Evaluation – Question One

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

What have I learnt about real Digipak conventions?

Before creating my own digipak for my chosen song, I researched various different digipaks with all different genres to discover what particular

conventions are needed to create a digipak. I found that there are many main conventions to a digipak but can vary in detail due to the genre.

Front Cover Conventions

The front cover will feature a main piece of artwork/image/creative work that is relevant to the artist or of the artist themselves. This usually depends on the genre of the digipak but should cover the entire front cover.

There will also feature the name of the artist through the artist recognisable typography in which is relatable to the demographics of the album or can be shown purely through the main image/artwork therefore not needing to mention their name on the cover.

The album name is also often featured on the front cover of digipaks. This could be in a quirky font, different to the typography of the artist’s however, in which look good together. This can be placed anywhere on the front cover as long as it is there.

Back Cover Conventions

On the back cover of a digipak, there will ALWAYS be a list of songs in which are featured on the album. This is usually placed in the centre of the back cover, but usually has the own design with similar fonts used on the front cover.

The back cover has to include credits to anyone whom has been involved with the album by law. This may include publishers, producers etc. This is usually in smaller print along the bottom of the back cover accompanied with the record label.

Barcodes are another convention of the digipak which is placed on the back cover. This can be placed anywhere on the back, however it is usually down the right-hand side of the back cover or the bottom.

CD Design Conventions

CD covers can vary, but these are common conventions of a CD design;• Name of artist• Name of album

• Copyright information• Track list • Record label

Inside Cover Conventions

• A lot of inside covers include a piece of artwork which is relatable to the front cover of the digipak or artist.

• Copyright information along the bottom of one side

• Artists personal messages from themselves to the fans to say thank you or any announcements or extras such as polaroid images (similar to Taylor Swift’s 1989 album)

• Lyrics to every song on the album in number order

• ‘Behind the scenes’ photography or messages

What conventions have I conformed to and subverted?

Comparing to existing media products

My Front Cover Existing Front Cover

FRONT COVER

When comparing my own digipak front cover to Rudimental's front cover we can clearly see some similarities and differences between the two. Both front covers follow the usual conventions of front covers and this is to include the album name somewhere on the front cover. The album name on both the existing media product and my own media product are clear to read and I have made sure that the album name ‘STRAY’ is obvious and stands out in the muddle of words. I achieved this by making the font colour contrast against the other typography on the front cover behind the digipak title and also enlarged it. . I have used a sans-serif front to create my typography as this is links in with the artists own logo which is not included on the front cover of my digipak. My digipak subverts the conventions of a digipak as I earlier mentioned that the artists name is not on the front cover of the digipak. However, for the dance genre, in which is the genre for my own created digipak, this is somewhat conventional to the genre.

Artist and Album Names

Main Image//Artwork

When thinking about what I was going to put on my front cover of my digipak I wanted to link it in with my music video and genre. When I thought about my music video, I thought of confusion and the way I visualised ‘confusion’ was in the form of a muddled cluster of relevant words such as ‘love’, ‘hate’, ‘anger’ and ‘despair’. I liked how that a lot of dance digipak covers have simple design therefore I started to design my front cover. I used Microsoft word to type in various words in individual text boxes, resized them, chose the colour and size of the font and placed in a cluster – resembling a heart shape. I think this conforms to the conventions of a front cover as this is considered as artwork instead of a main image. Although on the Rudimental front cover there is a main image in which looks like a photograph, this still conforms to the front cover conventions. The photograph of the urban area and piece of artwork, as I found in my research, represents the artists ‘Home’ and this is the name of the album.

My Back Cover Existing Back Cover

BACK COVER

Track List, Copyright & Barcode

The track list is a main convention of the back cover and this is included on both the existing media product and my own, therefore conforming to the conventions. However, comparing these two, they are different in terms of theme and design and this should be the case in each and every single digipak. I decided to centralise my track list.

I also added my own copyright information to the back cover of my digipak as this is a definite convention on all digipak as they have to have copyright and credit on the digipak. I added this along with the record label and a barcode.

INSIDE COVER & CD

When comparing my inside cover and CD to existing products, you can see many similarities between them. The conventions for the inside cover and CD are all in my own products including the name of the artist, the record labels, the name of the album and then the artwork/message to the audience will always be on the inside cover, in which I have also completed.

POSTER

My poster is very genre conventional and contains everything that is expected to be on the poster. I purposefully did this because I wanted my poster to be a success. Both the existing poster and my own product have the artist name, album name, the release date, the record label and album artwork.

WHY WILL IT APPEAL TO YOUR AUDIENCE?

I think that using specific conventions such as having album artwork within all of the products helps attract the audience and makes all the products recognisable. Having specific dates on the poster and the apps/websites that the album will be available on attracts the audience more as there are various places to access and see the album. Using artwork instead of just images may interest the audience as they don’t know exactly what is included in the music video but I have also added a freeze-frame of an element of the video on the poster, therefore intriguing the audience even more to watch the music video as well as listening to the music.