Digipak Updated Final Draft

Digipak Final Draft Feedback

After giving our draft, physically made, to our target audience, we gathered some feedback on final improvements and how to design it to be made for our final and professional product.
One person suggested that the graffiti dollar sign, although linked with the themes of the artist, did not seem consistent with the rest of the digipak. As there was no dollar sign in the 'Nikkie T' font

(DOCALLISME ON STREET), we thought we'd change the middle side to the 'T' from the logo.
In terms of the actual product, between the squares there needs to be some black bars to fill in the white space and make it more professional. We decided the dollar sign pattern on the CD should be changed as it didn't flow with the rest of our product.

Digipak Draft

This is our final ideas for Nikkie T's digipak. We used close-ups from our photo-shoot in areas that are also featured within the music video to make a connection between the products and include the recognisable artist. The theme of money and dollar signs is also running through the both the video and the packaging. The large red dollar sign in a graffiti font connotes the criminal side of hip-hop and an urban style. The black and white links with the black and white in the poster and some shots in the video. We decided to extend the inside image to cover two squares to make it look less disjointed and smoother. For the back of the album we included track titles and addresses to social networking sites for our artist for publicity. The logo for her record company is also featured. The front cover is a complete replica of the poster so our target audience will instantly recognise the album.

Final Poster and Digipak Design

These is our final design idea for the poster and album cover. The poster is an enlarged version of the album cover, focusing on the high quality image of 'Nikkie T' and her logo title.

Roland Barthes 5 Codes Applied to Digipak and Poster

Roland Barthes has 5 Narrative Codes:

• Action Codes
• Enigma Codes
• Semantic Codes
• Symbolic Codes
• Cultural Codes

Looking at our poster, we have a simple design focusing on presenting the recognised star. We create an interest from the audience using a semantic code of money (dollar signs and notes), suggesting the additional meaning of materialism. This also acts as a cultural code as dollars are typically associated to gangster rappers and hip hop artists who include expensive cars, branded clothes and women in their music video, which we have included. This code makes the audience aware of the genre to advertise to the people who are already listening to hip hop. In our draft, although the money creates an interest for our character, I feel that more should be included in the design to suggest more about the music video and star, such as action codes and enigma codes. For our final draft, the colour scheme will include more of a contrast with bright red and blue with black. This links with the symbolic code, with the contrast connoting a mixture of her gangster side and her colourful fun side.

Feedback on the posters

For this we turned to web 2.0 for feedback on our designed posters, most of our audiences stated that with the information on the first poster put onto the second or third poster.

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Lyrical poster - Nicole Taylor

Poster Draft

To match with our draft digipak, we designed a poster that advertised the album's release.

First poster draft

Digipak Draft

Poster Research and Inspiration

We viewed some existing official and concept posters for artists: for their tours, albums and general self image. We concluded that there would need to be a clear focus on the text. The title of the artist 'Nikkie T' needs to stand out in terms of size and colour. The fonts generally used are 3D and/or large and thick so that there is a focus. Other posters have aimed for just a clear image which is usually the album cover but includes the complete image size.

For the hip hop genre, cartoons and drawings are often used for tours, which stand out due to the solid shapes and colours and allowing the text to stand out clear against it. There is a sense of minimalism to the ones that stand out, including something icon such as a logo, recognised font, or a large quality image.

 To create a closer connection with the audience, if the image references the music video or album cover, it suggests they have a behind-the-scenes item. The posters are used by the audience to express their interest in the artist whilst also wanting to own something recognisable (such as the Nirvana logo). 

Digiak Idea Feedback

Using Facebook messenger, we asked members of our target audience to comment on our individual ideas to develop our design of our first draft of the digipak. Opinions of favourites differed between people, but has resulted in a conclusion that the final product will include different aspects of all three ideas.

The feedback showed that our genre has obviously come across, with an original style to hip hop, referencing gangster rap and "urban" styles. They also noticed the obvious money theme, and even referenced the technical term, 'creaming'. The city theme was liked from the second and the gangster look was brought across in the third, however, this may need to be toned down for our less 'hard' genre of alternative hip hop. 

Digipak Mock Up

Using a template, we constructed the shape of a Digipak in small scale to practise the cuts and folding. This included a pocket section behind the cover which would hold a booklet for pictures and lyrics. We thought we would possible have the disk in the middle section for symmetry, unless we find a picture that covers two sections as a whole.

Manchester Media Trip

From out trip to Manchester for the day, we filmed a couple shots that didn't include lip syncing that can be edited into the music video. We found urban locations and had Nicole in her costume; this costume will change throughout the video).

We also collected some audience research, asking individuals in our target audience who we found in record shops, such as Fopp and HMV, and on the high street. We asked them the questions on the sheet below and showed them the pictures when necessary.

Question 1: A few favourite covers mentioned were 'The Velvet Underground & Nico', 'The Bends' by Radiohead and 'Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band'. Most of the answers showed simplicity and minimalism and/or bright colours. The covers seem complete with a large image and they lack any borders.

Question 2: The audience members that were staff at these music shops were more familiar with the genre. A lot said they weren't but, when given a list of hip hop artists, they said they listened to most of them, especially in the more alternative genre. 

Question 3: Some favoured Nas and Childish Gambino for their focus on the face and simplicity. Gambino's colours give a bright vibe to the album. One individual was aware that the album cover is actually a in a gif format, where the colours get morphed. This adds an interest in the album and connects to the the title About the Internet'.

