Individual Digipak Analysis - Miss Georgiou

I have created an individual digipak to display how I feel the artist can be promoted and portrayed through a product of their own. Digipak's allow the audience to have a better quality quality with more access to aspects created by the artist, for example, more exclusive pictures. An ordinary CD only has a front and back cover, however the digipak connects more with the audience through the particular elements that make it more personal to the fan, the artist's message to the purchaser, for example. I wanted ensure that the conventional soul artist that Amy is supposed to be is portrayed clearly across through elements within the digipak. I was very much inspired by Duffy's 'Rockferry' digipak through the way in which the colouring was consistent throughout, giving the digipak a running link but also, allowing it to display the artist's genre through this particular convention of the soul genre that is used to emphasise her style. The black and white really creates a sombre tone to the digipak, but also gives the audience a glimpse of what could be within the contents - negativity but raw, genuine emotion.  By using near enough the same colour theme through my digipak of black, white and red, I have displayed this soul convention also. 

This is my Digipak for Amy's album '18':

I have chosen to use certain elements within my digipak for particular reasons, baring in mind the representation that I want to give my artist and the genre they come from. The colour scheme that I have used throughout my digipak is black, white and red (mainly - the eyes are blue). The black and white is a consistent feature of colour throughout my digipak which reflects the past and a reflective nature of the songs and their content. This is very conventional to soul as the content of their material tend to be very personal and reflective of experiences of their own. Complimenting this black and white colour scheme, red is also a colour which is secondarily used as the next prominent use of colour, as it connotes love and passion. Having passion in their work and the industry as a whole, is conventional for an artist from the genre of soul. By having this 'splash' of the colour red, it helps to intertwine this idea and representation of the artist. From the input of this, the audience build a better relationship with the artist as they feel more appreciative at the fact that the artist doesn't take for granted the opportunity in which they have in the industry. Being passionate about their material and their work makes the music more genuine and raw to the artist, allowing the audience to understand the emotions of the artist a lot more easily. The audience are more likely to familiarise themselves with the situations and experiences that the artist writes about, which makes them more appealing. It also reinforces the monotone nature that mirrors the negative emotions portrayed within the content, showing how the experiences that the artist tends to write about is not positive - conventional to the genre of soul. The back cover includes a list of all the tracks on the CD. There is a small red heart that is overlapped by each track name as they are listed, which displays how personal to the tracks are to the artist. The hearts act as a way of demonstrating how each track has been created 'from the heart' and reinforcing the fact that the emotions portrayed within, are genuine and real. The redness of the hearts illustrate passion and love for the material that she has written and the way in which they are not full hearts (only outlined) could suggest that she feels there is part of her which is now missing due to the experiences that she is sharing on the album. This appeals to the target audience as it makes them feel as if the artist wants to be more open with them, giving them a better chance of building a relationship with the artist. The '18' and 'AMY' on the CD really stand out because of the black background against the contrast of white and red. By putting a white glow around the red '18', it makes it more prominent and gives the illusion that it is standing out closer. This ensures that the CD is simple, but also makes it effective and eye catching. On the front cover, I decided to enhance the artist's natural blue eye colour by altering the brightness and saturation of the colour and excluding it from the black and white filter affect. I included blue colouring of the eyes to not only contrast from the black and white but to also coincide with the experiences she wants to emotively express and share with the audience. Blue connotes sadness and upset, so having this colour emphasised for her eyes, illustrate the hurt and pain that she has been through, inferring literal tears in her eyes. It is also symbolic for the content and emotions felt by the artist within each song on the CD, giving the audience more of a better understanding of the artist and the emotions they are conveying. By including the blue feature here, it breaks up the strong theme of black, white and red, which actually makes its presence unexpected and pleasant. I slightly altered the black and white filter surrounding the blue by changing the contrast to 20% and the brightness to 30%, enhancing the features of the artist, and defining her stare more intensely. I have used the colour theme of black, white and red throughout all three of my products to link them in a visual way and allow the audience to acknowledge this link easily. Although the audience can then notice this link, it also means that they can recognise the consistency of the way in which the artist is represented and appreciate how they can feel relatable to her through not just one, but through all of her products. This is important because it means that audiences can feel satisfied in the way in which they see the artist and creates a better chance for the artist of becoming successful. It shows how they are just being themselves and are not changing the way hey are representing themselves just to satisfy every audience or fit into the industry. They are therefore more likely to hold a longer and more successful career from this by consistently featuring links between their products - here, my most prominent link is the colour scheme.

