Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4

Digpak Process

Original Digipak Template

I downloaded a standard digipak template and imported it into Adobe Illustrator.

Digipak With Background

I then created a square using the Rectangle Tool and filled it in with the pink colour I wanted by using a Digital Colour Meter and adjusting the colours on the RGB scale.

Album Title and Band name (Front Panel)

I went on to dafont.com and found two fonts that I felt fit the theme of my digipak. The album title 'Blush' is in a bold font that stands out and compliments the pink background. It could be classified as  an American style stencil font as 60's America was an inspiration for the design. The band name 'Moose Blood' is in the same vein, I used a light blue in contrasting gentle, handwritten font that reflects a font that the band used to use on their merchandise.

Track List (Reverse Panel)

On the reverse panel I have the track list in black and in the same font as the band name down the centre of the panel. I did this using the Type Tool, and the Fill Tool to colour the text.

Band Logo Added (Front Panel)

Using the Line Tool I traced the band logo for the straight lines. However, I had to use the Ellipse Tool to do the teardrop shape. From there, I edited an image of a live performance of the band on Adobe Photoshop and imported it to Adobe Illustrator. I used the hollow logo to use as a stencil to cut out from the image and leave me with a filled in logo using my image.

Band Logo Added (Reverse Panel)

I simply copy and pasted my previously created outline of my logo onto the reverse panel and adjusted the scale.

Licensing Information and Barcode Added (Reverse Panel)

I found a .png image of Moose Blood's record label 'Hopeless Records' and imported it into Adobe Illustrator and using conventions I had researched I placed it on the left of the licensing information (that I also based upon research I had done of other licensing information). Finally, I found a font that creates barcodes with text and used a band themed barcode.

Spine of Digipak

I created another rectangle using the Rectangle Tool and used the Fill Tool to make it black. From here I used the Type Tool to create text and adjusted the text's RGB scale to be the same blue as the blue in the band name on the front panel. I placed the text to be able to read when the album is face up as I had read that this was the true way to place text on a spine.

Inside Panels of Digipak

I researched all the lyrics of the songs on the album and wrote them out in the another font that I found on dafont.com that fit the gentle theme of the digipak.

Full Basic Digipak

Full Digipak Without Inside Panel Details

During filming I took a still image of a shot that I had just finished shooting. I then took this image and edited it on Adobe Photoshop to make it black and white and using the colour guide I made sure that the black was absolute black and that the white was absolute white. I then imported the image from Photoshop and on to Adobe Illustrator to take the place of the black background I had previously.

Complete Inside Digipak

I then brought the text layer forward so it was on top of the image.

Complete Full Digipak

Digipak Ideas

I took initial inspiration from the band's most recent album's colour scheme and also the colour scheme from a recent EP 'Stay Beautiful'

Moose Blood - Blush, Album Cover

Moose Blood - Stay Beautiful EP Cover

I began with the idea of making a black digipak with the pink/purple details, but the text did not stand out as I had liked, also another issue was also the .png image of the record label could not be accessed in another colour other than black, thus making it not visible. I know I want to make it minimalistic and simple with not many details such as New Found Glory's 'Resurrection Ascension'. 

New Found Glory - Resurrection Ascension, Album Front Cover

I found in many products that lyrics of the songs were found on either a pull out or on the inside cover of the digipak. This translated over many genres from Indie Rock, Singer/Songwriter and Punk. That's where I came up with the idea of having the lyrics somewhere on the digipak.

I don't want to use fonts that can be found on previous digipaks but instead fonts that have been used on merchandise.

Digipak Conventions

Genre Related Digipaks

Moose Blood Digipak

Moose Blood 'IKYIM' Digipak Front Cover

• Simple range of colours
• Minimalistic image
• Warm but dark colours
• Simple band name in relatively small capitalised font
• Same font album name underneath band name, split with simple line.
• No iconography

Moose Blood 'IKYIM' Inside Cover

• Reoccurring theme of the fire
• Album name split between each side of the cover "I'll Keep You In Mind" "From Time to Time"
• Track list shown horizontally across cover, underlined by same line on front cover
• Lyrics of each track shown under each relating track name
• Credits at the bottom, band members, producers, engineers, assistant engineers, programming, location of recording, photographers, layout and design company.

