Inital ideas for digipak

1. PRINT PLANNING
DIGIPAK

2. OTHER
DIGIPAKS IN
THIS GENRE
Before anything, we
wanted to look at the
common conventions
in alternative and
indie rock digipaks.
This would perhaps
give a clearer idea as
to what is usually
seen to interest the
audience. What was
found was that
different bands all
had different styles
making it more so
personal to the band
and audience.
Although, what was
clear was that there
was usually no show
of the actual
musicians reinforcing
that it is all about the
music. Furthermore,
there was usually a
dark element to the
digipaks which is
stereotypically
common in rock
music.

3. THE KILLERS:
PREVIOUS ALBUMS
We then looked at the Killers albums to get a sense of style and see if
there were any typical conventions in a Killers album that we can hence
replicate. What was interesting to note is the majority of the albums were
of either a cityscape/landscape that focuses on the sky. The only album
that didn’t do this was ‘Sam’s Town’ and ‘Direct Hits’ as these covers are
not typical of The Killers we’re less likely to use these as it doesn’t directly
link the audience to the band. By doing so, we have this idea that we can
replicate these landscape covers as it connects it to the band.
Furthermore, all albums have the logo of the band ‘The killers’ above the
album name in a particular way allowing for the audience to recognise the
band. This is something we will also use on our digipak so that the
audience recognise who it is by. What is also interesting to note is that the
band name is in a different colour on the individual albums, this means
that we need a certain colour theme to separate our digipak from the
other albums they have released. The use of colour is quite interesting in
the albums, the colours seem to be quite bright fading out to be darker.
This could show that over time The Killers are wanting to be seen as a
darker and more raw band. This means that the colour tone used on the
digipak may be perhaps quite dark to follow
this pattern, this will also connect some
more alternative rock and to the album,
giving it a wider audience for us to reach.

4. WHAT TYPE OF DIGIPAK WILL:
PLANNING
After looking at several different designs
we decided to go for a 6 panel digipak with
the two disc panels opposite each other rather than next to
each other. We did this as we felt it would look more visually
pleasing for the audience and would work well for what we
wanted to do. By doing so this gave us several ideas for what
the layout for the digipak could potentially look like and this
was starting point for us as a group. After deciding the layout
we had to decide what the content in the album would be. Our
first idea was a ‘greatest hits’ album however, after much
discussion we decided against this idea as The Killers had
already created this type of album and by creating a new
album it would allow us to experiment with The Killers album
conventions in a new way. We decided to create a new album
for The Killers and decided that it was going to be a darker
and more emotional album. This would allow us to experiment
with dark colours – which the audience enjoy and would allow
us to create something brand new. The CD will include 12
tracks (one of these being For Reasons Unknown) however
we’re unsure what these tracks will be called just yet but we
want it to have a certain energy about it. For the DVD we
have several ideas, some including: live footage, additional
songs, behind the scenes etc. As a group we’re not entirely
sure what the DVD will include exactly but we think it will
contain a combination of visual aspect and audio aspects so
that it grabs the audiences attention of who the band are and
their favourite songs by the band.

5. FRONT COVER:
IDEAS AND DRAFT
Our front cover design idea resembles quite heavily on The Killers
previous albums. This is as we wanted to connect the audience to the
band as this is something they’re familiar with. The image itself will be in
a dark tone this is something interesting as we have noticed that The
Killers house style has got progressively darker over time. We decided
to make a darker and more edgier colour tone to the city scape image
as we wanted to show the audience that this a darker and more heavy
album. This also means it will engage a wider audience from
indie/alternative rock genre as we found from the audience research
they like things with a darker element and by doing so we’re attracting a
larger fan base for The Killers. The text displayed on the cover will be
white, this is as it contrasts against the darkness of the image. We also
decided to use this colour of white as it shows this idea of innocence
and new era to the audience. The album name itself is quite simple.
Before creating the album name we looked at previous album names
from The Killers where we found that most of their album names were
two words long. This showed that we wanted it to be quite short for the
audience to say so they’re intrigued straight away. We like this idea of
‘The Lost’ as it perhaps shows that the band is lost within themselves.
The use of the album name works well with the cityscape image as it
could be reinforcing that they’re lost in this big world where they don’t
feel they belong. We tried to be ambiguous with this as we wanted the
audience to interpret it. We also decided a fade effect would be used on
the album title as it shows they’re fading back to the audiences
attention with this new album.

