Evaluation Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Question 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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Evaluation Question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary tasks?

Final Magazine Advert

After taking on feedback from the audience Made several changes to the magazine advert to make it more suitable for the audience and more appropriate in the context of the artist genre.

Taking away the idea of the criminal gangster I too a more subtle approach of the artist smiling and being relaxed in front of the camera, showing a happy side of the artist.

After remaining the album, I also made the advert title the name of the album and the main song that is the leading promotion package for the album which is the song ''Light Up the Dark" selling the product to the audience.

Having the reviews from GQ, Rolling Stones and Billboard link in well with the genre, as GQ target an aspiration audience. Rolling Stones and Billboard Cover a wide range of musicians who are aiming to sell the product to the audience.

Magazine Advert Feedback

For my magazine advert was inspired by the poster of ‘’Scarface’’ as it was a recognisable poster because of the scale of the production with a great actor such as Al Pacino ect. However, from the feedback I got from the audience it was relatively mixed. There was negative feedback and positive feedback, which I am able to act upon for my final cut of the magazine advert.

Positive Feedback

•           Creative idea, using the intertextuality to publicise the product.
•           The blend of colour that was used of the black and the reduced saturation on the face is effective, similar to the original poster.
•           Having the people who contributed on the side, along with the iTunes icon to tell people where to find the artist’s music is exactly what you would expect from a magazine advert.
•           The use of colour flows well with digipak despite using a different context and features.

Negative Feedback

•           The idea of a using Tony Montana’s character of a drug dealer does not fit well with the brand identity of a humble soul singer. This would give a wrong impression to the mass market of the artist.
•           The black and white colours would fail to stand out in a commercial status, there needs to take away the saturation and maintain the natural skin tone colours.
•           The plain text needs to stand out from the rest of the background, screaming at the audience to look at the advertisement.

I definitely used to the positive feedback to give me motivation to maintain some of the good qualities in the advertisement. However the negative feedback made me reconsidered some of the features of the final product. Such as the intertextuality which I was relatively confident with. Taking way the idea of a thug R&B and Soul artist. I concluded I need to maintain the codes and conventions of the genre which I originally began with advertising the image of the artist properly. As seen with artist such as Justin Timberlake and Ne-yo they form a classy look at the same time emphasise their sound of love and emotion. 

Magazine Roughcut

Scarface was the inspiration of the magazine advert for the promotion package for the artist.  Chose to do this because, the poster for the original is relatively recognisable it would be something nice to look at and reminisce this allows you to stop and take notice of what is being advertised. I used similar picture that I was working with during the photo shoot this is to show the consistency between the digipak product and the advertisement in order to sell the artist as a product.

I decided to replicate as much detail as I could to the original poster of ‘’Tony Montana,’’ for the text I chose the red that was the same as the original, however I could not go for a darker tint red to make it look retro. I was also struggling on how to put a yellow border round the writing like the one similar to the original poster. On the right hand side of the poster I put the people who are have helped feature in the album, they have am honourable mention as part of the magazine advert. I used the standard font however I brought laters close together which is one of the special tools that Photoshop has the capability of doing. On the left hand side I had quotation text of one of the producers of the album talking about OTTY. This is a common feature on the front covers of magazine, there is are emphasis of trying to sell the product.

As I am advertising the up and coming album ‘’Light Up’’ on the right hand side I replace some of the writing that are the credits. I replace that with other musical and life style magazines have given the review to the album. This a marketing strategy as these are well magazines and international popular, it fits in perfectly with genre. Billboard are based on a every single genre of music. Rolling Stones were once previous a popular rock band, however they made a brand of the Rolling Stones Album. The main idea is to sell the product to the mass market. Lastly the use of the GQ life style magazine is to emphasis the standards that ‘’Otty’’ has set, the recognition from fashion magazine (a portion of the full magazine brand).

At the bottom of the magazine, is the icons ‘’Download on iTunes.’’  As iTunes have become a large portion of musical supply that the world gets it is a good place to advertise the music in order to compete in a larger and more prestige industry. I have also put the artist website ‘’www.Ottymusic.com’’ this is to promote whom he is, on the website you get a lot more details than just his music. 

Final Digipak

Audience feedback Digipak

After showing my audience the rough cut of the digipak there was some critics and some positive feedback that I took from the information they gave me.

