After the feedback for the first
drafts I decided that I needed to go at the work by focusing more on the
conventions and what has gone beforehand on album covers and magazine adverts.
Therefore I needed two key things, continuity and to create a bold identity for
my artists. I felt this would prove difficult in terms of creating a completely
original design from scratch, so therefore felt it would be best to adopt and
carry on ideas used on existing material.
One of the pieces I used for such inspiration was Arctic
Monkeys 5th album ‘AM’. I felt this was a minimalistic design, but
still had a strong style which stood out from other albums. I also believed I could
convert features they used for my own work, to make it a success. The first of
these was to use the idea of a line running through the whole digipak (as on
AM) within my pieces of work. However I would choose 2 lines and these would primarily
come from the underlining of the Artists name on the album cover and poster.
These lines then continued throughout the whole digipak, including the booklet.
Not only do I feel this created a bold style, but it showed the continuity
which the first drafts lacked and the development I had made. Moreover like on ‘AM’
it split up the track list and I felt although this was for no logical reason,
it aesthetically worked well and livened what can be a dull part of a digipak.
Furthermore I also took inspiration from The Black Keys 6th
album ‘Brothers’. It was clear from my first draft that the Images used were
boring and uninspiring. As a result I decided to change tact and avoid the use
of images on the digipak and went for a plain yet bold black background. Such a
background made the text appear bold and also followed conventions of many
albums which avoid the use of images in preference for a more powerful focus on
the text. I felt the power created on the front of ‘Brothers’ was achieved by
the font used, therefore I researched this font and found it o be called Cooper
Black. I then used this in my own work for a lot of my text; however I didn’t solely
use it I felt it would then lose its effect, becoming boring and predictable. The
other font I used ‘Alien’ contrasted well with ‘Cooper Black’ as it was more
pointed as opposed to rounded. I also on occasions used it in red as to differentiate
between the artists name and the album’s title.
Additionally on both pieces I focused on conventions such as
simply trying to make the work appear more credible and authentic. These were often simple things such as using
the Sony record label and the positioning of the barcode.
Finally the use of just the three colours black, white and
red I felt not only made the pieces bold, but kept it original and followed the
conventions of these three colours going together and complementing one
another.
