This document summarizes how the author's print productions for an indie folk artist used and developed conventions of media language and genre. The author conducted thorough research on album design trends, identifying common color palettes, imagery themes, and design elements. Their digipak featured an interactive outer sleeve with windows showing the inner artwork. Photography of beaches and a sunset were used consistently across productions to symbolize the music's inspirational and emotive qualities. Care was taken to composition, alignment, and readability. While intending specific meanings, the author acknowledges audiences may interpret elements differently based on their own contexts.

1. How did your print
productions use, develop or
challenge conventions of
media language and genre?
EVALUATION QUESTION 1A

2. Final Digipak Design
Outer Sleeve (front) Inside Left PanelFront Panel
Inside Right Panel Back Panel Outer Sleeve (back)

3. Final Magazine Advert

4. Research and Inspiration
For my digipak, I conducted thorough research into the designs of artists albums within the genre of my chosen
artist (Indie-Folk). Collecting them together into a mood board (A), and using programs like Adobe Kuler (B)
allowed me to conclude certain trends. For example, I found that the colors used are very frequently autumnal
and earthy to portray the organic sound of this music. In addition, the ‘pure’ connotations of the colour blue led
to many artists using a light shade of it in their digipaks, to consolidate the natural, acoustic feel of their music.
Therefore, I was keen to use a similar, pale, earthy colour palette as well as some richer blues to consolidate the
genre of my production. Having the blue sky as a backdrop for photography, e.g. my back panel, is common for
artists like mine as it ’places’ the audience in an exterior location when looking at the design.
For the disc, I found many artists kept the designs simple, with close continuity to the appearance of the front
panel. For my disc, I wanted a plain yet pleasant design that had clear visual imagery links to my music video and
to the other panels. I also decided to include my artists logo, the name of the album and a track list, as many
other artists did and I wanted my finished product to be as professional as possible.
For the back panel, I found that artists used photography of flat /plain buildings, walls or people, often the back
of what was featured on the front panel. These designs suitably feature the track listing. I used a photograph I
took at Wells-next-the-Sea during our shoot of the final scene, an image of the back of the beach hut we chose to
film in. This confidently resembles the back of the album – its as if the album is the beach hut and the audience
are immersed by looking around it and seeing the tracks.

5. (A)
(B)

6. Research and Inspiration
However, I decided to produce an unconventional digipak and challenge the common design of albums by producing an
outer sleeve, featuring ‘windows’ through to the albums front panel, that the audience could remove to reveal the
albums artwork (C). This gave the audience some interactive pleasure with my album. In addition, the texture I found
online (D) resembled that of sand and again served to consolidate the thematic and visual imagery links to the beach
across all of my productions. Within the music industry as a whole, very few artists produce an outer sleeve so I thought I
would add a physical element of interaction to mine which would make it to stand out ‘on the shelve’.
When constructing my panels, I also wanted the album to function even if the sleeve had been removed. So, I made sure
to include my artists logo and the name of the album on the front panel itself to ensure it performed as a conventional
digipak even if the sleeve was damaged/ lost for example.
For magazine adverts, I found that a common trend across most genres was for an advert to feature an enlarged version
of the front panels design. For example, adverts for Lane Del Rey’s ‘Born to Die’ (E), Jessie J’s ‘Who You Are’ (F), Florence
and the Machine’s ‘Lungs’ (G) and Kings of Leon’s ‘Only By the Night’ (H) are constructed using the same design as the
albums front artwork. Therefore, I was keen to use a similar technique (I) in order to construct a professional and
consistent production.
Similarly, I paid close attention to which conventional features were used by artists on their magazine adverts. I found
that often, the poster will include a release date and a short sentence outlining which popular tracks can be found on the
album – encouraging the audience to purchase it. Using Spotify, I researched which 3 songs were my artists most popular
(J) and made sure I included them alongside a release date. I used this convention to again increased the professionalism
of my product but also to produce a magazine advert that in the real world would prove an effective promotional piece.

