Digipak Initial Ideas

Before even beginning the process of designing my album cover, I had an initial idea in my head of how I wanted the final product to look. I pictured a simple cover, featuring my artist however I did not want it to be close up.

For me the song Pretty Hurts relays a message of insecurity from the artist and I wanted this to be portrayed in my album cover. I therefore directed the photo on the right and chose this to be the base photo for my album artwork. I believe this photo shows the artist in reflection, perhaps thinking about the message of the song, thinking about how they feel about themselves or even looking out on the pressurized society we have created - this is an enigma. While the artist is still the focus of the photo, she is off-centered and distanced, making the overall photo softer and portraying the underlying emotion of the song. From this point, I began to add text and different filters and effects to create drafts to choose from for my final album cover.

Idea 1:

For my first idea I decided to make the song title the focus of the picture but combined a bold font with a pastel colour scheme to maintain the softness I wanted from the image. I placed the name of the artist at the bottom of the screen so it was still a prominent feature but not the main focus. I like this idea because it looks modern and is striking while also matching how I proposed to brand the artist and music video.

Idea 2:

My second idea for my album cover framed the initial image using a soft gray so the difference between the image and frame wasn't too harsh. I then used a standard, more formal font to add the song title and artist name either side of the image. I like this idea because it has a more mature and professional look but still captures the emotion of the artist through the image.

Idea 3:

For my third idea I decided to add a monochrome filter and just like the previous idea I framed the image, this time with a pure white. I also cropped the image into a standard square and centered it ensuring the frame surrounds the image completely. I then used a standard font to add the song title and artist name. I like this idea because even though the song is catchy and a 'pop' hit, the underlying message of it is important and I believe this album cover looks more mature, enabling the song to be taken more seriously. However, I do think that the picture loses its emotion with the filter and the overall cover is not as striking.

Idea 4:

For my final idea I added a translucent baby pink accent to the corner of the picture to contrast the colours of the image and make the whole cover look more modern. I think that this effect is striking and would target a younger audience. The font is also less formal, contributing to this idea. While I like the colour scheme how bold it looks I don't think it looks as professional as the other ideas, this perhaps undermines the message of the song.