I believe that my digipak conforms to the conventions of the artist's genre - soul, through many different ways in relation to particular features that are included. For example, the artist is not looking into the camera in any of the images, apart from the front cover. This is very much a typical convention of a soul artist as they tend to display a lacking of confidence through insecurity. Not being able to look directly into the camera suggests a lacking of comfort in relation to eye contact. If you're talking to someone who doesn't make much eye contact, this shows a lacking of confidence - the same is applied here. Even though the front cover displays the artist looking directly into the camera, insecurity is still retrieved through the way that they are still covering up part of their face as if they feel the need to hide away or cover up. This conventional use of pose for the artist is appealing to the audience as it makes them feel empathetic towards them. Insecurity is a common feeling amongst many of the young target audience members, and so if someone famous demonstrates having the same feeling, it creates a common ground between the audience and the artist. Audiences feel more engaged and appreciative of the artist then, because they feel they can relate to how they are showing to feel. I have demonstrated this theme of insecurity through all of my products to carry this representation of the artist throughout, strengthening the relationship between the audience and the artist for they can feel that this is an ongoing emotion and one that could only heal overtime. In the music video, the artist is shown in an insecure way from breaking up with her friends and not displaying the confidence to heal the friendship. She is shown only to reminisce on the memories and become upset when thinking about the past. In my magazine advert, the artist is looking down which demonstrates how she is lacking the confidence to look at the camera. A further convention of the soul genre is the simplicity featured throughout the digipak, especially for the CD. Soul artist's tend to promote themselves in a plain and simplistic manner in their promotional materials. This allows them to be fully exposed in terms of emotion and for them as an artist, as well as allowing own interpretation to be transferred through. The audience therefore, can interpret the artist ihn their own way from the raw and exposed artist that is shown, rather than having influence from elaborated text, or major effects, etc that could scatter the digipak. The target audience is also a young one, meaning that they tend to be lazy in reference to reading elaborated texts. The way in which this digipak is simple means that it appeals to the target audience as well as conforming to the conventions of the genre because they are more likely to be engaged and take more notice of the visuals shown. This is important because the visuals are the part which will initally attract an audience member to pick up the digipak and draw their attention. 

Having a close up shot of the artist on the front cover, I think, helps to attract someone to the digipak because it 'stands out' against other digipaks. In compliment with the stare directly at the camera, the front engages the audience and tempts them into picking it up to see what it has to offer. The close up nature of the image also allows the audience to witness the intricate detailing of the artist, making them more familiar with them and feel more connected with them in terms of their relationship. Exposing the artist in such a way, suggests to the audience that the artist is trusting of the audience, allowing them to share the emotions and themselves as a whole with them. The target audience therefore, appeal to the artist because they appreciate how open the artist is being with them and respects the emotions in which they portray. The second slide of the digipak shows the artist in London with a typical London telephone box in the background. The way in which the artist is seen closer to the camera, with this feature blurred in the background, it reflects the past and the way in which London clearly has a personal reference to the artist. Having the telephone box behind her infers that they see this setting as part of their past now, or, in another way, it could show that she is not comfortable with being in this setting of London from the insecurity that is displayed from the fact that Amy is looking down. The personal nature of the setting is conventional to the genre of soul as the songs are normally based on personal experiences and meanings, which is mirrored within the visuals of this particular image. The audience tend to appeal to this because it's as if they are getting an insight into the personal life of the artist that is normally hidden or not mentioned by the media. In the fourth slide of the digipak, it demonstrates the message that the artist has personally wrote to the fans. The way in which the image shows a hand holding a piece of paper that the message is written on illustrates just how personal the message is. It gives the impression that the artist has just hand written the message themselves which has more of a meaning towards the audience. They feel as if the artist is more considerate of them and comes across in a way that the artist genuinely cares for the fans in which they have. This appeals to the audience too because the artist has dedicated time to them and time to appreciate them and all of the support that they have given the artist. The audience instantly feel to carry on supporting the artist from the appreciation that they have retrieved from their ongoing support already.

