The document summarizes the design choices for a digipak album cover. It describes using individual images of band members on the front cover to help build recognition. Font, colors, and effects like a glass effect were chosen to represent the post-hardcore genre and attract fans. Inside, a graffiti background photo ties the theme together and credits are listed as is standard. Overall, conventions were challenged by focusing on building the band's image while representing their genre through visual elements.

1. How has your digipak used,
developed or challenged
conventions.
BY MARC CROWN

2. The Front Cover

3. Layout and design of the digipack
The font cover shows the members of the band through individual images. I have chosen this as the
front cover I believe that it is crucial that the audience starts to recognise the members of the band,
despite them being an organic band. This will help them to develop a fast relationship between the
audience and the band which should help the band grow in popularity at a faster rate. Having their
image on the front cover and seeing their faces on my other products such as the website, may help
them to build and develop a relationship first with the consumer before they start selling their music.
This will help them become recognisable in the niche market.

4. Positioning of the artist in the frame
Having a four piece on the front cover, and the instruments, clearly signifies that the band are organic and authentic
and play their own songs. For the front cover, I gained inspiration from 'The Strokes' with separate images of the
band members but lining them up with each other and I changed it to have the name of the artist on the top and
the album name on the bottom. Just like the album ‘The Strokes’ where I gained inspiration from, the band are
placed in the centre of the frame. This helps the audience to spot the artists easier and makes them stand out on
the shelves.
It is extremely important that the front cover represents the post hardcore genre and I believe I have matched the
conventions to do this.

5. Font, colours and effects
I have used the 'Niagara Solid' font in size '36' on purpose to catch the eye of the target audience and it fits in
with the image of the band. I used the colour red, because it connotes danger and creates links to other bands in
that genre as researching similar bands in the same genre use red font in their album cover. This is a symbolic
code and examples that use these colours in the same genre include Asking Alexandria, Ghost and AFI. The font
is a loud bold colour which would help attract new fans and gain their attention to the exciting and up and
coming new band 'The Perfect Fall'. We felt the use of colours are dark and depressing and will help target their
audience of alienated disaffected youths who may appreciate the goth pop punk that mainly appeals to the
niche target audience.
The glass effect on the front cover of the sharp lines around the images of the band members helps create the
expectancy of a post hardcore band as the effect represents the music as being rough, loud and aggressive.
Therefore this effect was used in order for it to fit in with the genre and stand out on the shelves.
Furthermore, the photo shoot of the band in front of the graffiti was quite dominant and took our eyes off of the
members of the band. Therefore by desaturating the background of the images, I have created the opportunity
for the band to become more recognisable and stand out from its competitors.

6. Target audience
The pictures of the band on the front cover are not only designed to sell them as an organic act, but also
to relate to Dyer's star theory and trying to sell the artist as being youthful and rebellious and to be anti-
authoritarian, which is helped by the graffiti background. The idea behind this is that fans will identify with
this type of image and respond positively.

7. Inside covers

8. Inside covers
In order to maintain the theme of graffiti as the background, an edited picture of the graffiti tunnel we took
when we did the photo shoot will simply be the background of where the CD is placed. To the left, the
massive 'POWER' graffiti emphasises the name of the album cover. I took a picture of this graffiti as I believed
it has matched the star image of the band while appealing to the target audience. The font is big and bold,
using capital letters so it stands out, which is a running theme in the album cover. Also, it includes a lot of red
and black which are the predominant colours used in the digipack. Once again this is used because it matches
the conventions of the post hardcore genre as it connotes danger, darkness and rebelliousness.
The writing underneath are credits to Fearless Records and everyone else involved in making it happen. This
is a common feature in album cover which states who the credit should go to and the main people involved
in the process of making the artist and album cover.
Overall I am really pleased about the album cover, I gained confidence from using the software when I edited
previous digipacks and I was able to convert my skills to make this to contribute to my final product, I was
able to create and stick to the Graffiti theme, which is extremely effective on a digipack as it catches the
audiences eyes which helps build their fanbase and grow in the market. This is a running theme used in all of
my products.