The document describes the process of designing the front and back covers for a Digipak album. The designer started with some initial drafts for the front cover but was unhappy with them. They explored different background images, fonts, and layouts before settling on an image of a train tunnel for the theme. After further revisions to colors, positioning of text, and lighting/shadow effects, the designer completed first drafts of the front and back covers that they were happy with. They plan to get feedback and make further improvements.

2. I LEFT MYSELF WITH A HALF-
C O M P L E T E D D I G I PA K F R O N T
C O V E R O N M O N D AY, A N D
DURING MY FREE LESSONS
T O D AY, I F I N I S H E D M Y F R O N T
COVER AND ALSO MY BACK
COVER FIRST DRAFTS. I AM
VERY HAPPY WITH HOW THEY
L O O K AT T H E M O M E N T, A N D
H O P E T H AT O N C E I H AV E
COMPLETED THE FIRST DRAFTS
O F T H E R E S T O F M Y D I G I PA K
THIS WEEK, I CAN GET
FEEDBACK NEXT WEEK AND
B E G I N W R A P P I N G I T U P.

3. FRONT COVER
This is the front cover that I had begun to create on Monday, and what I
started the process from today:
Random
choice of
font
Plain,
uninteresting
background

4. BEFORE..
Before I destroyed this draft altogether, I thought I would give it
another chance by changing the font/layout and some of the
colours. Below is the first change that I made:
Slightly more
interesting font, but
still not what I want
Still the
same, random
text from before
Change in layout of
fonts is much easier
to read, grasps
audiences attention to
both texts

5. BECAUSE…
Because there was still parts of this draft that I didn’t think were good
enough/what I had planned for in my head, I decided to use a different
background and change the colouring to go with the colours that are already
featured on the image of Ted. A more unique text, also
used in the music video
This was the
background
image, before
alterations
The type of
interesting, detailed, texture
background I was looking for
– with colours that
compliment Ted’s hair colour

6. OVERALL, NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
Even though the image was a good CU shot of the main artist, so the audience
would recognise him on the front cover, I didn’t feel the colours and
composition of the image of Ted was doing the front covers any justice. I
therefore decided to scrap this image of Ted, and the background, and the font,
and start again with a whole new idea.
Originally, I had planned for a train track/train tunnel themed Digipak because I
liked the metaphor of the journey and reaching a destination, which is a theme
that occurs in my actual music video via the car journey scenes and narrative.
Taking this inboard, I selected the following pictures for possible backgrounds, and
decided that the most appropriate image of Ted for this theme would be the one
looking away from the screen as I could make it seem as if he is looking into
the tunnel.

7. IMAGES…
This was one of the images that I
had picked out last month when I
first came up with the idea. What
attracted me to this photo was the
graffiti in the tunnel which gives it
that R&B/Urban edge.
This was the actual train image that I used This is the image I am using of
because I liked the light in the tunnel and Ted.
knew I could expand this light with the
brightness setting. This image connotes a
positive ending after a long journey.

8. CHOOSING…
After I had cut the image of Ted out from the background he was already on, I
placed him against both backgrounds to see which one I preferred.
This shows the image of Ted against the first background, which I didn’t pick in
the end. The reason why I didn’t choose this image out of the two is because
I didn’t like the lights above the tunnel and I thought they ruined the mise-en-
scene of the front cover. Also, the angle of the image compared to the other
wasn’t as precise as it meant Ted looked as if he was standing on the
tracks, rather than just standing and looking into it.

9. WHAT DID I DO?
So focussing on the other image, I placed Ted’s picture and completed the following actions:
• Enlarged the image so it’s an OTS shot, so the audience is forced into looking where Ted is
looking.
• Added brightness so the shine from inside the tunnel expands across the picture.
• Added the name of the artist and the name of the album in two different styles of writing to avoid
boredom of the audience reading.
• Smudged the image of Ted onto the background of the tunnel for a different effect – almost as if
the light at the end of the tunnel is dragging the artist into it.
• Made the name of the main artist in black, and added some colour (found at the edges of the
train tunnel image) onto the ‘Wonderful’ text.
• Added a black spine to the left hand side, and put the same text front the front cover onto the
spine.
I thought the actual image of Ted blurred against the background was something I wanted to keep. I
also wanted to keep the style of font I used for the ‘Wonderful’ font, but I didn’t really like the use of
the colour red, the black spine and the position of the titles so I played around with the composition
again.

10. WHAT NEXT?
• Removed the colour red from the ‘Wonderful’ title and changed it back to
black.
• Changed the colour of the spine to black, and the titles to white against it so
they stood out.
• Changed the position of the titles by moving them upwards so the black didn’t
merge with the brown and stood out against the white light.
After these changes, I thought the front cover was improved much more than
before as the colours were kept very simple, yet effective, and the layout was
more accurate and allowed the audience to see the image behind more.

11. HOWEVER…
I didn’t feel that the image that was on the last slide was still the best of my
ability, so I continued to play around with the colours and positioning again.
Below is the final front cover, which I will submit as my first draft:
On this image, I have:
• Placed both the titles in the middle so the audience read them straight away.
• Made the titles on the spine closer together for more realism.
• Added a slight shadow to the image of Ted to further accentuate the
smudging towards the bright light, and to show repetition from the title
‘Wonderful’ too.

12. BACK COVER
I also completed the first draft of my back cover, which I started from scratch
today as I didn’t get a chance to do it on Monday. At first I was unsure what
background I wanted, but to keep the same theme as the front cover, I
decided to use a brick wall background, as shown below. To add the urban
edge to it, I merged the image below onto this one, and the played around the
colours to make them similar to the front cover:

13. I then:
• Added the same spine from the front cover, but on the right side this time.
• Cut out the image of Ted, as shown below, and flipped it horizontally so he
was faced the way the text will be displayed.
• Added a darker rectangle on top of the background for the text so it will stand
out and not be merged into it.
• Added the barcode and the institutional logo.
• Added the text for the different song tracks, and changed them to the same
font as the text for ‘Ted Hazel’’ on the front cover.
• Put the same ‘Wonderful’ text on the back cover, and added some shadows
behind it to make it stand out more.
• Polarized the image of Ted to make it different and dim down the brightness
of it.

14. FIRST DRAFT…
This are the first drafts of the back cover and front cover, with all of the changes
that I discussed in the previous slides:
I am happy with both of these drafts, and over the next few days I will complete
the first draft of the rest of my Digipak so that next week I can focus on
getting feedback and improving them even more.