Moose Blood 'IKYIM' Back Cover

• Warm fire theme again
• Band logo at the top
• Central vertical tracklist
• Record label information and copyright information in the bottom left
• Barcode in the bottom right

Taking Back Sunday Digipak

Taking Back Sunday 'New Again' Digipak Front Cover

• It has been given an aged, distressed appearance
• Light colours, contrasting with the red interior of the car
• 90's punk band with a vintage aesthetic, verisimilitude with the car and the outfit of the woman
• Contents of digipak displayed with a rustic sticker
• Trigger warning in the bottom left

Taking Back Sunday 'New Again' Digipak Inside Cover

• Track list underneath the album name (same font but a different colour)
• DVD credits on right hand side of the cover.
• Left side of the cover has credits for the album, including: producer, engineers, additional producers and engineers, mixers, recording studio and location, assistants, additional recording studio and location, publisher, band members, art design and band photographer, manager, lawyer, agency, business management, executing producer, marketeers, copyright information with record label, and finally band website.
• With the credits they also had mentions such as: family, friends and products that they used to make the album.

Neck Deep Digipak

Neck Deep 'Life's Not Out To Get You' Digipak Front Cover

• Vibrant, abstract artwork
• Related to the album title, events that you meet along the way in life
• Hand drawn fonts and pictures
• Band name at the top off-centre in red, on a contrasting yellow
• Album name at the bottom with a simple black on white 

Neck Deep 'Life's Not Out To Get You' Digipak Back Cover

• Similar hand drawn artwork
• Same font used for the track list as it was for the album name on the front
• Appears to symbolise a cartoon, mythical map that depicts the journey of the album, following on the theme of a journey from the front cover

Artist Research: Moose Blood

The Background

Moose Blood are a self-proclaimed Emo-Punk band formed in Canterbury, Kent in 2012. In many of their songs they reference inspirations such as Brand New - a band that were 'big' in the Pop-Punk scene in the 90's and early 2000's. Also in their first album there were more references to other bands that influenced them in the 2000's such as Saves the Day and Say Anything.

When they formed in 2012 they released a demo for the song 'Bukowski' which became one of their most popular songs even currently.

After this, they worked on an EP named 'Moving Home', this contained: an instrumental that opened the EP called 'My Own Boat', 'Evening Coffee', the title track 'Moving Home', 'Carbis Bay', 'Drive' and finally the reworked version of 'Bukowski'. Their sound in this EP is very raw and is not altered much in post-production. Shortly after this, they also released two songs as singles 'Boston' and 'Orlando'.

                                       

November 2013, they collaborated with another small band 'Departures' to make a second EP, 'Departures/Moose Blood Split EP'. The only two songs from Moose Blood are 'Stay Here' and 'Girl'.

In 2014 they signed to No Sleep Records, a record company that many large punk bands such as Blink-182 have been signed to at some point in their careers. At the end of 2014 they went to the base of No Sleep in LA released their first album 'I'll Keep You In Mind From Time to Time'. It was well received in the US, it came in at number 9 on Rock Sound's 'Top 50 Albums of the Year' list and 45 in the US Billboard Heatseekers Albums.

More recently in 2016 they announced that they had signed to Hopeless Records for their new album. Their second album, titles 'Blush' is much less raw as they have a higher budget, this also means that the chances are that budget would also reflect in their music video productions but I do not have that budget as an A Level student.

Marketing

Moose Blood often use social media to market their products to their audience and also attempt to reach a wider audience, as they are still a new 'up and coming' band in the punk scene. They market from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Moose Blood Marketing on Facebook

Moose Blood Marketing on Twitter

Moose Blood Marketing on Instagram

Previous Music Videos

Gum

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ld88m2jLhwY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

• Narrative storyline that does not directly link to the lyrics.
• Artist is included in the video, live performance.
• A few of the shots relate to the lyrics but for the majority it is concept.
• Within the video there are links to the band's own merchandise but other than that, there don't seem to be other intertextual links.
• Throughout the video, there are no attempts to interact with the audience.
• The actors in the video aren't famous but are still the centre of the shots, the band feature for approximately 31 shots in the whole video.
• The video is of a medium pace, the average shot length is around 4 seconds in the first section. But after the first chorus, the shots shortened to an average of 2 seconds.

