Digipak

Drafts CDs

In order to receive quick and relevant criticisms on my album sketches, I used a questionnaire to ask a sample of 15-18 year olds, unisex group at my secondary school. I choose to include those who weren’t necessarily my target audience to enable a wide range of responses. In general the respondents liked the playful character that I had created in AbbieSinger’s album cover as it set the cover apart from the typically intense soulful covers like:   

They also felt that the use of a piano showed what type of artist AbbieSinger is straightaway and because her body is hidden by the instrument, AbbieSinger is not sexually objectified; this was an important question as I did not want my artist to gain success on the basis of her sexuality instead I felt it was important for the debut album to reflect my artist’s values and beliefs. The only criticism which my digipak received was the audiences questioning whether I could balance the bright colours with the classical genre that is neo-soul. They advised me not to overpower the monotone colours with the bright, flamboyant colours, either choose to make the album cover very colourful or keep it simple.  

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

Improvements required from Pavan Bansal: use a more professional font, add two colours to the writing, move the title 'AbbieSinger' from the right hand side to the left and make sure both titles are bold as it’s the first thing everyone sees. “The Awakening” page make the writing centred, using more of a professional font and use a wash-out picture in the background, perhaps guitar strings. The top two pictures make the background black and white with AbbieSinger shining in colour to make her stand out more and show a journey transformation from the past to the present.

(Click to enlarge)

Front Cover: Abbiesinger is leaning on the Piano; I deliberately used a picture with her face and a piano to represent her love for music and her talent. As I’ve previously mentioned, AbbieSinger is a talented musician who is trained in both the Guitar and the Piano. She enjoys writing music as well as singing it and she is a dedicated rising star. I feel that my front cover has an animated quality that portrays my artist’s playful side as well as her passion for writing music and singing it.

Back cover: The use of a mask to hide AbbieSinger’s face juxtaposes nicely with the front cover, this symbolises her double personality. On the one hand, she is the typical neo-soul artist; she hits the high notes well and embodies, soul music with RnB undertones. But on the other hand she is a young, fresh neo-soul artist who brings her youthful soul to the genre. I enjoyed using Photoshop to edit this particular photo as I was allowed to play with the contrast of the blacks and whites as well as brightening the peacock feathers making it stand out.

Guitar Cover: this page would feature inside the Digipak, it shows AbbieSinger playing at a gig in the Jazz Cafe London, and this is what as an artist she enjoys most; playing to an enthusiastic crowd that appreciate neo-soul. Quoting my artist “my guitar is my best friend” AbbieSinger primarily enjoys assisting her vocals with her guitar as it balances out her soulful voice. As a result, I felt it was most appropriate to place her second love in her debut Digipak (almost like a diary to my artist) and the use of a black background and a colour foreground only highlights my artist and her passion more.

My Overall opinion: Considering all pages together as a finished product, I think it achieves my goal of promoting my artist as well as sharing her values and beliefs to the consumers. Fans of AbbieSinger are immediately aware of her passion for the piano and the guitar, as well as her feisty/ playful personality. All this is achieved through the visual images in her Digipak. Most importantly, we can see the various stages of thought processes and adjustments I had undergone in order to improve my first draft and this continue to go on for my music video and homepage.