Digipak intial ideas and what I have learnt from my research so far

Digipak intial ideas and what I have learnt from my research so far 

Digipak intial ideas from wolfgang13

Above is a Slide share containing a scan of a mind map of ideas for the look of my digipak. To see the details of the scan please refer to my Prezi here or at the bottom of this post which should allow you to zoom in and read the finer details. When considering the style of my product a few things I feel need to be reflected to really represent the type of song and the type of artist I have been working with. Firstly after researching other music videos and digipaks and album artworks I have noticed that said artwork always features a link to the music video whether in tone just like Kavinsky outrun and the theme of 1980's cop films or Calvin Harris' vibrant and bright themes seen both in acceptable in the 80's and his I created disco album. I have also noticed that they may feature an edited still or image similar from a music video featured on the album. An example of this can be found on the Eric Prydz call on me album cover which uses a still from the music video call on me or Calvin Harris 18 months album and the video I feel so close, both of which feature a similar setting.

As a result of this, firstly I have had to think about two things if I were to go down the edited photo from the music video route what still from the video would be the most effective in communicate both the style and tone of the music video as well as the tone of the song itself as well as the artists image. This will be both thought about in terms of my own personal interpretation of the song since this affected the design of my music video as well as the artist's interpretation as well.

In addition to thinking about the style/ tone of the video and track itself as well as the artists image, to produce a successful digipak design which clearly promotes my artists style in an effective way, one would need to explore the graphical conventions of the genre I have chosen to work with as well as similar genres. In the slide share, I have gone over this briefly however to go in detail from my research I have found that:

·         A use of geometrical shapes and styles seem to be prominent which conveys technological themes and computer like imagery linking with the technology based way in which electric type music is produced as well as conveying a sci-fi and futuristic look to the music to which to those who listen to this type of music may actually have connotations of. -  As seen in Com Truise, Daft Punk, Kraftwerk, Eric Prydz and electric music magazine ads.

·         Sci-fi themes and visual motifs of technology which further link to the way the music is produced and gives off the "futuristic effect" as seen in Daft Punk's, Com Truise and Kraftwerk graphics.

·         Some sort of link or reference to the 1980's or a retro theme. This can be seen via the use of font styles such as brush script which was a graphical convention of the 80's and serves to make the artists name either more elegant or sophisticated or much more energetic and connotes how energetic the music is. This can be found in Daft Punk, Kavinsky, to an extent Martin Garrix's advert as well as my own artists chosen logo for himself who claims to be inspired by a similar artist The Phantoms revenge who also adopts said font as his logo. However with said artist this seems to be used more for a B movie film like look and persona. These 80's themes are not just exclusive to type they can be seen in theme for instance similar artist Com Truise adopts the look in his graphics of 80's style Peter Savile graphic design for Synth bands such as New order as well as a look similar to 80's video game covers as well as featuring imagery from 80's technology. Whereas artists such as Eric Prydz makes intertextual references to 80's workout videos in his artwork as well as Kavinsky opting for an 80's crime thriller look to his graphics. Artists such as Calvin Harris and Telsa boy also feature a similar 80's aesthetic  with Calvin Harris centering a song around the decade and featuring visual stereotypes and Tesla boy adopting the use of Brush script font in there album as well as a composition similar to a classical 80's Synth album. Even to some extent one could suggest that Daft Punk themselves have adopted this 80's fixation as seen one the cover of Random Access memories which features a similar font style to Michael Jackson's album Thriller which was released in 1982. From my research I have found that these references serve as linking back to electronic type music style height of popularity during the 80's as well as the stylistic origins of sub genres which of electronic music.

·         Bright vibrant colours/Neon lights. Throughout my research of electronic type of music I have found the use of bright vibrant lights to convey an upbeat mood to the music featured on the album or the use of Neon lights which helps in creating a look of energy and electricity which communicates the energetic styles of the music featured. 

From here, I started to explore what themes I have depicting in my music video, these themes include:

·         An eccentric theme/Random

·         Computerised themes/ tech themes around a virus

·         Frank Sinatra as a visual motif

·         Colourful and glitchy aesthetic

·         Robots and so called "infected"

With these themes in mind as well as my research on music videos and album art to make sure that both products link well. I propose possibly exploring the idea of making the digipak itself as strange as the video featuring imagery that in a normal context wouldn't fit together as well as breaking some visual conventions of the  electronic type genre however not too much to make the product not recognisable to audiences as said genre and without losing the link between video and song. This could include things such as featuring a leaflet for takeaway as an internal artwork or sleeve with pictures of Frank Sinatra and the Robots image pasted all over it to show how the virus is glitching even simple things.

Other things such as the use of a vibrant palette, computer like graphics and the robot featured somewhere possible, as the main subject would do well in keeping with the synergy of video to digipak.

In addition to this, I have briefly explored descriptions of the song based on my artist profile of Tropiika and what he has said to me as well as my own interpretation of the song, which can be found in the slide. With this in mind, intend to use these descriptions to contribute to the outcome of my digipak.

Finally, in the slide I started to pick apart how Tropiika promotes himself already as well as potential fonts to work with for the logo of my digipak. When exploring Tropiika's persona I had found that he already adopts the use of the brush script font as previously mentioned but also features a tropical tone his identity thus connoting a vibrant and upbeat image to the type of work he produces. This in mind as mentioned in the slide, my digipak should feature some sort of vibrant colour to both fit in with the music video and communicate my artists brand successfully.