Creating My First Digipak

Reflecting back on my AS year

Coming near the end of my AS year, we got the chance to create Digipak's just to get a practise of how to create them, as we knew this is what we would be doing in A2 media. Each group were given lyrics of a random song and we then had to make a video to it. Me and my group made a music video to the song 'RESPECT' by Aretha Franklin, and sadly enough I had to be the singer!!!!

I created a CD cover for our albm and also desinged the inside of the CD cover. Even though we did it just as practise, there are some strengths and weaknesses in my Digipak in which I have explained below.

Album cover (front and back)

STRENGTHS

- I think the colours I used (for the background and font) are suitable to the genre of the song (R&B) as it adds a cool, urban tone to it.
- I really liked the fonts I used are good as I feel that it connects to the theme of the album. The fonts I used look very feminine, and this portrays reflects the album as all the songs are obvosuly sung by a female, and most of her songs talk about female issues, and how women feel and so on. The album is targeted more at females and so I think the fonts I used was a good choice.
- Her song 'RESPECT' was her biggest hit so I decided to make this the name of her album. I think doing this was good as it means I am promoting that particular song more.
- I purposely used images of Aretha Franklin of when she was at different ages, and one she took very recently. This is so that an older audeince, who would of known her from when she was younger can feel the coonection with her from both their childhood. Also I thought it would make the album more interesting as it shows different stages of her life and how her appearancd has changed overtime.
- To make the album cover look more realistic I used an image of a barcode at the back, the logo of the record label, the record labels website address as well as the Artists one, and I also included '2011 music'.

WEAKNESSES

- Although I think the images I used were good, they were of poor quality and this was due to the fact that they were actually screen shots and I kept re-sizing them. Because they were screen shots from google instead of saved images, they had little 'x' icons at the top (but if I saved it this wouldn't have appeared) and this looks very untidy and unprofessional!
- The background is abit dull, as its just one plain colour. If I had been more creative and added effects and other features I think it would make the album look so much better.
- I think the way I laid out the names of her different tracks on the back cover looks a bit un-professional. The font size is too big and takes up all the space.


                                                               Inside Album

STRENGTHS

- I liked the lilac background I used, as again, I feel it reflects the themes/genre of her songs.

- I used the same font I used for the title of her album, and I think this was good as it shows a coonection between the name of her album and her songs within the album.

- At the top I put a quote from Aretha Franklin, and I did this so that the audience would feel they have a closer connection to her. Reading the quote feels like Franklin is talking directly to you, and it gives of the impression that she wrote the message expecially for those reading it. It is good to attempt in many ways to make the audience feel involved and feel a bond with a song/album/artist/music video etc.

WEAKNESSES

- First of all i wasn't able to complete it so this was a let down!

- Again, although the lilac is a nice plain colour, I do feel that its too boring and that I could of desinged the background differently.

- The images of Franklin I used were of poor quality as they were screen shots. I used the editing tool to try and rub off the background of the image, and so it made the images of her un-smooth and it looks very un-professional.

Creating this Digipak has given me an insight of how it will be when it comes to creating our final promotional package with my group. But having a practise go at it has helped me understand what I should and shouldn't do when it comes to creating it again, and I am confident that the final product will be much better quality than this one that I've created!