Research - The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out Digipak analysis

Front (Top Left)

The cover for this digipak features a picture of the band; a common theme in rock/indie genre. The cover also expresses a sense of authenticity given the fact that they are gathered round writing/practicing their songs; additionally the band members appear to give the impression they are caught off-guard with the photo, suggesting they are so engrossed in their music writing. Further asserting the band as an independent group that are focused and up-and-coming in the industry. This therefore allows the audience to create a relationship with the image of the band. The band playing their instruments on the cover perhaps relates to their renowned reliance on live performances rather than studio performance; as the band performed many live shows to get a grasp of their sound and quality before making this record. Additionally, the digipak features the use of red, black and grey; which again can be interpreted as commonly used conventions of the rock genre with The White Stripes' discography, AC/DC and Green Day's 'American Idiot'. Furthermore, these color create a very striking theme to the digipak and will thus interest the audience; the color of the typography against the white background suggests a sense of striking simplicity. The use of striking, monochrome colors on this digipak has influenced me in the sense that I intend to use few colors on my digipak cover to create the sense of minimalism and conceptual design.

Back (Top Right)

The back of the cover features the continued use of the contrasting colors, similar to that of Alt-J and Arctic Monkeys, enabling a sense of stylistic continuity. Furthermore, the track listing his placed in small text in the top corner; this is not a common theme of rock/indie digipaks, or any digipak for that matter, as they are usually the centerpiece of attention on the reverse side. Additionally, the digipak features a very similar image to the front, further suggesting the band's focus on their music. Furthermore, the POV of the image allows the audience to gain a personal insight and connection to the band and their music.

Inside

The CD itself features the three primary colors used on the album cover; however the stark monochrome contrast of the 'The Kooks' and 'Inside In/Inside Out' could perhaps link to the contrasting name of the album itself. Additionally, the first 'O' in 'The Kooks' is actually the hole in the middle of the CD. The inner cover shows a thank you message from the band for purchasing the album, atop a band picture. This suggests the hard work that has been put into the album and the genuine thanks the band has for the support; the fact that it is placed on top of a band picture, in which they look at the camera, suggests a more personal tone to the message. In terms of inspiration from this Digipak, I would highlight the simplicity of the CD within the case; particularly the clever use of the CD hole, as I could see myself using this idea on my CD for the 'O' in 'The Stone Roses'.

Research - Alt-J - Matilda Digipak Analysis

Front (Bottom Right)

 

The front of this digipak has a design that also features a symbol synonymous to the band, similar to that of the Arctic Monkeys' 'AM'. This also creates another digipak design to draw influence from as I also intend to design my digipak in a similar fashion, as seen in a previous mock cover blog post. The cover features the triangle shape, a symbol that is often used by the band in their promotional material, song references and even the band name itself. These links thus creates a symbol in which the audience can associate the band with; evident in the song lyrics of 'Let's Tesselate', 'Triangles are my favorite shape, Three points where two lines meet.'. Also demonstrated in their name, 'Alt-J', which is a key sequence on Mac keyboards to make the triangle symbol. Furthermore, the cover design features a very minimalistic style to allow the audience to acknowledge the symbolization of the triangle and its relation to the band. Also, it's conceptual nature could relate to the experimental, conceptual nature of the music itself. The use of black against the orange space allows for a striking color on the front of the cover and further creates an additional symbolism of space.

 

Back (Bottom Middle)

 

The reverse side of the digipak continues the theme of space in the background and shows, in bold, block text, the name of the EP and the track list. The theme and symbolism of the triangle image is used again in the typography, further pushing the branding of the band. Therefore, leaving the symbol in the minds of the audience so that they continue to associate the band with the shape. Additionally, very few colors are used on the back cover, and the digipak as a whole; further implying the conceptual, minimalistic nature of the design for the digipak.

 

Inside

 

The inside artwork for this digipak features the first use of the band's name, thus suggesting that they are confident enough about their band's branding to rely on the symbolism of the triangle. However, considering this is an single EP to promote the band's debut LP, 'An Awesome Wave', the symbolism could've been used to establish the band's brand, rather then maintain and enforce it. Like the other parts of the digipak, this cover continues the theme of minimalism. Another inside cover shows the lyrics to the title track of the EP; the typography used here is contrast of white against the black background, thus drawing attention to it. These lyrics suggest the band holding their lyrics as an important, meaningful part of their music. The remaining two sides of the digipak simply feature images of space, continuing this theme; the lack of any band picture or lyrics, as these are commonly found inside digipaks, implies the focus on minimalism.

