My Final Digipak Disc Design

I chose a simple, plain design for the disc of my digipak. I did this as the tray image I had created was quite busy, bright and chaotic, so I wanted my disc to stand out against that. I used this bold, turquoise colour as it matches the colour scheme of my digipak, while still standing out from the tray image. My research into various digipaks allowed me to determine what information should be included on a disc design. So that it is easily identified if separated from the digipak, I have included the name of the artist and album at the top of the disc in a bold, clear font. As the album contains explicit language, I have included the parental advisory logo on the middle right of the disc. At the base of the disc, I copied the record label's logo and legal information from the back cover of my digipak, as I noticed that this was a common feature on discs. I used the same font that I had already used on the front cover, back cover, and inside left panel of my digipak to show continuity and a common design theme throughout.

Creating My Digipak- Inside Left Panel and Tray Image

After creating the front and back covers of my digipak, I made the inside left panel and tray image. I wanted to make sure that the images matched the overall colour scheme of my digipak, so I used the Hue and Saturation method (see previous post) to do this. 

TRAY IMAGE

The image I used for the tray image of my digipak.

To create the tray image of my digipak, I first cropped the image above so that only a small section of the wall was present in the photo, and so that the dimensions were correct for the template. I then used the Hue and Saturation tool to edit the colouring of this photo so that it would match the rest of my digipak so far. I decided that I wanted to give the image a more distorted effect, so I used a 'glitch' method that I learned from watching this YouTube tutorial.

I then used the smudge tool to further increase the appearance of distortion on this image, before finally increasing the brightness and contrast of it.

My final tray image design.

INSIDE LEFT PANEL

The image I used for the inside left panel of my digipak.

To create the inside left panel image of my digipak, I first opened the above image in Photoshop and cropped it to fit the dimensions of the template. I then used the Hue and Saturation tool to give the image the same colour scheme that the rest of my digipak uses. Next, I used the glitch technique on the photo (see tray image method) to give it a more distorted effect. 

Finally, I added text to the image. In the top left corner, the title of the album- 'BADLANDS' is written in Japanese. This is relevant to the artist's aesthetic as she has often expressed her love for Japanese culture and has included this in her merchandise designs. I also added the glitch effect to this text so that it would match the overall image. I then added the quote at the bottom of the image. I used the same font that I had previously used on the front and back covers of the album to emphasise the continuity of the digipak. I added this quote as it is relevant to the album, and gives the digipak a personal touch, allowing audiences to connect with the artist better. I did not add the glitch effect to this piece of text as it would have made it too hard to read.

My final inside left panel design.

Creating My Digipak- Album Covers

ALBUM COVER

Firstly, I created the front cover and back cover of my digipak. I used Photoshop to edit images that I had already taken for my digipak. 

The image I used for the front cover and back cover of my digipak.

To edit all of the images in my digipak, I first used the Hue and Saturation editing tool on Photoshop in order to give them a different colour scheme. I wanted my photos to reflect the artist's visual aesthetic as well as the style of music, so I gave them a blue, turquoise, pink and purple colour scheme. I think that this appearance reflects the electronic elements of Halsey's music particularly well. 

I then cropped the image into a square so that it would accurately reflect the shape of a real CD cover. For the front cover image, I simply added 'BADLANDS' and 'HALSEY' in the font Helvetica Bold in a light blue/turquoise colour. For the back cover image, I used the same photo, however, this time I used the smudge tool to get rid of the figure in the center of the image to ensure that it looked different from the front cover and allowed room for the track listing to be written over the top. I then added the track listing in the font Helvetica Bold Oblique, using the same colour for the text as I did on the front cover. I also added the legal information, a barcode, the record label's logo, and the artist's and label's respective websites. 

The final design for the back cover of my digipak

The final design for the back cover of my digipak

Overall, I am really happy with the front and back cover designs for my digipak as I think that they represent the artist, her style of music and her aesthetic well.

Artist Poster Research