6. BACK COVER:
IDEAS AND DRAFT
Our back cover design has lots more information than the cover. The
background image once again focuses on the cityscape image however
the image has be cropped so that the focal will be on the sky. This is a
subtle difference and we decided to do this as it allows the audience to
see there is a certain theme within the digipak. The back cover is split
into two section of the CD and DVD. The CD section is on the left hand
side which is where the CD panel is placed in the digipak. We did this
as it helps reinforce to the audience where to find the CD. We decided
to place twelve tracks on the back cover, this is as this is a typical
amount of tracks to be on an album. On the DVD side there is far less
things. This is these things will be quite long and will have different
feature that the audience will appreciate. The use of lots of text on one
side in comparison to less text on the other side allows for the audience
to easily read what is within the digipak. Underneath this there will be
legal text like copyright information below with the barcode in the middle
and the two logos for the music companies The Killers are owned by.
These are typical conventions on music album back covers. This will be
less noticed by the audience but they will perhaps notice the music
industry logos. By knowing the music industry this may intrigue the
audience knowing that they’re a part of a large music group. All the text
on the back cover will be placed in a white font again. This is our theme
colour for the text as it will make it easy for the audience to read. All the
text apart from the legal text) will be placed in capitals for it to capture
the audiences attention and different font sizes may be used on the
description of what is in the DVD.

7. INSIDE COVER:
IDEAS AND DRAFT
In the inside cover we decided to go against some of the typical
conventions in a indie/alternative rock genre. This is as we decided we
wanted to show the four band members in the inside cover. These will
be headshots and will be probably placed in black and white (matching
the theme of the digipak) we decided to do this to show that this is a
new era for them and it will allow old and new fans to connect with the
band members. This is not a typical convention in indie/alternative rock
digipaks as they usually decide not to show any of the members at all.
However, by doing this it will intrigue the audience by showing them this
is not like any other digipak they have ever purchased. A city scape
image will also be placed as the background, showing that everything is
connected within the digipak. Furthermore, in the inside cover there will
be a message from the band. This will be directly from the band
connecting them and the audience together. This message will include
a thankyou message to the fans and what they feel the album is about
to them as a band. This is quite common for musicians to write a
message however it is usually seen in the back of the digipak booklet.
By placing this on the inside cover it will intrigue the audience and make
the digipak feel more personal to them by doing so. The text this will be
placed in will be white, this will be bold and captivate the audience as
there is no other text on the inside cover this means that the audience
can fully focus on this. By making this cover focused on the band it will
allow the audience to focus on the band. This is especially important for
newer fans of the band to see what the band is like and also to see the
bands opinion on their new album.

8. BOOKLET PANEL:
IDEAS AND DRAFT
The booklet panel will be placed in the middle of the two discs. This was
done as it meant we could just place one digipak booklet which included
information for both the CD and DVD. For the booklet we decided to
use the same design as the cover. By doing this it shows that this
booklet is for this digipak and as theaudience have already seen this
they know what it is. This is as the booklet usually looks the same as
the album cover for the majority of albums. By doing this it allows the
audience to know straight away what it is. Other than that there will be
no other information on the page. The booklet will be placed inside a
black pocket. We decided to use the colour black as it contrasts the
booklet and allows the audience to see that there is something inside it.
By doing so this allows the audience to see the booklet and understand
that they can take it out. However, as there is a large pocket for the
booklet and because this digipak is a special version of the album we
may include some special features with the booklet. By doing so this will
be a plug for the audience to buy the album. This may include
something like a The Killers guitar pick. This plug will instantly attttract
the audience, this is because the audience are all about the music so
by adding something to allow them to connect to the music and also
allow them to play the music themselves will connect them with the
album and band. However, other things may be included in the digipak
but we’re not sure what it should include just yet. By placing this simply
in between the two discs it attracts our attention and allows the sigipak
to look symetical making it visually pleasing for the audience to view.

9. DISC PANELS:
IDEAS AND DRAFT
For the disc designs we wanted to make them both simple yet different,
this is as we wanted to connect them together – showing they are a part
of the same digipak. For the CD disc we decided to use a grey colour
for the CD. This nicely contrasts the black background and allows for
the audience to clearly see the disc. By making it a grey it shows this
darker tone to the audience and that perhaps some of the music is quite
heavy. The DVD disc however is in a dark blue tone. This colour will be
taken from the main image of the album to connect everything together.
By using this blue colour it clearly shows that it is something completely
different from the CD. This colour is quite dark also matching the theme
of the digipak. In the planning we decided to just use a colour on these
discs however in the production other things may be added to the discs
to make them more complex; this may include the album name and
band name like on the cover. By doing this it will allow the audience to
see that it is a part of the same digipak. Furthermore, more details like
disc conventions may be used this may include the CD and DVD logo
on the discs. By making the discs looking relevantly dark it allows the
audience to understand that this is a much darker album and for them
to understand why this is they have to watch and listen to the digipak.
Furthermore, we decided to not use the colour of black for the discs as
we wanted the audience to feel the presence of darkness and felt that
using the colour of black would be better used to outline things like
highlighting the colour of the discs so that it is the focal and captivates
the audiences attention.