My Digipak: Album Cover

For my front cover, I drew inspiration from the album's title, Badlands. I wanted there to be motifs throughout my work - from my music video to my poster and my album cover. I decided on using cities as a theme, tying in with the album title. These cities could be interpreted as the badlands. The image I used for my album cover was created with the help of my friend, Lauren, who is a photography student. We sourced images of city lights and projected them onto the model, Charlotte, who was dressed in a morph suit.

The original photo

The original images were very warm toned, with shades of reds and oranges. However, I wanted the colour scheme of my digipak to be representative of the artist's aesthetic. Halsey is incredibly well known for her turquoise and purple hairstyles and so I wanted to reflect this in my work. I used Photoshop when editing my images and utilised the layering tool to be able to alter some areas of my image. To start with, I opened up the hue/saturation tool to change the colour of my photo. I did this process twice, creating two different layers - one that had been tinted blue, and another that had been tinted purple. I then layered the two versions on top of eachother and used the erase tool to reveal the other colour underneath. 

I then downloaded fonts to use on my digipak. To do this, I visited dafont.com, a website that offers free downloads for thousands of fonts. I wanted the artist's name to be prominent, whilst not too in your face. I used a bolder font, but placed it behind the model's head by using the erase tool to disguise it slightly. This technique is often used on magazine covers. 

The album has a 'parental advisory' warning, so I downloaded an image of this sticker from google. I then placed it on the top corner of the cover so that it is visible, whilst not taking attention away from the image. 

For the back cover, I wanted to reflect the artist's creativity and used a scanned image of watercolour paints. This image also tie in with the colour scheme I have set out for my work, as well as the artist's visual aesthetic. I used a simple font in white italics, and positioned them centrally on the back. Halsey's album served as an inspiration for this, as the back of it is very simplistic. I also included the artist's website, the record company and its logo, as well as copyright and licensing information. I also added a barcode to add to the realism of my product. 

For the inside of my album, I continued the theme of projecting cityscapes onto faces. This time, I used Sophie and did not use the morph suit as I wanted her features to be visible. The original photos were quite bright in colour, so I desaturated these in order to make it more typical of the indie-pop genre. The image on the right is where the disk would be placed. For this image, I desaturated around Sophie but left the projection on her face quite bright. I also tinted some areas of the background purple, in order to tie in with the front and back covers. The same is true for the image on the left. I used the same technique as on the front cover to colour the image with areas of blue and purple. 

Overall, I am very happy with my album cover. I believe it ties in well with the genre and that the use of cityscape projection links well with the album name. 

My Digipak: Disc Design

As the images on my cover and inside the CD tray were quite busy, I opted for something much simpler for my disc design. The minimalism of the disc would also stand out from the bright images I have used. I decided on a light blue colour as this ties in with the colour scheme I have used throughout my digipak, as well as with the artist's personal style. To carry on the sense of continuity throughout my work, I used the same fonts as I did on my album and poster. After researching disc designs, I found what information is expected to be featured. This includes the artist name, the album name, the record label's logo as well as the copyright information. I decided to make the artist's name largest as this is typical of indie pop artists as they are developing themselves as a brand. The copyright information is contrastingly very small as it is a necessity rather than anything that particularly adds to the design. I have also featured an 'explicit' warning on the disc as this is something featured on the album. This, as well as the record label logo, has been coloured grey to match the colour scheme I had created. 

My Digipak - Album Poster

The picture I decided to use for my album poster is similar in style to that of my album cover. However, I wanted the colour scheme of my poster to be much more vibrant as a means of being eye catching. Album posters in general tend to be brightly coloured as this catches the attention of the public and thus generates interest for the album and, in turn, the artist. I wanted to impose a sense of uniformity across my media products in order to create brand recognition for the artist. The blue tones of the image on my poster tie in with the filter I would like to use when editing my music video. I also decided to use a cityscape projection to mirror the images used on my album cover whilst also linking in with the album title "Badlands."


I have kept the poster relatively simple, only including information I believe to be important. The album name is the predominant feature of the poster, followed by the artist name. This was deliberate as the purpose of the poster is to promote. Another key feature of the poster is the album release date. This generates excitement and anticipation for the album, setting it up for much greater success. The recent surge of digital media has meant that artists need to utilise platforms such as iTunes and Spotify to evolve in today's society. Because of this, I wanted to mention that the album would be available on both of these and positioned it near the top of the poster. I also included the Apple logo - a logo which is instantaneously recognised by millions. My chosen artist, Halsey, gained recognition through social media and so I thought it was imperative to make it available on these platforms. This is also typical of indie artists as their main priority is getting their music heard, rather than gaining a profit.