Print Research (Digipaks)

To the right shows a digipak from the same genre of music as my own band for my own production work, so some of the layout techniques and style is the same as what I’d like to use for my own production work. The use of bright colours within the digipak works well with the genre of music, the pop-punk or teen-punk genre often use bright colours that stand out to the audience to show the loud, young message they connote with their music.

The redundant style they have used will pull in the target audience, as it’s what the audience are looking for and expect when purchasing the product. The use of pins to hold up the images on the product itself shows a younger, more fun side to the product, along with the patterning used behind the images, which also connotes a young, fresh feel to the product. The font used is the bands signature font, so it makes it recognizable to the audience; this also helps make the product itself stand out. The font used to write the song titles is also quite informal and ‘fun’, matching the rest of the product’s style. The use of lots of bright colours and different pattern on the digipaks themselves comes across as quite redundant, as its what the audience woudld expect for this young, modern genre of music.

The digipak above is from another band who have influenced my own production work, using their style and video inspiration and influence as a starting point to decide where to go when creating my own production work and my own music video. Although quite different from the other digipak shown before, this digipak is a lot more subtle and mature, targeting an older audience, who may have a slight different taste in music, but yet who still listen to the punk/pop genre of music. Again, the signiture font has been used by the band to get across their name and their image, which allows them to pull in their usual target audience. The little use of colour in this digipak shows a more mature, sophisticated side to the music genre, which changes the target audience from the one above this. An image of the whole band themselves has been used, which again connotes their style and who they are to the audience. As an image of the whole band has been used, this as a whole connotes a more successful view to not only the band themselves, but to the product and to the album as a whole. The use of upper case font also makes the product look alor more successful, as it stands out a lot more than if it were in lower case, this also makes it look a lot more sophisticated as a product, as it looks a lore more ‘cleaner’ and well lay out on the page.

The image to the right shows a digipak of the same band above, yet this shows a totally different style and layout to the digipak shown above. Unlike the product above, this digipak shows a younger, more pop/punk style, using colour to connote style and audience, yet still managing to come across as a mature, sophisticated product. Although using colour in this digipak, the colour scheme they have used is all quite dark colours, which although still show some colour, it’s still very toned down and subtle. The way they have produced this digipak, a lot like the other digipak above, shows their star image as still young pop/rock, but although they are targeting a young audience, they manage to stay looking quite subtle and well designed. Again, the font in the same unique style for the band’s image and star persona, letting the audience know it is their product.

The use of detail in these digipaks is typical for the genre of music they are in, although most digipaks contain the same information and detail. They all mostly contain a thanks note from the artist/band, their label being mentioned, an iTunes download link, small posters and a lyric booklet, song titles and extra tracks included, ect. Although, for my own print work, I'm going to just include a few of these, as I want my print work to look as subtle as possible. I will probably mostly include a thanks note, an iTunes download link to the bands page/songs and I'd like to do all of this in my own house style, or the bands image that they have already. I don't want to challenge the conventions of the music genre that my band are in, so I'm going to stick to using the bands house style and signature font on my own print work, as the audience know then instantly which band the print work is for. I am going to use quite subtle colours and images within my own print work, not being to eccentric, although still eye catching enough to grab the audiences attention. The size of my print advert (magazine) is at maximum, going to be a half page spread. The reason I have chosen to not make it a full page spread is that the band themselves are only still an independent band, not reaching a mass audience, so there would be no reason to make the advert itself a full page spread, as not many people know of them yet. Although the band themselves have their own UK tours and albums, they're not a in a major record label, so they aren't a band that would be seen to have a full page spread in a magazine.

To the right is the print work used for latest 'Strangle Kojak' album, which was released earlier this year. It shows a perfect example of the bands house style and star image, as they have used dark, bold colours to stand out to the audience, yet still manage to keep quite subtle with the amount of images they have used. I'd like to use this house style for my own print work, as it allows me to not only use a redundant style, which would attract the audiences eye as it is similar to what the band usually produce, but it also allows me to use the conventions to my advantage, as I can what I would be able to change to make it stand out in my own style. I want to still make my own print work as best as it can be, even though online downloading and online purchases are alot more successful in the music industry now, as it allows the artist to sell themselves as a full package, rather than restricting themselves to just online downloads, allowing them to target a wider audience and therefore able to sell their music to a vast network. This also reinforces the star image of an artist as it allows them to come across to an audience as a lot more successful in the industry, even if they are independent.