Group Digipak

After myself, Jake and George had completed our final designs it was time for us as a group to decide whose design we would use as our final digipak. We all aimed to portray a digipak that promoted our artists in a positive and developed the codes and conventions of dance whilst appealing to our target audience making them want to buy the album and listen to Jake and George’s music. The final product would have to fulfil this purpose and work effectively alongside our music video and magazine advert. 

In order to share our designs around, we sent our designs to one another, this then gave us time to individually analyse and compare our digipak designs and weigh up the positives and any changes that may need to be made. We then came together as a group and had a meeting where we discussed our thoughts which lead to our final decision.

George used a consistent colour scheme of pink and green throughout his digpak which works well with our music video and magazine advert as it helps toward developing the codes and conventions of the dance genre. His front cover contains image of him and Jake which are duplicated backwards, those duplicates are filled with colours of pinks and green and create a good effect as it helps portray the repetitive beat of ‘Wake me up’. The pictures of George uses of Jake and himself throughout his digipak are conventional as they portray positive vibes as the boys are smiling and messing around in them. George also continued to use images form the party in order to follow the conventions of dance as dance is generally played at parties where people dance. The only thing I feel could be changed within the digipak is the cd design and the grey scale background which George uses in some of the sides. Although the cd is conventional through the dark colours which contrast with striking colours of pink and green which look like lasers, I feel that it looks too basic, this design may have been better if George was to decrease the opacity of the strikes of colour as then it would make them seem like actual lights making the design more realistic and conventional. I also think that George should not have used a grey scale background as it does not go with the colour scheme used throughout or follow the conventions of dance. However, I like how George has portrayed the genre positively throughout the use of his images and added effects such as outer glows to highlight him and George as the artists. Overall I feel the use of his colours and images have been successful in portraying the positive vibes that dance brings to the music industry. For this reason I feel that George would be successful in attracting an audience who enjoy the positivity of the genre and going out listening to dance as the colours would appeal to them.

Georges final digipak design

Jakes digipak was also consistent throughout each side. This is because he used the same image of our party scene throughout. These images made Jakes digipak instantly conventional as party scenes where used in my music video and are a very typical convention of dance. As the image was taken from my music video the colours where also conventional as the image consisted of low-key lighting contrasted with bright lights such as pink, green and blue. Jakes front cover involved an image of our party with images of him an Jake in front of this image either side. Jake lowered the opacity of these images to create an effect, which made the boys look like part of the lighting within the party image. This is very conventional in following the conventions of the dance genre, as lighting is key within party scenes. He also used this effect for the text used within the digipak, which was the boys group name ‘Infinity’. The text was very bold which relates to dance music as it is very loud and consists of bold beats. His next two sides where Jakes thank you note and Georges thank you note. These sides contained the same party image along with the same images used of Jake and George in the first side however separately on their own individual side with their own thank you note. The text used for the thank you note was green, which is a conventional colour to the dance genre as it is very bright and connotes happy moods however, I felt the font of the text ‘noteworthy’ was very childish and basic and was not conventional to the dance genre, it also did not stand out from the background as it was not bold enough therefore I would advise Jake to make his text bolder in order to stand out. The next side informs the audience of the song titles within the albums.  This side again uses the same image of the party scene and also the same texts used for the thank you notes, I feel this text still does not work as the text does not stand out against the background despite the bright colour used because it is not bold enough. The CD also used the image of the party and this time used a bolder text to display the name of the group. ‘Infinity’ is written using the same text used on the first side and is successful in standing out against the background however I feel Jake should not have used a colour as dark as black to display this text or should have made the texts more opaque as the CD comes across too low key and is not contrasted enough with bright lights to portray the positive vibes that are conventional to the dance genre. The last side is the same as the first however has a barcode at the bottom to allow people to buy the digipak. Overall, I feel that Jake is successful in using images to portray the dance genre conventionally as these image consist of party scenes and bright colours which help portray positive vibes and people having fun living the party lifestyle. He is also successful in representing artist as they are looking directly into the camera however I feel the over use of these images make the boys look moody and do not attract the audience who will be looking for artists who enjoy dance. I also feel that Jake has used the party images too much as the digipak does not flow, it just repeats itself. This may bore the audience, as they would expect more form a digipak as they are paying a higher price.

On the first side (front cover) I have used images from the party scene within my music video which show people parting with their hands in the air connotes that they are having a good time which also relates to the positive vibes which is conventional to the dance genre. This image shows the crowd being low key therefor you can only see their outline however this is contrasted with the bright artificial lighting which I have enhanced above them which follows the conventions of dance as it is a typical dance scene. In front of this image, I have inserted and image of Jake and George so they are placed at the same level with the crowd, however the boys are in colour so that you can see their facial expressions as they are the main focus however them being with the crowd on the same level connotes Dyers paradox which states they are ordinary and extra ordinary as they are just normal boys who would party with other ordinary people. I have also included the groups name ‘Infinity’, for this text I used the font future, which is a bold/boxy text. This text follows the conventions of dance as it represent the boldness of the beats used within the genre, I have decreased the opacity of the text by 20% in order to create an effect where the text looks like it is above the light which makes both elements flow together while still making each individual element stand out. The side with the song names continues this theme as I have again used an image from our music video, however this time there is bright bold text over it in order to inform the audience of the songs on the album, I used the same font to display the song names as wanted my digipak to be consistently conventional however this time I used a bright pink outline so the text would stand out further against the green in the background. The next side is my CD, where I have again continued to represent the dance genre through party scenes. I decided not to include images of Jake and George on my CD design as I feel the CD should focus solely on the music genre, however I have put the boy’s group name so the consumers can recognise the CD when they see it. For the thank you note I used images where the boys facial expressions are both connoting happiness and welcoming their fans to listen to their music, I then shaped the bold text (future) around their face so the audience could see the artists while reading their thank you note which would them build a relationship with Jake and George on a more personal level by thanking them. For the back of the digipak I decided to use a different image of the party scene, this is so the back and front fit in together and flowed without repeating. I also featured the infinity sign as I feel it can help the artists recognise Jake and Georges branded image whilst relating all 3 products.     

Overall I feel I was very successful with developing the conventions of dance and portraying Jake and George positively whilst appealing to my audience as I feel the images, bold text and colours used throughout will draw in the audience as they will recognise that it is a dance genre CD and want to buy it.

For this reason my group decided to go with my design. Although George and Jakes design was also conventional we felt that my design was more consistent throughout and worked more effectively with our other media products. 

My final design/Groups final design