Month: November 2025

Digipak Draft 2

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Below is the second draft of my digipak.

Reflection

This is my second digipak draft which now has all panes. I wanted the images to feel very minimalistic and relaxed so I decide to use an image of a cup of coffee for the middle panes as it has connotations of relaxation and reflection. I mirrored the images to make them more visually interesting; this also helps ensure the colour scheme is maintained and representative of an indie genre. I changed the colour on the spine to a greyish blue, which matches the artists jeans. This creates a sense of unity and cohesiveness within all aspects of the digipak. It also signifies (De Saussure) stability and balance which will aid in representing our artists star image (Dyer) as thoughtful and relatable.

Below is a screencastify of feedback from my teacher

Targets for improvement

  • Tweak photos, filters, colours in photoshop to give more clarity or even grain
  • Use same ‘Livya’ font on back
  • Rotate left spine
  • Imagery is flat – try make more interesting in photoshop
  • Include some kind of current or wave/ water in design

Skills Screen Shots

 

Above are some examples of skills I have learnt during the creation of my second draft. I created my artist a specific little logo (left image) which is a star that appears hand drawn. I created this on photoshop and added it onto the design. This will be a symbol that is easily recognizable and will help build our artists fame and brand. On the top image I increased both the saturation and brightness of the shot as the original was very dark and felt more punk or rock. Increasing the brightness and saturation has made the image much more representative of the indie genre. The bottom image is of the inner panes. I mirrored the image on both sides to make it feel more interesting and deliberate. It has a sense of calmness and relaxation which we wanted to emphasise so used the same image on both panes.

Conventions Checklist

This second draft now has four panes so that convention can be ticked off. We have also now found a signature font for the album name and artist name which feel representative of the indie genre. The album name is ‘undercurrents’ which has links to the ocean/sea, this suggests freedom and individuality which are some of our artists key brand descriptors. I have put ‘images/graphics’ as orange because I want to play around with graphics more and be more experimental. I feel as our panes look a little uninteresting and could have a splash of colour or something more visually appealing in order to entertain our audience (Blumler & Katz).

Buzz – Social Media Page Feedback

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We had some professional creatives come into school and they reviewed our social media page draft 1, below is some of their feedback.

Things done well:

  • Good relatable star image – especially with the charity post
  • Good colour scheme
  • Engaging posts and cross media convergence – very representative of a real artists social media page
  •  Spotify wrapped is good idea
  • Fan art Friday will be a good post to engage fans and create a connection

Things to improve:

  • Expand our content to reach our target audiences parents and siblings to grow fandom. This is because the parents will be looking what to get their children for birthdays Christmas etc and we should aim to target this.
  • Post more interactive content e.g questionnaires and polls
  • More brand collaborations to increase reach to audience. E.g Wicked (the movie) did collaborations with McDonalds, Primark, butterkist popcorn etc.

Receiving input from a professional was extremely exciting and valuable. The creative we talked to specialised in social media so was extremely knowledgeable about it. She shared how social media is the best and most common way an artist markets and promotes their brand. We were suggested things I had not even considered during our discussion, such as catering some posts to my target audiences’ parents in order to sell them clothes and products for their children. She also said we could lean into an even younger audience, who want to copy their older sister and listen/ follow Livya on her social media. Increasing the range of content and reach to audiences would help establish larger fandoms (Jenkins) who want to actively participate in liking, commenting, and competing on posts such as Fan Art Friday. She really liked our Spotify wrapped post as that is very trendy and common for young artists to do. It gives a personal insight into my artists life which audiences will love. The creative also complimented the fan interactions through the comments and how relatable I made my star.

I believe the most important key brand descriptor for my artist is relatable. We want her star image (Dyer) to feel comforting to audiences and they can feel seen by her. She won’t ever be in full glam makeup or expensive outfits which is how most of her audience will also be. To hear that this is being successfully conveyed from a professional is really encouraging and helpful as I know I’m on the right track. I received some great new ideas which I’m definitely going to make sure I do in upcoming posts on the social media page. This is all in hopes to entertain the audience (Blumler & Katz) and give them a artist they can relate and connect with.

Social Media Page Draft 1

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Below is our draft 1 of our social media page.

