Individual Digipak - Miss Georgiou

I have created an individual digipak to promote my artist further as she is a debuting artist. Unlike a normal jewel CD case which has 4 sides, a digipak has 6 sides therefore providing more information or opportunity for visible artwork for the artist. The reasons to why I have made a digipak because it allowed me to add further aspects such as a personal message and images of the artist, so that the audience feel as if the album is special to them. By having additional images, and a personal message this allowed my artist to further express herself through visuals and not only the songs included within the album. 

The colour scheme I went for, for my digipak is a naturalistic theme that involves colours that connote nature such as green, brown, beige and blue. Green is seen within the location that the artist is in; 2 sides showing her in a field. The colour connotes freshness, nature and growth which could supplement the representation of the artist growing up as she is a teenager and being new to the industry as it is her debut album. The connotations portray as something fresh and new therefore making her interesting, grabbing the audiences attention. Green is conventional to the indie genre, especially through the field setting as it portrays realism and a naturalistic setting, which makes it relatable to the audience as they understand whats being shown within the photographs.The colour blue is seen throughout the digipak; front cover, 2 images, personal message and track list cover. Dark denim blue which is seen through the artists costume of a denim shirt in the front cover, personal message and track list connotes the representation of the artist being strong and rough due to the texture qualities of denim which are hard wearing and strong. In contrast, the lighter shades of denim blue that the artist wears in the 2 photographs in the middle; denim jacket and mom jeans, could suggest that there is going to be a sense of sadness included within the songs in the album, as light blue usually is associated with water and tears. The use of blue, especially light blue could help create sympathise from the audience towards the artist, as it symbolises a sense of sadness which the audience can easily spot out. Brown is seen through the trees seen in the pictures of the artist in the forest, and connotes a sense of darkness towards the artist due to the darkness of the colour. Also, since the colour brown symbolises nature, this could also accompany the use of realism being portrayed with the location, therefore making the digipak conventional to the indie genre. The colour beige is seen on the front cover, specifically being the colour of the artist's name and album title. I gained the inspiration to use this specific colour from Birdy's magazine advert as she had the similar colour for her name. The reason why I decided to incorporate beige within my digipak is because I believe it gives the connotations of ageless and being natural due to the naturalness of the colour. The connotation of ageless through the colour beige could represent the artist's youth of being young and portray her as youthful and living. Therefore, appeal to the target audience of 17-25 year olds as they can relate to her youth, as they stereotypically do the similar things. Also, the colour beige could portray the artist as being ordinary which is conventional to the indie genre, as they rely on realism to convey themselves in relations to their life so the audience can relate to them. 

The images used within my digipak consist of mid shots and long shots of the artist in the locations; forest and field. For example, the front cover, personal message and track list have the image of the artist in a forest, shot from a mid shot to accompany them. The purpose of this is so that the audience can see her facial expressions so they understand how she's feeling and what emotions could be expressed within the album. For example the track list illustrates the artist as being quite frustrated through her facial expressions and body language of putting her hand through her head. The forest could symbolise a sense of freedom and being lost in a mystery as its a isolated place where you could easily get lost in. This could imply that the artist in lost in her life, however the fact she's alone and doesn't looks scared, this could suggest that she's brave and intrigued in mysterious. This appeals to the audience as it creates enigma and makes them want to follow her journey through this mystery through her album. The other images used in the digipak are the photographs of the artist in the field; one of her standing still and other walking away. The setting of a field connotes freedom and tranquility as theres space around the artist. This could suggest that the artist is taking time for herself, especially through the image of her walking, as if she's taking a journey for herself and no one else. This appeals to the audience, as they could feel that she is bringing them along to her journey through the image of her walking in an open space and isn't afraid to share her experiences with them through her music. The use of the two settings are conventional to the indie genre because they are realistic therefore portray realness and shows authenticity, which indie artists tend to portray because they express themselves personally. Overall, the images used in my digipak are similar so that it incorporates continuity, so that the audience understand what she's portraying and what the digipak is about. Another image that is seen in my digipak, specifically CD is a pile of polaroid photographs. The images on the CD show the memories of the artist and links with my music video for wings, as the artist in the music video is looking back at photographs of memories in her past relationship. The reason why I chose to have polaroid images as the image for my CD is because I think it gives it a sentimental feel and implies that the artist is sharing her memories with the audience. Also, polaroid pictures are fun to create and this illustrates that they're personal to the artist therefore giving a personal touch to the album,which could appeal to the audience as they feel the artist is letting them into her life. 

The layout for my digipak is overall simplistic and naturalistic, but effective. The order of the sides is as following; front cover, image of artist 1 , CD , personal message, image of artist 2 and then track list/back cover. The front and back cover's typography are aligned in the centre so that it gives them importance and grab the audiences attention. The 2 images have typography on them, for example the image of the artist standing has one above her and below, and the other one of her walking as them below her. These typographies are lyrics that are included in 2 songs of the album. The reason why I positioned them into the middle is so that they link with each other and show a sense of continuity which the audience can easily tell that they're pictures with lyrics on them. The design of my digipak follows a green/brown filter on all pictures, as I believe it makes it look rare and vintage which is conventional to the indie genre, as it portrays the artist as naturalistic, ordinary and old fashioned. This could be seen as subversive to the artists age, as she is young and expected to be out going and flamboyant, so the use of dull colours within the filter takes away the spunk but instead showcases how the artist really is. Therefore, showcasing her as different to normal teenagers and grabbing the audiences attention as they do not expect to see such dull colours associated with a teenager. 

