Digipack

Final Digipack

Process of Creating Digipack

Using the rectangular marquee tool, I selected the square that I wanted to edit for my digipack.

After selecting the gradient tool and by choosing the colours that I want to use for my background. These are found in the toolbar on the left hand side. This allows me to build upon this using text and stamps. 

Deciding that the background looks quite plain and boring by itself, I decided to add some stamps which can be found again on the left hand side. However, to choose which stamp you want, you'll find a sub-bar on the right hand side that shows the default stamps. 

One of the stamps that I used in every square of my digipack was the "scattered leaves." I thougt this gave an effect that imitated the ocean and the light reflections that appear underwater, which ran with the theme of both the band and the design of the digipack and the magazine advertisement. 

I decided to download some extra stamps from obsidiondawn.co.uk and chose the beach sketches and used two different stamps from this download. 

Here you can see an example of the waves stamp from the obsidiondawn download that I decided to use at the bottom of this page. 

Here I used another stamp from the download called bubbles. I chose this because this again followed the underwater theme that I was aiming for for my digipack. However, I put it on top of the waves, so I put another layer of the waves on top.

Due to this being on the inside cover of my digipack, I wanted to add a quote from the band themselves. So after researching different interviews of the band, I found this one from a particular interview online. I thought that this would add quite a personal aspect to the digipack and appeal to the fans of the band. 

I changed the colour of the font so the quote is in black and the "-Swim Deep" is in white to add a contrast and make it look more professional in my opinion. 

Here is the end project of the inner page of my digipack. The same process was repeated with each page. 


Original Digipack
Below is the original front cover for Swim Deep's album Where The Heaven Are We, to which I found after I began creating my own digipack and realised mine shows simialirities to the original.

Process of Editing a Digipack
Below is an example of using photoshop and creating my first digipack using copyrighted images from Google. This allows me to see what sort of things are needed to create my own digipack and what I wish to use when creating mine.

Below is a similar process of which I went through in order to create my practice digipack:


To begin, open photoshop and open/ create the digipack template, mine was already created. Drag the chosen image from your desktop onto the workspace. 

Once the picture has been selected, you can adjust the image to the size of the panel. 

To change the effect, one option is to click on filter, then filter gallery. To which it will take you to a separate layer where you can edit it to your preference. 

Within the filter gallery, you can add effects through the choices that are on offer. Then drag the picture into the tab to which the original digipack template is.

To layer a picture on top of a picture already, repeat the same as previous, but drag it on top of the picture that has already been placed.

To edit it, double click the layer where it will take you to separate tab to which you can change the properties of that picture.

Within this, you also have the option to venture into the filter gallery again an still keep all the editing that you have previously made to it. 

As an example, you can change the colour hue and saturation, where you can see that all the previous effects I added on filter gallery are still there but I can still edit all the properties.








If you wish for the image to be smaller you can crop it by using the crop tool on the left hand side. Once you have finished, drag the image to the previous tab.

Once it has been dragged on to the tab, place the image where you want it and delete the original image that was previously placed there.




Once that has been done, you now have a completed panel. If you wish to add text, select the text box option on the left hand panel and you are able to write what text you wish and change the font to your preference. 

Work in progress:
Below are some photos of me and my class working on analysing digipacks: 

Analysing Swim Deep Digipack

Analysing Digipacks

The history of the album cover:

The following information is taken from THIS SITE.

The first disc records, ones that we would recognize as such, appeared around 1910. Most often these were packaged in plain brown Paper or cardboard sleeves. Occasionally and enterprising retailer would print his store name on the sleeve but generally they were unadorned.

In the early 1920's retailers started gathering many of these cardboard sleeves and binding them together with heavy paperboard or leather covers. These looked similar to large photo albums and, borrowing the name, were sold as record albums. These albums offered much greater protection for the discs than the original packaging and were seen as indispensible to disc owners that had seen too many of   their fragile records broken.

Beginning in the 1930s the record companies started using these record albums to distribute bundles of records from one performer or a collection of performers with similar musical styles. Some of the first cover designs can be traced to these albums and the record company’s desire to graphically communicate the music each album held.

Alex Steinweiss the art director for Columbia Records is given credit for the concept of modern cover art. He experimented with different concepts and images through the late 1930s and into the early 1940s. During this time Columbia Records rebounded from the terrible years they had suffered during the depression to become one of the most prominent record companies in the United States. Much of this was due to their ground breaking use of graphical design. (Of course signing Frank Sinatra may have helped a little too).By the close of the decade all major recording companies had graphic design professionals on staff.

The golden era of cover art design began in the early to mid 1960s and lasted into the early 1980s. During this time the major format for music was the 12 inch, long play disc or LP. Cover art became a part of the musical culture of the time. Often used to express graphically the musician’s artistic intent, it helped connect and communicate to listeners the message or underlying theme of the album.

Designers, photographers, and illustrators sometimes became famous for their cover art creations. Such notables as Andy Warhol and Frank Frazetta were taken from being known in their industry to becoming household names due to their cover art graphic design work. So respected and desired are the designs and illustrations found in cover art that there are numerous art galleries that specialize in helping collectors find rare album covers.

As the medium for recording transitioned from the LP to the compact disc many graphic designers failed to transition with it. Having worked for so long with the much larger canvas of the LP cover, switching to the smaller CD case left most designers dissatisfied with their results. Often artist and record companies simply tried to shrink the LP size art to fit the CD.

Album cover art, now almost exclusively CD and CD packaging artwork, went through a period of change and rebirth in the 1990s. Designers learned to capture snapshots and portions of the artist’s musical intent rather than trying to convey the entire message. Also designers started conveying the emotion of the music rather than the musical intent.

In the late 90s computer design programs started to overcome the physical limitations of the smaller CD packaging. With the ability to draw much tighter, finer lines and have even small details look crisp and sharp, once again designers were free to explore a larger variety of design options. As the technology continued to improve graphic designers adapted and were once again producing world class artwork.

In the present, CD design is undergoing a true renaissance. Rather than becoming obsolete in the digital age as many thought it would, graphic design is once again proving itself as the difference maker. The internet is now the largest record store imaginable. Now rather than browsing a few hundred albums or songs at a time you may be exposed to thousands and thousands. Since it would be impossible to listen to portions of all those thousands of songs the design of the accompanying artwork must cause potential listeners to stop and take notice and give this album a try.  

Analysing codes and conventions:

In today's lesson we looked at the different codes and conventions that go into creating album covers. The example from above is found within a 4 sided digi-pack and what they consist of and the typical conventions found within the typical 4-sided digi-pack. By doing this, it will help me in creating my own digi-pack and what codes and conventions I will need to use within it.