THE CREATION OF MY DIGIPACK COVER

When creating the digipack cover, I looked over the photos that were taken of the shoot day to be the front cover, back cover, and the inside left and right. I wanted to use photos of the day because they would be better quality than using screen grabs of the pop video taken from Youtube.

I was trying to create an image of the artist and her band member to be eccentric and wild. The song itself is unique and unusual and this is reinforced by the characteristics and performance from both the artists. Due to the use of jump cuts, costume and the mise en scene, the initial look of the pop video is loud and indifferent; therefore I felt the digipack cover should reflect this. With the concept of semiology in mind, I wanted the audience to denote what they see in front of them, but also connote hidden aspect that would reinforce the brand image of the band.

The front cover is simple and stylish which gives the audience an initial attraction to the CD. It is a close up of the artist’s face with a feather bower around her neck, in black and white, with the eyes and eye lashes in bright colour. On the shoot day, we got the artist to wear sparkly, bright fake eye lashes that were a mixture of red, yellow and orange. Although I changed the photo into black and white, I wanted to capture the eccentric eyes so on ‘Adobe Photo Shop’ I used two layers and rubbed out the black layer to reveal the coloured eyes. I felt this would be effective because the eyes are sometimes known as a ‘mirror to the soul,’ therefore if the artist’s eyes are bright and strange, in comparison to the rest of the photo, the audience will connote that she is unusual, wild and a slight rebel just by the colour in her eyes. The title of the album is written near her mouth, it reads “le fruit defendu,” which means the forbidden fruit. I purposely placed it near the mouth to show that although it is forbidden, the audience could connote that as it is by her mouth, she is consuming it anyway; again suggesting she is wild and has her own rules. Her artist name of ‘Marie’ is also written slightly higher than the album title, to show its importance over it. The font of both words are the same, and are slightly tilted to one side, therefore they are aesthetically pleasing, and appealing to an audience.

The back cover is of the cinema seats against the green screen which we edited into black. I colour graded the cinema seats so the red looked richer and more vibrant, especially against the black background. The track listings are in a easy font to read, and placed in the centre of the photo, to make it look tidier, and they are white to stand out against the black. The bar code and music company details are at the bottom right of the photo, therefore not taking attention away from the track listing.

After doing the front and back cover which are simple, I wanted the inside covers to be louder and more exciting. I felt this should be done to suggest on the surface the artists can appear simple, but once you look at them perform, or listen to their music, they are unlike other bands. The inside left cover has a picture of Lukas, the band member, in an orange jump suit with a bright umbrella hat, sitting on a bike. The audience can denote this as it is plain to see in front of them, however, they could connote that the artist’s ‘side kick’ is just as eccentric as the artist, and therefore together they are an exciting band. He is placed on the left hand side of the photo, therefore the stage, with the paint splattered everywhere, is perfectly visible. This meant that with the free space, I could put the lyrics to the main song “Ta Douleur’ on the right hand side. The font is easy to read and is in black to contrast against the brightly coloured set. Lukas’ facial expression look inviting and welcoming, therefore the audience can connote that they are a friendly band.

Finally, the inside left cover is a montage of nine different photos of the shoot day. Each photo is slightly linked to another, for example, the diagonal three from left to right are of Ruby on the swing, and the middle left and right photos are of Felix. The actual CD will be covering this photo, therefore when someone removes it, it will reveal the unique montage of photos, which the audience could connote as exposing their true self, which is unusual, loud and eccentric.