Digipak Plan and Design

DIGIPAK PLAN

AND DESIGN

I began with a simple net such as this to begin sketching out my idea. This, plus a backing piece of card would push the CD up through the middle of the pack highlighted to the left. However, my idea was not this straightforward. I wanted the two pieces of card that held up the CD to resemble a city skyline. I also had to take into account the various limitations of the project digipak:• Must use only original pictures• Must have four folds•Elements of corporate identity present

This was my initial plan for my idea:

DIGIPAK PLAN AND DESIGN


I printed a small paper version of the net to better understand what I was working with so that I could proceed to make further changes to the net.I first discovered that the two flaps on theside of the net seemed unnecessary for mydesign. I decided to discard these.

I also decided to change the so they were overall slightly larger than the average size of a normal CD case. The average CD is 12 cm in diameter, and a CD case is often like this:I decided my closed digi-pak should be square,and decided to opt for a 20 cm x 20 cm layout.


I had wanted a rough skyline like this one:on either side of the fold where the CD was to appear. I decided that this should be around 6 cm (i.e. half the size of the CD) to provide the desired effect. This would mean that the two buildings on the far right and far left would have to both be 6 cm so that they would connect and keep the CD in place.

Then, because of the four folds, I had to incorporate another fold onto each side of the net. This would have to be smaller than the front and back page so that it would fit in next to the popup. With 6 cm out from each side of the popup, the pages must be smaller than 20 cm.

This was my first net. I found that when testing this, having the outer pages, marked ‘1’ the same size as the inner pages, marked ‘2’ this made the digipak difficult to close because they did not fit together properly. This has to be taken into account because rather than paper, card would be used, which is thicker than paper and thus would be even more difficult to close. The makeshift disk I used also does not fall back into the digipak so the CD does not always ‘popup’ unless it’s pushed back further in manually. This may be due to snags in the paper though, so the difference in material may improve this. This effectively demonstrates what the pack will eventually look like nonetheless.


1 12 2


I could then focus on the design of each page. Below I have labelled each page the inner pages 1 -4 and the outer pages 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A respectively, where 2A is the front of the album and 3A is the back. I could then plan what I wanted for each page.

1Lyrics

2Lyrics

3Lyrics

4Lyrics

1AThanks

3AFront

2ABack

4ABand info


3AFront

CITY LIGHTS

A very simple design, to draw people in both with the artistic style and the lack of information –characteristic of the Indie Rock genre. The glass theme is

apparent in the digipak, website and music video for consistency and corporate identity


2A Back THE HEALING TIME

HOPING SHOW ME

THE WAY VOWS

FORGOTTEN SILENT

ALARM CRYSTALS

WAKE UP DREAMER

PLANS IN THE

MORNING BLOOD

DANCEFLOORSChanged order of last two songs to make a more aesthetically pleasing design

Background image: 33% Colour Saturation so that colour is visible but not too bright to keep in line with colour scheme

Recurring theme of wine glass and swirls

1AThanks


BAND NOTES:

Only image of band on the digipak – often bands will not feature on their CD at all, as the focus is the music for indie rock music.

4ABand info


BWE ARE BLOC PARTY

Corporate Identity in the logo, also found on the website

Use of a graphical image in line with common indie rock theme

1Lyrics


THE HEALING TIME

Stills from the music video then used for the subsequent four

pages – shows consistency with music video

All images colour saturation of 33% - colour present but only

minimally

2Lyrics


HOPING

White text did not work well with this background so black will be used for the inner lyric pages and white for the outer

lyric pages.

3Lyrics


SHOW ME THE WAY

VOWS

WAKE UP DREAMER

I used the nicest forest shots to make up the band pictures as these were most artistic, as

indie rock digipaks often are. Some were not artistic enough

or looked out of place so I compensated by going out and

taking more forest shots.

4Lyrics


IN THE MORNING


CDLayout

CITY LIGHTS

The background colour will then show through the cut out of the windows of the buildings

Simple design as usual for an Indie Rock band

Century Gothic font consistent with the band’s image as are

the colours

Two colours provide simple interaction for the audience

(i.e. changing the colours of the building lights) something for them to engage with, makes the digipak more interesting


1Lyrics

2Lyrics

3Lyrics

4Lyrics

1AThanks

2AFront

3ABack

4ABand info

This is the final template. The outer section (above) that the user will first see is deliberately black and white with only theslightest hint of colour, and then the more colourful images (below) are inside. This makes the digipak appear more stylised.


I conducted a final test using card to illustrate functionality.

Digipak Plan and Design

Design

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