1. In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
The digipak front cover meets many typical
conventions of media conventions which I ensured
through research into the products of artists of
similar genres. Firstly, the artists name is the largest
text on the cover, immediately showing the
audience who the product belongs to, while slightly
smaller text says the name of the album. This easily
identifies the product and links to the style of most
artists’ albums.
We have used only two fonts on the front cover
which keeps it quite basic and not confusing or
appear unplanned to the audience. An idea we have
included, challenging typical products is for the font
of the artists name to represent her signature,
therefore using a hand-writing styled font.
It could be argued that we challenged typical media
conventions by changing the girl’s style between
these ancillary tasks and the music video itself, however, this was carefully planned and supported
through our research which showed artists are often showed in a different way as individual music
videos will have their own style and not be the same throughout the album; one example of this is Katy
Perry who’s music videos are very different, therefore meaning the album cannot reflect her style in
every one of them. Most artists appear glamorous and attractive on their album covers, attracting
potential customers and their fans attention. We felt that the style of the girl in the music video itself
was quite rough and did not portray her as a successful artist and therefore we chose to change her
outfit, hair and make-up slightly but not too dramatically that she will not be linked with the music
video. The colour scheme of the front cover is consistent as the colours in the image are used for the
text colours also.
A way we have challenged typical conventions of digipak’s is in the editing of the image we have used
on the front cover. We decided to emphasise the lips and eyes, making the rest of the photo quite faded
in colour but sharp. I feel this gives the final image a professional look which does link with typical
products but also incorporates our own ideas.
The inside cover of the digipak links to the front,
developing many conventions of existing
products. Firstly, the image links with that on the
front, keeping the case consistent by showing her
in the same clothing and make-up but still
emphasising the lips and eyes. However, this
photograph has a different style to the front one,
appearing to be more eccentric and reflecting the
carefree personality of the girl in our music video.
This links to many digipaks, for example
Rihanna’s ‘Talk that Talk’ album which show the
artist in a more casual, less glamorous view than
that on the front cover, giving an insight into the
album; I therefore believe this image has
successfully done this, making it appear realistic.
However, this image does also challenge typical
conventions by cutting off the artists forehead

2. but we ensured the eyes and lower part of the face could be seen to prevent it from looking amateur.
In the bottom right hand corner of the inside cover is a line from the song saying ‘Ignorance is your
new best friend’. This develops typical conventions as a similar idea was used on this section of one of
Kesha’s album. It links to the music video, making that song in particular stand out to the audience,
while the font links to the song and albums name which is written on the front cover, keeping it
consistent.
The actual CD in the digipak shows a
repetitive pattern of Ellie’s lips, immediately
showing that it links with the rest of digipak,
keeping the lips as the main focus, while the
background shares the colour from the front
and inside covers. From research I carried
out, I found that a basic, repetitive pattern is
quite common for a CD, for example Kesha’s
Animal album:
Behind her name are lines
of Kesha’s initials, similar to
the way we have presented
Ellie’s lips on our own CD.
Therefore, the CD we have constructed
develops typical conventions of products from
artists of similar genres. Taking the lips from
the front image, however, was our own idea
which we have not seen used on typical products, though Rihanna’s ‘Loud’ album does a similar
method of using a common image from the front cover (a rose) as the only image on the CD,
suggesting our product shares this convention.
Behind our CD is quite basic and took a few
designs before we decide to go with a message
from the artist. This challenges typical conventions
of media products as not many have messages
from the artist. However, I believe if this was an
actual product it would appeal to the audience as
they would feel the artist is directly talking to
them.
Ways this meets conventions however is the way it
links to the rest of the digipak, in both the
background colour and the font. This font is only
used for the artists name and so by writing ‘love’
and ‘x’ after her name makes it even more
signature-like.

3. Our back cover of the digi-pak mainly meets typical
conventions of real products. Firstly, the colour
scheme links throughout, with the back cover also
using a pale blue background and black and red for
the text colours. In addition, the information
presented on the back cover is typical of an album
back cover, with the song list being the main focus
and then further information on the record label
and contact details on the artist.
Research showed that most commonly digipak’s do
number the songs and so we also did so but
putting the ‘#’ sign in front so they are read
‘number 1’ and so on. We have added a third font
to the digipak here as we had planned to use the
‘Elle’ font for her name only, while the font for
‘ignorance’ is quite thin and therefore was hard to
read in this smaller sized text. A similar font has
been used to prevent it looking like it does not fit
and is also bold so easy to read. Though it may challenge conventions using a different font on the
back, only three are used throughout, keeping it realistic and linked to real products. The text at the
bottom is also written in this font and therefore keeps the back cover consistent, while the contact
information is in the ‘ignorance’ font meaning it does still link to the front cover.
The image shows about two thirds of the girl, with the rest being cut off the side of the case. Many
real products include an image on the back cover but a slightly less obvious or full view of the person;
for example Rihanna’s ‘Rated R’ album back cover shows her back as she walks away. We therefore
also decided to use this convention by cutting off part of the person, while believing it made it link well
to the front cover image which also cuts off a small portion of the girls hair. In addition, the editing of
this image, like on real products links throughout with all being quite faded in colour but sharp, with
the lips and eyes emphasised.
A way this part of the digipak does challenge real products, however, is through the contact
information we have included beneath the list of songs. Instead of addresses and names of the
producers, we decided to put the twitter, MySpace and Sound Cloud accounts of the artist as these
are three websites which are currently highly active in the music industry and particularly popular with
teenagers (the target market for this artist).
The spine of the digipak is fairly basic but this reflects typical digipak spines. We decided to use the
same fonts from the front cover in the text across the spine as the same information is presented
here. In addition, the background colour links to that throughout the digipak, developing typical
conventions of digipaks.
A way the spine of the digipak challenges these conventions is in the way we have not included the
record label logo on the spine. However, we did not mention the record label throughout and so felt it
would look a bit out of place and random if only mentioned here. Instead we only included the artist
and album names, making them stand out as the only information.