Group Digipak analysis - Miss Miller

My group compared all of our ideas and individual digipaks together to create one final group digipak. We chose Lily's initial digipak however, chose to include my front cover as it fit the theme and held more connotations. The group worked together to adapt the original digipak by all having input bases on what we thought should be changed or adapted. 

My digipak included several positive elements that contain the wanted conventions of the indie genre. For example, the image of the front cover created a very similar bond with the audience.  The layout of the front cover is conventional to the indie genre as it  uses the romantic theme that we wished to incorporate in the digipak. In this case, the use of flowers for the background contained naturalistic features which are conventional for the indie genre as indie artist like to look like they have connected to nature. Clothing, is also conventional to the indie genre and would appeal to the female members of the audience due to their admiration towards the artist. In addition, the male section of the audience would also appreciate the artist`s appearance as it contains flirtatious elements in the pictures.  The elements used within my digipak successfully represent the artist as well as the indie genre. The image used causes the audience to bond with the artist due to eye contact causing audience involvement. The element of mise en scene clothing, is also conventional to the indie genre and represents the artist in a positive light, appealing to female audience members due to admiration and males due to an element of a natural appearance as well as flirtatious elements due to plumped lips, and feline like eye make up. The overall layout of the front cover proved conventional to the indie genre due to the use of romantic flowers and involved connotations of naturalistic features. The font is included in a hand written style, which causes the digipak to become more personal from the artist, creating a bond with the audience. Lastly, the layout is eye catching due to the colours used as the whole digipak links together however, the group will look at changing/adapting the colours as the pink convey connotations of the pop genre than our chosen indie genre.  

From Vasil's digipak, we chose to adapt the font and the use of the artist's signature. The group found that the text used included a hand written style which will allow the audience to bond with the artist as the font provides authentic and personal themes, which is also conventional of the indie genre. This links in with the added signature on a quote page, causing the digipak to posses more personal qualities and is more important to the audience. The image used is also an element we may take on board as the artist creates a bond with the audience as she looks straight down the camera lense, causing them to look up to their idol. The image used is also conventional to the indie genre due to the use of mise en scene, for example costume as the artist wears a flower crown. This is conventional to the indie genre due to the use of naturalistic attire and also connotes romantic themes within the songs. Although the group chose to adapt a number of elements within this digipak, we also expressed elements that we thought would not represent or promote the album and artist in a successful way. This is due to the mismatching images for example, the front cover of the artist with the outside scenery behind her does not link to the other images including a restaurant and a poker game. The mixture of images and layouts can prove too confusing the audience, and highly subverts the indie genre as attention is taken away from the artist, which causes a lack of promotion.

The elements that Lily used used within the digipak had several designs that conformed to the indie genre. It should be added that they have represented the artist as well. The mentioned segements sometimes fall in the range of themes that have been introduced in the music video. For example, the colour choice such as: red connotate the theme of love/passion. This is conventional for the indie genre, as indie artists like to have themes that either collide with their feelings or highlight the main message of the artist's songs which causes the target audience to bond with the artist and relate to the artist. Many of the elements added purposely connote a range of themes, for example colour choice such as red connoting love and passion, which is conventional to the indie genre, highlights the themes within some of the artist's songs and causes the target audience, mostly females, to bond with the artist and relate to these added elements. The text used within the fan acknowledgement page and song list is used to form a bond with the audience. This is because type written text is used that looks more authentic and personal from the artist and also conforms to the indie genre as features are purposely added to make the audience bond with the artist. Images were added to appeal to the target audience for example to mid shot extra image, as females would admire the effortless yet attractive look and males would find elements attractive such as the make up and outfits. The group chose this digipak as our main focus as many aspects such as the layout is conventional to the indie genre and completely involves the audience for example, the romantic inclusions of the rose on the back page, as a sign of love and admiration from the artist, for her fans.

Within the finalised group digipak, we chose to edit the front cover so that the colours and font compliments the other pages within the digipak however, we kept other elements the same as we believed that they promoted the artist well to the audience whilst conforming to the indie genre. This final digipak appeals to our target audience as it includes romantic themes that females can relate to as well as highlight elements of the indie genre that our niche audience would appreciate. This also promotes our artist effectively as the connotations that appear for example, the idea of love and romance, cause the artist to portray a positive vibe and traits to the target audience.

The artist, Autumn Healy is placed in the centre with the use of a mid shot, which promotes the artist further. This highlights the artist's importance as she is looks straight into the camera lense which causes the audience to look at her, which is inviting and causes a relationship to build. This also causes her to look confident as she smokes and looks into the camera, showing evidence of Dyer's theory as she shows her rebellious side, which is conventional of the indie genre as dynamics are changed. The artist also had back combed hair, linking to this and with a flower crown which is conventional of the indie genre as naturalistic features are included caused that artist to look unartificial. On the back cover the artist is holding a cigarette, this exposes and promotes the audience as she takes up the whole back page, following Goodwin's theory and also conforms to indie genre as habits such as this link to depressed emotions which link to the sound of the music and the messages within, this can link to older members of the artist that also possess the habits. 

The design and layout of the images within the digipak include simplistic sceneries, the background is naturalistic which links to indie genre and also does not take attention away from the artist, promoting her further to the audience and highlights the idea that she is the most important element of the album. The background elements make the pictures more interesting to look at especially the black roses on the front cover however, are still natural and the artist is still in the centre of the images therefore, the audience focus on the artist mostly building a larger bond with her especially as she looks straight at them through the camera angles. The creation of a relationship with the audience conveys love messages within the songs and the roses on the front cover and CD disk as she shows care for her audience and the appreciate this, as her songs and music videos become more personal from the artist. This again links to the front cover as roses are used behind the artist. 

      The language used within the digipak is informal and features everyday language that the audience can relate to. This is evident through her note to fans and she shows a lack of formality and she describes her life to the audience, making it more realistic. The use of this language causes the artist to engage with her audience and the audience would respect this.

      The devices used within the group digipak all connote various messages. The black and white within the front cover cause the theme of good vs evil, an ideology that appears within her lyrics and highlights that she has faced both good and bad moments in her life, and her fans can relate to that too. This is conventional to the indie genre as artists usually add elements that connote a deep ideology. Many aspects are used to make the audience bond and build a relationship with the artist, for example the use of the notebook alongside type written text. This becomes more personal from the artist showing her love for her fans, also becoming an idol due to her appreciation. This also creates a vintage effect that is conventional to the indie genre as vintage aspects are diverse and individual. I have used other indie digipaks to influence me in including the use of vintage filters and aspects and create unique styles. This notebook layout is used further on the note to fans to create a personal element, which also links to the use of the rose on the back cover which can connote love for her fans or even for a man in the artist's life, as roses are a gift that hold connotations of love and passion which covers the main themes within the lyrics, causing them to become the narrative to the audience. 

      To conclude, from applying each individual member's elements that appeared successful within their initial digipak, we have created a successful group/finalised digipak that conforms to the indie genre due to the use of the personalised hand written font, the naturalistic background, inspired by my front cover due to the use of roses containing romantic connotations. These conventions also causes the artist and album to become more unique compared to other artists.