Planning digipak - Miss Miller

Planning Digipak

The main purpose a digipak is to engage a consumer to buy into a product the artist is associated with. This therefore benefits the artist as it increases audiences listening to their created art and are also engaging with photographs of them. It also allows the artist to be represented in a certain manner to appeal to a particular target audience. Most digipaks are very personal to the artist themselves and often can consist of a lyric booklet which can also provide more artist photos in addition to personal stories from the artists point of view as well as 'thank you's' to family members, friends and fans, all of which can inspire them to produce music. Digipaks are typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs. Digipaks generally consist of a gatefold paper board or cardboard outer binding, with one or more plastic trays for the CD. They are often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums due to their unique style of packaging. Digipaks usually contain a letter from the artist directly to the fans giving it a more personal feel when a CD case only includes the lyrics of the songs in the album. This therefore means audiences will be able to build a better relationship with the artist from a digipak as it is seen to be much more personal as it includes a personal letter from the artist directly to fans. Also digipaks usually include bonus tracks which appeal to the target audience as they feel they are gaining more information about the artist and gaining more of their work. Digipaks are much more longer lasting and are very easily accessible where as a CD case only includes the songs from the album which makes it difficult for audiences to engage with the artist as there are no personal elements to a CD case. Overall, a digipak allows the audience to feel more connected with their favoured artist and in turn enjoy their music more so because they can relate to it.

I am planning to create a digipak for our chosen artist as if we were to publicly release the single we would have to have some sort of digipak or CD case to hold the disc. It is important to plan before creating a digipak as it means we have time to think and evaluate what we want to include in the digipak such as certain images, typography and personal elements from the artist. Whilst we are planning we are going to see how effective certain parts of the digipak are and how much they attract certain audiences so therefore, when we come to create our official digipak we will have a better understanding on what audiences are looking for and make it as effective as we can.

 The colours i have used within my digipak are orange, red and black. These colours are effective as orange is the iconic colour of the artists hair which will appeal to the target audience as they will be able to identify the artist easily from looking at it. Also the colour red is used within my digipak as it connotes the theme of love and relationship which is what the artists album about. This therefore appeals to the target audience as they will have an idea of what sort of music to expect from the album and will promote the artist effectively as it shows what the artist's music is like. The colour black is used as its a general colour and most people will be able to relate to it, it also stands out on the digipak which will get audiences attention. 

The digipak is conventional to the soul genre as it includes images of the artist, this is conventional to the soul genre as it shows that the artist is proud of her work and also shows to the audience that her work is about her life experiences. This may help to appeal to the target audience as they would have a better understanding of her music if they knew what her inspiration was. It helps to promote the artist as it shows that her music is important to her as she is writing about her own life. This conforms to conventional aspects of the soul genre as it shows the artist relating her music to her real life experiences making the music more meaningful and passionate.

The images used help to promote the artist as in the first image the artist is seen looking emotional looking down and in the second image of her she is looking into a dressing table as an over the shoulder shot. These images would appeal to the target audience as you can clearly identify the artist and see her clearly, this would appeal to the audience as they would recognise the artist from the images and then want to find out more about her new album, leading them to buy it. This will promote the artist effectively as in both images of her she is seen to be looking emotional and sad which suggests that she is deep in thought about her music leading to audiences wanting to find out more about her emotions and music. An image of a heart has also been used when the artist has hand written her name, this makes the digipak a lot more personal which wouldn't have been included on a jewel CD case, this appeals to the target audience as it allows the audiences to engage with the artist a lot more on a personal level as it shows the artist has written it herself. This therefore promotes the artist effectively as it promotes the artist as a relateable person to audiences.

The layout of the digipak appeals to the audience as the front cover is a large clear image of the artist in the middle of the page and the artists name above her. This appeals to the target audience as they can clearly identify the artist from looking at the front cover from her image and her name. This helps to promote the artist as a wider audience will be aware of the artist as the title is clear and people will therefore see it easier. 

There is a letter from the artist to friends and family which looks like it has been handwritten, this appeals to the target audience as it shows the artist is being more personal towards audiences which would attract them as they would feel they are finding out more information about the artist. This style of writing has also been used to write the artists name twice on the digipak. This promotes the artist as it shows she is more relateable and seen as a 'normal' person as she is reaching out to fans. This writing looks like a vintage style but is still very clear to read. This promotes the artist as being unique and different as the artist has a vintage style. 

The language used within the digipak appeals to the target audience as it includes a list of the songs included in the album, this would appeal to them as they can see what is included in the album before they buy it. Also simply, the artist name is repeated twice - this appeals to the target audience as they are reminded of the artist they are listening to which would promote the artist as being serious about her work and professional as she wants recognition for her work. I have included a letter from the artist to her friends and family - this will appeal to the target audience as it shows the artist being relateable and reaching out to her fans on a personal level.

Planning our digipak has been useful to us as now when we are taking our pictures to include in it, we know roughly what images we want to have so that when we are preparing to make it we dont have to waste time and can have a clear image in our head of what we want it to look like. Planning the digipak has also been useful in relation to preparing us for the use of Photoshop as we will be much more aware and comfortable with using the software which means we can use it to the best of our abilities. Also as the software is professional we may have struggled more using it if we hadn't planned and had a feel for the software which means we wont have to waste time trying to work out how to use it - we can get straight to work. I feel we are much more aware of what pictures we need to take for our digipak as we have experimented with images and found out what images will look best on our digipak, which means when we come to take the images we have a clear view of what we want to include which means we wont waste valuable time.