Planning Digipak- Miss Miller

Planning Digipak

A digipak is of great importance of to the artist for many reasons , the main being that it helps the fans connect with the artist more than a normal jewel CD. This is because of the increased amount of information that is on the pack and more pictures in it, furthermore their is often a personal note from the artist which brings a big connection with it.This would promote the artist much more and the people who buy the digipak are more likely to buy other merchandise from the band as they now may be bigger fans.  A second reason why it is so important is that it is much more of a collectable item than a normal jewel CD and makes the fans feel more exclusive , this will make buyers feel like bigger fans as they have bought a more expensive product. There are also many differences between the digipak and a normal jewel CD such as the digipaks being made out of cardboard whereas CDs are made from plastic,  which means the CD case protects the CD better. Additionally the digipaks may become frayed and worn over time. Another difference is that the digipak has 6 sides rather than the jewel CDs 2 which means they have more high quality images than a normal CD. This can promote an artist much further as there is more information going to the audience which means they will hopefully buy the album and further merchandises that the band make.

I will be creating a digipak which will be based around the song " It feels like we only go backwards" by the artist Tame Impala. Planning will be vital to my digipak as the genre of the song is very unique in being psychedelic rock, and so we need to stay conventional to the genre whilst still being mainstream to attract people. For example I will be using bright neon colours alongside pictures however I will not be using the exotic locations and costumes that are also often seen and are conventional. This way I have kept some of the conventions whilst still making it recognizable to psychedelic rock fans.

In my digipak I will be including a personal message from the artist as this will bring a personal connection with the artist and the audience. This will make a stronger bond for the audience which will hopefully make them buy more music and merchandise from the artist and become a long term fan. This will be done with messages such as "Thank you so much" or "Its all down to you" which will be as if they were hand written by the artist. This will make the fans like the artist even more and become more involved with them.

The colours that I will be using will be bright and very eye catching for the reasons that it is very conventional to have them in a psychedelic rock digipak and that it will attract people attention if they are just looking at it. Hopefully this would raise the interest and they would be more inclined to buy the digipak than if it was plainer. The colours also appeal directly to the audience of the psychedelic rock genre as few other albums will be as bright and eye catching as this one therefore it will attract them to the digipak. This would also promote the artist as it sets them apparent from the other music genres and brings attention to them through the colours which will be more eye catching than others which are less colourful.  This would differ from a normal jewel CD in that there would be a personal message from the artist and there would be high quality pictures which you simple would not get from a normal jewel CD.

Conventions of the genre- Overall I believe that the digipak does conform slightly to the genres of psychedelic rock and does it in a few ways however overall it does not. Such as with the bright colours which are used which are meant to show a lively and energetic theme with the small connotation of drugs as the colours are seen as a type of hallucinations in that they almost do not make sense. Although in my digipak we can see the artist face which is often covered with make up or a costume , this takes away a mystery that is often used in psychedelic rock. This makes the artist seem less distant and more in touch with his fans , this can also be seen in the personal message which would not usually happen in a conventional digipak for the genre. Also I have not used an exotic locations for the images which is often used to make the digipak and artist seem more extreme and wild. This would promote the artist as the audience will feel more comfortable with the more mainstream video and so will be more popular.Overall there is a small part of the digipak that conforms with the genre but most of the themes subvert it.

I have decided to use two images in my digipak one of the artist facing the camera and the other with him looking to the side. I have used this as I believe it brings a connection between the fans and the artist which is not normally seen in psychedelic rock as they often are hidden to keep the mystery , however I believed it would improve the connection with the fans if they could see his face. Another image I have used is of him facing the side although we can still see his face he is still hiding something which could make it seem that he is still a mystery. This will appeal very well to the target audience as they felt that the genre was often too extreme and the pictures of the artist would tone this down, and so they would be more likely to buy the digipak. This also helps the artist promoting as people will now recognize his face and would  possibly buy something that would be associated with him. This would also increase the amount of fans that the band could have in the future.

The layout I have used is that of any other digipak in that there is front panel which has the name of the artist and the main song name of "feels like we only go backwards". Then the second panel has a forwards facing picture of the artist with the names of the songs around his head, the third is a picture of Canary Wharf one of the locations for our music video. The fourth having a personnel message from the artist and the fifth being another coloured panel, with the last panel having the side picture of the artist with the band name above him. This would appeal to the target audience as it gives information alongside high quality pictures and with a personnel message from the artist, alongside promoting the artist with the pictures of his face. This differed entirely from a normal jewel CD case in that that only has 2 possible places to have pictures and the artist whereas the digipak has 6.

The typography that I used was of bright bold colours to bring the attention to the band name, I have decided to use this as it is conventional to the genre of psychedelic rock and is eye catching to people looking at the digipak. The second panel shows the artist facing the camera with the song titles above his head almost thinking of the song names, the titles of the songs are in plain black as this makes it easier to read whilst making it stand out against the background.The final panel has a hand written message for the fans which has his signature on it which gives the fans a personal feeling which the people who bought the jewel CD do not have. This has made the digipak appeal to the target audience a the information is easy to read whilst still having a personal feeling, furthermore this would stand out if the audience was looking at the digipak which would make them more likely to buy the digipak.

The language used is very simple with barely any long sentences which is very conventional to the genre of not giving too much information. This makes the images have as much impact as possible whilst limiting the distracting information that mainstream digipaks often have. The only long sentence in the whole digipak is the personal message which is necessary as without it the buyers of the digipak would feel as if they could have just bought the jewel CD. Even after this the personal message just said " Thank you so much " which is long enough to bring a connection but not long enough to remove the mystery of the artist. This will also promote the artist as some of the mystery has been removed and the fans can actually have a personal connection with the artist rather than a unknown person. This will help promote the artist as the audience can quickly see who it is and if they will buy it or not, furthermore for any people who do not buy the digipak they will remember the  artist name.

The main connotations are the themes of drugs which are shown in the ways of bright neon colours which are meant top portray the experience of hallucination which can come from the drugs. This is a main convention of the psychedelic rock genre and may attract fans of the genre to the digipak even though it is more mainstream. Another connotation is that the artist has not lost the connection with his fans and that he still appreciates them through his personal message which would mean a lot to fans. These will help promote the artist as he is a less extreme than other psychedelic rock artists however sets himself apart fro  other mainstream artist.

Overall I have found the digipak planning very helpful in that I have a clear understanding of what I want to include in my real digipak. Also I know now what the best things are to include in a digipak whilst taking away what did not work in the planning. Furthermore I know that pictures from our music video locations will look the best with some minor improvements on photoshop as these will give a connection between all of the forms of media that I use. Additionally I am much more aware of the pictures that I want to take for the digipak as I have a clear idea what will look best next to what panel which will make the digipak stand out to the buyers of the digipak.

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