7. (C)
(D)

8. (H)
(F)
(G)
(E)

9. (I)
(J)

10. How have you used media language in
your print productions?
The reoccurring sunset photograph (K) is one I took because it is very aesthetically pleasing and I
knew it would be a suitable design for my print productions. Taken at eye level, it immerses the
audience in a beautiful environment and reflects the personal and emotive tones of Samuel Fords
genre of music. The use of the rule of thirds, with the actual sunset being aligned just off center helps
the audience interact with the photography more naturally.
In my advert, I paid special attention to the composition of the poster. The sunset is designed to catch
the audiences eye, and to achieve this I ensured there was nothing obstructing it. After its caught
their eye, they are likely to scan the rest of the poster and so I made the most important promotional
information the largest, ensuring even if they briefly look at the poster, the name of the artist, the
name of the album and the release date are likely to be seen. Furthermore, I made sure the 3, 5 Star
ratings were large enough to be seen in the audiences peripheral vision to again increase the
effectiveness of the advert.
When constructing the panels of my digipak, I spent lots of time ensuring everything was centrally
aligned and evenly spaced. For instance, for the track listing on the back panel, I wanted to make sure
they names were in the exact center and that there was an equal space between the tracks. It is little
details like these, that I spent time working on, that increase the professionalism of the finished
product.

11. (K)

12. How have you used media language in
your print productions?
The coloration of all my print productions is very raw and natural, including some earthy, autumnal
colors in combination with some pale blues and yellows associated with the coast. As previously
mentioned, this palette is very common within the genre and I didn’t use any bold, inartificial colors
as it wouldn't’t suit the acoustic and organic nature of this music.
The font I chose to use is called ‘Couture’ by Chase Babb and is a thick, sans-serif font. I chose this one
for several reasons. For one, I found that during my research a sans-serif was a very common choice
for artists like mine, e.g. Ben Howard’s ’Only Kingdom’ (L), as it resembles the rounded, natural
composition of this genre but is also very aesthetically pleasing. Also, practically this font would be
suitable for my production as it is thick enough to easily be cut out and provide big enough windows
through to the front panel so the audience could very easily see through. If I chose a thin, perhaps
serif font, there would be less chance of the audience being able to see the sunset through the
lettering – defeating its purpose. In addition, the decision to use white lettering, on top of being a
very popular colour choice for similar artists, was again a practical decision. I found that black letters
weren’t always clear to read against the photographs, especially the sunset image, and white could
be seen no matter which panel it was on. However, I did have to use a black font on the disc because
for once, the image was too light for the white to show up. Similarly, on the inside left panel, I had to
position the text carefully in the center to ensure it was over the blue of the beach hut because the
yellow inhibited its visibility.

13. How have you used media language in
your print productions?
Another reason I liked the sunset image and decided to use it for my poster and front panel of my digipak is the symbolic meaning it can
have. Seeing the natural awe of a sunset is very motivational and up-lifting, very similar to the message and connotations of this genre of
music. I reinforced this with some lyrics from the track ‘Kings’ on the inside left panel (“Live like we ought to, live like we’re born to, live
like we’re all of us Kings”) which again presents an inspirational message to the audience to put aside differences and pursue what is
really important to them. This created a more personal relationship between my artist and the audience, something many artists strive to
achieve.
In addition to visual imagery links across all of my productions I also sought to construct thematic ones. This is because I found many
artists have consistent print productions that use very similar photography/ designs across all the artwork, for instance, Passenger’s
album: ‘Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea’ (M). I used photography of the beach across my digipak as a visual imagery link and the
sunset image as a thematic link. Using consistent images of the beach huts for instance consolidates the album as a package and
strengthens its professionalism whereas, the sunset image reflects the motivational and emotive qualities of this music.
However, Stuart Hall’s ‘Encoding model of Communication’ argues that messages behind a media text, like my print productions, are not
determined by the producer (me). Instead, this model argues that it’s irrelevant what meaning I intended to present because the
audience decode their own meaning, dependent on their situation, context and background. Hall would suggest that each audience
member would determine their own message behind the sunset/ beach photographs, regardless of what I sought to portray. Similarly,
scholar Henry Jenkins famously stated that fans are “textual poachers” – they only take meanings from a text that are useful to them and
leave the rest. He suggests fans are active producers and skilled manipulators of meanings. Again, this could be used to contradict my
intentions and suggest that fans will interpret the meaning/ tone behind the sunset photograph and beach hut images, which I wanted to
act as inspirational and up lifting, in a unique way.

14. (L)
(M)