Rough Cut for My Digipak, Including Audience Feedback

Digipak Rough Cut

Digipak - Front Cover (Rough Cut)

This is the rough cut for the front cover of my digipak. The band's logo "Not My Day" is situated at the top-middle of the cover, in a blue stencil font - this creates a brand identity for the band that will be seen throughout the rest of the digipak. Cementing a consistent band logo is important as it allows the audience to establish who the band are and what the logo looks like. The background image is the band performing in the same garage that is seen in the music video for "Stuey's Morris Isis", which is my chosen song. I believed that this would also create a brand identity, as this location is something that the audience are most likely to recognise the band from. Seen in the middle of the front cover is information that might interest the audience, "Featuring the Hit Singles Stuey's Morris Isis and Taken Too Much" - the reason as to why this information might interest the audience is because those were the most popular songs released before the full release of the album, and they are the songs that the audience are more likely to know. 

The audience feedback I received for the front cover in order to improve it was that the text needed to be cleared in the middle of the album front cover - it was too hard to read, so perhaps putting it against a black border at the bottom would attract the audience to the information more. Another bit of audience feedback I received was that the filter on the image needed to be slightly darker, in order to make the rest of the digipak front cover stand out. One final bit of audience feedback I should implement into my final cut of my digipak is that there needed to be a little bit more information to fill the space at the top of the digipak. In my final cut, I will include a black border, with text above it. The text might include reviews for the album, or more information concerning the songs featured on the album. 

Digipak - Back Cover (Rough Cut)

This is the rough cut for the back cover for my digipak. The album track list is seen in the middle of the back cover, in the band's blue stencil font - this keeps consistent with the brand identity I tried to introduce on the front cover. The image seen in the background tries to signify the process in which artists are writing down their songs, and I feel that I did that particularly well, as the mise-en-scene gives the impression of an Indie band I was trying to make - the audience liked the image on the back of the digipak also. Also seen on the back are the specifications of the album in a black typewriter font, "all rights reserved..." refers to the band and record labels, who's images you can see above the specifications. Domino Records and Atlantic Records have been record labels for many bands and artists, such as the Arctic Monkeys, so I thought I should include someone of their stature as the band's record labels. 

The audience feedback I received in order to make the back cover of my digipak better included that there was no connection, or similarity in layout, with the front cover of my digipak. The only connection visible to the audience was the band's logo and stencil font, but there needed to be more - in order to implement this particular piece of feedback, I will include black borders on the bottom and top, to match that of the front cover. The audience also wanted to see more of a variety in colours, which I will include by changing the reviews from their blue stencil font to a light blue stencil font, which will also be consistent with the brand identity I am trying to create.

Digipak - Insert (Rough Cut)

This is the insert for my digipak. This is the part of the digipak where the band can thank their audience for supporting them, something which is common in all genres, not just specifically the indie genre. The "thank yous" are situated at the top-centre of the insert, so it is obvious to the audience. This is seen in a black "handwriting" font - I felt that this particular font created a personal feel from the band to the audience, taking a break from cementing the brand identity. The images seen in the insert are cut-outs of the band, with an added blue filter, in order to match the band's colour. I felt that, against a white background, this would make the audience once again feel as though the band are directly speaking to them, as the only things visible in the insert is the thank you note and the band. 

The feedback I received in order to make my insert better was that there needed to be more variety - the audience felt that the insert was too bland, and that there needed to more images or text in order to make the audience take notice. The audience also said that the cut-outs of the band looked rough, and needed to be smoothed out in order for it to look more professional. Another thing that the audience noted was that the band's logo didn't feature in the insert. I will try and implement this feedback into my final cut in order to make the digipak look more professional.

Digipak - CD Print (Rough Cut)

This is the rough cut of my CD print for my digipak. Seen at the top-centre of the print is the band's logo in the familiar blue stencil font, with the specification "all rights reserved" in a white typewriter font below the logo - in the final part of the digipak the audience see, hopefully the brand identity of Not My Day is cemented in the audiences mind. Other images that are seen in the print are black cut outs of the instruments that the band use, each in the position the band member is usually seen in - thought this would be a good idea because instruments are an important part of the band, and I thought the images seen are quite unique, therefore challenging the conventions of stereotypical Indie genre products.

During the feedback, the audience felt that there needed to be more images on the print - one suggestion was that the record label should be included on there to form part of the specifications, and also to remind the audience who the band belong to. Another part of feedback from the audience was that the black cut-outs of the instruments didn't work as well as it could have done, and that it would be better to include actual images of the instruments in order to create brand identity, as the instruments used in by the band are unique to them. 

For my final cut of my digipak, I will try to implement the audience feedback to the best of my ability, as each suggestion could help me to make a better final product.