Print Productions

On thinking and sketching out ideas for what I could do for the print productions on all areas of the digipack (front cover, back cover, and inside) I discovered an issue with trying to link the name of the song to designs that I could do. After looking at other album covers, which I have detailed how I could adapt them into my own ideas below, I discovered that many artists have album artwork that has nothing to do with the name of the album or of any of the songs that is on the album. I have decided that I have to install this idea into my own work, with the song title 'You Don't Know' giving very limited options at which I could use.

I drew out a sketch of my first idea, with all four covers. This fits in with my video where I used stop motion by having text on paper. This time I have people, maybe the band members, holding up the pieces of paper with the information about the name of the artist, name of the song, and the information of the songs on the E.P including the length.

On the second panel I have used a question mark, the only link with the name of the song symbolizing the idea of not knowing something or asking a question. This would be inter-textual reference with the album cover of British indie band 'The XX'. They have used an bold 'X' to link with the name of their band, while symbolizes the sub-genre of their music with the dark atmosphere that music creates. The dark background makes the white bold text stand out, drawing the attention of people looking through CD racks while shopping; this makes the front cover of the their album successful. I would adapt this with my idea of the question mark, yet include some of the lyrics from the chorus. I could also use this image to go on the back of a booklet included in the digipack.

The use of a female in the music is evident throughout, and is seen as main metaphor in the song, with the male either not knowing the feelings that the female has or not knowing that the female has cheated on him. In the current mainstream music scene there is a healthy number of female artists around, for example Ellie Goulding and Florence and The Machine who are both pictured. Both females have been shown in a artistic way, fitting in with the genre of their music. Looking through the images I believe that an image of the female character would be more suited inside the digipack on the 2nd panel, with the male character maybe being on the other side on the 3rd panel. (More information about the male character in the paragraph below.)

The male character is seen as the main character in the music video, with him seen playing the guitar while a male voice sings the lyrics making the narrative structure is being told by himself. As with the female character an image could be inputted into the inside of the digipack, next to the female as stated in the previous paragraph. The image of David Vertesi on his album cover Cardiography is similar to a shot of the male character in the music video as he plays the guitar as sunlight beams down upon him. Looking at the costumes on album cover and in the music video they look very similar, while both fitting into the same genre. Again, as with the female character the album cover may not work successful with just one of the two characters from the music video used on the front. The type of photography shot that is used for David Vertesi album artwork is something that I would like recreate for my own print productions.

With the idea of using the female and male characters for the digipack in the ideas above the next idea would work with those. While the images of the female and male, separately, are inside the cover the image of both characters together could be used on the front. This would link to the music video where both characters stand opposite each other with the tree separating them. The image to the right, the album cover of White Apple Tree - Velvet Mustache, is an example of how the idea of two characters being seen together, but questioned if they are actually together, could be used. While the colours used show of the genre, similar to the genre of We Can't Dance.

Many artists use images for their digipacks that have no relevance to the album title, and are used to grab the attention of a passing shopper. For example the album cover for Everything Everything's Man Alive, image to the right, uses an image of a fox, with bright colours and static effects. I have an idea for a way of adapting this into my own idea, with an artistic photo of a cat that I have. This may be best to use as an 'Plan B', as it would be very difficult to produce, while also time consuming.