For our digi pack images, we wanted to give the audience and fans a more personal connection with the artist. With indie artists, the convention is to not show the artists face on the album cover, and they are normally not very revealing about the artists history and values upfront, however the artist normally do personal interviews etc for fans who want more.

For our project we also had to create an advert to advertise the album and artist, for this, we wanted to use footage from the music video to create promotion for the video also as it would be for the main single on the album.

To start, we chose a picture snapshot from the footage we shot for the video, of the artists guitar laying broken on the floor. However This shot may not make it into the actual video and this is why we decided to use it. Going against the initial idea of using footage from the video , this image would be still in the context of the video, as it relates to the events that unfold during the video; however the fact that it might not make the final cut creates even more appeal; due to the fact that it hints on the events of the video and is almost an exclusive image, not used anywhere else. This makes the advert more interesting as the fans will want to watch the video to understand the meaning behind the image.

Next, we added in the band logo in the top to advertise the artist.

and then added in a screenshot of the album cover and the date of the release, keeping the neon colours and glow effects added in. As well as adding some large white text advertising that is is the artists debut album.
 
after this we added in some smoke to compliment the glows, and also put the album name layered under the guitar.

Finally adding further neon glows, to the album name, to finish off the advert.

After we had finished choosing the font we proceeded to add a background to the previously created band logo on a square canvas. We wanted to keep the logo quite large as we are marketing the album as the artists debut full album and would want to promote the artist and their identity.

To start designing the album cover we first had to come up with a name for the album , we wanted to choose something that fir the almost retro indie theme of using neon lights. We eventually decided on "2D reality". To decide what font to use, we started brainstorming and figured out we wanted to match the retro theme of the neon , by using a almost 8-bit text reminiscent of old video games and arcades , which ties into the "neon" idea, as arcades used lots of bright neon signs etc.

After researching various fonts we eventually decided upon "super smash tv"
included below is a snapshot of a mockup using this font from one of our digipack elements.
 this shows what the album title will look like using the same neon glow and colour as the band logo.

After We created the initial logo, with the added palm tree design. We decided we needed to add some "neon" glow effects to the design. We did this by using brush effects around the text, on a layer behind. We then changed the layer style to soft light or overlay so the effect would be a glow instead of brush strokes




After that, we also added a stroke behind the text to act like the wire to power the lights.



once this had been done, we saved this logo to be Used on the cover we would be designing soon.

With our album cover, we wanted to conform to the genre conventions , that the artist does not show their face on the cover. We decided instead to save this for us in our digipack as this would make this special edition more personal and provide a connection between hardcore fans and the artist. 

Today we went out filming for our video, however as a lot of the shots we took were not suitable due to weather compromising the lighting etc , as well as we felt we needed to tweak the shot list and add / remove some.

After commencing with the sourcing of our costumes we started gathering pictures of the exact items being used and so we could check them off our list .

After starting to gather and source our props / costume items for the video, we have decided to change the decision of a plain white long-line t-shirt , for a white levi's t shirt, this is because it will be easier for us to source (not having to go out and purchase) meaning filming can commence sooner, as we would either have to go out and buy the shirt  , or wait for delivery, adding further complication to the project and taking the scheduling out of our hands is not something we want to do.

We also had considered changing for popular indie brand "stussy" shown below :
however the same issues arose, as we would have to pay €30 plus international delivery for the item , and then need to consider how much time will be lost waiting for the item.

After Choosing our name for our band, the next objective in terms of creating our artists identity was to come up with the iconic font/logo to represent our band. This was following on from the research we did on how existing bands like the fray/Bastille use their iconic logo/font as almost a trademark for their brand that fans can easily recognise.

For the Project, one of the elements we have to produce, is a digital package, with album cover art etc. Taking this into account we felt it was a good idea to research album covers within our genre. 

We have been trying to narrow down our target audience, we have had numerous discussions, we have come up with a broad age range that we are likely to target and that is 15-25. This is because we believe that this age group will be more involved with the struggles of relationships and jealousy, while also being old enough for us to create a complex narrative for the video.

For our main task I have been trying to find potential locations for the video, so far the search has been fruitless but I have come up with a list of locations for consideration, they are;

London - Camden, Leicester Square ect...
Cambridge - City center
Chelmsford - City center

We also have come up with a list of sub locations that will not be key to the main task, they are;

Living room
Kitchen
Street
Bedroom

These will hopefully allow us to create a powerful music video to the song we have chosen

In a recent audience feedback session we were discussing potential artists names, the two names were Neon Island and Liquid Noir.