak design show the boy at the girl's door - the same place at which my music video ends. This shows the ending of the journey to go with the journey itself. If this idea was used, the final digipak could open up to show the four panels connecting to make one large image of the boy walking through all of the different environments to get to the girl's door.

The words Tonight, I Let, You, and Go are shown on the first, second, third and fourth panels respectively, making up the name Tonight I Let You Go. This emphasises the aforementioned progression.

This design has potential - my tutor, Ms. Barton, also suggested using a six-panel digipak in a case that folds out. This would be a more intuitive way of showing the journey of the character, music video and digipak. I could even put details from each stage of the track and/or music video's birth and production along the journey, showing the progression of both the theoretical narrative and the real life creation of the track/music video.

Initial Designs for Digipak/Magazine Logos

These are some initial designs for the two logos that will be needed for my digipak and/or magazine: The Colours (the artists name) and Tonight [I Let You Go]. I have shown the designs without colour and with colour.

These are all quick designs that could be used as inspiration for the actual logos I use for my digipak and/or magazine. The Colours logos primarily play on the word "Colours"; one of my favourite designs, personally, is the one on the bottom-right that uses coloured squares to create a simple, yet stylish, image. The design on the top left could be used in a design similar to Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto (a similar band to The Colours) cover (shown right). The mix of colours in the background of my design is also similar to the mix of colours in the M and X on this design.

For the Tonight [I Let You Go] design, I also tried this kind of design. The T design on the right is similar to Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto digipak front panel design, except that instead of a mix of vibrant colours in the background it uses "onigh" as the word Tonight begins and ends with T. If you apply the large T to the "onigh", you intuitively arrive at the word Tonight - this makes the consumer think about the product and, crucially, remember it.

My favourite design on the Tonight [I Let You Go] design page is the lyric card design. We have researched and used these a lot in our music video, so this logo links into that. Different colours can be used to link to the band, The Colours (as with most/all of my designs), and the different parts of the name Tonight I Let You Go are used on each lyric card - just as one word is used on each lyric card in our music video and in Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan, the song that heavily influenced the lyric card section of our music video - to create both an innovative, intuitive design and an intertextual reference to Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Only the word Tonight is used in some of the designs as I think that this could be better as the albums name - it is much easier to say and remember than Tonight I Let You go and would help the marketing of the album - people would be able to remember the word Tonight easily, causing them to be more interested in the album.

The two designs I have picked as my favourites - the colour squares and lyric cards designs - also have potential as digipak designs, in different iterations. For example, the panels of our digipak could consist of different lyric cards making up the name Tonight I Let You Go.