A2 media evaluation

1. Ancillary Tasks: Six Fold Digipak and Magazine Advertisement for the Digipak

2. Ancillary Task: Digipak
During the designing of our Digipak, we agreed that we wanted the album art to be artistic and creative as indie album
covers were often creative and diverse. Very few indie album covers had just an image of the artist on them as they
were often of creative photography that interprets the lyrics and mood of the song.
In the Digipak we wanted to bring together the different seasons and wanted to continue our nature theme. Our music
video was predominantly shot outdoors and we were able to capture different seasons.
In the editing of our Digipak the front and back cover was worked on as a whole group. The other four panels were
worked on individually… We all chose one panel to edit for the Digipak.
Typical elements of a Digipak
•Album name
•Artist name
•Image of the artist
•Song names
•Album Art
•Barcode
•Lyrics

3. This is our front cover. The aim was to have
most of the background in shades of black,
whites and greys. The balloon was the main
part that stands out against the background.
Many indie album covers tend to portray
something creative and present the artists
originality and imagination – an object of beauty
to make us look at it and create enigmas to
draw us in – who has the balloon and why?
The back cover was meant to contrast with the front. The front
cover shows a winter and this image is a representation of
autumn. We wanted to use vibrant colours to symbolise the
beauty of nature and link it to the beauty of love.
The list of tracks have been positioned between the trees in the
centre of the image possibly to suggest the lyrics or pure and
meaningful to the artist and music is the centre of his world. It is
also conventional to list the songs.
We felt that it was necessary to have an image of
the artist as the audience must know who is
responsible for the album. He hasn’t yet gained
much publicity therefore it was necessary we made
him recognisable. We used a close up to emphasise
his image. This is also a typical element used in
other Digipak’s. We wanted to keep the creativity
continuous and keep the nature leaf affect going.
This may suggest he is possibly naturally talented.

4. We felt that it would be a
good idea to include an
image of the guitar as
there are many shots of
the artist playing the guitar
in the video. Instruments
are often featured in
album art.
The middle panel was to show the couple walking with
footsteps following behind them. To symbolise all the
memories they have had together in the past and they are
walking towards many more. The purple/blue sky was to
represent the love and affection between the couple.
Symbolism is often typical of indie album art as the album art
allows audiences to imagine for themselves and create links
for themselves.
This panel was a very simple image to
show the beauty of nature and also to
represent the life of the artist. The mixture
of colours represent the colourful moments
and beautiful memories in their life. The
use of symbolism is used once again as
the image is fairly representative.

5. Looking at magazines we found that artists do not always use the same magazine advertisement in all
magazines. There are sometimes different adverts for the same album that will be shown in different
magazines, presumably to appeal to different audiences and maximise sales. Therefore we thought it would
be a good idea to create two different adverts that present the same brand image but may attract different
audiences.
Ancillary Task: Magazine advertisement for the Digipak
Elements that may be found in a Magazine advert
•Artist name
•Album name
•Artist image
•Album image
•Release date
•Previous ratings/quotes

6. We have added ratings that magazines have given the album
to promote his music. Many other magazine advertisements
for new album releases show ratings. This allows audiences to
set expectations about how good the album will be especially
if they are from trusted sources
On both of the adverts we have used an
image of the artist to promote him and make
him recognisable to audiences. If ‘The Life of
Riley’ was already a famous name and artist
the image of the artist in the advert would not
be necessary as people would able to
recognise him by the name.
In the two adverts we have used similar images of
the artist. In both he is wearing a black shirt and
similar images have also been used in the Digipak.
Album adverts often feature the artist . Our
advertisements hold this similarity.
The blue colour of the
font of ‘NME’ and
‘MOJO’ was done
because in the front
cover of the Digipak the
colour of the balloon is
the same. It was in
order to keep similar
colour themes
throughout the
products.
The image of the album has only been used on one of the magazine
advertisements. We felt that the need of the album advert was not
necessary as the image of the artist, the name of the artist and the
album name was on the advertisement. Therefore we only used an
image of the album on one of the advertisements. When looking at
previous advertisements we found that there was not always an
image of the album.

7. The combination of our products bring something new and different to the indie genre. The visuals throughout
our product are very creative and interesting and draw attention towards them. Personally, I am not a great fan
of indie music but if I was to see this album in a music store (HMV), I would attempt to go out and listen to the
album and view the music video merely based on the creative visuals and imaginative art work in the Digipak. I
feel that it would have the same impact on others that may come across it as visual presentation plays a large
part in whether or not you go onto purchase something.
Conclusion