I went for the black house style for the final digipak cover. This was definitely admired by the audience because of the simplicity of it. ‘’It shows simplicity however it still manages to draw you eye, with the colour of the rose.’’ They also liked the idea of ‘’the model, flowing into the background of the album which shows that he is a part of it and the connection between the album and himself.’’ However the criticism that they gave the front of the album is that it doesn’t have an album name. I was going for the self-titled name for the album to introduce the album to the target market, however the audience recommended that I should relate the album name to the name of the music video song. ‘’Light up the dark’’ and they also passed a few suggestions such as, ‘’light, illuminate, shine’’ I thought it would be a good way forward to have a name for the album. 

In the inside there was no insert for the digipak where I was able to show the people who are involved in the album or any special feature I would like to include in the album. They picked up on that and they strongly recommended that I should do so, so that the audience would know who the artist is and what they are about, selling themselves to the new market. The next part of that was the CD, the liked the idea of the silhouette  which I took inspiration form Chris Brown’s Album, graffiti and the idea of using a side profile and putting more attention on the artist. However the there was a suggestion that I should use the majority of the space rather than half the CD to emphasis the brand identity of the artist.

The back cover was also kept simple, my attempts was to relate the main music video to the digipak by using another silhouette of the dance in a position and spreading it across the back of the digipak. Some of the comments for the feedback was it was working with the rest of the digipak, at some stage there should be a picture of the artist wearing casual clothes rather than consistently suited up, however I thought that I would use that for the insert of the digipak, showing a more sociable artist in which the aspiration audience can relate to. 

Fonts and Images

I asked my audience which text style would be suitable for the final product of the digipak and this is relative response I got from each different type of font. The main objective for this was to see which font style would suit the genre, some of the fonts I have taken I out inspiration of similar ideas that have been done before. This would be the constant product that would be through the digipak to create the specific brand identity.

AR destine - 1
MT extra - 2
Gunshuche -1
Mistroel - 0
Popular std - 3
Narkisim - 2
Ar bonnie -5
Ar christy -2

After a poll from my fellow peers it seemed that the AR Bonnie was the one that was going to be the most subtable for the final digipak product. I agree with it as well there was a level of art deco, which was  popular movement and it brought of the artistry of music into a lot more. the others seemed to be more of a ''wacky or classical'' album packs.

Digipak Rough Cut

Front cover.

After looking at different successful digipak in the similar music genre, there were ideas I took through and ideas that I left. For the front cover I took a simple approach similar to John Legend’s album once again there wasn’t too much complex feature, unlike Chris Brown’s album graffiti. Moreover using outside inspiration such as the poster of the godfather, which bring a level of class which is require for this genre. Having a plain back background and the suit also blended with the background only to see the lighter colours such as the white shirt and the black tight that contrast on the white shit. The skin tone of the model/artist also stand out from the background, using a hair brush, I removed several imperfection on the face of the model, at the same time it made the skin town darker, so that it flows better with the background.

Furthermore on the poster of the godfather, there is a hint of red which is the flower that is on ‘’Vito Corleone’s’’ pocket, I though having a similar reference, a lager flower at the bottom hand right corner of the album cover, I took a picture of google images, and selecting a picture of 1080p to get the best professional finish as possible. The title of the album is ‘’Otty’’ which is a self-titled album, in order for the audience to identify an upcoming artist. And for the font style which would be the continuity brand identity for the artist, I used ‘’AR BONNIE’’ as the font style which has a classic art deco theme.

CD

The CD cover was inspired by Chris Brown’s album graffiti, I used the idea of the silhouette of the artist as the main feature of the cd, with the back layer of paint the contrast is a white silhouette. I took a side profile of my model and increase the saturation of the selected area and created a white outer layer. I used a large soft black brush which would remover the bottom shape of the profile creating a curved edge which would go round on the edge of shape of the CD.

I kept the same style with the text as the front cover keeping that brand identity throughout the whole product. At the bottom of the CD its states ‘’Dedicated to the fantastic music by Otty Freeman, with classic hits such as, “Words and Light up the Dark” 

featuring equally brilliant covers.’’ Where I am giving credit to the actual artist and his contribution to the whole media product of the song. Another feature that airs quite common on CD is the production company/record company that was part of the media product, I selected ‘’Sony Music.’’ I chose a 1080p image using the curve adjustments made the red of the logo, redder so it’s able to stand out on the black Layer of the CD.

