EVALUATION Q1SECTION 2

PRINT PRODUCTIONS

LAYOUT AND PANEL ONE

Another convention commonly used on panel one may be an image of the artist, I decided to use both a drawing and two photographs of our female protagonist instead, in order to appeal to our audience demographic(in giving them something to relate to –Bulmer and Katz) The use of drawing on my panel one followed the folk conventions of keeping the images throughout as minimal and most reflective of the bare naturalism reflected both in the music and the videos of the genre. Folk musicians such as Joni Mitchell or Crosby, Stills and Nash use drawings on their front panels to reflect this and this was something I felt necessary to re-create. The use of graphics throughout my digipak adds a unique quality to the panels. This may reflect Picasso's line drawings, he used one continuous line to reflect his inspiration from simplistic primitive drawings he admired. In linking Picasso’s work to my own it gives the digipak production status and ultimately audience appeal.

The colour for panel one used was blue in order to reflect aspects of my music video, e.g. the sea or blue houses, and to contrast the other three panels. This contrast in not always conventional as the digipak will have a coherence through the use of similar colours, however because of the focus on colour in my video I felt this coherence would be clearer through the use of contrasting colour.

For my print productions I used the conventions of a four panelled digipak.

My panel one

One convention for panel one of digipaks the artists name being slightly larger than the title of the album, this ensures the artist can be visibly promoted before the album they have released and is something I followed on my panel one.

The artists name is larger than the album/track names

PANELS TWO AND THREE For panels two and three developed the convention of the use of one image stretching over both panels, creating a panoramic image over the two. This can be seen in the middle panels (both in the CDs and the gatefold vinyl packages) of Fairport Convention’s album ‘Full House’ and George Harrison’s ‘Dark Horse’. This creates a coherence between them and allows for the middle to not seem too crowded. I did not follow this convention fully, in using the same drawing repeated for both panels the idea remained however it created something slightly more visually interesting. The use of the two identical drawings side-by-side also reflected the use of mirror imagery in our video. The coherence of the digipak continued through the use of colour, the yellow used for the middle panels contrasts the blue of panel one creating audience appeal(Strauss), and the use of drawings follows that of panel one.

My panels 2 & 3

The font (Times New Roman) was chosen for each panel to reflect the minimal style of the genre. Typically the name of the artist and album is placed at the top of the front panel, I challenged this convention by placing these both at the bottom presenting something interesting in order to create an audience appeal. Often DVD covers have the name of the film at the bottom, this was something I considered when creating my CD packaging.

(folk albums that have the artist and album name at the top)

My title layout is the same as Davis Bowie’s album ‘David Bowie’

PANEL 4

Panel 4 of my print production followed the convention of having the track listing, although it’s common that the tracks are placed to one side, I placed them directly down the middle in order to keep the design clear and minimal. The use of the graphics (although used throughout my digipak) is a common feature for many albums, such as Joni Mitchell’s ‘For the Roses’, her ‘Summer Tour’ and Paul McCartney’s ‘Ram’. Even if the graphic style has not been used for the front or middle panels, the use of it on the back creates a audience appeal that links to Bulmer and Katz argument for the appeal of a production being linked to the connection the audience have with the band. Each of these examples were hand drawn by the artist, and, although mine weren’t, it creates a personal connection for the audience to the artist.

Finally the use of green on my back panel finishes the contrast in colour throughout my digipak following the ideas of binary opposition creating an audience appeal.

My panel 4