Development Diary – Digi-pac k The song we chose to create a music video for already has an album release. So we decided to adapt our own version to the digi-pack so that it had relevance to our music video. We chose to create a 6-page digi-pack; which includes a front and back cover which is vital to include certain conventions in order to cause people to purchase the album. Our aim when creating the digi-pack was to move away from the typical conventions of digitally produced digi-pack designs. In order to fulfil this idea, we decided to involve a hand written and drawn aspect to the album to make it seem personalised for the audience in a diary style.

We began creating the digi-pack by inserting the digi-pack template onto a Photoshop document so that we can create the pages with the correct measurements 119.5mm (h) x 120.5mm (w). We then went on to create the front cover of the digi-pack, we added the image first which was identical to the image featured on the magazine advertisement, therefore we had no need to manipulate the image

other than making it the correct size for the dimension of our CD cover by using the free transform tool after placing the image on the background template. We followed the same procedure for the text on the front cover. We decided to use the same text and image so that the audience are able to make relations between the advertisement and the front cover as well as working to draw in the viewer much more. This also sticks with the house style of the CD and due to this, this these were the only features on the front cover so that it is easy on the eye, so this

allows the viewer to recognise each individual aspect on the front cover.

We then began to manipulate an image to place on a page of the digi-pak we opened to image by selecting ‘file’>>’open’ and selecting the image we want to use. We then altered the size of the image by changing the width to ‘2592’ and resolution to ‘300’ so that we can see what we’re working with much more easily. We then altered the levels and curves of the image by selecting ‘image’>>’adjustments’>>’curves’ and

‘Image’>>’Adjustments’>>’Levels’ this altered to exposure of the image by brightening it up allowing the viewer to see the image much more clearly. We then used the ‘Lasso tool’ on the left hand tool bar to draw round the eyes and mouths of the two models in the image we held down ‘shift’ key to make multiple selections. We then selected ‘Select’>>’Modify’>>’Feather’

and then selected ‘Select’>>’Inverse’ to focus all the attention to everything other than the selected places. After this we duplicated the layer in order to have two layers of the same image, we did this by selecting ‘Layer’>>’Duplicate layer’. We then selected ‘filter’>>’blur’>>’box blur’ and altered the amount of blur to 88% causing everything other than the selected areas to become blurred. We then altered the opacity to 60% so that the models skin looks fresh and glowing, this is seen in several magazines and professional images and is known as airbrushing. Any remaining imperfections were corrects with the spot healing brush to cause

the image to look much more professional. We then flattened the image by selecting ‘layer’>>’flatten image’ so that we are just working on the one layer. We then decided to make the image black and white in order to give the image a basic and professional look. We then decided to use the ‘brush tool’ to draw hearts around the image. This sticks to the house style of the digi-pak and also draws the viewer in more as the bright colours of the hearts attract a great deal of attention.

We then created the page of lyrics, we only included one song’s lyrics as this is the most well known song from the album however, we included a link in order to persuade the audience to visit the band’s website to discover more lyrics from the album. This isn’t following the usual conventions of digi-packs however we felt as though the current Internet revolution and people’s ease of access to the Internet will contribute towards people accessing lyrics this way. We began creating this page by writing up the lyrics by hand and adding personalised elements to fit with the diary theme running throughout the digi-pack, such as hearts and drawings around the text, using bright, eye-catching colours that we felt would appeal to our target audience. We then scanned the hand drawn page, so we were able to manipulate it to the size of the digi-pak page, and we were also altering imperfections using the eraser tool. Once the page of lyrics was on our document, we decided to add a background, taking colours similar to those on the back of the album with the track listing, by using the colour picker so we were able to stick to our house style. We used a striped background, giving the page a ‘scrapbook’ effect, which also draws attention to the page, so it won’t be dismissed when our audience are looking through the digi-pak.

We added a message from the band, which was typed up on Microsoft word in the font courier and was printed out to add personal touches such as colours and hearts. We then scanned it up to place it onto the digi-pak template. We did the same with the song listings however when placing into Photoshop we manipulated the image further by placing a barcode and company logos on the page. We did this so that it follows the regular conventions of digi-paks.

When creating the page for the CD to go we used a heart shaped tool placed in the centre where the CD is we made this pink and blue which sticks to the house style of the band’s album and advertisement making it very recognisable and stands out. We then used the rectangular shaped tool to draw two white rectangles on the top and bottom of the circular shape. We then placed text over these shapes again using the font courier we made the text black so that it stands out a great deal and by having the white background behind the text it causes the text to stand out a great deal on the page. We then added the record labels logo to this page to give them credit, we decided to do this after seeing that it was done on other CD’s allowing us to stick to the usual conventions.