Digipak Contribution BEFORE INDEPENDENT WORKING

It was essential for me to make sure that our digipak product linked together with our other products; website and music video, in order to construct a successful campaign for our target audience's needs and the image that we intend to represent.

Furthermore, whilst researching on the internet for unique ideas, I came across two pictures from Tumblr that I felt could represent the authenticity of our youthful image; the theme of a songwriting booklet/scrapbook:

Specifically, the picture above which quotes Katy Perry's lyrics really gives off a personal approach to the audience and reinforces the genuiness of the artist for the audience to relate to, a key concept that we want our artist to communicate. 

Moreover, I was assigned two slides on the digipak production, therefore I decided to create a "Thank you" page on the blank slate and a guitar themed imagery on the CD slate. 

Firstly, I researched other successful artists "Thank you" pages falling under a similar image to our artist to grasp a basic idea on what to include within this important convention of a digipak. 

After analysing the above "Thank you" pages on the digipak, I found that it was important to include:

1. Parts dedicated to certain groups; record label, fans, family, etc.

2. Personal attributes.

3. Basic and clear vocabulary. 

My idea then developed into writing the "Thank You" letter on my notepad with a plain black biro pen,emphasising  important words in a different font/boldness. I wanted to do this as I felt that it reinforce the relatability Simon has with his audience and the free spirit/individuality that we want to portray through this doodle themed "Thank you" letter. I felt that this gave off a more personal approach.

My written "Thank you" letter before the editing process.

I then took a land scape picture of the letter so that I had an clear idea what the image will look like a a square canvas.

I then decided to tilt the camera as I thought this would create a more realistic POV shot approach, in addition I also feel that the involvement of the pen prop reinforced this.

The software I used to edit my "Thank You" letter slide was the Adobe PhotoShop Express App on my IPad. This allowed me to crop, tilt, rotate and change the intensity of temperature, clarity, noise, and much more through a easy process. 

In the above picture, I increased the clarity of the photo to the highest extent possible, as this made the writing on the paper much more sharper and clearer which was needed. 

I also increased the sharpeners of the photograph about 10% more than the original version. I zoomed in on the picture as I done this as I wanted the sharpen just enough to make the writing clearer, but not too much that it didn't appear subtle or looked fuzzy. 

A factor that I had to think off through the entire editing process was to make sure that the writing became unclear to read. Therefore, when it came to adjusting the exposure levels on the photo, I only increased it to a small extent to give off a effect of a natural lighting and to make the paper a bit whiter, resulting to the writing looking darker. If I don't this too much I would've lost the clarity of the writing. 

 I initially planned on having a high contrast on this photo as I felt it created a professional effect, however I had to keep in mind that it had to link in with the other slides with a low contrast. 

I added a large extent of the highlight feature to creat a natural light and to balance the heavy sharpness that ai applied earlier, creating a slightly smoother finish. 

This was probably the editing effect that I explored the most with as I was very indecisive on the levels of warmth to have within the picture. As the other slates in the digipack are of a low level of temperature, I decided to decrease the temperature but not to a low extent as this would transform to a colour that didn't look professional. I waited to experiment with the tint of the photo to then decided if there was any need of a change to the temperature level. 

After deceased he tint to produce a slightly grey dew to the photo, I felt this balanced out the previous levels of temperature and there was no need for changes.

It was important for me to create a slight vibrancy to the picture carefully as too much vibrancy would be too bright for the other digipak slates. I therefore decreased the vibrancy as I then achieved that slightly gray and "dirty" image that I was intending to achieve. 

In order to have a clear, close up viewing of the letter I had to crop out some of the excess parts of the photo in order to create a more zoomed in shot. 

I then decided to add a thin black framing around the photo to achieve a more progressional look, and to allow the subject within the frame to become more eye catching.

Overall, I felt that I achieved a authentic look at the end of the editing process on this particular digipak slide, involving traits of personality and unique style to crate that individual imagery to our audience. 

I feel that this artistic approach to a thank you letter creates a more attractive style due to the personal doodles on the page. 

This is my Before/After comparison of this slate:

BEFORE

AFTER

CD Digpak slide

Throughout the majority of our music video, Simon is playing his guitar, therefore I thought that it would be a clearly good link to involve the theme of the guitar on th CD slate. Moreover, once I done some secondary research in to guitar themed designs, I came across a certain image that has inspired me to interpret it within the digipak.

I have decided to follow this secondary idea as the basis of the CD slate image. My idea has developed in to placing a extreme fragmentation close up of a guitar behind the CD, with the CD then acting out as a second layer and portraying the center of the guitar.