This document discusses the design choices for a digipak and magazine advertisement for an indie band called Transparence. For the digipak design, dark colors and artwork from the music video were chosen to portray vulnerability and reinforce the theme of heartbreak. The second digipak design uses black and white to adhere to indie conventions while still being individualistic. The magazine advertisement incorporates elements like consistent fonts, pictures of the artist, and minimal details to attract audiences while following conventions of the indie genre. Color schemes aim to be dull yet attention-grabbing. After reviewing designs, the second digipak and a final magazine advertisement using matching images were selected to create a cohesive image and professional representation

1. Ancillary Texts

2. Digipak

3. Indie Digipak Analysis

4. Digipak Designs
Front Back
Reasons for Choices
For this design I have chosen to use a piece of artwork on the front cover instead of a picture of our artist as this has proven to be an
effective technique, as shown by The Killers. Although I haven’t chosen to use a picture of our artist, I have kept the picture relevant as
the imagery of a woman crying reoccurs within our music video, as well as it reinforcing the theme of heartbreak. Black, white and light
pinks seemed to be the most fitting for this particular design as they give the cover a sense of “softness”, which again reinforces the idea
of vulnerability that comes with the lyrics of the song on the album. Just as all the digipaks we looked at during research have done, I
have kept the fonts consistent as it gives the digipak a professional and “clean” look. Although quite different to the designs of pop or R
‘n’ B digipaks, this design doesn’t particularly adhere to indie conventions for all the reasons mentioned above.

5. Reasons for Choices
Our second design for our digipak is an extreme contrast to the first. The most predominant difference between the two is the colour scheme. Holly has
chosen to adhere to the indie convention of using dark colours (black and white) and this is effective as it links back to our video which is also in black and
white. This portrays to the audience a consistent and well put together image for our artist and their works. One feature myself and Holly has chosen to
include in our designs is the use of album art rather than an image of the artist, this is an idea myself and Holly have discussed that we would like to
incorporate in the magazine advert as well, with the artist also featuring on the album art so the audience can therefore form a link with the artist and the art
itself. Holly has created an individualistic font for the band’s name, which again will be consistent over all works to do with artist. “Poltergeist” has a different
font to “Transparence” and although this isn’t consistent as a result, I believe it works well as the font for the song title is more fitting. On the back of the
digipak is the bar code, and record label’s information.

6. After weighing up the pros and cons of both
designs, myself and Holly have decided the
second digipak design is the best fitting to
promote and portray our artist, Transparence.
Our research into digipaks showed that there are
codes and conventions to the indie genre and
artists that typically follows these conventions are
successful within the genre. A main feature of the
indie genre however is to be individual and
different, and I feel that we have achieved this
individuality whilst not completely deviating from
the genre’s norms and expectations from the
audience.
If we were to change one thing, I feel that
incorporating our artist onto the front cover of
our digipak would be effective as this is what we
have chosen for our magazine advert and by
doing so on our digipak we would be creating a
consistent image for our audience.
Final Digipak Design

7. Magazine Advert

8. Indie Album Magazine
Advert Analysis
Band Name Font
This is the first thing which grabs the
audience’s attention due to it’s size and
individualistic font, with it being especially
attention grabbing for individuals who are
already fans as they’ll recognise the logo
commonly used on their works.
Picture of the Artist
Again, similarly to the idea of the font, by using a
picture of the artist this allows for recognition from
the audience which may in turn result in attention.
This is also effective as it means the audience can
identify with the artist over even physical features.
The picture also shows the artist singing, reinforcing
the indie convention of the focus being primarily on
the music rather than the artist.
Basic Details
In this particular example, Arctic Monkeys has
chosen to keep the finer details minimal, with the
details that have been shared (album name and
release date) not being the main focus of the
poster. This may not be as effective as only pre-
existing fans may look closer to see the finer details
other than just the artist.
Colour Scheme
As with most magazine adverts the artist has
chosen to keep the colour scheme consistent,
and this has worked well to create a professional
end product. The colours chosen again adhere to
the indie conventions, as the sepia-toned picture
creates a rather dull effect, with the only “pop”
of colour being the white lights in the
background. This contrasts to pop music
magazine adverts which often use bolder and
more vivid colours to their advantage when
aiming to grab an audience’s attention.

9. Band Name Font
Just as in the magazine advert for Arctic
Monkeys’ album, Florence and the Machine
have also used their band logo font for the
same reasons. However the logo isn’t as
predominant in this poster, taking less focus
from it with it still being relevant.
Picture of the Artist
A common theme for magazine adverts is having a picture of the artist in the middle. In this advert the artist
has chosen to use the album art on the poster, which incorporates a visual representation of them for all the
same reasons as the previous poster. This picture doesn’t necessarily adhere to the conventions of the indie
genre as there is no focus on the music or band playing, and it’s in this sense that this poster shows
similarity with adverts of the pop genre. Despite this, the poster does adhere to the indie conventions in
terms of the representation of women. In the pop genre, as identified in Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music
videos, women are often overly sexualised as shown in the camera angles chosen. This differs in the indie
genre with women often taking a more conservative approach. This seems to be effective as it allows the
female artists themselves to be taken more seriously with their music, whereas women pop artists may
attract an audience who are there purely for their image.
Basic Details
Florence and the Machine have also chosen to only include
the minimal yet most relevant details of their album. This is
effective as it means even if the audience even so much as
glances at the advert the likelihood of them taking in this
information increases. In comparison to the Arctic Monkeys
advert, the album title is slightly larger in size than the
other details such as the release date, which ultimately
shows the audience it’s importance.
Colour Scheme
A dull yet not boring colour scheme has been
chosen, with the black background and dark reds
being predominant. This technique of contrasting
dull and dark colours with slightly bolder colours is
effective as it means the advert doesn’t have a
monotonous feel to it. The reds and pinks
immediately grab the audience’s eye.

10. Magazine Advert Designs
CD Deluxe CD Vinyl
29.01.17
In order to create synergy between the magazine advert
design and the digipak design I have decided to use the
same images and font. I feel this is effective as it enables
the audience to recognise the image we’re trying to put out
about our artist and therefore hopefully gain an interest
into it.

11. Magazine Advert Designs
Our second magazine advert design was designed by Holly on Photoshop and again
she’s incorporated the same images as in her digipak design to create synergy. In
comparison to the digipak, the release date and the different ways the album is
available as the advert’s primary purpose is to promote the release of the album.

12. Final Magazine Advert Design
In the end, myself and Holly felt this was the best final design for the
magazine advert as we chose the design with the same images for the
digipak. By using this synergism within our products, we’re creating a
consistent and professional image for our artist and for our audience to
perceive.
As well as using the same background image for the advert, we have
incorporated a picture of the main artist, Tia, with a cloud of smoke
around her head to symbolically show the overall message of the album
(breakdowns of relationships). Tia is also shown to be playing the guitar
which adheres to the indie genre conventions of the focus on the music
rather than the individual artist. By adding this image of Tia, we have
adhered to the indie conventions of magazine adverts.
In white font at the bottom of the poster is the relevant details of the
album and its release, this is typical of an advert poster as this is the
primary purpose of the poster. With the font being white we have kept
our colour scheme consistent throughout the digipak, album and music
video, as well as emphasising the most relevant information to catch the
audience’s eye.
Overall, I believe we have made a relevant and effective magazine advert
poster for Transparency's album and song “Poltergeist” due to the
consistency of colour schemes, adhering to several indie genres and
creating synergy between all products surrounding the band.