Based upon my initial designs, I began to research which pictures I thought would be best for my album cover and inner sleeve. My first idea was to use a close up of Faye as the cover because I had seen this type of cover on many other successful albums. I thought that the first shot in the video would serve as a good close up as it is simple and allows the audience to see who the artist is straight away.
I also decided quite early on in the process that I wanted a black and white theme throughout my print artifacts to give it a more original look. I used Photoshop to crop the original picture of Faye, change it to black and white and then blur and sharpen the picture. In addition to this, I decided upon the back picture for the album cover, another shot from the video, and edited it to make Faye the centre of the cover. I then saved this as a picture and added it onto a Word document. I used Word for all of the text and to add the other features onto the cover such as the bar code and record label information. I used Word rather than Photoshop because I found the text effects more appealing and when adding the other features it was easier to use.
After looking at some other pictures for the inner sleeve and the advert, I found a different picture to use for the back of the CD cover. I thought that Mark should also be incorporated on the Cover as his character plays a big part in the video. Although many album covers do not use actors from a video on the album I thought that it would make my cover unique and also create synergy between the main production and my print artifacts. I liked this picture in particular because although it doesn't give much away about the narrative, you can tell by looking at it that there is some kind of hostility between the two characters.
After receiving some audience feedback I found that my the front image on my album cover didn't look as effective and professional as I had originally planned. Therefore I began to look at a range of other images that I had to see which would look better. I decided upon the below image of Faye because I liked it when I originally used it on the back of the album and I only wanted a picture of Faye not of her and Mark as I thought that would make the album look too much like it were based just on the video. I also found that it was a good image to use as Faye is the main focus point, therefore connoting who the album is by.
After adding this image to the album cover and changing it to black and white I found that with the text also being black and white there was not enough colour on the cover. I therefore tried out a few different colourings on the cover using word, the red one being the favorite among my class.
I decided, after looking at different colours, that black and white was still my preferred theme for the album. However, to make Faye stand from her surroundings on the image, I thought that turning her into colour while everything else was black and white would ensure this effectively. I used Photoshop to crop Faye out of the picture and delete the surroundings so that only the central image of her stayed. I then turned this back to colour and saved it as an image. Using word, I inserted the image on top of the black and white picture and grouped the pictures together to make it one Image.
After editing the front image to look like that, I decided that I should do the same for the back of the cover with Faye and Mark sat on the bench. I repeated the process suing Photoshop and Word. I decided to do this because then the fact that Mark is an important part of the album would also be put across to the audience. I also found that it created synergy between the Cover images.
Finally, I added the artist's name to the front of the album because I felt that by not doing so the album may not be as appealing because Faye or Phoebe Ryan (the original artist) are not well known so their name is crucial to tell the audience who they are. In addition to this, I found that during the stages of adding the colour picture of Faye to the album cover part of her foot had disappeared. I therefore rectified this in order to complete the cover.
After this, I began to look at my digipak/inner sleeve of my album cover. I wanted to choose 3 different images from those that I had on my CD cover so that it was all original. The first image I chose was an outtake from the main production. I didn't want all of my images to be screenshots from the actual video because I thought that at least one should be more natural and relate to the artists personality more.
I then went on to choose another picture of Faye and Mark from the video. This one contrasts the image used on the back of the CD cover as the facial expressions are happier and more lighthearted connoting the different atmospheres within the video as a whole. I also wanted to include a picture of the necklace featured in the video. The necklace is the main link to the lyrics from within the video and because it is for the inner sleeve, where the lyrics will be included, It is used to connect the two ideas together.
I then put all three images together to see what the inner sleeve would look like as a whole. To keep with the theme of black and white within my products I edited the colours. I wanted it to be a little lighter than other black and white products because I wanted to add my lyrics in a black font at a later date and they needed to stand out.
I decided that my first attempt at the digipak was too light and you couldn't see the pictures well enough. It also didn't come across as black and white. Therefore, I used Word to edit the three pictures, grouping them together to create one image. I edited the saturation and sharpness to ensure that you could see all three images well but it was still light enough that you would be able to read the text.
Finally, I realised that two large pictures would fit on the digipak/ inner sleeve better than three small ones, therefore I decided to delete the image of the necklace as it was a lower quality than the other two. I also increased the brightness to ensure that a bit of colour came through, linking to my cover. I then added the lyrics as this is a classic convention of an inner sleeve. I decided to leave the text box surrounding the lyrics because I thought it looked original. In addition to this I ensured that the font, colour and settings of the text were the same as the cover and advert.
As you can see below, I used Word to present the different stages of my print artifacts so that I could easily change things and add things in or delete them. It was also an effective way of allowing my peers to look at a variety of ideas when it came to my feedback. I also used it to add text as it was easier to use than Photoshop and to ensure that the sizing was correct against an existing artifacts.
