Ancillary: Digipak Conventions

Conventions are as followed:

• To rebrand the artist
• Follows rule of thirds
• Good, clear pictures
• Maximum of three fonts
• Maximum of three colours
• Make sure fonts go with style and genre.

RESEARCH - ANCILLARY WORK: Examining previous student ancillary work

I have been looking at previous student work for the ancillary products (digipak and advertisement).

These are some really good examples that follow conventions and look very interesting:

The colour scheme of this digipak is very good - it links to the picture of the artist and his costume.
The graphics are present in the advertisement as well, which makes them more recognisable.
The picture used on the front is framed very well.
The fonts are appropriate for the genre and the style of the digipak.
The only weakness could be that the CD shape is a bit small, but it is not too bad.

The advertisement has a similar colour scheme to the digipak, and the picture from the front is present here as well.
The graphics are also included in the advertisement which is a good link back to the digipak.
The fonts and the language are appropriate.
The spine of the CD should not be in the picture.
Some social media icons could have been included in the advertisement.

This digipak is very good as it has a great colour scheme, very good photos and an interesting use of graphics for the artist's name.
I really like the CD panel as it has a picture in the background and it looks very good.
One inappropriate feature of this is the 'Thanks' panel - thanking friends, family, God, etc - it is too personal and elaborated. 

The advertisements follows the colour scheme of the digipak and the fonts are appropriate.
The spine should not be included in the advertisement, and the picture of the front cover and the background for the advertisement are almost the same and I think it is a bit repetitive.
The review is a bit unclear, we cannot tell who has given it four stars.
The record company is not mentioned and no social media is linked to the advertisement. 

These outside panels of the digipak are very good as they have a very specific colour scheme and style.
Fonts are also appropriate and look good over the pictures.
All the required information is given on the back panel.

The inside of the digipak is very interesting as it is not split into two sides, it is used to show a single picture and it is very minimalistic, including only the name of the album in a very interesting font.

The advertisement uses pictures and colours from the digipak, and the fonts are very good and appropriate for the genre.

Ancillary work: photoshop practice

In lesson we were giving a task to re create a digipak and advertisement following the conventions of digipaks and not making the mistakes that others have made with their digipaks, so, paying close attention to the do's and don'ts. I followed the conventions of a digipak well and all that I nned to have on a digipak is there but I do think it doesn't look very interesting and also the album title is very clear on the front over of the digipak. Also, The tracklist might be too large. It is important to do tasks like this as it develops our skills in photoshop and also it prepares us for when we're making our own digipak and to be mindful of all the things that work well and that don't with digipaks.

ANCILLARY WORK: Practice

This is a practice CD cover I have done in Photoshop to prepare for my Digipak work. I have tried to follow the conventions as much as I could - fonts, colours, elements to include etc.
A lot more can be done and the quality should be improved, but it was good for practising my Photoshop skills. I am confident that I can produce a good Digipak in the weeks to come.

ANCILLARY WORK - RESEARCH: Functions of Digipaks/Advertisements

Researching Ancillary - Importance of Digipaks

We started talking about the difference between dual-cover cases and digipaks; though none-of-us knew the difference between the two by sound, we soon found out digipaks were made from high-quality cardboard, were panels consisted of one panel  - they looked and felt smoother. Becca told us that digipaks were typically used by production companies to add more value to the album as piracy was becoming a major problem. Though digipaks are used for most albums in today’s music, they were typically used when an artist would re-issue an album encouraging fans of that artist to re-buy the album without feeling ‘bumped-off’. I don’t agree with that as it’s unfair for a fan to buy another copy of that album with bonus tracks because he bought a hard-copy rather than an iTunes’ digital copy. 

I thought a good example to look at was Michael Buble. His album has been re-issused at least twice (both available as digipaks): a special edition and 'superdeluxebuymyalbumcauseihaventquitebrokevenyet-edition'. With this he has generated twice his profit thanks to his loyal fan base and consumers who are under the impress "Surely it must be good - if they're trying to milk more money out of the fans - by re-issuing it. Eh, I think I'll buy a copy!"

ANCILLARY RESEARCH: Where an Advertisement for a Girl Group Might Appear

I need to produce an advertisement for the release of the new album by our pop girl group, The Candihearts.

This advertisement would not appear in any magazine - it would be placed in publications that would reach our target audience, so the advertisement would help both the magazine and the band.
A magazine which might include such an advertisement would be:

We <3 Pop Magazine

This magazine includes information, pictures and interviews with pop artists - Little Mix is on the cover - a very popular girl group, and it also features other popular artists of this genre.

A girl group might have advertisements published in magazines that are not specifically about music, but that specifically target teenage girls, such as Seventeen or Cosmo Girl.

Seventeen Magazine

Cosmopolitan Magazine