Back Cover

With back of the album, I took a feature from the music video of the contemporary dance, after taking a picture of her in an abstract position, I used the similar format as the CD creating a silhouette of the dance. And using a large black soft brush, I coloured next to her, so a blend of black would from the house colour of the digipak in her body and flowing in to the colour white. Instinctively this would draw the eye of the consumer, the contrast of the colours. Using some of the songs that his own songs and the covers that OTTY has produced, I used them as the songs of his latest album, featuring ‘’light Up the dark’’ and ‘’Happy ft Pharrell Williams.’’  Again using the same font of ‘’AR BONNIE’’

‘’EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: OTTY FREEMAN, KUDA DERA & RICARDO LOSCALZO

www.OTTYMUSIC.com  www.BESTOFBRITISHUNSIGNED.com

© 2014 all trademarks and logos are protected. All rights reserved. Unauthorised duplication is violation of applicable laws.’’

This commonly feature on the bottom of the album, giving shout out to the people who contributed with the manufacture of the album. Also the website that people can find more information. I mentioned that artist website and the website I found him this is giving credit to them as they help me build the media product.  The statement at the bottom is to protect the band identity of the artist and keeping the product trademarked. I also used an alternative barcode, which is becoming more and more popular and can be scanned on phones to find different information about the album.  

Photoshop CC

For creating my digipak, I chose to use one of the most well know graphics editing software in the media industry of Photoshop CC. With the ability of editing simple images into something that is eye catching to the audience. With incredible features which can manipulate the pictures and deceive the viewer in order to get the best standard of finish on the promotion product. Before any type of print media is published, whether it is a magazine, newspaper, or even novel it is likely the case that Photoshop has been used to enhance and clean up the imagery on many if not all of the pages. Magazines use Photoshop and many of its tools in order to enhance the imagery and text in their publications. Many Health and Beauty Magazines employ in-house designers to retouch photos of models to enhance their beauty. They add finishing touches to the imagery by using tools that balance colour and add drop shadows, among other edits.

After watching several tutorials on how to use adobe Photoshop and some of the techniques and effects that can be created, I began playing around with the different effects and familiarising myself with the tools and effects. With several trail and areas showed that there was areas of improvements that where required. However, unlike the big cooperation I was basing my ideas of the final products of the digipak on simplicity.

I started gaining different skills sand knowledge of tools as I went along. Such as

Lasso tool: Males the user make a custom selection by drawing it freehand. Which
is similar tools within this tool such as the marquee tools.

• Quick select: Is exactly what it does, you are able to select parts of an images that have the same colour and contrast, with this you are able to do a lot of things with, I used it to move a picture onto different back ground. Within this tool there are imperfection that are created because of this, to remove some of these imperfection is to ‘’Refine edge’’ Which bring some of the original shape of the picture back without making major alteration.
• Spot healing: This I used to remove the imperfection on the faces of the models. This is used a lot in the media industry to improve the look and make the picture more pleasing to see, I am also able to bring some of the skin tones forward and give atone which would suit the rest of the background.
• Brush tool: this is a standard tool, however you are able to change the shape of the brush, the direction of it, the colours of the brushes and the spread. I  used this tool to bring out some of the colours such as the black and white, to get the pure colour out of the black suite, as in the picture the quality wasn’t as high as the natural colours of the backgrounds.
• Curves Adjustments: I used this tool to bring the colours more compared to the original picture. Making the blacks, darker and the whites brighter, as the original picture shows that the suit had a light tint of grey where, and there white where not pure enough. So raising that would making more definitive. This has similar but a more precise style of editing to the saturation tool. 
• Horizontal type tool, this was required to be one of the main features of the media package as I had to use it to right different text such as the magazine advert, names of the songs for the digipak and the album name. There is a range of techniques that can be done, I can select the font, squeeze the letters together or spread them apart, the direction of the letters. I could make the letters 3 dimensional as well. 

The is a lot of power with adobe Photoshop and different skills that's why it is used a lot in the industry. it bring out different features, creating different and abstract effects. However the complicity of the software is shown due to the lack of abstract effects that i have used which can take a lot of time to pick up the high quality skills however overtime things would start becoming more and more familiar and using some of the tools to great effect. 