The elements I will most likely take from this is the idea of a narrative, however my narrative will almost entirely directly link to the lyrics. Also, the ratio of the narrative to the performance on screen.

Cheek

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JfrnlUg2p0k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

• The video is entirely concept and only contains live performance, this is similar to other videos of theirs, such as Swim Down, Bukowski and Boston.
• All of the video is revolved around the artist being the centre of each shot.
• Because the video is a concept live performance, the visuals don't at all connect to the lyrics.

Progress of My Digipak

Initial Idea

The theme for my Digipak will be blue and pink. But also to include the recognisable things that feature in The 1975's previous work.

The front outside cover of my Digipak will be a medium shot of an almost androgynous male (the same man to feature in the video) lit by light blue lights on one side and pink on the other. I will add the famous rectangle around the man by copying the exact scale by tracing it from other 1975 productions. The reverse of the outside cover will not feature anything but a plain white or black background with the name of the band on the top of the in the contrasting colour.

The left hand side inside cover will be plain white with the name of the song in pastel pink at the centre top of the cover, with the lyrics of the song also down the centre in black.

Artist Research: The 1975

The Background

The 1975, formerly known under the names: Me and You Versus Them, Forever Enjoying Sex, Talkhouse, The Slowdown, Bigsleep and Drive Like I do, formed in 2002, Cheshire, England. They formed when they were 13 at their local school. Now they are around 27 years old - which is older than the majority of their fans. When they first begun under the name of The 1975 they were first described as being an Indie Rock band. But throughout the 14 years they have been together they have produced music progressing from Indie Rock to Electro Pop to Alternative Rock. Their first EP 'Facedown' was released in 2012 by the record company Dirty Hit, containing the songs Facedown, The City, Antichrist and Woman. This EP has a melancholic feel to it with the songs heavily referencing religion and relationships. Later that year they released the 'Sex' EP, this was the EP that started their rise in popularity in the music industry as the Alternative Rock song 'Sex' supported by Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe and pushed them towards a UK and Ireland tour. The following year saw the release of their third EP 'Music For Cars' this is where their mainstream success and potential became apparent. The song 'Chocolate' reached number 19 in the UK Singles Chart. Also in 2013, was their second EP of the year and fourth EP altogether 'IV'. 'IV' had a new version of a popular song 'The City'. This emphasises the band's awareness of the demand from their fans while also defining the creativity that they are still known for today.  The track charted in the UK and had airtime in many other countries. However this was their last EP before the release of their self titled debut album 'The 1975'. The album was released on the 2nd of September 2013, the re-worked lead single 'Sex' from the previous EP was released a week before as part of the hype for the album. The song was an instant hit and again was supported by Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe, furthermore the band's first music video was released on the 26th of July for 'Sex'. Their debut album reached number 1 in the UK Album Charts. The album was very much Indie Rock/Alternative Rock and had a lack of Pop influences.

Marketing

'I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It' Album Marketing

'Somebody Else' Single Marketing

'This Must Be My Dream' Album Marketing

'UGH!' Single Marketing

Obviously I do not have the budget or the time to get any actual neon lighting as marketing for my music video but I could at least take advantage of the natural locations in my town and take a high quality photo on the Cow and Calf or on the moors. With this I can then add neon text to attempt to replicate a similar style to this.

When I create the CD case I should also attempt to take inspiration from their single and album covers.

'Facedown' EP

'Sex' EP

'Music For Cars' EP

'IV' EP

'Medicine' Single EP

'The 1975' Album Cover

'ILIWYS' Album Cover

My CD case is going to be similar to the most recent album cover (the bottom one) in the sense that its going to be all white but I want it to feature a male defying stereotypes. Possibly sticking with the pink theme. But most importantly, I will feature the famous rectangle in the centre of the shot.

Official Hoodie

Official T-Shirt

Official Vests

A reoccurring theme of their merchandise as well as album covers are the rectangles again but also the font of their band name. This could be used within my CD cover as well.