Planning: Drafts of digipaks

Drafts of Digipaks

Before making the digipak, drafting had to be done as we needed to make sure the digipak looked conventional to what you would expect from a music album. Each time we made a new draft, we asked people who liked the UK rap genre for feedback because we knew their feedback would be helpful. Also, during this process we looked at existing products online to help strengthen our ideas.

Draft 1:

Positives:

-colour scheme is very good

-clear consistency and style

-good images provided and used

Typography is good and suits the style

Improvements:

-Def Jam goes on the back

-production company details missing

-Inside panel is not white

-CD looks a bit boring

Draft 2:

Positives:

-front and back complement each other very well

-good artistic style and theme to the product

Improvements:

-inside image does need to be circular, distracts from the CD panel

-lyrics are blurred and looks odd

-think about what else you could put in the inside panel

Draft 3:

Positives:

-really good consistency across all panels

-layout and artist image is conventional to the genre

Improvements:

-album name on front?

-some green noticeable on MD’s face on the front

-instead of “Ying X Yang” on the inside, can you think of other words to use?

Conclusion:

It is quite clear that over the drafts that Josh and I created, our work got better and more conventional/professional looking. Like all the drafting we have done, this process has allowed us to make a product that we know will hopefully appeal to our audience and reflect our genre. I will take into consideration the feedback received in draft 3 to ensure that the final product is a desirable one. 

Planning: Digipak analysis

Planning: Digipak analysis

During one of our planning lessons, we had to analyse digipaks that have been created by artists that have a similar representation in the industry to our artists and try to take out some of the good key points that are in their work in order to apply a similar structure to that of ours. 

For our digi pack analysis we choose to look at:
The End Of The Beginning - Skrapz

Blue Print 3 - Jay-Z

General findings:

• Bold outstanding colours.
• The title of the album is also labeled in quite a big bold outstanding sized font.
• Artist image is apparent however it is slightly being lost in the darker lighting.
• Parental advisory symbol is present.

From this research here is some key factors that I am looking for in my project:

• We want a close up shot of both of our artists, in in order to best present star image.
• Lighting will also be brighter in order to enhance the star image of both artists.
• We will be using contrasting colors throughout the digipak (white for 1 artist black for another) this will again make our artists stand out within the digipak equally. 
• Facial expressions that will be used we be quite serious to present the themes of professionals being in their element which helps to build the anticipation of the digipak visually as it must be considered as the visual interpretation of the albums tracks.

To conclude I believe that the digipak is extremely important as it is considered as the face of the album and the entire musical campaign to an extent, this is why we must create something of a visual sensation to excite and engage fans both old and new and also best capture the primary themes of the album.

Planning: Digipak Information

Digipak Information

Album Name: Ying & Yang

Artist name(s):

SWEENEY - (Amani)

MD - (Michael)

Track List:

1. Differences. (INTRO)
2. You Are.
3. Squad Only.
4. Wavey.
5. (MD)MA.
6. P.H.A.T.
7. Trilla.
8. Spectre.
9. Lost Tape.
10. The Equilibrium.
11. C.R.E.A.M.
12. Paypa Chase.
13. LEGO City.
14. My Fung Shway. (Feng Shui)
15. The Mirror's Edge. (OUTRO)

Music Institution: DefJam Records.

Production Company: KAJE Records.

Parental Advisory Symbol: Present

Research: Creative brief for digipak

Research: Creative brief for digipak

During this lesson we learned about the importance of the digipak in terms of it's visual interpretation to not only the album but the entire promotional campaign, for this reason we needed to give send a message of the themes of the album which best captures the main vibe of the entire album. When creating our main ideas for the drafts of our digipak we decided to play off of dyer's theory of star image due to the fact that our artists are two different but both equally well know and established within the industry and are collaborating for the purpose to merge their fan base with this album. 


 

Album Name: Ying & Yang

Artist name(s):

SWEENEY - (Amani)

MD - (Michael)

Track List:

1. Differences. (INTRO)
2. You Are.
3. Squad Only.
4. Like Me.
5. (MD)MA.
6. P.H.A.T.
7. Trilla.
8. Spectre.
9. Lost Tape.
10. The Equilibrium.
11. C.R.E.A.M.
12. Paypa Chase.
13. LEGO City.
14. My Fung Shway. (Feng Shui)
15. The Mirror's Edge. (OUTRO)

Music Institution: DefJam Records.

Production Company: KAJE Records.

Parental Advisory Symbol: Present

Product Overview: My two artists are two already well known and established Hip-Hop artists that have decided to merge their talent and fanbase together to create a cross over album.

The Album Concept: The crossover album will be known as Ying & Yang. The overall concept that we are looking for is to play off of the idea that these are indeed to different artists with their own style MD (Jeremih cover artist on Like Me) sings and SWEENEY (Durks cover artist on Like Me) raps, hence the reason why we have come up with the Ying and Yang concept as these are two different elements and energy types of Music coming together to create one product. 

Comparable products

A comparable product to this could be be the new project in the UK titled as 'Young Fire Old Flame' by both Wretch 32 and Avelino which is a newly released mix tape that's concept is about Young Fire (rapper Avelino) as he is a new, upcoming artist that has been gaining a lot of attention more recently in the rap industry and Old Flame (Wretch 32) who is an already established rapper within the music and rap industry a like and is very well respected. My reason for this being a comparable project is because not only is this a collaboration project, but it is also heavily advertised by both artists as Avelino's twitter name has been changed to 'YOUNG FIRE' and Wretch 32's 'OLD FLAME'.

For that reason the digipak that we create will be heavily influenced by this theme and the music video will also have the same influences and themes. Our second comparable product is an album titled 'What a Time to be Alive' by famous and established american artists Drake and Future. 

Because we have two different artists collaborating together for this project they will also be merging fanbases together which means this product will be aimed at R&B, Pop (because MD) as well as Rap and american drill (because of SWEENEY) meaning that the reaction we want from this will come from multiple genres and produce multiple sales from a wide range of people.

The launch date of the Albums release will be shortly after the release of the music video as we need to create hype around the album by releasing the top hit 'Like Me' before hand.