JC: Digipak + Evaluation of print

1. In what ways does your print product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of other similar products (layout, image, font, SFX)

I think our print work is fairly conventional compared to usual advertising methods and artwork designs. Our work has a consistent theme and is easily distinguishable as being about the same artist. The images we have used are framed correctly, and the most prominent object of the images are usually in the centre. Compared with FIDLAR's examples of work such as CD artwork and music videos, I think we have created a product which would advertise the band equally as well as their own images. 

2. How doese your product link to the other print and moving image products your group has constructed? (brand, star image, visual motifs, colour, font, images, illustrative, amplified, disjunctive)

I believe that we have created a cohesive set of prints which successfully reinforce FIDLAR's image and meta-narrative. The damaged VCR effect has made our work more aesthetically pleasing, as the warped images and vivid colours give the prints an interesting look about them. This also upholds the 'grungy', low-budget aspect which is seen in a lot of FIDLAR's music videos as well as our own, making it easy for an audience to associate the artwork with the band and their videos. 

The cursive font we used further creates the sense of a low-budget aesthetic, as the handwriting is scrawled and untidy, rather than neat and orderly. The fact that it is written on a wall (or appears to be) also conforms to FIDLAR's affiliation with street culture: announcing tour dates in the form of graffiti:

 

Costume has been a main focus throughout our work as it is a great contributor to achieving the 'careless teenager' image we aimed for. Denim jackets, worn out trainers, ripped jeans etc are a prominent aspect of our work and are the key feature which make the band stand out in our video. FIDLAR take pride in their strong, intimate fanbase, and put a lot of work into making their followers satisfied, examples include homemade merchandise, selling copies of their album at shows (before it has been commercially released) and highly appreciating those who go so far as to tattoo the band's name on themselves. Our artwork and adverts reflect the band's closeness with their fans by featuring a homemade band jacket as the main visual aspect.

3. What other techniques have you used in the software not already mentioned? To what effect?

We used our own font (my handwriting) in order to make the writing look like graffiti. Although we actually wrote 'Don't Try' on a wall, we had to create a font for the track-listing which would be coherent with the title on the front cover. I wrote down 10 existing songs on a piece of white paper in the same style of handwriting and used a scanner to load the text as a JPEG on Photoshop. I then stripped the image of its RGB levels using the level adjustment editor, leaving only black output and some white as well. I then used the magic wand tool to select only the black parts of the image (which was just the text). This was then copied and pasted onto the blank wall background image which would then become the back of the CD cover.