Digipack - Middle

For the inside of the digipack, we chose to use the same theme as the front cover - this gave the package as a whole a more consistent look as we didn't want to overcomplicate things and make it too over-the-top for the audience - an audience of young club goers who wouldn't want something too complex.

Magazine Advert Anaylsis

The consistent, simple beige colour theme used on both the advert and the album cover add an aura of sophistication. It's practically the same except for the added information advertising the product.

The contrast in the use of flowers to write the word 'dirt' adds a sense of irony and a deeper meaning to the music behind it's simple exterior.

It also has a multi-audience - it's simple enough to appeal to a younger audience, yet an older audience will appreciate it's subtlety and contrasts within the logo and design.

When we do our magazine advert we'll be sure to incorporate similar colour schemes and designs to our CD cover keep up a consistent and sophisticated feel to the music - this is also a key marketing scheme as it means the audience can familarize themselves with similar looking designs.

We'll also look to make advert attract different audiences, something we've already done with our digipack.

Digipack - Back Cover

For the back cover, we made sure it had a corralation to the front cover so kept the black background and used a similar shaped design but we choose more of a flame shape to add a more edgy effect, which shows, perhaps, a deeper side to the music than the typical (for a dance album) front cover which engages the audience.

This shows how we are catering for two audiences. The front cover is aimed to attract attention a younger audience, and the back cover engages the audience fully, especially a more mature one.

We felt we the contract between the front and back was perfect.

Digipack - Front Cover

After looking at existing products almost all the covers had a variety of styles but with one common similarity - the use of bright colours, which we employed with a darker background to give a strobe light/club feel. To emphasises this to the audience we added in faded dancing silhouettes, with the name of our album - 'Skylight' in a font that suited the rest of the cover in design and colour. We felt this suited our young audience of club goers, as the design is relatively straightforward to understand.

We used fireworks to design the cover using the line tool followed by the freeform to get the shape seen above. The silhouttes were also outlined using the freeform tool and coloured in black using the fill tool. Using the Fade feature we made the silhouettes less lifelike - this added a sense of the surreal, something young people who go to clubs are looking for.

A2 Research Into Existing Products - Club Music

Our group has decided to make our own music using the Musix Maker programme - this is becasue we wanted to make something totally original which would fit a music video with our own creative ideas - it would mean that everything would be totally our own work and it would help us into fitting our own ideas into a song as well as a video and artwork.

We chose club music as this is something that interests all members of the group and based on our focus group we felt the younger members of the group liked dance and beats in their music videos - something that's prominent in club music and we felt appealing to a more contemporary audience is important.

I did some research into exisiting album covers for club music, and came up with this group of covers



All these covers share the same ingredients - bright colours and bold, 3D effect text, along with club style lighting. This stands out to the viewer and shows straight away the type of music it is - these effects are typical of all club album covers and something we will try and employ in our promotional package, along with our own twists based on how the music sounds.



The artist of the music is very rarely on the front cover which is good for our group as were making it ourselves. All the covers have a summery feel with the choice of colour and (lack of) images - this mood is reflected in all the covers I've looked at and through colour, images and text something that our cover will have to get across. The music gives off a party feel as it's used in clubs so this will have to be reflected in our cover.



I also had a look at music videos for club music. The majority of the videos were set in clubs but this will be tough for us to do due to the impracticality of filming in a club. Looking back at our focus group, some of the older members of the group liked to see something a bit more creative than a typical video you'd see all the time - this is something we'll definitely be considering once our music is actaully complete so we know how far to go outside the box with the video and what effects our needed to make sure the video and the music go together well.

Hurt - Johnny Cash

In 2003 Johnny Cash covered the Nine Inch Nails song “Hurt” after hooking up with legendary producer Rick Rubin. The original was industrial rock but Cash gave it a country and western twist, giving a more emotional feel. Cash gives hindsight into his life and the mistakes he made in his life through the music video - his declining health was also highlighted. The video was seen as iconic in Cash’s career as he died only 5 months after the video was made.

