Group Digipak (Miss Miller)

1. How did you agreed on one digipak and then worked together to create/develop your group’s digipak?

When creating our group digipak in order to get a basis of what we wanted our work to look like we first looked individually at each group members digipak and selected individual elements we liked from their work to include and incorporate into our future digipak. This included specific images used, use of filters and effects and themes of how we desire the artist to be represented. 

2. Why have you have decided to use/change/keep the same, certain elements within your digipak and how it has made it appeal to your target audience as well as promote your artist effectively?

Colours

For colours we choose to use an underlying theme of pink often using tones of peach and red to compliment it. We did this as in a lot of our video and chosen images our featured artist wears accents of these tones whether in the mine-en-scene form of her coat and lipstick or where the location of the video is filmed. This meant the whole digipak complimented each other and could clearly be seen as a whole joined concept reflecting the idea to fans that the album is just as fluid and linked. The connotation of these colours however support the underlying theme of love within the album allowing the audience a idea of what the album is based upon and as love is universal whether in love or coping with heartbreak the theme appeals to all audience members allowing them to create a relationship with the artist through a mutual heartbreak or scenario. And as red and pink are warm tones is gives a friendly association with the artist as well as suggesting they are passionate whether in terms of love or music. 

Images used 
We decided to use the roses on the CD cover as it added a romantic effect to our otherwise urban theme. They then souly connect our album to the theme of love and pick out and compliment the subtle romantic themes featured within the other images. We decided to use coral roses as opposed to the stereotypical red roses in order to both compliment both our other images and also to suggest that the artist is not just a stereotypical soul artist and possess a quality more rare than other recording artists. This would be refreshing to many fans who may feel different to surrounding people as well as making them want to explore the artist and her music more to determine how she differentiates from alternative artists. 

For the albums front cover we decided to use a close up image of the artist. This is as it appeals to the target audience as they can clearly see the artist however it manages to simultaneously brand and promote the artist to those who may not be familiar with her as an artist. As well as this the expression on her face shows her deep in though looking off to the distance, this would be intriguing to audience members as they are unaware, through the cropped shot, as to what she's looking at so they can only assume. This in turn may prompt them to buy the album as they want to gain a better understanding of the artist and the story behind the picture and therefore Sophie herself helping them to gain a relationship with the artist through an understanding and realisation of the artists life as she appeals to them through a more personal level allowing her the quality to appear both ordinary and extraordinary. This is an important quality for artists to possess especially for soul artists who seek to connect to their audience through finding a mutual scenario and relying on empathy, making this image stereotypical to the soul genre. 

We chose the image of Sophie standing against the wall as our message to fans background as it had the deepest connection to the song as an image and so effectively joined both the fans, artist, advert, song and video together. As well as this the image is not overly focus grabbing with the artists head coward away to the side so the recognition of the artist supports the intense personal message from the artist making the audience and herself closer and as though she is directly speaking to each fan. This is important as it makes everyone feel special and as though they have a relationship with the artist making their friendship help her appear as relate able and not intimidating. In contrast to this through the lack of eye connect with the image the artist still seems closed off making her seem somewhat unapproachable reconfirming her star status whilst suggesting she is still closed off and hurt from her heartbreak drawing empathy from the audience. As well as this the reflection of the wall appropriately reinforces the title of the album 'A True Reflection'. 

Our decision to use the mirror picture of Sophie as an added image would appeal to her target audience as it shows the artists face in a view of herself. The clever iconography use of the mirror gives the audience an insight and view shot only the artist would see suggesting she is allowing them to see a true reflection of herself making the album seem more personal and in deeper emotional connection with the artist. Fans would then feel although through finding a personal connection with the album they in turn gain a personal relationship with the artist as they are connecting with a part of her. As well as this the use of the mirror and writing 'A True Reflection' promotes the album whilst the iconography element of the red lipstick refers to the artists trademark image within the song as well as outer referencing love and passion as lipstick is in semantic association with kissing. 