So far we have done five posts on our social media page. We have done a charity post, merch release, Spotify wrapped, collaboration with Nintendo and a behind the scenes nature photoshoot. We have fulfilled our audiences need for all uses and gratifications (Blumler & Katz). The climate change charity post fulfils the need for information and also represents our artists star image (Dyer) as caring and down to earth. The behind the scenes shoot will be entertaining for the audience as it gives an exclusive look into our artists personal life, making the audience feel closer and increasing their engagement. The merchandise release post will encourage personal identity as fans can now publicly show their support for Livya and express that they are a fan. Our cross media convergence post (collaboration with Nintendo) fulfils the audiences need for social interaction as Mario kart is typically a multiplayer game. This post also makes our social media page more representative of a conventional social media page because cross media convergence is something most artists do and then promote with a post. Posting our artists Spotify wrapped helps create a sense of relatability for her and her audience – something they can bond over.  This is all in an effort to promote our artist and encourage people to join her fandom (Jenkins). We have also added in a bio, profile picture and highlights to further make her social media page more conventional. Having a profile picture will make her account more easily found which will boost fan interactions. Our bio is hinting at new music coming. This will kepp people coming back to the page to look for updates, all whilst creating a buzz as people are curious when more information will be given.

 

Convention Check In

Above is a convention check in I have filled out in relation to our social media page. Green are things we feel we have done successfully, amber is getting there and red isn’t at all. We purposefully are not having an extraordinary star image as that is not conventional of a Indie artists. They are down to earth and ordinary. We are gradually increasing the amount of posts, stories and BTS and therefore comments. We are going to do a few more posts before announcing the album name as we want to our artist to feel more established and active on social media to signify (De Saussure) that she is successful. We are planning to film a ‘day in the life’ reel which will fulfil the audiences need for entertainment. We also will do a Q&A because audiences are much more participatory (Shirky) and we want to encourage this interaction.

Skills Screenshots

For our social media page we had to design and create all the posts. On photoshop, (image on the left) we created Livyas logo and put it onto t-shirts. We had to watch a YouTube tutorial to learn how to do this and it is very useful as it makes our star look more established and professional. We plan to use it in more posts and reinforce that this is her signature font/ logo that we want associated with her. This will help build up her brand so it is more recognizable. On the right image (Nintendo collaboration) we imported all the images seen and had to choose a font. We found a font online that looks very representative of a video game, so we used it. We then had an issue of the font looking boring because it was all black. So I played around with the colours in order to make it more visually engaging and appealing instead of one bland block of text.

Timeline & Marketing Ideas

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Below is my proposed timeline for the social media posts on our social media page (SMP) leading up to our album release – and then music video.

We created a visual timeline of all our social media post ideas, and what order we want them to go in. The very last post will be our music video. With these posts, we want to ensure that we fulfil the audiences need for entertainment, information, social interaction & personal identity (Blumler & Katz). This will make our page much more interesting and successful in attracting and maintaining an audience. We also want to positively represent our artists star image (Dyer). We will do this through interviews, fan interactions and charity events. These posts will help infer she is kind, caring and friendly which we help build her fandom (Jenkins). We also want to expand her audience, this will be done through collaborations with brands and magazines such as Elle and pandora. Our artist will also make a post about releasing her own merch, this will fulfil the audiences need for developing their personal identity and allow them to publicly express their love and support for our artist. The need for information will be filles through show dates, tour dates, links to buy merch or brand collaboration products and teasers. This is all done to build up for and create excitement/ anticipation surrounding the eventual album and music video release. Excitement will create a buzz and allow for word of mouth marketing to take place as friends discuss it and share it with each other.

This timeline has now helped us better understand the order of the posts and what the posts will be about. We have a structure to follow that can easily be referred back to if I need to be reminded. Having a visual layout will just be easier in terms of planning and creating these posts. We also know that the order and subject of the posts could possibly change depending on our research and what we find is conventional for indie artist social media pages. But having this initial base idea will help is so much with planning and building up our social media page around these main 12 posts. We want to signify (De Saussure) that our artist is worth being supported and is going to release a great album & music video, so the audience don’t want to miss out.

Digipak Draft 1

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Below is our Digipak draft 1 (front & back pane) and self – evaluation.

Creating this first draft now provides us with a much better understanding of what we want our final product to look like. It has also given us a layout we like and fonts we like. The track list going around our artist on the back pane is something we want to keep for future drafts as it is interesting and fun. We like the placement of the album and artist name, along with the placement of the copyright and barcode. For our next draft we need to ensure we fill in the spine and change the colour, also we need to try populate the front pane much more. We really like the vibe and overall feel of the images (relaxed, confident and reflective).

