1. Digipak Development Diary
For the digipak design, we have decided to go with an artwork driven design,
having half of the design consist of pieces of artwork which we will produce
ourselves. We have decided that the inner panels will have two different sides
with two different types of art design (cartoon style and sketch style drawings).
We will use pictures of existing work for inspiration and will produce our own
version using the Adobe Photoshop software. This will allow us to produce
detailed drawings as the layer system with the several tools gives us great
control over the manipulation of images.
We will use the skeleton design that we have produced earlier as a form of
reference so that we know what goes where exactly, which means that we can
work towards what we have planned for. The template for the digipak printing is
also going to be useful in getting the sizes right in order to allow printing to go
more smoothly.
Following the skeleton layout, we have decided to start with the front cover
panel. We have imported one of the more well known images of the band, which
we will use as a part of the front cover.
Lauren Kilvington
Martin Noficzer 1 4th April 2013

2. First of all, we want to remove the background of the
image. We can do this by using the Magic Wand tool,
which will give us a rough selection of the people in the
image.
In order to refine the selection, we will use the Quick
Mask function, which allow us to paint the selection onto
the image, which can be very effective if executed well.
Using the Paint Brush and Eraser tools, we can refine the
selection by adding to and removing from the selection.
By doing this, the selection is near spot on for the band
members’ outline. Now we can remove the background by inversing the
selection so that everything but the people are selected,
and using the Eraser tool to remove the selection. This
leaves us with the people with a transparent background.
Now we can start effects to the layer, which will only apply to the people we
have, as the rest of the image has been removed. From the start, we wanted to
have a silhouette of the band on the front page, so we can add a colour overlay to
the layer, which will achieve this.
Lauren Kilvington
Martin Noficzer 2 4th April 2013

3. We also have a band logo to insert on the front panel, which we can
import from another Photoshop file. This is the file that we have used
to recreate the original sketch in a digital format. Using the Free
Transform function we can resize and relocate the logo any way we
want to. Referring to the skeleton design, we are placing the band
logo in the upper left corner of the front panel.
Using a custom font and a modified digitalized drawing,
we have put together the album logo and title. We have
put them together and linked them, so that we can
transform them together with ease.
Next, we will insert the important information on the back panel of the digipak.
This information includes the band members’ names, their contact information
and also address of their official website. We have decided to use a blue-based
house style for both the digipak and magazine advert as we thought that the blue
look
We have also decided to use different types of blue for the band members’ names
in order to give the panel a bit more variety and also as a piece of design which
we will might use later on in different parts of the digipak design as well.
Lauren Kilvington
Martin Noficzer 3 4th April 2013

4. We have continued with inserting the track list on the far
left panel of the digipak. We have decided to use the same
font and same design idea for this set of text as well in
order to stay with the house style.
Next we have added the record label logo – which we have also produced in a
separate Photoshop file and have imported the finished image – and a bar code
for the digipak. We have used a standard exemplar bar code image seeing as we
do not have access or the need to have a functional barcode on the digipak.
We have then added the shapes for the spines of the digipak. We have coloured
this a blue colour as well just so we keep with the house style design. The
shapestools allow us to create rectangles, which will be the background for the
spines of the digipak. We have also added the artist’s name and the album’s title
on the two spines accordingly. We have used free transform once again to rotate
texts into the correct positions.
Lauren Kilvington
Martin Noficzer 4 4th April 2013

5. Next we have moved on to adding the
artwork into the digipak design. We
have moved all of the finished ones to
the same account so that we can easily
import the finished images into the
Photoshop project.
Using the gradient tool,
we have created a
background for the
inner panels. Because
we decided to use the
two types of artwork on
either side of the inner
panels, we wanted to have background for all of the inner
panels to connect them together. Also, because our artwork
will consist of a conflict between the cartoon style and the
sketchy style artwork, we wanted to also show a contrast
between their backgrounds one being dark and evil, while the
other being light and positive.
Next we have started adding the finished pieces one by one. We have also resized
and relocated them individually to try and organize them in the best way
possible.
Lauren Kilvington
Martin Noficzer 5 4th April 2013

6. Next we have revised the front panel, seeing as we did not like the way it has
turned out the first time. The first thing we have done is produce a text for the
name of the band with a custom font. We have used a font named Old Press to
create our own banner.
We have added slight tweaks to the way it looks to make it our own. We have
made the picture look worn down and in a bad condition, which is somewhat a
convention within pop-punk album design. We have done this by using the Brush
and Eraser tool in Photoshop.
We have inserted the new title into the digipak design
and have removed the band logo that was in its place
earlier. We have decided to do this as we have had an idea
to relocate the band logo as well as take the background
style we have had for the inner panels and make the rest
of the panels the same background style, with the similar
colours.
In order to fit the background, we have also recoloured
the silhouette of the band members so that they will not
blend in with the background. We have also added a
gradient to the picture so that it fades into a white colour
towards the bottom of the page.
We have applied the same changes to the rest of the outer panels, adding the new
type of background and recolouring the fonts in case they are not easily visible.
Lauren Kilvington
Martin Noficzer 6 4th April 2013

7. We have decided that it would be better if the band logo was
located in the center of the inner panels, between the artwork
pieces. We have removed it from the front panel and have moved it
to the center inner panel.
Having inserted all of the pieces of art and applying shades to them
using gradient, we have the final design of the digipak. All of the
components are in place and the texts have been spell checked.
The last thing left to do is flip the inner panels vertically, as during printing it
would have to be displayed this way. Also, here I have the cropped image of the
entire finished digipak.
Lauren Kilvington
Martin Noficzer 7 4th April 2013