Digipak Ideas

After researching different styles of digipak I have decided to use a six-panel folding design, because it is simple and traditional, which looks more aesthetically pleasing compared to modern ones with the booklets in. This will include a front cover containing imagery, a back cover containing a tracklist, a fold-in panel containing more imagery, (these three panels will all be matching, and stand out to appeal to an audience), and then three inside panels, one containing the disc, which will all match and represent the more personal aspects of the album. 

Using the idea of Alice In Wonderland which has been used as a break-out video and song for the band 'Truth of The Fallen' that we created, I decided to use a concept based around dreams, hallucinations or escape from reality for my digipak and album name, as this is the concept that surrounds and creates Wonderland. I also decided to use this theme because it isn't subject to just Alice In Wonderland, it is usually what a lot of bands in the same genre as ours sing about, in a way of sending a message to their fans, and so I thought it would be more professional in a digipak to stick to genre conventions.
After thinking through some ideas, I came up with the name 'Somnium' for my album, which in Latin means 'dream' or 'lucid thinking and imagination', which works perfectly with my theme. I have also noticed that a lot of bands of the the alternative rock or metal genre use Latin names for albums, songs or band names because they sound more mysterious, and so it fulfills genre conventions. 

Front and back cover design:

• The front cover will contain an image of the band to promote themselves as a new band for the audience to familiarise themselves with them. It will contain the band logo, so the audience can also recognise this, and the album name so that it is made clear to the audience what it is called and therefore what kind of things to expect in the songs. It will be set in the field where a part of the 'Her Name Is Alice' video was filmed so that the audience can associate the two things together, but obviously a field isn't subject to just that video, and so it can relate to other songs as well. There will be a greenish blurry effect on the image that makes the band members look ghostly or transparent and mysterious, to fit with the name of the album and to look almost like they are not real to fit with the idea of hallucinations or dreams, but also creepy looking to fit with the genre of music.

• The back cover will be just an image of the field without the band members (with the same effect on it to look mysterious and ghostly) so firstly, the tracklisting can go on it to look very clear to the audience without band members in the way to make it unreadable, and secondly so that comparing it to the front cover, it's almost like one minute they are there and the next they are gone, which again fits with the theme of mystery and imagining things. 

Inside Panels and spare fold-in panel:

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• The inside panels will be slightly different from the outside front and back panels, to give a bit of variety to the digipak to be more aesthetically pleasing to the target audience. It also adds to the element of mystery that I am having throughout my theme. I will have more effect and object based photos, because these panels aren't as important for attracting the audience, and the audience can already be established with the band from the images on the front - too many images of the band could be too much. Here I will use things such as smoke and water which show transparency, to represent dreams and hallucinations and how they aren't quite physically real, they aren't solid. These will be in black and white to also represent the escape from reality, and also to represent a cold and dark atmosphere, which fits with the genre conventions of the alternative rock/metal music scene.

Disc:

• The disc will be very simple, due to the fact this is a new band are a new establishing band so can't afford as much in terms of distribution. However it will still stick to conventions, such as a black background to represent the dark alternative genre, and the band logo will stand out to show they own the own the music on the disc. The record label logos will also be on as a legal requirement. I will also include a pattern or some form of simple imagery to make the disc more aesthetically pleasing, such as the use of smoke to match the inside panels and look more professional.