Targets for Improvement

  • Add album name onto spine
  • Populate the front pane a little more – feels empty
  • Change spine colour

After finishing our first draft we realised we did not add the album name onto the spine, or make it a better colour. The black feels muddy and does not go with our images. It would be better if it was a neutral beige, brown or Gray. Having the album name on the spine makes it easier to find when on a shelf or in a shop lined up to many other Cd’s. This is vital to ensure our CD is successful and stands out to consumers. Also, upon reflection we feel as the front cover image is empty. We will try to add some more text or aspects into the image to make it more appealing and engaging. Simple album covers are conventional of indie artists, but we want to challenge this in order to make our artist stand out and be the ‘same but different‘.

Conventions Checklist

Above is our skills checklist we filled out after finishing draft 1. Everything in the green are things we felt we have confidently done, orange is half way there and red is unsuccessful/ not included. Our spine is the biggest issue as we forgot to do it, however this can be an easy fix for draft 2. We need to change the colour and add the album name. We want to aim to try use some other fonts for our artist name, so she can have a signature font that she is known for. We have yet to do four panes as draft one consists of only the front and back pane. We want to make the images/ graphics more interesting and to signify (De Saussure)  she is useful and well established in the music industry.  A visual interesting cover will also help fulfil our audiences need for entertainment (Blumler & Katz). I feel as I have successfully made the cover and back pane representative of the indie genre – through neutral colours, her relaxed body language and minimal make up. The barcode and copyright have both been included on the back pane, they are what will make our CD more reflective of a real, professional made, one.

Skills Checklist

  • removing objects from images
  • Playing with fonts and font sizes

We watched some YouTube tutorials and learnt how to remove the remote seen in the background of the image on he left. We edited it out and it is now our cover image. It took some time to learn but was very worth it as the remote could create confusion and draw attention away from our star. We took our time to find a good bold font that encodes (Hall) confidence and sophistication. This is an unconventional feature we have used, as it not typically seen on indie album covers. This will enable us to stand out and be more unique.

Risk Assessment

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Below is my risk assessment for our Digipak draft 1 photoshoot.

This is my groups risk assessment which contains who will be at the shoot, what equipment we need and any possible risks we will face – and how we will prevent the risk. We have adequately controlled all the risks by, for example, staying clear of any sharp items e.g rocks and making sure to stay away from any dangerous heights or edges without barriers. This is to ensure the safety of everyone at the shoot and to make sure everything goes smoothly.  We have a clearly displayed start time and date of the shoot which we can hold ourselves to and make sure we carry out.

Having this information on a document means that it is easily accessible no matter where we are which will be especially helpful if we need to refer back or remind ourselves of it during the shoot. Having a list of the equipment needed will also help us when we are gathering everything we need, allowing us to make sure we aren’t forgetting anything which could disrupt the shoot.

Production Meeting For Photoshoot

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Below is our production meeting agenda for our digipak photoshoot.

Our production meeting agenda outlines what shots we are going to take (along with some inspiration photos), and who is responsible for costume, equipment, travel and props. We are planning to do the shoot in a large open field, to symbolise freedom and individuality which is conventional of our chosen indie genre. We want it to feel a little playful and convey our artists star image (Dyer) as bright, fun and confident. We have chosen to do a low angle shot looking up at the artist because we want to be the same but different. From our research, we found that Indie album covers usually use a weird or intriguing shot, and we haven’t seen many low angle shots so would stand out amongst the crowd. Also, a low angle shot allows us to further emphasise our artist confidence and individuality which are two of our key brand descriptors for her. For the back of the cd case, we will have a simple, minimalistic photo of headphones, possibly have the wire twisting and turning around the headphones. We found that these typical simple shots of items are conventional for indie cd’s, so we will follow this convention in order to get a preferred reading (Hall) of our genre. It will also help break up the images as it is not just our artists for every image, this will make the cd case more visually appealing and attractive to our young female target audience.

This document allows for easy organisation and gives us something to refer back to for inspiration or reminders. Having one place with all our ideas and plans is really useful and we can easily look at it when doing the shoot itself. Establishing who is doing what and having it in writing pushes us to be more active and prepared for what we need to bring, it helps hold us accountable to what we agreed to – this will help prevent any issues or disagreements.