Photoshoot

I asked my artist to take several pictures of him from different angles and distances. It was important that I used a white background to take the pictures because while using Photoshop it easier to move different selections and transferring them to new background as the clothing can contrast with the background. When taking the photos I used a Sony Xperia S camera, after different takes I realised that it would work more effectively using natural light as to be able to see more of the details in the clothes and the colours. My decision of selecting the black suit and white shirt is that fact that it links perfectly with the genre an emphasis of class and style which the male audience can aspire to. However there was several imperfection on the suit such as the left pocket, It wasn't too much of an issue because my skills and knowledge that I gained on using Photoshop CC would allow me to remove them, using content aware fill.

The angles I used that I thought would work well with either the digipak or the magazine advert would be close ups or mid shots which is used a lot in albums and magazines, such as the rolling stones and the time magazine. That idea of brand image that the record company might want to create for the artist and they attempt to bring him forward in the competitive music industry, this can also entice the female audience.

Other shots are took were close up and side profiles of the artist, this was used for the insert of the digipak in order to introduce the people involved with the music, music video and directors. They are a major part of the industry as a part of the album there should be recognised. With being the artist first album it is important to introduce these people world and amplify their talents.

Intertextuality

For my digipak, I decided to take inspiration from classic films such as the Godfather and Scarface. Although the movies are based on American Italian Mobsters the advertisements and promotion of the films show a level of class and sophistication. Godfather released in 1972 undoubtable one of the greatest films of all time and Scarface released in 1983 another classic film featuring Al Pacino. What attracted me to the idea is the blend of natural colours from the pictures that have been take and fused into the background of the. This produced a memorable brand image which I would wish to replicate in order for the audience to recognised it instantly and be interested in the product.

The Godfather poster shows Vito Corleone mid shot, wearing black tuxedo, white shirt, black bow tie and a read rose. I believe the contrast of the black tuxedo is brought down to make it pure black so that it blends into the back ground. However the contrasting colour of the white shirt is bright up to contrast the black, this effect would show that he is wearing a tuxedo. With black of the bow tie also blending with the background colour you are able to see the separation between the shirt and collar of the shirt which mounts in with the head of Vito Corleone. The darker areas where the shadow is created with the light that’s is being shone on the character Vito Corleone is emphasised into darker shade and the natural skin tone and where the light is hitting the most on his face is made lighter to a shade of cartoon-like image, the darker shade of his hair is also made to merge in with the background.  The flower is the only part of the image that is outstanding from the rest of the wallpaper.

What I am to do is get the simplicity of the digipak that is recognised in the R&B and Soul genre. The aim is to sell the artist as a brand, give the audience something to attract them to him. And the influence of the godfather could be a key element of that part. I aim to replicate this poster and use it for my digipak taking away the black of the suit that my artist would be taken in and allowing it to blend with the background. Rather than using tuxedo, I worked with a similar style as Chris Brown’s Album Fortune of a slim fit suit although getting the reference of classic and set in the 1940s, I want to bring a modern feature to the product, with slim fit suit, rather than using a bow tie, as skinny tie is more preferable for the current trend. The artist has a darker complexion than the reference poster of Vito Corleone, leaving the complexion as it in order to see the artist and recognised him as a new artist in the market. The title of the album would be running down the sleeve of the model, not follow the exact final product of the Godfather poster.

For the Magazine advert it took my inspiration from the Scarface poster. As Al Pacino is wearing a white suite and with a gun in his hand. This also has similar effect to the godfather. The background colour is a separation of black and white. Then it shows a picture of long shot Al Pacino standing in white suit which blends with white and contrast with the black, the outer layer of the white suit is formed onto the black background. The darker areas of the original photo are emphasised also in the white area of the poster: The black shirt, the pocket square, the sleeve of the shirt underneath the suite. With the face of Al Pacino the saturation was brought down in order to get the dark black and white shade. The text on the left of the poster is written in white using a font style of Century, the text discusses character of ‘’Tony Montana’’ and the right of the poster the text is written in black using the same font, and it shows the people who were a major contribution of the film. The main headline shows the title of the film and the main actor’s name Al Pacino. With is done in Charlemagne standard font with red fill and yellow outer line.

Usher Digipak

Usher Raymond, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, philanthropist, businessman, and actor. He rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit, "Nice & Slow". The album has been certified 6-times platinum. His follow-up album, 8701, produced the Billboard Hot 100 number one hits "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad". The album has been certified 4-times platinum.

