The digipak effectively represents the “acoustic genre”, with the generic object of the “guitar”, the locations and the narrative. This is also seen in the music video, (the generic still image of Craig playing the guitar in the music video). The guitar connotes the lifestyle of the “busker” which is associated with the genre, the locations convey the ideology of summer through the sunny country views, which metaphorically communicates the narrative of “freedom” and “the journey of life” mirroring that of the music video (as Craig is reflecting on the memories he had over the summer and the friendships he valued at the time).
As the characteristics of the music video are quite generic and include conventions of the indie, acoustic and f0lk genre, I wanted to add artistic elements to make the digipak and advertisement stand out as being a creative design which portrays the artists’ personality. To make sure my idea would fit in with the genre I looked into similar artists’ advertising. The CD cover which inspired my back cover was Damien Rice’s, “Live from the union chapel”. The image is hand- drawn, which makes it unique and authentic, which was a label I wanted the digipak to have. Rice’s CD showed the conventions of the folk genre, through the warm organic colours in the countryside, and the centre-drawn head. 
The head could represent a theme of peace, through it bowing slightly, thus conveying the mood of the CD of a soft calm state. Thus a moral message is conveyed to the intended audience. In the narrative of my music video, there is a philosophical message, about how friendships end but others begin and how it isn’t the end but merely the beginning, as “one door shuts another door opens” but more importantly the message of caring for others and not solely thinking about [your own] feelings, is a message that appeals to lots of people if not all, and is a philosophy sympathetic to this genre. The writing on the image looks like typewriting, making the CD vintage and conveys the possible old fashioned qualities that would appeal to the intended audience. My cover could be described as looking like it has been drawn by a child, conveying a current theme in the acoustic genre of advertising to all ages and types of people such as families but primitively the art appeals to the particular audience. 
I wanted the image to add closure to the digipak but at the same time draw them in to want to hear more of Tom Sutcliffe, consequently buying his next album. Jeff Buckley’s “Mystery white Boy” inspired my advertisement. Buckley is a similar artist to my chosen artist “Tom Sutcliffe” as he plays “soft rock” and his clothing is alternative. 
This represents how he thinks and acts differently to the norm in the music industry and it is widely believed that this differentiation comes naturally as it wasn’t until after his death that his music became international appreciated, as at the time, his music didn’t quite fit in with other music artists, such as, “Coolio” and “Mariah Carey”. The binary opposition of red, white and black makes the image stand out. The white colour emphasises the heading “mystery white boy”. The position of Buckley mirrors that of Eva Cassidy in “Eva by heart” by facially turning away from the camera with no eye-contact. This was something I wanted to add to both the advertisement and the digipak, through this body position the audience is slightly detached to the artist making the narrative open and relatable as the audience can make their own narrative. I liked the idea of the audience listening to a song and immersing themselves into a daydream making the lyrics individually important. By adding the generic object of the “guitar” it makes the pose a characteristic of the genre. For the inside pages I decided to mix both pages of Craig from the music video and more artistic themes that reflect the characters personality and the conventions of creativity in the acoustic genre.
The head could represent a theme of peace, through it bowing slightly, thus conveying the mood of the CD of a soft calm state. Thus a moral message is conveyed to the intended audience. In the narrative of my music video, there is a philosophical message, about how friendships end but others begin and how it isn’t the end but merely the beginning, as “one door shuts another door opens” but more importantly the message of caring for others and not solely thinking about [your own] feelings, is a message that appeals to lots of people if not all, and is a philosophy sympathetic to this genre. The writing on the image looks like typewriting, making the CD vintage and conveys the possible old fashioned qualities that would appeal to the intended audience. My cover could be described as looking like it has been drawn by a child, conveying a current theme in the acoustic genre of advertising to all ages and types of people such as families but primitively the art appeals to the particular audience. I wanted the image to add closure to the digipak but at the same time draw them in to want to hear more of Tom Sutcliffe, consequently buying his next album. Jeff Buckley’s “Mystery white Boy” inspired my advertisement. Buckley is a similar artist to my chosen artist “Tom Sutcliffe” as he plays “soft rock” and his clothing is alternative. This represents how he thinks and acts differently to the norm in the music industry and it is widely believed that this differentiation comes naturally as it wasn’t until after his death that his music became international appreciated, as at the time, his music didn’t quite fit in with other music artists, such as, “Coolio” and “Mariah Carey”. The binary opposition of red, white and black makes the image stand out. The white colour emphasises the heading “mystery white boy”. The position of Buckley mirrors that of Eva Cassidy in “Eva by heart” by facially turning away from the camera with no eye-contact. This was something I wanted to add to both the advertisement and the digipak, through this body position the audience is slightly detached to the artist making the narrative open and relatable as the audience can make their own narrative. I liked the idea of the audience listening to a song and immersing themselves into a daydream making the lyrics individually important. By adding the generic object of the “guitar” it makes the pose a characteristic of the genre. For the inside pages I decided to mix both pages of Craig from the music video and more artistic themes that reflect the characters personality and the conventions of creativity in the acoustic genre. The shot of Craig sitting in the field shows the mood of the song “Cigarettes” as tranquil and peacefully happy. The inside cover of the guitar being engulfed by waves of colours shows the “hippy” genre, which has themes of peace and relationships which are important in conveying the narrative of the artist’s song “Cigarettes”. The idea behind the image was to make the audience believe they were looking at Tom Sutcliffe’s original notes for the song “cigarettes”. This would make the picture unique and authentic to the consumer. A factor of the target audience would be their interest in abstract art. Which is why one of the main locations in the music video is that of “The Playhouse” a pub which is stereotypically metaphorically “home” as many art students and alternative people who listen to the acoustic genre.
So far so good but where are the other panels and discussion of them?
ReplyDeleteYou have evaluated the connotations of the images you have used in the cover. You have show intertextual references and explained choices. You could have explored the ways in which these images reflect the mood and representations in the music video further. You could have also considered these products as marketing tools and how they will promote the artist as well as part of a genre.
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