Our back cover and therefore song list image choice was of the wall the artist portrays the lyrics 'Only Love Can Hurt Like This' within the video. Therefore we felt it made sense to use the image as it tied the video, song and other lyrics together enforcing the connection within the album which is stereotypical to the soul genre. As well as this the wall suggests urban more edgy underlying tones to the music, a contrast to the floral CD covering. The strong, stern stare from the artist directly connects her to the fans and people reading the album making her and the songs seem connected to the person reading the backlist.

Finally as another image choice we decided to use the contents of the table shown briefly within the beginning of the music video. The main reason in this being that it connects the digipak to the video helping to promote it further and also allows fans a deeper insight into the artists tastes. For instance by showing the MAC lipstick and Chanel perfume suggests to the audience that the artist, leading a lavish lifestyle prefers luxury brands of cosmetics. However the product pricing of that included aren't too extreme allowing the audience a chance to smell and look like the artist by using the products she uses. They therefore are getting a deeper insight into her tastes and opportunity to find a mutual taste which again will help the target audience create a relationship with the artist. By doing this the artist seems more approachable and attainable to the audience making her songs seem more relatable as a result. This is important within the soul genre as stereotypically the artist is deliberately approachable for the basis of his or her music.

Layout/design
Within all the images the artist is positioned off centre. This could be shown to symbolise how she needs someone by her side in order to feel complete and is not strong or independent enough a person to take charge and be front and centre. The gaps left to the side show how someone has just left her and she hasn't come to terms with them not being there yet which makes the album seem full of raw instant emotion. This is stereotypical of the soul genre as the songs often utilise intense emotional time to appeal and portray their life to fans. In contrast to this in many of the images the writing is therefore located central to the screen and image suggesting that her words and lyrics are whats most important within her album rather than her self promotion enhancing the importance and passion she shares for her music. For instance as both the message to fans and song list are located central to the screen it suggests that with the help of them both she can channel her energy and return to her strong self again making the audience seem like a friend to cry on and important within her life. 

Typography
The font styles used within the digipak are all bold fonts which grab the readers attention and add heightened importance onto the artists name and songs in order to promote them further. The use of bold, capital letters reflect the use of graffiti and brick walls within the digipak suggesting strength and artistic flare, which ideally reflects the style of the album. However in contrast to this on the message to fans a different font is used in the form of a small case italic font which help mimic the idea of hand writing making the message seem even more personal and unrefined as it seems the artist has just written it herself to them allowing them a moment of connection not separated by anything. This is stereotypical to the soul genre who often choose to be more personal with their fans and music and in turn will then help the audience connect to the artist and the music creating a strong relationship between the pair. 

Language

The languaged used within the album is all colloquial in order to appeal to the mass of fans and make them all understand Sophie. This will make her seem more real and approachable and she appears to be one of them whilst by limiting the extensive vocabulary used and making Sophie more understood her opinion and views can be expressed more freely whilst everyone can interpret her message with ease and correctly suggesting her music too is relateable and can connect to all making everyone seem equal and united. 

Devon's individual digipak 

Shaun's individual digipak

Sophie's individual digipak 

3. What elements have you taken from each group member and why you have incorporated them?
With Devons image we felt it was the closest to what we wanted to produce overall. Her images and effects used correctly portrayed the artist and the message we wanted to portray to fans so we decided to include her message to fans image and message as well as her cosmetics picture as it promoted the artist and her tastes in a more subtle way that didn't force more pictures of her onto the audience as it may have been an overkill of her appearance.

From Shaun's we all really liked his use of the theme love and particularly liked the use of the roses on the CD and it incorportated the theme but in a more subtle way as the other images better promoted the artist. We therefore decided to utilise this theme including more hints of the colour red and pink and sticking with the roses on the CD cover allowing our digipak to have a more romantic theme overall but interpreted in a more soulful, subtle way. 

From Sophies we really liked her choice of main image as it was an image that all three of the other members overlooked and in reflection it interpreted the artist in the connected yet mysterious manner that we wanted. We also liked her use of the mirror image as a bonus image as opposed to a central image as it was impactful enough on its own correctly promoting the album and artist as when it was used with other fonts over the top the image was lost and seem disconnected to the message portrayed on it. 

