BUSYHEAD ALBUM DIGIPAK

Hi everyone!

I am thrilled to present to you one of my three final pieces of coursework: the DIGIPAK!

In my design, I have tried to create a sense of continuity with the music video and social media page, as well as to recreate slightly the essence of Noah Kahan.

Here, I will present the overall design and talk about some of the struggles I went through when designing it, and some of the changes I made to it.

Hope you enjoy this post!

xx Natalia

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PRESENTING MY FINAL DIGIPAK:

I downloaded this digital template from the Internet which I used in Photoshop. Each of the separate panels was designed individually with the size of that said panel on the template. The top column is upside down, as it would be if I were to print it out and use it.

Front Cover:

I liked this shot for the front cover as it allowed me to write the name of the album quite clearly and for it to be the centre of the image. The concept of having a "busyhead" is captured with placing the letters around the head of my actor, and the use of post-its adds a touch of colour, as well as a link to the music video.

When I was editing this image, something told me that it looked too plain and I did not particularly like it. I saw the potential in the design but there was a nasty shadow and without the "Posterise" effect it looked plain.

I used the patch tool to get rid of the shadow, and of the faint trace of the letters which was unreadable. I then downloaded both fonts used from a page that said they were free for personal use (which I think is similar to academic purposes), and hence by installing them in my computer I could import them into the file.

The posterise effect is a link to Noah Kahan's style. In his digipak for this album, his image is placed as a black and white drawing, and hence the posterise effect throughout the digipak gives it character as well as a link to Noah Kahan himself.

Back Cover:

I chose this image for the back cover because of the design and how easy it would be to group the different tracks around it. I had thought of another image on the graffiti for it, but the bright colour of the graffiti combined with the thinness of the font was not readable.

Apart from the font and the posterise effect to add a sense of continuity for the digital (as I used it in all panels), I added the conventional copyright for Republic Records and UMG, as well as their logos in white and a bar-code I obtained from a page to create them.

Inside Panels:

The inside panels match the general colour palette of the digipak, and the posterise effect is helpful for this as well. The guitar is a common theme throughout, which portrays Kahan as an Indie artists who is more of a musician than a performer. The links to the music video with the mirror and post-its are there to link the singer to his song in the project, and the touch of colour from the post-its is mirrored in the graffiti colour scheme. I think both images go very well together.

For the inside panels, I had planned to include one of the blue and pink pictures because I really liked them. However, I decided it did not go as well with the general theme, and hence I left it only for social media, and changed the layout to include the leaves backdrop picture which goes better with the colour palette.

(this is the previous layout I had planned)

Disk Panel:

For the disk panel, I didn't want a picture of the singer as it would just look weird underneath the disk, so I was looking for something more of a pattern than a subject. Therefore, when I saw the "False Confidence" list and post-its on the floor I realised they were quite aesthetic so I took a couple of pictures and edited them with the "posterise" effect to make the image even more aesthetic.

This was the easiest picture choice for the digipak, as I knew from the beginning that I wanted it there.

Extra Panel:

The extra panel, in a 6-panel digipak is placed on the back of one of the inside panels, and usually has the lyrics of the song. Here, I used another shot without the singer, as I wanted to draw attention to the lyrics. I thought that the shot with the guitar was quite original and looked aesthetic with the post-its on it as a common.

I had to edit the image, reducing its brightness but increasing the saturation and vibrancy to avoid losing the brightness of the theme, so I could make the lyrics stand out. I did not want to use any other font as the two main fonts throughout the project have been "Orange Juice Regular" and "DavysCrappyWrit", and I did not want to change the theme. I am also happy with this extra panel, as you can also read "False Confidence" and "Noah Kahan" which shows the title of the song implicitly :)

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Creating a Common Theme:

I just want to reiterate the common theme with my music video and social media page:

• Pictures taken on the graffiti, mirror and leaves backdrop are also posted to my social media account.

• The post-its are present throughout my music video (as well as social media page)

• The broken post-its are an allusion to the ending of the music video, and the lesson to always choose to be yourself as the core of the single "False Confidence".

The digipak is actually the first thing I edited after filming the footage, and it was a nice experience to become acquainted again with Photoshop. I enjoyed taking nice pictures with some potential and turning them into an artsy and colourful digipak that I think matches the lively mood of the music video and the general aesthetic throughout.

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