Usher's 2004 album, Confessions, sold over 10 million copies in the United States and has been certified diamond by the RIAA. Confessions has the highest first week sales for an R&B artist in history. It spawned four consecutive Billboard number one hits  "Yeah!", "Burn", "Confessions Part II", and "My Boo". Usher's 2008 album, Here I Stand, sold over 5 million copies worldwide, and its lead single "Love in This Club" spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

On March 30, 2010, Usher released his sixth studio album Raymond v. Raymond, which became his third consecutive album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. It has been certified platinum yet again and spawned another Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "OMG". The song became his ninth number one in the United States, making him the first 2010s artist to collect number one singles in three consecutive decades. He later released an extended play and deluxe edition of Raymond v. Raymond, entitled Versus, which debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. Its lead single "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100.

The RIAA ranks Usher as one of the best-selling artists in American music history, having sold over 23 million copies in the United States alone. To date, he has sold over 65 million records worldwide, making him one of the bestselling music artists of all time. Usher has won numerous awards including eight Grammy Awards. At the end of 2009, Usher was named the number one Hot 100 artist of the 2000s decade. Billboard named him the second most successful artist of the 2000s decade, with his 2004 album Confessions being ranked as the top solo album of the 2000s decade. Billboard also placed Usher at number six on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years. Usher has attained nine Hot 100 number-one hits (all as a lead artist) and has attained eighteen Hot 100 top-ten hits.

His second album, ''My Way,'' we see an birds eye close up  shot of usher looking up at the camera while standing on top of an escalator,  with the closer up you are able to see seductive look that he gives to the camera which is targeted at the female audience. Instantly that symbolises the idea of brand identity, recognizing whom the albums is and the artist selling point. With a purple subtle tint which is an appealing colour for the female audience. Wearing dark clothing to match the dark purple colour that is of the house colours. As following the clothing trend that was during that time, on the back cover he wears a white jacket, with a black hat, his body is out of focus while the chain is in focus which has the letter ‘’U’’ standing for usher. With elements like this you could tell that this was the old usher that was young.

His album confessions, with a similar outlook of making sure that the artist is the main centre of attention, it takes a side profile of usher looking away from the camera while wearing a Bennie hat. Stage light that produced a brown contrast through the picture which is taken from his skin town to match the rest of the album art. With the tittle of the album reading sideways on the left hand side of the album ‘’Confessions’’ and usher’s name also written. For his next album ‘’Confessions Part II’’ album it shows usher as a sex appeal, a similar ideas of attract the audience with a certain level star image, as a Goodwin’s theory star image that would be emphasis to make the album more of a commercial product which would be advisable to the different selling points such as iTunes, MHV and Zune Music.  For the female target audience the concept of usher leaning on a wall and he has his shirt off, show his muscles flexing, is an idea that would gain a large amount of sales.

His 2010 album ''Raymond V. Raymond'' showed more of his evolution from a young teen artist to a mature R&B legend. On the Front cover it shows large writing of the album name, and on the right hand side is a half picture of usher and similar on the left hand side . This takes the concepts of the album name, of two different Usher competing against each other and the title of the album is based on his last name ''Usher Raymond.'' and the title itself has smoke effect which implies that there is a fuse and fire and sign of conflict. The CD of the album is as backward ''R'' and forward ''R'' and a large shinny which produces visible light colours ''V'' which goes over the stacking, similar to that the logos for ''la Face'' ''Jive'' and ''Sony music'' are of similar concept which aims to catch the eye of the consumer.  On the back of the CD it takes of an alternative format of listing songs that feature on the album, as it reads left to right rather than in a order going down, this may be difficult to read as you may be looking a specific track, for my digipak I would list them going down the left hand side of the back. Futhermore, a long shot shows Usher looking directly at the camera and haing is arms across a bench whcih may look like to be a church with out removing the seriousness of the comeptative nature and and yet again brings the emphasis of the star image which is started by andrew goodwin.

