The many different artistic styles of digipak can relate to the Genres individually. To relate to the Gothic genre, my digipak would be produced to have 3D aspects to symbolise the boundaries between reality and the imaginary, a strong convention to the Gothic Metal style music.
Almost all digipaks contain a booklet, sometimes with information about the band/artist, the album or simply artwork. Evanescence usually have the lyrics on the inside booklet to allow the audience to fully understand the songs and also to provide a written narrative as well as through music. The lyrics of the song are extremely important to the narrative and theatrical nature of the music, therefor in my digipak I will include the lyrics for each of the songs. Other aspects I will include in my digipack will be; artwork of the band, and conventionally gothic images relating to the style of music.
The Front and Back Cover
For the front cover of the album, I needed to make sure it would attract the target audience. I also intended to make sure the front cover reflected the genre and addressed certain themes and motifs within the Gothic genre. This picture (Right) was my first design for the front cover of the album. The very Gothic style artwork on a white background shows a red rose in the centre of a sharp and conventionally Gothic symbol. The rose represents the romantic themes within the genre, which is contrasted with the black symbol almost showing wings of some sort of supernatural creature. The rose could also symbolise a heart, again emphasising the romance theme within the genre. The important contrast between the horror and romance themes of the Gothic genre is also expressed through the black on white look, as well as being a very effective use of colour contrasting with the red of the rose.
I then wanted a cover to show the themes of horror and truly express its importance to the Gothic genre. Evanescence usually portray stories with some sort of element of horror in through their music. The band often play dark, morbid, metal music, which conveys a sense of horror, as well as the obvious language and narrative told through the lyrics. Linking appropriately to nightmares and horror, I chose a piece of artwork showing an old, haunted looking and nightmarish house. I saw this as a very conventional image associated with the Gothic horror genre, and would be expected by this bands target audience.
The back cover I created would be put with the second front cover, of the haunted house. The back cover shows the inside of an old, Gothic, haunted house. My aim with this was to draw the audience in, bringing them into the story and the narrative as soon as they look at the back cover. The hanging picture of the lead vocalist makes the association the band has with the narrative, giving the image that she is more of a character than simply a singer. Next to her picture I made a quote to draw the audience in saying "My home is your hell", again making the connection with horror and also narrative within the design. The songs I listed on the back were the ones I would strongly associate with the horror genre, linking with the design. Also the different sizes of text create a nice 3D effect suggesting a different dimensional realm, such as a dream or a nightmare, which is one of my main focuses with this genre.
The CD
The CD designs were on a very basic level. Through research on Gothic CD they are often some sort of pattern or Gothic styles. I intended to take what I've learnt from research and apply it to the designs. The left design shows a traditionally Gothic pattern, with very sharp edges and elegant curls. The right design makes the link between fantasy and the Gothic genre, showing a dark image of a magical creature with wings. The image works very effectively in interesting the audience and offering an insight into the inner narrative of the band.
The Booklet
An important aspect to the booklet is some background information on the band/artist to attract the target audience. The background to this page is an image of a graveyard to express the horror sub-genre.
The next three images would be overlapped with the lyrics, as this appeals to the target audience. The background image relates to the relationship the Gothic genre and nature. The next few images show the juxtaposition of religous aspects such as: heaven and hell, death and the apocalypse. Continuing with two pages of lyrics, they show the many themes the songs go into. The artwork on the left shows religous images such as death and angels. The next image is a very apocalyptic image of the angel of death bringing about the destruction of the world, a very appropriate link to destruction and despair.
The next two pages are dedicated to the band, showing personal profiles of the members and a creative introduction to the theatrical narrative of the album. The images used are of the band and the lead vocalist Amy Lee in her 'character' role, with a set suggesting the imaginative world the 'story' is taking place.
No comments:
Post a Comment