How has your digipak used, developed or challenged conventions. BY MARC CROWN

The Front Cover

Layout and design of the digipackThe font cover shows the members of the band through individual images. I have chosen this as the front cover I believe that it is crucial that the audience starts to recognise the members of the band, despite them being an organic band. This will help them to develop a fast relationship between the audience and the band which should help the band grow in popularity at a faster rate. Having their image on the front cover and seeing their faces on my other products such as the website, may help them to build and develop a relationship first with the consumer before they start selling their music. This will help them become recognisable in the niche market and gain market share.

Positioning of the artist in the frame

Having a four piece on the front cover, and the instruments, clearly signifies that the band are organic and authentic and play their own songs. For the front cover, I gained inspiration from 'The Strokes' with separate images of the band members but lining them up with each other and I changed it to have the name of the artist on the top and the album name on the bottom. Just like the album ‘The Strokes’ where I gained inspiration from, the band are placed in the centre of the frame. This helps the audience to spot the artists easier and makes them stand out on the shelves. It is extremely important that the front cover represents the post hardcore genre and I believe I have matched the conventions to do this.

Font and coloursI have used the 'Niagara Solid' font in size '36' on purpose to catch the eye of the target audience and it fits in with the image of the band. It is typical of a post hardcore album cover to have large capital lettered fonts that are bold and dark coloured. I used the colour red, because it connotes danger and creates links to other bands in that genre as researching similar bands in the same genre use red font in their album cover. This is a symbolic code and examples that use these colours in the same genre include Asking Alexandria, Ghost and AFI. The font is a loud bold colour which would help attract new fans and gain their attention to the exciting and up and coming new band 'The Perfect Fall'. We felt the use of colours are dark and depressing and will help target their audience of alienated disaffected youths who may appreciate the goth pop punk that mainly appeals to the niche target audience.

Effects usedThe glass effect on the front cover of the sharp lines around the images of the band members helps create the expectancy of a post hardcore band as the effect represents the music as being rough, loud and aggressive. Therefore this effect was used in order for it to fit in with the genre and stand out on the shelves.Furthermore, the photo shoot of the band in front of the coloured graffiti wall was quite dominant and took our eyes off of the members of the band. Therefore I edited the photo to make the background black and white. By desaturating the background of the images, I have created the opportunity for the band to become more recognisable and stand out from its competitors.

Comparing my product to other digipaks

The effect I used that created a glass feeling is also used in other products in the post hardcore genre. An example is the album ‘Masks’ from Eyes Set To Kill. This demonstrates that the effects I have used matches the conventions of a post hardcore album cover.

Comparing my product to other digipaks

My product further matches the conventions of a post hardcore digipak as I have used the typical colours used. Similar to my own digipak in terms of font and colours, ‘Sick Of It All’ uses dark, gloomy and depressing colours mainly consisting of dirty grey, black, red and white. This is typical of a post hardcore genre digipak as it appeals to the target audience- referred to as Emo’s who are angst ridden youths.

Comparing my product to other digipaks

However, other post hardcore genre digipaks do not usually consist of the image of the artist, and instead usually consists of artwork of monsters, haunted houses, skulls and eagles. Therefore I challenged the conventions in my product as I felt it was necessary for a new band to be known by their audience. In the start of their career it is important that people can relate the name of the band with the image of the artists. This is why I decided to challenge the conventions and used a picture of a band on the front cover.

Target audienceThe pictures of the band on the front cover are not only designed to sell them as an organic act, but also to relate to Dyer's star theory and trying to sell the artist as being youthful and rebellious and to be anti-authoritarian, which is helped by the graffiti background. The idea behind this is that fans will identify with this type of image and respond positively. The image on the front cover would appeal to the 15-25 year old audience as it represents alienated, disaffected youths who are alternate and want to rebel. This group would approve of the front cover as we can see the anger on the lead singer, the graffiti background and the darkness of the package.

Inside covers

Inside coversIn order to maintain the theme throughout my products, I used an edited picture of the band standing in front of the graffiti background and this is where the CD is slipped inside into the ‘pocket’. To the left, the massive 'POWER' graffiti emphasises the name of the album cover. I took a picture of this graffiti as I believed it has matched the star image of the band while appealing to the target audience as it matches the conventions of the post hardcore genre. The font is big and bold, using capital letters so it stands out, which is a running theme in the album cover. Also, it includes a lot of red and black which are the predominant colours used in the digipack. Once again this is used because it matches the conventions of the post hardcore genre as it connotes danger, darkness and rebelliousness.

Inside coversThe writing underneath are credits to Fearless Records and everyone else involved in making it happen. This is a common feature in album cover which states who the credit should go to and the main people involved in the process of making the artist and album cover.Overall I am really pleased about the album cover, I gained confidence from using the software when I edited previous digipacks and I was able to convert my skills to make this to contribute to my final product, I was able to create and stick to the Graffiti theme, which is extremely effective on a digipack as it catches the audiences eyes which helps build their fanbase and grow in the market. This is a running theme used in all of my products.