PRINT PLANNINGDIGIPAK

OTHER DIGIPAKS IN THIS GENRE

Before anything, we wanted to look at the common conventions in alternative and indie rock digipaks. This would perhaps give a clearer idea as to what is usually seen to interest the audience. What was found was that different bands all had different styles making it more so personal to the band and audience. Although, what was clear was that there was usually no show of the actual musicians reinforcing that it is all about the music. Furthermore, there was usually a dark element to the digipaks which is stereotypically common in rock music.

THE KILLERS: PREVIOUS ALBUMS

We then looked at the Killers albums to get a sense of style and see if there were any typical conventions in a Killers album that we can hence replicate. What was interesting to note is the majority of the albums were of either a cityscape/landscape that focuses on the sky. The only album that didn’t do this was ‘Sam’s Town’ and ‘Direct Hits’ as these covers are not typical of The Killers we’re less likely to use these as it doesn’t directly link the audience to the band. By doing so, we have this idea that we can replicate these landscape covers as it connects it to the band. Furthermore, all albums have the logo of the band ‘The killers’ above the album name in a particular way allowing for the audience to recognise the band. This is something we will also use on our digipak so that the audience recognise who it is by. What is also interesting to note is that the band name is in a different colour on the individual albums, this means that we need a certain colour theme to separate our digipak from the other albums they have released. The use of colour is quite interesting in the albums, the colours seem to be quite bright fading out to be darker. This could show that over time The Killers are wanting to be seen as a darker and more raw band. This means that the colour tone used on the digipak may be perhaps quite dark to followthis pattern, this will also connect some more alternative rock and to the album, giving it a wider audience for us to reach.

WHAT TYPE OF DIGIPAK WILL: PLANNING

After looking at several different designs we decided to go for a 6 panel digipak with the two disc panels opposite each other rather than next to each other. We did this as we felt it would look more visually pleasing for the audience and would work well for what we wanted to do. By doing so this gave us several ideas for what the layout for the digipak could potentially look like and this was starting point for us as a group. After deciding the layout we had to decide what the content in the album would be. Our first idea was a ‘greatest hits’ album however, after much discussion we decided against this idea as The Killers had already created this type of album and by creating a new album it would allow us to experiment with The Killers album conventions in a new way. We decided to create a new album for The Killers and decided that it was going to be a darker and more emotional album. This would allow us to experiment with dark colours – which the audience enjoy and would allow us to create something brand new. The CD will include 12 tracks (one of these being For Reasons Unknown) however we’re unsure what these tracks will be called just yet but we want it to have a certain energy about it. For the DVD we have several ideas, some including: live footage, additional songs, behind the scenes etc. As a group we’re not entirely sure what the DVD will include exactly but we think it will contain a combination of visual aspect and audio aspects so that it grabs the audiences attention of who the band are and their favourite songs by the band.

FRONT COVER:IDEAS AND DRAFT

Our front cover design idea resembles quite heavily on The Killers previous albums. This is as we wanted to connect the audience to the band as this is something they’re familiar with. The image itself will be in a dark tone this is something interesting as we have noticed that The Killers house style has got progressively darker over time. We decided to make a darker and more edgier colour tone to the city scape image as we wanted to show the audience that this a darker and more heavy album. This also means it will engage a wider audience from indie/alternative rock genre as we found from the audience research they like things with a darker element and by doing so we’re attracting a larger fan base for The Killers. The text displayed on the cover will be white, this is as it contrasts against the darkness of the image. We also decided to use this colour of white as it shows this idea of innocence and new era to the audience. The album name itself is quite simple. Before creating the album name we looked at previous album names from The Killers where we found that most of their album names were two words long. This showed that we wanted it to be quite short for the audience to say so they’re intrigued straight away. We like this idea of ‘The Lost’ as it perhaps shows that the band is lost within themselves. The use of the album name works well with the cityscape image as it could be reinforcing that they’re lost in this big world where they don’t feel they belong. We tried to be ambiguous with this as we wanted the audience to interpret it. We also decided a fade effect would be used on the album title as it shows they’re fading back to the audiences attention with this new album.