Research - Arctic Monkeys - AM Digipak Analysis

Arctic Monkeys - AM

Front

This album cover is one of the more minimalistic of the Arctic Monkeys' artwork, and album artwork in general, potentially suggesting the sudden turn in direction in their music and overall style. The slick design of the sound wave references the clear focus on music alone, rather than an image that is carried alongside the music. This message is equally reflected in the album's leading single's music video 'Do I Wanna Know?' which appears to follow no narrative and focuses more on the stylistic aspect of minimalistic art with black backgrounds contrasted with bright lines, particularly colored white, to convey the new sleek image of the band. Additionally, the conceptual design of the cover holds a very striking look to the album and thus allows the audience to associate the cover with the band, despite the band's name not being featured on the sleeve, based on the branding of the band. This therefore leaves a strong effect on the audience in that it creates a strong symbol in which they can associate the band with. This cover inspired me because of its minimalistic design which I would like to carry over into my design; primarily because I wish to include a logo, most likely the lemon, that Stone Roses fans can instantly identify the band with

Back - (Bottom Left Image)

The reverse side of the digipak is equally minimalistic as the front of the album sleeve; the same two monochrome tone is used on the back. The text includes the band's name, notably on the back rather than the front, and the various song titles split by a thick white line to suggest the continuation of the sound wave from the front, stylistically  designed to indicate the end of Side A and the end of Side B on the record. The band's name being printed on the back is a theme previously used on the Arctic Monkeys' 'Suck it and See'.

 

 
 
 Inside Cover

The inside cover features a professionally shot band group photo. Not only does this convey the slick image of the band, and thus creates a stylistic link to the artwork, but also can potentially work as a callback to the 60s/70s in which band group photos on, or within, albums were commonplace in the rock genre. This allows the audience to gain a sense of personality from the band and thus allows them to create a visual relationship with the band. The monochrome color scheme of the band photo itself also creates a link to the rest of the album cover design, thus allowing a sense of synergy in the band's branding in that almost all the promotional material involved with this album followed the same minimalistic color palette; ranging from advertisements, music videos and band shoots.



A still from the 'Do I Wanna Know?' music video

The single cover for 'Do I Wanna Know?'

Tour poster for the 'AM' tour

Research - Examples of Digipaks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filming - Rough Cut 1 Alternate

Rough Cut 1 alternate from Luke Tiplady on Vimeo.
This is the 1st rough cut of my music video with some changes. I've added the paint bucket effect on shots when the protagonist begins to play the guitar, giving the impression of him being infused by some sort of 'lemom-stone roses' inspired determination to essentially become the band. Additional edits have been made to 'a, hey, hey, hey' part to make it more tighter and to-the-beat.

Filming - Rough Cut 1

Rough Cut 1 from Luke Tiplady on Vimeo.

This is my first rough cut for my music video of 'The Hardest Thing in The World'. Towards the end of the cut there are some gaps in the footage that I intend to fill, however didn't have time to do as I wanted an edit on my blog showing the footage I have so far. The greatest difficulty I currently have with editing is timing the footage with the audio, especially with the drum beat at 00:30 and the guitar strums at 01:00. However, I feel as if this could be easily improved on with closer editing. I am also concerned whether I have 'overdone' the use of superimposition or not, as this was employed as an ode to the 80s/90s era music videos, particularly The Stone Roses.

Shooting - 2nd Session

Yesterday I shot a majority of the footage for my music video; I found to be challenging as I had to alter some shots on my storyboard to accustom the lack of transport used in the video. This, however, was overcome easily as I decided to take a different direction in shooting and the narrative as it now followed the protagonist looking back at the Stone Roses concert he attended and essentially looking up to the band and wanting to be them. This is reflected in the various shots of him suddenly deciding to go back to his house and pick up his guitar and play one of their hits. Furthermore, I exemplified this idea through the use of concert footage I captured myself, as this enabled a real sense of him looking back onto this concert. I captured a variety of shots of Liam practicing the guitar with the addition of superimpostion to not only appeal to the 80s theme, but to also suggest passage of time or a brief look into the time he spends practicing. Though Liam does not actually know how to play guitar, I found it easy to capture footage of him playing as the strumming looked fairly legitimate. On the close-up shots and more difficult guitar sections, I took the guitar and played the parts, such as the solo seen in the video. Shooting the video, overall, proved to be unproblematic as we were often within radius of our house so we could take breaks to charge the camera etc.