This is my final back cover for my cd. It is simply the white brick wall which shows continuity from the front cover which is also the white brick wall. I have wrote out 4 song titles which suggests it is a single cd and not an album as there is usually a lot more songs on an album than on a single. I have wrote the name of the song ‘photobooth’ and the band, ‘strings attached’ down the left and right margin to add a border like a effect. The font I used was from the examples further below. I chose this one because it look slightly like graffiti which gives it an edgy rebellious look, and because the font is so bold it stands out. I chose to have the font in black as it also makes it look bold, and looks nicely against the white background, and the grayscale effect. For the background I used the auto level key which is under image than adjustments at the top of the screen. This key automatically makes the selected image stand out and increases the contrast. For the image, I copied a picture of a Polaroid picture off Google on the internet, and then I took a picture of Thomas holding a camera, with the flash on. I then pasted the picture of the camera on top of the Polaroid picture and rotated the image, by using the scale key. When the image was to my satisfaction I then selected the entire image with the crop key on the right hand side margin and pressed enter, which then made the image a whole instead of two images pasted on top of one another. I then used the auto level key again until the image was bold. I changed the color corrections to black and white by decreasing the saturation. This was also under, image then adjustments. I did this as it looked odd in color against the black and white background, and also it makes the entire picture more urban looking, which is the effect I wanted. I heightened the brightness on the camera flash to make it really bright, too look like their was being a picture taken, this also links in with my music video promo, because in this I also use a camera flash, and a camera click to represent a picture being taken, in a photobooth. On the Polaroid at the bottom, writing is usually apparent, so I decided to also write something on the picture to add realism. I wrote, ‘you and me like young lovers do’ this is some lyrics from the actual song. To finish my cd back cover for my digipak I added necessary information including, the producers, the company and record label. I found ideas of the internet to see the conventions of cd back covers, and made up my own. I also added a barcode to show realism and also use a convention of cd back covers.
For my cd front cover, i used the white brick wall effect as the overall background. I then pasted pictures and writing on top of this layering the images to the order of which i want them too appear. I did this by selecting the image then looking at the layer number on the right hand side and moving it either up or down depending on which image i want to be on top of another. The title of the ban and the song use the same font which i found off, Google, then typed in fonts, then i scrolled down until i found an appropriate one. I made the title of the band, ‘strings attached’ larger than the name of the song ‘photobooth’ because a convention of cd front covers is one is usually larger than the other to differentiate the two. I chose to have the band name bigger and bolder because they are a new artist so the title should be the focus point of the image to introduce them, and i feel personally when buying a cd you tend to look at the artist before the song. I chose to place this layer right at the top of the front cover and adjust the size using the scale key. I wanted the title to fill the full top half of the page which really makes it stand out. The name of the song ‘photobooth’ is under the band name and slightly to the right hand side of the image. I put that here because i didn’t want it to look symmetrical, as i feel that makes an image look slightly boring and i wanted it to link with theme, which is edgy, rebellious and urban. Having this at the right slightly off centre i feel achieves this. The image on the front cover is the film rail, which i experimented with further earlier on. I really enjoyed experimenting with designing this and the outcome i was really happy with so i decided to use it. The black and white links with the rest of the images to show continuity and the pictures on the film strip themselves introduce the characters of the music video promo. Overall i am really happy with my front cover cd i feel it looks simple but effective as their was a lot of detail that went into certain aspects for example the film rail, the fonts, and adjusting the contrasts, brightness, auto levels and scales of things.
This is my final magazine advertisement for my band Strings Attached with their new debut single Photobooth. I got this font of a website, www.dafonts.com and altered the size and width to fit the page how i wanted it. I didn’t want it exactly in the middle, so i put it slightly offside to the left top corner, this gives it a more edgy, off balanced look and makes it look more rebellious and not perfect. I wrote ‘bring you’ and ‘photobooth’ in the same font also to show continuity. I made these slightly less small, so the band name stands out more and is more dominant. The background image is a white brick wall which id previously experimented with for my digipack, i think it looks effective as its not a perfect design its slightly rough looking which makes the image look more casual and links with the style of music. I also used the film rail which id used before but i hadn’t curled it round i just placed in straight on the poster and warped it slightly so it as thicker at the bottom then at the top to make it look edgy also. I then stretched the film rail using the warp key on image, distort. I then made the bits I want thin, thin and the thicker bits thicker. I selected the full image and pressed enter to make the image as a whole, then I finale warped the film rail round and round by dragging the corners to where I wanted them, and I made it look like this, so it looks like it is curling off the page. I also pasted an image of Thomas on the front and edited it makes him stand out more by changing the contrast. I made the contrast very high and the brightness very low until was satisfied. The picture is in the centre of the frame and is a medium close up of his entire body, sat down looking away, this gives a rebellious feel to it when he looks away, signifying he i aware of what is going on but chooses not to look directly at the camera. It also gives it a better link to the style of music and genre, relating to typical stereo-typical teenagers being rebellious and slightly arrogant. I then wrote some text in a text box saying the single name, the release date and the types of audio you are able to buy for this particular song. This is a convention of a music poster. I also copied a HMV logo off the internet and then cropped it so it was the right size. I then used the magic wand tool which allows you to get rid of colors, backgrounds, images you don’t want. So I used this tool between the letters to get rid of the black background so the HMV stood alone as individual letters and not linked together by a black background. I put the logo in the bottom left corner so it is out the way but with the bright pink coloring it also stands out. I added 5 ***** to advertise the single and 5 starts show that it is apparently good which is a good advertising skill, and considering the posters aim is t advertise the song I think this works well.
