Digipak task- Research !

For one of my ancillary tasks I am required to create a Digipak for the band's album that will include the song we used for our music promo. I will be using Photoshop to help me to do this. I have used Photoshop previously so I do have some good experience with using it so hopefully will not find it too difficult to make my digipak. As I was a bit unsure with what a digipak actually looks like I decided to research existing ones from You me at six to help give me some ideas on how I should lay mine out and what I should include on it. I also wanted to search You Me At Six's other CD cases to identify the styles that have been used, this will help me set mine out using styles to help make it suitable to the genre of music the band's album contains.

You Me At Six- Sinners Never Sleep Album

The first album case I have looked at is their album 'Sinners never sleep'.

The front cover image looks like this;

This album cover only uses dark tones and colours. I like the use of this as I think it fits well with the style of music the band performs. Also fans of this kind of music can recognise this style straight away due to the colours used.This CD case does not have a picture of the band on the front which is an idea I don't really like, I feel I will change this on my digipak as I would like to include a photo of the band on the front so that the target audience can quickly recognize who the digipak was made by. However I have stated that I like the use of black and white on the image which is something I will experiment with on my Digipak. They have also named this album after one of their songs 'Sinners Never Sleep' which is another idea I like. I am going to name my digipak 'Crash' after the song we chose for our music promo. 

The back of the CD case looks like this;

Again there is good use of black and white to match the front cover. Again this is something I want to try with my Digipak. I feel it is good to make the front and back match slightly in order to make a professional looking case. You can also tell that the same font has been used for the list of songs and the 'sinners never sleep' on the front cover. Again this good use of the same house style being used makes the whole thing look more professional and well laid out. Again there is no image of the band, I will change this on mine by including one to target the audience even more by provided them with lots of images of the boys.  Like any other CD case there is the bar code. I will need to include this on mine as it is something that is required of a Digipak. There are also the copy right terms and conditions at the bottom of the case. I will use these as a guideline to help me include them on my own work. Also underneath this is the record label. Virgin records is shown here, I will be using their mark on my Digipak as it makes it seem more real as these are the record label that You Me At Six uses.

To the left is a picture of the inside contents of the CD case. This is a thank you page from the band. Each member of the band has made a message saying thanks to their family, friends fans etc. I really like this idea as I feel it really gives the fans the chance to feel like they are involved with the band as they are saying thanks to them. I will use this idea in my Digipak as I feel it is a good effective way to target the audience. It will give the idea that the band are really trying to communicate with the fans. I will do a thanks from each of the boys to make it more exiting.

Another CD case of You Me At Six's that I looked at was 'Hold me down'. Below shows an image of the front cover. 

This album cover is a lot more colourful compared to the previous. They have used a unique eye catching design. However this may be quite difficult to do as I would have to start from scratch with a design like this and I do not feel I have the skill to come up with a design in this style. I also much prefer the black and white affect as I feel it suits the indie genre better.

As I don't want to spend too much time coming up with song names to list on the back page of my digipak I have decided to mix around existing sing titles to create new ones. This will be shown later on in the process of me making my work.