John Legend Digipak

The following research will constant of different types digipaks that are it a similar genre as my artist. I will be doing an in depth analysis on the insert of the hard copy CD and the promotion packs. I able to analyse what makes a good and attractive product which relates to the intended audience. I will use this information to take inspiration for the artist taking similar ideas that would make the product itself attractive. The CD and Promotion is one of the most important stages for an upcoming artist to be noticed as they are advertising what they are all about what and the main idea is to identify the audience that they are aiming towards. However in the modern hard copy CD have been on the decline due to the rise of buying music online, Such as iTunes, this is considers now to be one of the most simplest form of obtaining music there is a wider library of music which is open to different genres which may be difficult to gain on hard copy. Although the popularity of iTunes increase, there is also high increase of illegal download of music, this has become more and more popular, this is caused by the high prices of the Full albums and singles. Although the high prices are caused by increase illegal downloads, as the artist are wanting to meet their target in sales. There are more people who have a specific album than there are of that albums sold. 

In the this section I will be analysing 2 artist within the soul and R&B Genre, assessing their forms of promotion, how it appealed to the target audience and the effects used though out promotion package that I will be able to use. John Legend's album ''Once Again" who has been a high inspiration through the production, with his simplicity and elegance, and a gentle voice, which exactly what Otty represent, and replicating such ideas and attracting the same audience. The second artist I will be analysing would be Ne-yo, as he shows sophistication and class among black R&B/ soul artist, which is also replicated with the album art and the waulity of the album art really emphasises the genre and the target audience intend.

John legend is one of the most well know R&B artist in the music industry he has made several products such as ‘’Once Again, Love in the Future, Get Lifted and Evolver” all excellent promotion packages and have sold well. His album Once again was released in October 2006. And yes this alum went platinum having 1.6million sales and hit Number 1 in the US billboard R&B/Hip Hop charts. The song "Heaven" won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Also, "Save Room" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The album art really takes in consideration of the artist and his musical form. He is the product for the GOOD Music and having Him as the main cover allows the audience to immediately identify the artist and mainly attracting the female audience with his relatively good looks. The house colours, allows the other alternative background colours to stand out, the colours of the New York street. Showing an unorthodox perceptive of having a grand piano in the middle of street.

Get Lifted was also released via Kanye West's GOOD Music label on December 28, 2004 in the United States. Featuring production by West, John Legend, Dave Tozer and will.i.am, the album sold over three million units worldwide, with a total of 2.1 million copies in the U.S., where it was certified platinum. The album won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, and earned Legend another two awards, for Best New Artist and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his single "Ordinary People". With a brown vintage sketchy house colour and the simplicity of the side profile of John Ledged also attempts to create brand identity of the upcoming artist, mainly trying to sell the artist to the audience. The let on the front of the album immediately identifies the artist, and the name of the album as he is new to the market. That’s what would be the main focus on creating the album art for the product. Critically assessing the advertising product, I have seen that there is not much attention that draws the audience to album, it doesn't stand out there is lack of creativity and unique art. Although it aims to sell the artist, it doesn't shout out to the audience to gets its attention. the dull brown, doesn't reflect the soul embedded in the songs of the album. It requires vibrant colours, similar to visualizers where it attempts to create as specific ambience for the audience.  

With his current album, which Love in the future, which was realised on august 30th 2013, which i particularly think is one of my favourite albums of all time with classical singles such as ''All of me'' and ''Open your eyes'' The most popular track. Through out the album the is a sense of hear and soul expressed. The album reached 4th in the US Billboard 200 chart, and 5th in the UK album charts to its peak. After his self inspired album art, he took an alternative approach for his album art, now being an established artist in the industry, although taking a simplistic approach yet again, using roses as theme, reflecting on the title of the album, of Love in the Future. The Digipak overall takes a artistic approach, with a house theme of red which represent, listening to the tracks there is a difffienly evideince that it is based on his Wife. Using the songs that feature in the album I can easily start to build up picture of what the Digipak my look like taking inspiration from the lyrics of the song, some however my be taking inspiration from the promotion music video, using some of the shots in the song to relate it to the album art. 

Chris Brown Digipaks

As as R&B and soul artist, Chris Brown shows a great example of successful Digipak. Looking at the professional product, I able to take Inspiration from the album. There are certain feature which stand out that I would like to use as a part of my product.