To really understand the full emotional pain in the video, it’s important to look at events in Cash’s personal life. His older brother, Jack, was killed after being pulled into a saw mill, in 1944, and Cash was emotionally scarred by the incident, being only 12 at the time. His divorce from his first wife, Vivian Liberto, is the incident that most relates to the lyrics in the song as it began the downward spiral into an addiction of drugs, alcohol and affairs with other women. The video portrays this by showing clips of Cash in his youth followed by his present state. His wife also features in the video, although that wasn’t the original plan. We also see images of the Johnny Cash museum – once in its heyday and later when it’s rundown and ruined. This represents how Cash’s health and career have fallen from the top to the bottom.

The lyrics in the Cash’s version are identical except he changes the lyric “I wear this crown of shit” to “I wear this crown of thorns”, to compare himself to Jesus’ crucifixion in terms of his illness. The religious references don’t stop there – an image of a crucifix is shown many times and we see fruit and wine on Cash’s table – a reference to the last supper. The constant references to religion and Jesus in particular are there to highlight how Cash’s life has gone from one where he is idolised to near-death.

The editing of the video is important as the slow, long takes create a mellow atmosphere that, combined with the old pictures of Cash’s career, really emphasise the sadness and pain of Cash. Also the slow pace lets you follow the story and understand Cash’s pain even more.

The video was successful as it played on the heartstrings of the audience as Cash’s ill-health gained huge sympathy as he was such a popular figure in his prime. The contrast between Cash’s hugely successful career and younger life to his declining health in the video made the video iconic, especially with his death coming only 5 months later.

Busted & Fightstar Album Covers

On the Busted album all the band members are on the cover to promote the star appeal of the album. The logo is prominent on the cover so it’s easily recognizable for its young audience. There are no band members on the cover of the Fightstar album as the band is looking for something more meaningful than just promotion and star appeal. The image used – a women and child on the steps of a house surrounded by a flood create an incredibly thought-provoking, surreal feel to the album. The band name isn’t the most prominent thing on the page and isn’t meant to stand out like the Busted one.

The Busted cover is very simple in terms of colour. It uses primary colours and there’s only 3 colours used. The Fightstar cover, on the other hand, uses darker more somber colours and there is far more depth, light, shade and perspective compared to the Busted cover which has no light, shade or depth.

The cover creates a simple vibrant look which would appeal to a young demographic as there is nothing more to the cover than what you see. The Fightstar cover, in huge contrast, creates a much more artistic and meaningful cover which could have many different meanings behind it. It is far less poppy as it isn’t aimed at a mainstream audience and more at people who specifically understand and listen to the genre of music Fightstar make.







The Busted cover is very similar to the previous one. It has all the band members on the front cover with the logo prominent. Again this is to appeal to a young demographic and to a mainstream audience. There is very little more to the cover than the images you can see. Again, this is in complete contrast to Fightstar image, which is complex and thought provoking – it’s likely to have some relation to the music itself whereas the images for the Busted cover are purely for promotion. The logo on this cover is different to the previous Fightstar logo which shows they’re not relying on the name of the band to sell the album and would rather let the music do the talking.

The colours on the Busted cover are, as with the previous cover, primary and as simple as possible to not overcomplicate the page. This appeals to the mainstream target audience. This is a huge contrast to the somber, dark coloured Fightstar cover which has depth, shade and perspective, similar to the previous cover.

The simple cover of the Busted album, exactly like the previous one, gives the effect of mainstream simple music that would appeal to a young, pop demographic, as there is nothing more than meets the eye than the bright front cover. The Fightstar cover, in contrast, has much more to it than meets the eye and the music and the reasons behind the music, would, more than likely, explain the cover choice. It’s appeal is more at a core fan base who are into their style of music rather than a huge demographic, like the Busted cover.