Creation of the Back Cover of Album

For the back cover of our Digi-pack, we decided to relate the picture at the back to our video. The front cover photograph was used to promote a whole album. This photo and the one on the magazine advert will have make up running down Alice down her face - this relates to Alice in the video (depressed and feeling useless). The photo below is the one we have chosen to use. I believe our model is successful in conveying extreme emotion:

Just like the front cover, we wanted to make the back cover black and white also. We used photo-shop to make the image black and white. Using the effect of 'halftone pattern' meant that as well as turning our image to black and white, it also made the photograph lighter. As a group, we decided that we really liked this effect:

Shown below is the photograph after the effects have been applied. I believe that the photograph manages to stand out. The photograph being lighter also allows emphasis on Alice's eyes. This is important as this is where all her emotions are shown.

As you can see, this photograph is put on a white background. After discussion, we decided we wanted the background to be darker as it would make Alice stand out. Like in Adele's album (shown below) there is use of smudge going from dark to white. This is something we wanted to incorporate into our own product.

I believe this feature makes the image look more professional and still draws attention towards Adele herself. Therefore, we started experimenting on photo-shop to see which effect would work best for us. Firstly, effects were put on the background of the photo. We left an outline around Alice's face so that once a darker background was put on, Alice's face would stand out. We did this by changing the diameter and hardness of the brush. This created a blurred effect around Alice. We deleted the rest of the background for now.

Highlighted below are some difficult parts of editing. Due to Alice's backcombed and rather messy hair, they are hard to edit around. Therefore, we will have to use zoom so that we can carefully edit.

The 'Paint' tool was then use to make the background completely black.

The outcome is shown below:

I believe this effect has been very successful in creating a great image for the back cover of our album. I believe that the use of the black background links well to the black makeup going down her face. I believe the use of black emphasises the darkness Alice feels in her life. It reflects the idea that she does not know what to do. It also links well to our research of Adele.

Turning to In-design,  allowed us to continue with the creation of our album back cover. The next stage we decided to work on was the song titles which are displayed on the back of the album. We decided to use the same font of 'Adobe Garamond Pro' in order to maintain continuity. We decided to have around 10 songs on the album as this reflected our research. We made sure that all of the songs were similar themed (all containing hints of pessimistic attitudes and depression).

After inserting the text, we decided to 'place' the photograph so that we could better picture what the background would look like.

Once we placed the photograph, we decided to move the text to the top as the photo took over the song titles. One thing we noticed as a problem was that in placing the image, the bottom and top of the photograph were cut off.

discussion as a group, we made the decision to move the photograph to the top of the page and have text etc at the bottom.

The evidence above proves that you can see the sharp different between when the photograph ends. This is something we needed to change as it looks unprofessional. Before trying to change it in 'effects' we will add the text and see if this makes a successful difference.

First thing we tried, was to add the name of the artist going down the side. This is a feature that Adele has on her own album. We have rotated the word 90 degrees so that it goes up the side.

We then began to add the title of the songs onto the image. Shown below is our first attempt. The words will be spread out more but we will tackle this later.

The bottom of the photograph still appears as rather sharp and violent. As a group, we did not like this. Therefore, we will adjust the photo to have it fade out at the bottom. By using the gradient function, we were able to make the bottom of the picture lighter. However, this Did not work. Therefore we tried editing the photograph to make the edges softer. I used colour and paint and in the end, Alice looked rather ghostly in the image (an effect we like). I believe it emphasizes her sadness.

We will then will place the image with the writing. The photograph above will be the one that is used on the cover.

Next, we decided to create the bar code of the cover. This was created on Microsoft word:

Shown below is the barcode placed onto our product:

We are happy so far with the process. For our next stage, we went Back to our research. Again, looking at Adele's album we took an idea from her cover to add 'bonus tracks' to our list of songs: (We have ensured all our songs are from the same artists)

Next, we added the terms and conditions onto the cover in order to let our audience know about the copy rights.

When putting on the terms and conditions, we wanted to ensure it looked professional. We kept it linked to the real products we researched. We used our own names for producers etc due to our product not being real:

Shown below is therefore, our final product with the bar-code, song titles and terms and conditions placed upon the image. I believe it is successful and goes well with our front cover.