(Post 51) Final Ancillary Task 1

Front & Back cover

These are the final outcomes of our digipak. The front cover shows a photograph of the two girls in front of a lighthouse which immediately links with the Album title 'Lighthouse'. We decided to keep the front cover quite simple and only display the artist's name above the album title. To give the cover a more interesting feature we added a transparent border around the edges which will appear throughout the ancillary tasks. The back cover is a photograph of the two girls holding hands standing in front of the sea which the focus on the waves of the sea. The composition of this image gave the perfect setting for the album list as the arms of the girls create a kind of border around the titles and give a sense of symmetry. Because of the distant focus it also almost seems as if the girls are looking out towards the titles which emerge in the far above the sea. In the bottom of the back cover we added a barcode as well as the credits which include the record label of the original album by Patrick Watson. The middle panel between the front and back cover states the artist's name and the album title so it can be easily recognised when closed and viewed on a shelf.

Inside cover

This is the inside cover of the album; the panels that appear when the album is opened. The left side shows a photograph of the boy holding the candle. This simply acts as another link to the music video. We again decided to keep the inside cover very simple, however instead of just displaying a  simple photograph, I added a transparent border around the edges, similar to the front cover which gives a link between the inside and outside panels of the album cover. The right hand side is where the actual CD would be placed. The background image is similar to the back cover, however this time the focus is not on the sea but on the holding hands. We had the idea that the physical CD would have the same print on it as the background image so that the two together would form the complete picture (like a puzzle). The middle panel between the left and right photograph is simply a light blue colour which is the main tone for all our ancillary tasks. It is the chosen colour for the borders we added around the photographs as well as the transparent filter we used to illuminate the CD itself from the background.

This is what we imagine the CD to look like if it was to be taken out of the album panel. The chosen image works very well for this as the hands are still visible in the bottom half to the CD and the arms work as a border or arrow towards the hole in the middle making the final outcome look almost symmetrical.

None of the digipak panels show the artist himself which is a conscious decision we made. Even though most solo artists show their faces to not only sell the music but the image and name of the artist. One of the reasons why Patrick Watson didn't fit this approach is that none of his album covers show him as an artist but either use a piece of art work or other people. Another reason is that the alternative music genre of his music and the song we chose focuses more on the art behind the music. The song doesn't aim to sell copies because of the popularity of the artist, but because of the music itself.