Question 4: Many people were fans of Beyonce and Gorillaz, whilst also being very aware of Kanye West and N.W.A. This showed a leaning towards the alternative hip hop genre, rather than gangster rap.

Question 5: Collectively, there answers seemed to show that the leaflets lyric's weren't really needed anymore, as lyrics can be found online. However, they liked the extra piece to the product as it included pictures that made the album feel more complete. 

Question 6: Many argued that digipaks are the new normal format, as many CDs come in cardboard-like cases. Many said they would either buy albums digitally or on vinyl. When it came to vinyls, the deluxe editions were more valuable as the pictures were larger. Purchasing an artists work physically was said to make them feel like they were contributing to the artist and became larger fans of them because of this.

Question 7: As they valued displaying their music interests and merchandise, a folder poster included in the digipak was said to make them feel they were getting more from the album. Extra pictures were also said to be valued, but mostly a nice design on the digipak itself so it can be displayed. 

Digipak Ideas - Nicole

Digipak Ideas - Phoebe

Digipak Ideas - Gemma

Nas- Illmatic Recreation

We recreated Nas's infamous album cover for his album 'Illmatic' using pictures of our own. We kept the running motifs and fonts used and transferred this to an disk cover which matches the cover. This helped us practice using the programme Adobe Photoshop as well as giving us ideas of what we can do for our digipak, as we will need to show a running theme with colours, fonts and motifs in the cover, disk and poster. 

Manchester Trip Planning

Our group are visiting Manchester on a trip for audience research and filming. We intend to film around Manchester for our draft and final music video, to take pictures for possible album covers and addition pictures for the digipak whilst also looking at local record shops and asking our target audience about the genre and advice for our project. 

We will be questioning a low demographic of E and D, young adults, possibly the unemployed or students, but focused on young adults. Our product gives a rebellious feel to it, gratification of bad behaviour and selfish desires, but also a connection with their past/childhood and hometown. Our audience fits into the hip hop subculture, who generally wear branded sports clothing. We will ask them a list of questions, some including pictures for them to look at and talk about to gain quantitative and qualitative results. 

Ice Cube - Richard Dyer's 'Star Theory'

Richard Dyers star theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain. He believes that stars are constructed to represent 'real people' experiencing real emotions. Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose; to make money out of audience, who respond to various elements of a star’s personality by buying records and becoming fans. 

His theory is spilt into three sections:

1. Audiences and Institutions 

2. Constitutions 

3. Hegemony

Audience's and Institutions 

The album cover represents the star's brand identity, immediately with his stage name 'Ice Cube' from his original O'Shea Jackson, Sr., his name is hear in some of his songs as the album reflect's his youth in Compton, similar to N.W.A's 'Straight Outta Compton' in which he left to go solo. The target audience for Ice Cube would be fan's of N.W.A and the gangsta rap genre. Ice Cube became a household name for his controversy in the band. Although the member left to do his original work as he felt he wasn't credited enough in his writing in the band, the separation from N.W.A would create interest for this drama in the media. Ice Cube remains to be associated with the brand identity of a thug and a criminal, shown through his clothing. The album cover shows his a dead relative, with an American flag. The dark shadows create a death like atmosphere, with him on the left lets the audience question whether he caused it. 

Constitutions

With his association with the hip hop, he is considered one of the best MC's in the genre. Although audience's can connect to the audience through his true experiences an honest lyrics, it could be suggested that the character was constructed to be a larger representation of his experience's, embodying the criminal stereotype that he was labelled with when he was younger for being a black youth in America. He has a natural look on the album cover, not being the main focus. It could be connoted that his true identity his hidden behind his experience's, his crimes and past; he is hidden behind his character. The font on the cover is simple, black and white, but is recognisable. It differs from the stereotypical rap font with includes thick letters with sharp, messy, flicked corners. The 'Parental Advisory' sticker is included to inform, but it has also become a sort of logo which people would wear on T-shirts; a celebration of explicit content, included in the clothing gangsta style.

Hegemony

The 'culture' of the star's fans will most likely be big fans of the hip hop genre, as gangster rap is considered one of the more 'hard' genres. Fans will be seen wearing similar clothing to Ice Cube, wearing baggy jeans, sweetmeat and sports clothing, caps and 'bling'. It would be likely that popular clothing brands would sponsor the artist, giving him clothing to wear with their logos on so that his audience will want to replicate his look and buy those brands. With the genre being 'in style', this increases sales of albums in the genre, including Ice Cube. With his relatable tough youth, people of similar backgrounds will admire the star and want to replicate him. There are negative influence's too, with fans being involved in crime and violent acts/language due to his music. Although the lyrics may condemn the actions, it influenced the idea of being tough to be cool. As shown on the cover, suggested murder is shown openly, and becomes a normal trope of the hip hop genre. Another rapper, Snoop Dogg, was discovered by Dr. Dre of N.W.A. and went on to make his own albums. His 'star' identity influenced an increase in marijuana sales. 

Artists in the hip hop genre usually have a stage name as their rapper identity and rap about their experiences. Their reliability and honesty influence's fans to want to recreate their actions and style. The genre connotes crime, drugs, and sports clothing. Connected to the theory, It could be suggested that these stars are created to be in the media to remind society of dangerous people 'stereotypes', to let the people with this style reclaim their identity, or more simply, to sell branded sports clothing and albums.