Eachofthebackgroundimagesonthedigi-
pakhavebeenscannedinfromphysical
printsusingadigitalscanner.Weselected
theoneswewantedtousewiththehelpof
AdobeBridgeandimportedthemtoPhoto-
shop,croppingthemtofitintheirrespecve
placeswithdroppedopacityontotheprovid
eddigipak“backgroundschemac”.Theabil-
itytoshithephotosaroundeasily,copying
anddelengdifferentversionsofvaried
zoomandcolourshiswasincrediblyeasy
usingthelayersfeatureonPhotoshop.We
producedtwodifferentversionsofthelayout
andcomparedthemsidebysideon-screenin
oordertofinallychoosethisone.
Thetwodiscswerecroppedfromcopiesofotherimageson
thedigipakusingtheellipcalmarqueetool,selecnginverse
ofthelayerandfillingtheselectedspacewithemptycontent
byhingthebackspacekey.Thiskepttheimagethesamesize
asoursourcelayers,andmeantthatwecouldmovetheselec-
onaroundtoincludeourfavouritepartsofeachimage,which
wefeltbestfitontothediscsthemselves.Thedigitaltechnolo-
gygyreallyhelpeduswithallofthiscopyingandmovingaround,
aswecouldeasilyaddordeletedifferentversionsofthediscs
andmatchthemexactlytothesizeoftheirrespecvetrays.It
wouldhavebeenextremelydifficulttocutsuchaccuratecircles
manuallyandtheselayerscouldbesentofftobeprinteddi-
rectlyontodiscsifwewereactuallygoingtoproducethem.
Theholesinthecentresofthesediscswerecoveredwiththe
elipsistool,thenboththelayeroftheimageandtheelipsehad
aholepunchedthroughusingtheelipcalmarqueeanddelete
tools.Thishasgivenusarealiscdiscimage.
Theband’slogowasrearrangedusingtheselect,copy
andpastefunconalies,thenthetwolayerswere
mergedtoformanewgraphicofthetwowordssideby
side.Thisgraphic(andthedisc tles)werefittothe
sidesofthediscusingthewarptoolandmanually
changingthe“arc”preset.Thebandlogosaresimply
warpedtextwetypedinandrasterizedinordertoma-
nipulnipulateitproperly.
Averylowopacitylayercoversthetwomiddlepanels
inordertomakethetextstandoutfromtheback-
ground.Thetracklist’slayerhasbeencroppedsoasto
makethetracksstandoutmorethanthelargerpara-
graph,buttheyweredoneinthesamefashionbydrop-
pingablacksquarebetweenthetextandimage,then
droppingitsopacitytoabout30%
Thesefalserecordlabelsweremadeinaseparate
Photoshopprojectbyusingtheellipsetool,adding
astrokeandsomecontrasngtextontopinrele-
vantcolours.Thesewerethencopiedoverintothe
mainprojectsotheycouldberesizedandplaced
appropriately.Weusedthesamefontsas,canoni-
cally,therearetheband’slabelstheystarted.The
ttextbelowthemisjustmadeusingthetexttool,
butweemulatedtheforma ngofotherlegalwrit-
ingonexisngdigipaksinaclearandofficiallook-
ingfont.Thisisagoodexampleofourtextplace-
mentconsideraons,aswehadtopicktheright
placesontheimagestowritesothatourtext
wouldstandoutandbelegible.Here,forexample,
weusedtheshadowoftheaudience.
Muchlikeonourmagazineadvert,oursty-
ilisedfontwascreatedbyduplicangour
text,slightlyshiingoneversionwiththe
movetoolandrecolouringoneversionof
thetexttoacontrasngcolourwhichmade
theothersetstandoutfromtheback-
ground.
Thesocialmediahandlesherearesimply
importedfromthemagazineadvertwhere
wemadethem,andthebarcodeisa
croppeddownversionofabarcodegenera-
torwefoundonline.Thelayoutofthisback
coverisemulatedfromdigipakswestudied
inourresearch.
Thisimageisthemostheavilyeditedout
ofthosewehaveused.Whilstallwere
tweakedinPhotoshopforopmalcontrast
andsaturaon,weactuallychangedthe
coloursofthisoneusingthevibrancead-
justmenttofeaturemainlyred,whereit
wasgreenbefore.Thisfittheimageinto
ourourcolourschemewhilstsllretainingits
framing,whichwasourfavouritefeature
andthereasonwechosetouseitonthe
frontofbothofourprintproducts.
Thespinesofthedigipakaremadefrom
usingtherectangletoolandaddingtex-
t/logosontop.

Digipak Tech Analysis