Final Digipak

This is my final digipak which I am very please with. As the title of Noxa's first single is 'Narcissistic Cannibal' I decided that this would be an appropriate name for the album.  I went for a more artistic theme basing my digipak around aspects of images such as silhouettes, overlays and matching texts. The digipak displays both Noxa's innocent side but also her darker personality. This is the final product:

Glog:

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Digipak Back Cover

This is the back cover of the digipak and contains the list of Noxa's songs. Due to the colour of the image I may change to an entirely new image but for now their are currently 7 songs which all relate back to her character. The image contains a barcode and the picture was edited to look polarised and slightly more bleak:

Digipak Front Cover

My digipak front cover is complete and I am extremely happy with the way it turned out. I decided I wanted something simple yet artistic, two usually contrasting aspects of a image, but I really wanted something along these lines. I had previously edited an image were Noxa was covered in a paint-like effect and decided I wanted this to be my front cover:

I then made the image a little brighter so Noxa was stood out against the black:

I was happy with this as the theme one of our main colours, black, was largely present in the image. I then added in Noxa's logo but put a white glow around it to make it stand out against the black background:

I wanted to leave the cover like this but realised I needed to add the album title. I decided to simply go for the song title 'Narcissistic Cannibal as it can be considered Noxa's first song / music video. I chose a simple font that was slightly jagged on the sides as I thought it matched Noxa's overall persona. I then put a white glow around the text to match the artists name:

However I was unhappy with the placement of the title. I knew I wanted the artists name to be larger than the title as I consider this to be her first album and I wanted to promote her rather than the name of the album. I decided to make the title smaller and move it into the corner to make it stand out even more against the background. This is the end result:

Digipak Practise - Eyes

For my digipak I wanted to make sure our main colour scheme of black and white show to be the theme of my digipak which lead to me using the black and white effect to get the look I wanted. I took a screenshot from the footage where Noxa opens her eyes and decided to put it into Photoshop:

I started by using the blemish fixer to make Noxa's skin and eyebrows look neater and then put a black and white filter on to the image and played around with the fade and contrast until I ended up with this image:

This image makes Noxa's eyes and lashes look much more defined and match the theme that I wanted to display in my digipak. However I wanted to see if I could add a darker feel to the image showing that Noxa is not someone to be messed with. I put the image above into PicMonkey and began to put shadow effects and darkened the overall image. I also added a dark frame around image to make the whole picture darker. This is what I ended up with:

Similar to the second image this effect makes Noxa's eyes and lashes stand out against her skin. I love this effect as her eyes are completely black showing no emotions at all - which matches her character in 'Narcissistic Cannibal'. However I think this image really stands out and may clash with the other images that I have planned so I will have to consider which image I want to use carefully.

Evanescene Digipak Analysis

Whilst thinking about how I wanted to present my digipak for my artist Noxa I decided to look into another alternative rock band that had a main female singer. I decided to look at Evanescene as I relate their music to our song choice and thought that the image they had created would be suitable for Noxa. The following is a analysis of Evanescene's digipak and what it includes so I remember to add the small details to my own digipak:

I love the colour scheme of the digipak and as one of the main themes of my video is the colours black and white it might be a good idea to consider them as a colour scheme. I also love the use of both the name and logo used on the digipak as their fans will identify both with their image. I will definitely use some of the techniques presented in this digipak for my own!

Digipak and CD Covers

In preparation for creating my own digipak I have done some research into the front covers of alternative rock artists (and artists that have created some alternative rock tracks) to get some inspiration for my own digipak cover. These are the album covers that I found the most appealing:

There are many differences but also a lot of similarities between each album cover which is what makes them all interesting. Very few of these albums use there artists on the cover, unlike many pop artists would have, as the others take a more artistic approach. The colours black and white are the most popular being present on every cover which are two colours that I will definitely be hoping to use in my own digipak. Something I noticed that I think I will incorporate into my own cover is that most of these covers have the artist name larger and more noticeable than the album name. It is either larger or bolder than the album name and is promoting the band more than the actual album. I like the idea of promoting Noxa more than her album, for my digipak, especially as it is her first album. This could also potentially lead people to her website, other music and merchandise.

Digipak Research

A digipak is a luxurious case for a CD that provides the owner with extra exclusives that would not be in the ordinary case. Digipaks are not as common as regular CD's as they usually contain special editions of the CD and have a overall nicer appearance as the case is laminated and involves several pages but the biggest reason they are uncommon is because they are expensive to manufacture. There can be either 3, 4 or 6 pages in a digipak that each have something on them such as: lyrics to a song, a thank you note, photos, vouchers or discounts, information and links.

There can also be more than one disc in the pack which can persuade the buyer even more as they get more than one CD. The purpose of a digipak is to advertise the artist or band and to tempt fans and the public to buy their digipak over another artists, this can boost sales and profits. The following alternative rock digipaks include (in order): Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Nirvana, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails.

Something that all of these digipaks have in common is they all include the CD, which is expected in a digipak, and a list of what is on the disc. This is a good way to inform the audience on what to expect from the digipak. Some of the digipaks are simple, similar to the Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana and Oasis digipak, as they only contain a front page, a disc (or two), a image and a list of what the disc contains. It does not overload the customer with information or extras and it stays to the point. The Muse and Nine Inch Nails digipaks, on the other hand, contain lots of extra content such as booklets, pullout images, a memory stick and plenty of discs. This can make the digipak feel more full to the customer and almost like a gift as their are many extra presents inside.
All of the digipaks represent the artist and/or band by the use of colour and images and each one is identifiable by appearance alone.

When creating my own digipak I would like to go down the simple route by adding in some exclusive images, a disc or two and what the discs will contain however I am keen on the idea of offering my audience more than what they would find in a ordinary CD case. I will also use colour and images to make my digipak link back to our artist, Noxa, and her star image and they way she is represented throughout our video.

Jay Z and Linkin Park Digipak Analysis

Jay Z and Linkin Park had one of the more interesting digipaks. It was 6 pages and each contained something different and the artists logo and names were repeated constantly throughout to advertise and market both of the bands. The reason I chose to analyse this digipak was because it is two different artists merged together and the digipak is in both of their names, advertising both of them equally.

///CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT///

The overall feel of the digipak matches both of the artists star image and genre which fans will enjoy. It is also contains different content such as a music disc and a behind-the-scenes disc which gives the audience a chance to listen to the music and then see how it was made. It gives a insight to the amount of work that both artists put into the digipak and it keeps fans involved and intrigued.

This has given me some ideas on what catches the audience's attention, by the use of colours, and how I can advertise our artist.