Digipak - CD Cover

For the CD Cover I wanted to make it plain because from my digipak research nearly all of the CD's were in plain colour except for one which had a plain background along with simple thick lines filling half the CD. So I used the common convention which was to just a simple background layer but I also wanted to develop it for the final product so instead of just having a simple background, I added a fade which shows the development I made to give it a more unique look.

CD Cover Draft 1:

In the first draft I made the shape of the CD and to start off with I added the base colour that is around the CD which is dark grey because I wanted to keep colours simple and go well with the rest of colours that are used in the digipak. The colour grey helped me as a guide of where the actual will be. Another colour I used was the colour black for the actual CD and this plain colour was temporary as I was planning to change it into a fade. But I used this black colour to help me place where the artist's name and album name will go and what colours will be used on them.

CD Cover Draft 2:

In the second draft I added the name of our artist called 'Kirstie Mayweather'. Like I used on front cover, the font is the same as the one in the front cover and I have used the same colour of the name, which is also the same as the front cover. The reason being from my research 2 out of the 3 digipaks used the same font and colour on their CD from their front cover, which means I used this convention because if its commonly used then it means its better to do this because it keeps it all linked which makes it look more professional. On the other hand, I challenged a convention I researched which was placing the name of the artist on the bottom instead of the top. I did this because in the front cover the name of the artist is below the album name and so I wanted to keep it that way because our album name looks better to be on top in a smaller size where it stands out instead of it being on the bottom where as it will take the place of the artist's name which is placed in between the fade of the two colours will be.

CD Cover Draft 3:

In the third draft I added the album name called 'Timeless Moments'. Like I used on front cover, the font is the same as the one in the front cover and I have used the same colour of the name, which is also the same as the front cover. The reason being from my research 2 out of the 3 digipaks used the same font and colour on their CD from their front cover, which means I used this convention because if its commonly used then it means its better to do this because it keeps it all linked which makes it look more professional. Although, like I previously stated I challenged another convention by placing the album name on top because the way planned the fade I need the album on top as it won't look right the name of the artist on top.

CD Cover Draft 4:

This is the forth draft where I added inner glows to both artist and album name because I wanted to make them look bold and stand out make it look eye-catching and appealing to the audience.

CD Cover Draft 5:

On the fifth draft I added the centre circle in order to make it look more like a CD. I made sure this circle placed exactly in the middle of the CD so the CD doesn't look weird as it is easy to notice when the circle is not exactly in the centre which can make it look less professional. I wanted to make it look professional to the best of my abilities.

CD Cover Draft 6:

In this draft I added the fade on the CD which I previously stated and also I changed the base colour to a fade and to a lighter grey on top with the black fade so it links well with the CD. The CD colour has changed from black to a light grey along with a black bottom which is faded in. The reason behind this fade is because in order to keep the red colour for the artist's name I need to bring black into the CD because when I added the red to the grey it didn't go well together so I thought bringing in a fade will change this and from looking at the image of the CD cover, its shows that this was the right choice. Furthermore, I took off the inner glow for the artist's name because it looks better without it with fade in the background but I decided to keep the inner glow on the album name as it make its stand out on the CD.

CD Cover Draft 7:

For this draft I added the 'Decca Records' logo and placed it in the centre of CD on top of the artist's name. I put the logo in because from my research all the artist's had their record label on their CD and 2 out of 3 of them had the logo in the middle of the CD. I used the common convention because when I placed the logo in the centre it fitted in well and because the colour of the logo is black, it goes well with the other colours that are used on the CD.

CD Cover Draft 8:

In this next draft I entered licensing information such as the copyright from the record label. The reason being is because I have this information on the back cover but in more detail. From looking at my digipak research they all had this information and covered main areas of the the copyright information. 2 out of the 3 digpaks I looked at had the information around the CD and 1 had it in the middle of the CD but at the bottom. I used this convention because again it fits in well together and on my back cover this information is in the same place, so I wanted to keep it the same so it all links well together.

CD Cover Draft 9:

After finishing the actual design for the CD, I realised the centre circle of the CD was incomplete. What I did first was adding the shape of the circle inside the bigger centre circle. As you can see the basic look of the new circle.

CD Cover Draft 10:

After, adding the circle, I coloured the rim a darker grey because from looking at my research 2 out of the 3 centre circles were white but 1 centre circle was grey and was on a black CD, which was the closest colour compared to my CD and so I used the uncommon convention purely because it goes better with the design I made for the CD and suits it better with the colours I have used in this digipak. The smaller circle is still there, it is just on the next layer which at this point was behind this circle.

CD Cover Final (Draft 11):

For the final draft, the smaller centre circle is back and as you can see I added a inner shade to the circle because I wasted to give it a effect to make it look realistic. Also, from my digipak research 2 out of the 3 CD's had inner shades which helped with my decision to use this convention. I am happy with this decision as the overall CD looks in my opinion perfect from what I have done on the other panels on the digipak. Such as the colours I have used throughout the digipak are all in this CD and allows the CD to link well with the rest of the digipak.