I used a variety of fonts when it comes to typography in my digipak. Firstly, for the front cover and the CD, I included a font that looks quite quirky and irregular for the artists name;Sharna Rae. The one for the front cover is in the colour; beige and the other on the CD is in the colour black. Both had a 3D effect on it, where I applied on photoshop through the blending options of the fonts. This technique made the font look as if it was in 3D, and the purpose was this was to make the typography stand out more and grab the audiences attention. The front cover font's 3D colour is in black and the CD typography 3D colour is in white. Also, I believe the technique on the typography represents the artist as quite quirky and artistic because it looks irregular but fun which could also portray her youthfulness. This could appeal to the target audience of 17-25 year olds due to its fun, creative look. The second typography that is seen in my digipak is on my personal message page. The font is a handwritten cursive format which illustrates that it is handwritten. The reason behind the choice of the font is so that it makes the personal message more sentimental for the audience, and makes them feel like the artist themselves wrote it therefore making it special for them. The next typography is seen on the 2 images of the artist in field. The font is white and italic and the reason why I chose to include this is because the italics could suggest that they're her personal thoughts, making them seem delicate and sacred. As italics are used in a way to emphasise key points in a printed text or to stress on what the speaker is saying, this appeals to the audience as they feel she's allowing them into her thoughts, building a connection between the artist and audience. Last but not least, the typography for the track list is a white bold, capitalised font which is aligned in the centre. I was inspired by Lana Del Rey's font that she uses on her CD's because I thought it was effective in promoting herself, however mine promotes the songs on the album unlike the artist. The use of the font is to make the track list clear and stand out, therefore making it easy for the audience to read. Also, the font could have connotations of bravery from the artist, as the songs are about her personal experiences and the fact the typography is eye catching, this gives the impression that the artist isn't afraid to share bits about herself with the audience. 

The style of language within my digipak is simplistic and straightforward as theres no adjectives to describe anything. The fact that theres not describing words included within the digipak could represent the artist as not big headed, as she doesn't use descriptive language to promote herself. This is conventional to the indie genre, as artists tend to not care about the fame but just putting their music across to their fans or their enjoyment of singing. The majority of the language is informative, as it just gives the audiences the important things they need to know such as the title of the album, track list and artists website (seen at the bottom left of track list page). However, the personal message included within the digipak diverts away from the informative language seen elsewhere and presents a personal, informal approach to the audience. For example the artist signs off her name which has an 'x' next to it. The informality of this portrays the artist as genuine and down to earth because it looks like she's actually aware of her fans and wants to engage with them through her music. 

I believe there are many ways in which my digipak conforms the conventions of the indie genre, firstly through the location. The settings of a field and forest is conventional to the indie genre due to it connoting nature and being a real setting it portrays realism. I thought it was vital for me to include this particular convention because the setting is important,as it gives the audience an insight of how the artist is feeling or the hidden themes included within the album. E.g theme of being free is illustrated from the outdoor settings in my digipak. Another convention that I conformed within my digipak is the use of the mid shots and long shots. These were used to show the artists facial expressions and body language. This is conventional to the genre as it gives importance to whats being shown, especially with the artist. As for the mid shot of the front cover, this is an example of how it gives importance to the artist, because she's positioned in the middle and the mid shot only shows her face, which the audience need to know because its her debut album. Another convention that I conformed was the use of polaroid images shown on my CD. The convention itself is the theme of memories and this is illustrated through the images shown on the CD. I think this is effective and conforms the theme of memories because it visually shows some of the memories and gives a personal touch to the digipak. In addition, I think the use of the polaroid pictures appeals to my target audience, as the age group are prone to use the camera's themselves because of the vintage look they give and it makes photographs look like memories. Therefore, appealing to the audience as they understand the concept of the polaroid pictures and can relate to the artist more. Another way in which my digipak appeals to my target audience is through the artists costume as it is not seen as girly or formal, but instead edgy and cool. This appeals to the target audience, as what the artist is wearing is trendy and they can relate to what she's wearing, also the costume portrays her as not caring and cool which they could admire. 

My strengths when working on photoshop were blurring, adding new fonts and adjusting the images onto layers. I found blurring really easy to do, as I watched a youtube clip to help me do it, and then I started getting the hang of it and did it on my own. Blurring involved duplicating the layers, then blurring one image, to then erase what I didn't want to be blurred. My next strength was adding new fonts, this was because I didn't like any of the softwares fonts so instead I went on dafont.com to get my chosen fonts, as I found them conventional to my digipak and genre. This required simply installing the new fonts and adding them onto the list on the software, therefore being able to use. Lastly, I found that adjusting the images I wanted to put in the square canvas for my digipak was super easy. This required me just downloading my images, dragging them onto the canvas, then simply adjusting their sizes by pressing shift whilst moving the mouse to control it. However, I did encounter weaknesses during the editing process of my digipak on photoshop. For example, duplicating the artist on the layer was very difficult that I had help from an IT assistant to guide me on how to do it. At first I did duplicate the artist myself, however the background was not all the same and it did not create the gradient fade I wanted to show. But once I got help from the IT assistant, he helped me by showing me how to do it, then I made my own adjustments to the duplications.