Planning of Album Digipak

Sketch of Album Digipak

A sketch of the album digipak was made based on our finalised idea. This gives us a rough visualisation and guide in making the final product. Thus making the production of the digipak more quick and efficient. The labels provide further detail of the design such as lighting, colour and text colour. This reduces the number of decisions to be made in the making of the product which further improves the efficiency during the production.

Front Panel

The front panel of an album digipak is undeniably the most important part as its appearance is what attracts consumers. We have chosen to use a medium close-up shot of the 'artist' as the focal point of the product to reinforce brand recognition. As the artist is featured in all three media products: the music video, album digipak and magazine advertisement, the audience is more likely to buy the album through recognising the artist. 

Likewise to the fluorescent purple lighting used in the music video, a similar lighting will be used in the shot of the artist. Having a similarity between the media products enhances the recognition between the artefacts. The specific choice of colour coordinates with the album title, Purple Feelings, and it is associated with royalty and luxury giving the album an elegant touch. The effect of coloured powdered paint on one side of the artist's face makes a typical shot of an artist more interesting and intensifies the use of colour which attracts consumers.

Nevertheless, the two main conventional features of an album digipak are employed on the front panel: the artist's logo and album title. As the front panel is what is displayed of the digipak in stores for instance, it is important that these two features are communicated to inform consumers what they are potentially purchasing.

Inside Panel

The inside panel of an album digipak is infrequently seen as it is not discovered until after purchasing the product when it can be opened up and displayed. Therefore, it was decided to not include any information on this panel and to keep it rather simplistic. Following the theme of the digipak, the design involves a spilled effect of powdered paint against a purple fluorescent background.

Similarly, the C.D. is not seen until after purchasing the product. The background of the panel follows a purple fluorescent background and the C.D. is kept simplistic with a black background, powdered paint effect in the centre and white text. We decided to conform with the traditional features on the C.D. to aid owners of the product identify the C.D. in circumstances when the digipak is lost.

Back Panel

The back panel of the album digipak includes a medium shot of the artist's side profile. The direction the artist is facing and the smaller image of the artist directs the audience's attention to the album track list which is one of the traditional conventions of the back panel. The song titles will be emphasised in bold text and featuring artists are displayed. This encourages the audience to purchase the album if they are already familiar with some of the songs or featuring artists. More traditional conventions are displayed on the bottom left of the panel: record label logo, copyright information and barcode.

Side Panel

From researching real media artefacts, the side panel is generally minimalistic. Our side panel consists merely of the artist's logo, the title of the album and the record label's logo. Solely the purple fluorescent background will continue through the side panel, as it is important that nothing obscures the key information. 

Focus Group

"I like how you've used the album title as inspiration for the album digipak design, it makes it more memorable"

"I like the strong sense of creativity with the paint effect, it makes the design stand out"

"Are you going to edit the paint effect on the artist's face or is it going to be physically on her face?"
The powdered paint will be physically on the artist during the photoshoot as it will create a more realistic outcome as opposed to editing it onto her face. However, the colours may be enhanced or altered in the editing process.

"How are you going to create the paint effect of the inside panels?"
Using the powdered paint, primary pictures will be taken and used of the paint positioned in design of the album digipak.