BACK COVER:IDEAS AND DRAFT

Our back cover design has lots more information than the cover. The background image once again focuses on the cityscape image however the image has be cropped so that the focal will be on the sky. This is a subtle difference and we decided to do this as it allows the audience to see there is a certain theme within the digipak. The back cover is split into two section of the CD and DVD. The CD section is on the left hand side which is where the CD panel is placed in the digipak. We did this as it helps reinforce to the audience where to find the CD. We decided to place twelve tracks on the back cover, this is as this is a typical amount of tracks to be on an album. On the DVD side there is far less things. This is these things will be quite long and will have different feature that the audience will appreciate. The use of lots of text on one side in comparison to less text on the other side allows for the audience to easily read what is within the digipak. Underneath this there will be legal text like copyright information below with the barcode in the middle and the two logos for the music companies The Killers are owned by. These are typical conventions on music album back covers. This will be less noticed by the audience but they will perhaps notice the music industry logos. By knowing the music industry this may intrigue the audience knowing that they’re a part of a large music group. All the text on the back cover will be placed in a white font again. This is our theme colour for the text as it will make it easy for the audience to read. All the text apart from the legal text) will be placed in capitals for it to capture the audiences attention and different font sizes may be used on the description of what is in the DVD.

INSIDE COVER:IDEAS AND DRAFT

In the inside cover we decided to go against some of the typical conventions in a indie/alternative rock genre. This is as we decided we wanted to show the four band members in the inside cover. These will be headshots and will be probably placed in black and white (matching the theme of the digipak) we decided to do this to show that this is a new era for them and it will allow old and new fans to connect with the band members. This is not a typical convention in indie/alternative rock digipaks as they usually decide not to show any of the members at all. However, by doing this it will intrigue the audience by showing them this is not like any other digipak they have ever purchased. A city scape image will also be placed as the background, showing that everything is connected within the digipak. Furthermore, in the inside cover there will be a message from the band. This will be directly from the band connecting them and the audience together. This message will include a thankyou message to the fans and what they feel the album is about to them as a band. This is quite common for musicians to write a message however it is usually seen in the back of the digipak booklet. By placing this on the inside cover it will intrigue the audience and make the digipak feel more personal to them by doing so. The text this will be placed in will be white, this will be bold and captivate the audience as there is no other text on the inside cover this means that the audience can fully focus on this. By making this cover focused on the band it will allow the audience to focus on the band. This is especially important for newer fans of the band to see what the band is like and also to see the bands opinion on their new album.

BOOKLET PANEL:IDEAS AND DRAFT

The booklet panel will be placed in the middle of the two discs. This was done as it meant we could just place one digipak booklet which included information for both the CD and DVD. For the booklet we decided to use the same design as the cover. By doing this it shows that this booklet is for this digipak and as theaudience have already seen this they know what it is. This is as the booklet usually looks the same as the album cover for the majority of albums. By doing this it allows the audience to know straight away what it is. Other than that there will be no other information on the page. The booklet will be placed inside a black pocket. We decided to use the colour black as it contrasts the booklet and allows the audience to see that there is something inside it. By doing so this allows the audience to see the booklet and understand that they can take it out. However, as there is a large pocket for the booklet and because this digipak is a special version of the album we may include some special features with the booklet. By doing so this will be a plug for the audience to buy the album. This may include something like a The Killers guitar pick. This plug will instantly attttract the audience, this is because the audience are all about the music so by adding something to allow them to connect to the music and also allow them to play the music themselves will connect them with the album and band. However, other things may be included in the digipak but we’re not sure what it should include just yet. By placing this simply in between the two discs it attracts our attention and allows the sigipak to look symetical making it visually pleasing for the audience to view.

DISC PANELS:IDEAS AND DRAFT

For the disc designs we wanted to make them both simple yet different, this is as we wanted to connect them together – showing they are a part of the same digipak. For the CD disc we decided to use a grey colour for the CD. This nicely contrasts the black background and allows for the audience to clearly see the disc. By making it a grey it shows this darker tone to the audience and that perhaps some of the music is quite heavy. The DVD disc however is in a dark blue tone. This colour will be taken from the main image of the album to connect everything together. By using this blue colour it clearly shows that it is something completely different from the CD. This colour is quite dark also matching the theme of the digipak. In the planning we decided to just use a colour on these discs however in the production other things may be added to the discs to make them more complex; this may include the album name and band name like on the cover. By doing this it will allow the audience to see that it is a part of the same digipak. Furthermore, more details like disc conventions may be used this may include the CD and DVD logo on the discs. By making the discs looking relevantly dark it allows the audience to understand that this is a much darker album and for them to understand why this is they have to watch and listen to the digipak. Furthermore, we decided to not use the colour of black for the discs as we wanted the audience to feel the presence of darkness and felt that using the colour of black would be better used to outline things like highlighting the colour of the discs so that it is the focal and captivates the audiences attention.