4. What were the weaknesses and strengths of each group member’s digipak and why? 
In terms of Devon's digipak I feel her biggest strength was her use of consistency within her theme chosen for the digipak. For instance a lot of her pictures involve intense filters and bold block lettering which compliments the setting of brick walls and iconography such as the leather jacket to compliment and bring emphasis to the stylistic approach of the artist as edgy, urban and current which would help identify and appeal clearly to her chosen target audience. On the other hand a weakness of Devon's digipak would be her basic use of photoshop in many of the image only choosing to overlay a simple filter instead of choosing to layer and enhance the image. Although the simplistic approach could be seen to compliment the artists musical style and therefore appeal appropriately to the target audience who listen the soul genre for a easy and instant connection to the music and lyrics, in spite of this this could too represent the artists work and emotional content of the song as basic and 'filtered' suggesting the lack of raw emotion behind the songs is not substantial.

With Shaun's digipak his main strength, despite his song list page, too is his strong theme and consistency within his images and choice of colour theme. For instance Shaun utilised a strong love theme with the use of iconography such as roses and kisses which is intensified by the passionate colours of red and pink often connoted with love. This is then supported by the contrasting use of green which helps create semantic fields of nature suggesting the natural course of love. All of this which then helps express to the audience that the music too is also connected and fluid in terms of their connection to each other which makes the songs seem more personal, thought out and as though to form a story. This in turn should then allow the audience to create a relationship with the artist as they then feel the artist has given them an accurate representation of their life which then in turn helps them to create a bond as they feel they understand the artist at greater length and if through going through similar life scenarios can then form the basis of a friendship. This is also stereotypical of the soul music genre as they are often more personal with the album often being described as a 'diary'. His weakness however was his lack of original images of the artist. Instead choosing to use romantic images Shaun promotes strong themes of love which would help promote the album in terms of attracting peoples music narrative style whilst the artist remains unprompted which would be displeasing to existing and potential fans. 

With Sophie's digipak her main strength was her colour theme and conventional approach to the soul genre. She utalised the colour or black and white within certain images which gave the digipak a classical and bold appearance. The colours contrasted with each other suggesting the two sides of love within the album as the white reflects the light in love stage whilst the black connotes darker times. We also liked the accent of a certain colour. For instance Sophie's work had an overall accent colour of red which suggests ideas of passion, love and blood again reflecting the mood and theme within the narrative which we adapted and utilised within our final digipak. Her weakness though in contrast to this was her overuse of the black and white effect with it draining out the colour of the artist. The audience cannot then fully see what the artist looks like not showing an accurate representation of her and therefore not allowing her to be promoted correctly. 

5. Do you feel your digipak conforms or adheres to your genre’s conventions? Why?
Overall I feel that our final digipak correctly conforms to the soul music genre. This is as a result of our images used as I feel we have appropriately stuck to the stereotypical micro elements. For instance, the body language element within our advert shows the artist not looking directly at the camera and either hunched over or positioned to the side. All of these traits reflects the conventional themes of songs which reflect pain and hurting and she is shown as timid and cowardly as well as alone. The facial expressions within the digipak are all bleed which helps to support this idea whilst the use of the colours pink and red connotes themes of love as a contrasting element. This is conventional to the soul genre also as the music written and perform by soul artist is usually more personal and relateable so the concept of relationships appeals to the mass of the artists target audience. 

6. How did you find working as a group to create one final digipak for your artist?

As a group I feel we worked well but we had issues. As we had to decide on six images it made it more difficult because everyone had they're own collection of images they felt worked best. With all interpreting our own ideas the digipak began too look not whole with a different theme occupying each image. This gave an unprofessional look to our work and therefore the artists work as it seemed unfinished and unseemlike. Therefore our close relationship and comfortability around one another meant each spoke up causing delays with the work however it made each member feel valued and important which then benefitted the group as the more imput meant the best of our abilities were combined leaving us with an advert which represents us, the artist and one I feel would appeal to the target audience. This is as it has themes of both love, urban street and heavily promotes the artist which I feel therefore offers everyone something to connect to.