FINAL DIGIPAK
Due to the epidemic situation in Beijing, we have been in online learning since November 15th. Annie and I essentially used Wechat to communicate and do more work for our music video, digipak, and everything we needed for the coursework.
The key thing for our Digipak creation process is communication. I am happy to work with Annie and that we are able to talk about the vision we have for our designs. It's also nice that we compromise about little details that she or I like. Initially, we were gonna use Annie's design for the front cover and inside left, however, the green background did not match our overall style and vision for our digipak's concept. For our final design, these are some of our inspirations:
Final Front Cover
From blogpost 10, the final front cover is similar. However, I added some masking on this version, this is what gives the overall design texture. I still used PicsArt for editing and using my iPad and Apple Pen I was able to precisely cut out five photos and blend them with the 6th main picture (snake pic). Aside from this, I used a copyright-free red textured background as another layer. This gives the cover an embossed effect. On the lower center, I put in Myriad (artist name) and AM Productions (label of the artist). The upper center is "EP Vol. 8" to show that the artist had released other songs too. The center text is the title of the song. I did not crowd it intentionally as the front cover itself has a lot of pictures and textures so it would be very distracting and unsettling to have a lot of text. I also added some of the raw pictures of each layer.
Final Back Cover
On the back cover, I kept the same design I did (seen on blogpost 10). The original edit has more pink on its red so I adjusted the colors and made the red a warmer tone (mixed #741712 and #7110C04). I kept a minimal design for the texts by keeping the same signature of Marilyn Monroe and under it is the artist's name. This was deliberately done to not have a very distracting look to the cover. I also kept the 7 extra tracks to create a tracklist. Ride or Die is actually a real song (the one I featured on as Myriad) while "A Letter to Ave" is one of the old song compositions that I didn't get a chance to record. On the back, I just used the same "Copperplate" font for the artist's name and the names of the tracklist. I also used another picture of a snake, Annie and I took when we shoot our MV. This is to put stress on the symbolism of the snake as rebirth, transformation, and healing. A message we want our MV to convey. The skull that the snake is crawling onto means the death of our past self, from the mistakes of the past we learn, and transform into a wiser and more-self appreciative versions of ourselves. I used the same plastic wrap mask to make the front and back cover identical and to create continuity with the design.
Final Inside Left
The inside left part of the digipak is a whole new one compared to the one I made from blogpost 10. I used a photo that Annie took while we filmed in a tub. The curled-up pose conveys a feeling of isolation and this is what the artist felt. The hands overlay symbolizes the wearies, frustrations, and thoughts that are running through the artist's head. I penned a letter to give a short appreciation message to the label and Myriad's fans (referred to as Merries). I also added her "real" name, Myrrh, to show that the artist really wants to connect with fans and she is not out of reach that lives only through online connection by using aliases or her stage name. I also put in the signature of the artist. I used my iPad's Apple pen and connected it to my iMac to transfer the signature. I wanted to give a handwriting look to the letter so I searched for free downloadable fonts on google. I eventually found the "James Fajardo" font and I really like how it looks on my overall layout, the site I got the font from is called 1001fonts.com.
The original photo (as attached) was cropped to a square size then I used the shadow picture and added a mirror effect. I layered the tub photo with the shadow photo, I also used focal blur so the main focus is the artist's curled-up pose and the tub is not gonna be distracting to look at. After blending the two photos, I added a red background overlay. I initially thought of using the same textured background, however, it didn't look as appealing. To see more of the raw pictures and also the first design for the inside left of the digipak, I have attached pictures in the little slide show.
Final Disc Cover
The disc cover was made by Annie using Procreate. We both thought that the snake was a nice element and symbolism as in the music video we used an actual snake and from the front and back cover, we also have it. Annie's design didn't include the red background and the small grain effect on the disc cover. I changed the background to a red textured background and overlayed it with the same plastic wrap mask to create a sense of continuity with the design and to also make the digipak identical to the colors of the whole digipak. I added a grainy-like overlay (with PicsArts) because the plain white disc made the white areas of the disc cover empty and plain looking.