With his first album was a self-titled Chris Brown, which is impotent as a young and upcoming artist, being able start brand identity with the intended target audience. The aim for the a new product to identify that product to the market and taking advantage of the album by putting mid shot of Chris brown, so that the audience know the artist behind the music, and as a young man he would easily appeal to the female audience, and it is important to get his feature as part of the product.  The album cover shows the emphasis of music with the micro phone and the speakers in the background this shows his passion of music and express that everyone. Although simple style black and white fashion style, it implies the simplicity of it and attempting to reach a wide range audience.

Exclusive is the second studio album by Chris Brown. The album was originally scheduled to be released August 28, 2007, but was pushed back to October 30, 2007, then pushed back even further to its final release date of November 6, 2007.The album was both critically and commercially successful, reaching number four on the US Billboard 200 chart on its debut. The album debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 294,000. As of March 2011, it has sold 1,973,000 copies in the United States alone, and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Similar to his previous album cover he maintains that desire to keep the brand identity by placing himself on the front cover. He upgrades his style to more sophisticated style with a black suit and red shirt and the colour red is also a main feature throughout the album, with the title also including red, at the top hand right corner of the cover.  The colour is sued to great effect as it is the house style throughout, with black and white filter in the background, the, the red saturation is made to pop and be the main centre of attention on the album cover. On the back of the CD, the songs are listed on the right hand side in a standard Calibri font, however some of the fonts are highlighted in red these songs are the additional songs for the deluxe edition. I could use the same concept and indicate to the viewer the most popular songs or the songs with a music video featuring. However, in my opinion the dark background drains the colour of the product away, it is vital the aesthetics of the product would be attractive the intended audience, and for my artist it would be female audience, so I would aim to use lighter more subtle colours to make it more appealing and a point of sale.

His third realising album was ‘’Graffiti’’ which sold 295,000 units within a week of release. Using his Album ''Graffiti','' the front cover instantly has feature that make it attractive to the intended audience, which are females or aspiration teen boys, looking showcasing his style and fashion sense. Although it challenges the conventional idea of a R&B album cover, it takes more of the artistic perspective, where he has shown that through his career his desire for graffiti. The title and the small cartoon animation at the bottom right of the CD cover are done in a graffiti style, which is a constant feature throughout the album. With the establishing shot of the moon and the sun hiding behind the moon, suggestion more creative and exploration album, where in some of his music he has shown that in attacking different styles of music. Moreover, the context may also have meaning of a mixture between something and complex as space and something as simple and creative as graffiti. Furthermore with the light of the sun creeping round, Chris Brown is in dark clothing making him stand out from the rest of the album. It would be interesting to try something such as an juxtaposition of different context, for example taking the lyrics of the music video ‘’Light Up the Dark’’ and having to elements that contradict or complement each other in order to get the cross link with the lyrics and music with the album art.

Inside the CD, the insert which is also the album cover, each song has the name and credits of the people who have been involved in the song and videos. Sharing that, there is also the feature of Chris Brown, photo shoots, close up and long shots. This is a bonus feature for the female audience, this would attract more of the female audience allow a personal contact with them and him. The star image perspective is amplified as there are close ups of him and his body.

In addition, the CD itself produces an awesome effect in order to match with the rest of the package. As there is a silhouette replica photo of the album cover, and the same graffiti style writing as the album cover. A potential idea is to replicate the same idea, however rather than using the Otty Freeman as the CD art, I would use the dance for the music video with an elegancy stroked pose, which her leg would curve around the stacking ring, main her the centre of attention once opened. This would add variety to the artist’s image, illustrating the idea of art in different form, music, dance and photography.

In his latest album, it seems that there is a several combinations of his previous albums. Released in 2012 the album fortune, in the United States, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 135,000 copies in its first week. The album also debuted at number one in the Netherlands, New Zealand and United Kingdom, and reached the top ten in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan and Switzerland. On the album cover, a light shines down on Brown, who poses against a blue backdrop, dressed in a blue sleek, slim-fitting suit with a skinny tie and thick black framed glasses. While the word "Fortune" appears behind him in different languages. Courtney Walter came up with the idea of using hieroglyphics for the album's title, which would probably be a cool feature to include in my own artwork. The Blue matched the suit and it gives a kind of futuristic vibe. You'll see blue throughout the packaging.

Otty - Light Up the Dark Final Cut

This is the final cut for the music video Light Up the Dark By Otty Freeman. 

A major thanks to the Otty as he allowed me to use his song and create it into music video. I hope my efforts has done the song justice for the concept for the music video. #enjoy.