The layout and design of my digipak is that the first side is the front cover, the second is an exclusive image of the artist, at the third slide the CD is displayed, the fourth is a personal message from the artist to the fans, the fifth is another exclusive image of the artist and lastly, the sixth slide is the back cover. For the front cover, I placed the artist's name and album name at the top to ensure that the artist and album name still stand out but without taking attention away from the image. Having just the image and the simple 'AMY 18' is also conventional to the genre of soul as they tend to go for very plain designs. This also engages the audience into picking up the digipak as it intrigues them to find out more about the artist and what they have to offer. My CD shows a large '18' that is spread across and actually laps off the CD, however you can still see that it says '18'. At the side I have put the artist's name to clearly identify the link between the two. Having this layout still makes it simple but also ensures that it is effective and prevents it from looking boring or unprofessional. In one of the exclusive images (slide five), I have put a quote from the artist's debut single that is included on the album and placed it above the artist's head. This could inferably show that it is  thought of the artist's from the place it has been placed and still shows how the artist isn't looking at the camera. Having the telephone box behind the artist and the artist themselves central, means tat all the attention is on the artist and this is emphasised through the way the artist is in colour. Placing the artist at the bottom could also show the position of her emotions and reflect the fact that the content within could be about the 'low times' in her life and the negative emotions that she once felt. This is appealing to the artist as the quote gives them a glimpse of what the album has to offer and the positioning of the artist infers what type of emotion they will expect to find, especially as the artist is looking down - further reflecting insecurity. This intrigues the target audience and engages them enough to want to know more about the other songs of the album.

The typography is very simple throughout my digipak in order to comply with the typical plain conventions of the soul genre. For the artist's name and album name I have used the classic font of 'Times New Roman'. This is clear and simple that could reflect the relatable nature of the artist and show how she is plain and simple just like another audience. It also suggests how exposed the artist doesn't mind being, as the clearness of the font portrays the way in which the artist is open with their feelings and open with who they are. On the front cover the font is very large in order to seek the initial attention of a potential purchaser. On a shelf, the digipak needs to stand out against the rest of what is to offer. By using large font, complimented by a close up of the artist, this instantly attracts attention because of the boldness of the cover. For the personal message from the artist, the font is more hand written like, which shows how personal the message is. The audience appeal to this as it seems as though the artist has just written it themselves and doing it in a letter format makes it more personal to the audience member as it seems as if the artist is directly writing the artist to them. By having the 'Amy x' at the end of the message/letter in a more signatured font, it makes it seem as if the artist has generally signed it. As well as this, audiences are more likely to be familiar with the autograph of the artist and so by doing this, they familiarise themselves more with them.

The language used within my digipak is very simplistic. Soul artist's do not have much information in their promotional products due to the way that their music expresses how they feel and what they have to offer. The simplistic nature makes them seem more versatile and welcoming as an artist as it ensures they come across more genuine and not a forceful way through cramming lots of information in which sometimes can come across as needy. The only part of the digipak that is less simplistic in terms of language, is the personal letter to the fans. This is elaborated and demonstrates exactly how the artist feels towards them, expressing how much the fans mean to them. Soul artists are very expressive in their music and when it comes to the fans, they are very appreciative of the support they get - like any other artist. Soul artists tend to be more genuine and relatable which makes them also more appealing. When mentioning fans and support they tend to be more open with how they feel and very appreciative as the genre is such a wide variating one that not every soul artist is the same and therefore, different people will like or not like them depending on individual taste.