Question one

Digipaks are a style of CD or DVD packaging; they will usually be folded in a book kind of style. They are used to make the CDs stand out and appeal to the audience who they are hoping to appeal to. They were most popular in the 2000s, but however they are still around today and are important for the musician that they get their digipak correct. The front and back of the digipak should be used as the main promotion of the CD because this is the area which the customer can see without even having to open up the CD. The inside of the Digipak could have more information such as the song names or some information about the artist. The theme of the digipak should all fit together, as well as fitting along with the other products which the artists have. The imagery should be images which represent the artist, as well as the theme of the album inside. There is usually a trademark sign of the artist on the front to make it clear what the album is about. As well as this the theme in colour will usually run across the whole digipak, for example in our digipak we used the colour yellow throughout, and also used the fun posing, laughing pictures to link it all together. They should be eye caching and be illustrated in ways which relate to the artist.

For example, when looking at this Rihanna digipak I can see that the conventions of a music video were followed throughout. She has used synergy throughout her digipak, especially by the use of colours, for example she has used a red/pink in her hair in the pictures, which is continued throughout, as well as the red in roses in the background of some of her shots. Red roses are commonly given to someone when they are trying to show love to someone, this could mean that the album is going to be linked with love, as it is symbolised in the pictures. Most artists make sure that the photos and the colours which are used are clearly linked with what they want to represent themselves as, as well as what the music inside the album may be about. In our case, we needed to show a young fun side, and I feel as though yellow can be a young colour, especially for children, it is also a bright, vibrant primary colour which pops and stands out. We therefore followed the conventions of a digipak here.

Websites have been important products within artist’s careers throughout the years and they are still very important now in creating a successful musician. They need to have a different and interesting website which may stand out and impress the audience. It is very easy now days to create a website which may look like that of those which are currently out, because there are so many which have been made. It is important to share information with the reader which is current (regularly updated) and also will appeal to the audience which the artist has. For example, if Rihanna was to create a website then she would want to appeal to a completely different audience then say if Oasis created a website. Rihanna would be appealing to more the younger, female audience in most cases and Oasis would probably be looking more towards the middle-aged category, so it is important the website information is written and displayed in the correct way.

We looked at Ellie Goulding’s website for inspiration for our own website, we felt as though she has a very simple and eye catching website which would appeal to her audience. She has used a lot of the same colour which is a turquoise blue, and tends to keep the amount of information and depth to a minimum to fit in with her audience of young women. She has used synergy throughout her photos on her gallery, by her posing photos, which a lot of the time she has her hair across her face and is wearing not a lot of clothing. She also continues with the bright colours throughout her website, creating synergy, most commonly using pastel type colours, such as purples, pinks and blues.