GoldBloom - Kathryn Sunnucks

1. PROCESS OF
DIGI-PAK

2. This album cover is split into quarters, cleverly merging human and
animalistic qualities into one. The image merges a human man with a
hawk. The green tint creates quite a scientific element to the image,
which links with a scientific experiment of merging animalistic and human
features into one image. The type of font is 'american typewriter' which
again links with the scientific theme.
The background image of the 'cat' has no significance with the band at all, which conveys
that an album cover can be as random as the band want to make it without the cover having
any link to the band. I like the use of a 'vignette' effect surrounding the cat, also with use of
a futuristic purple tint. Clever editing of centred font "OO" circling the cats eyes. To
exaggerate the 'futuristic' effect they have cleverly edited the cats eyes to look quite
scientific with a piercing emerald green colour.
I love the 'sunset' theme, which adds connotations of a warm, friendly,
welcoming message that the colours create. Clever link between image of rising
sun, and text of album cover name "Waiting for the sun". Clever angle of the
low camera facing up towards the band, creating a superior image for the band.
Creative use of 60's bubble font to match genre of the band. Nice edit of
"DOORS" behind the band.
Very minimalist album cover, with colour scheme of a futuristic white background, with band edited
in a black and white edit to contrast against the white. Simple image of band rehearsing, or just
casually playing amongst themselves. Very similar to 'casual' 'laid back' approach that GoldBloom
has pursued. Red font of album name contrasts well with the black and white colouring. Clever use
of staging, lead singing slightly more forward than the other members on the right, with the
guitarist slightly back on the left, with the second guitarist thirdly positioned, with the drummer far
back, as if this would be the positioned on stage.

3. Vintage themed album cover to match vintage 'promotional video' and music. Simple, relatable
scene of a beach, with a group of random people holding an image of a sofa covering their faces.
Even though a vintage themed image, has elements of modern aspects of covering faces with
another image, which creates a collage effect, image over an image. Nice use of personally styled
text "The Wombats" centred above the image of people. Colour scheme of natural sun on beach
again has connotation of a warm, friendly message that they cover creates.
This album cover displays quite an unusual image of a dead arm, which links to the name of the band
"Killers", however the mise en scene of a forest in autumn, shown through a yellow colouring which
again has connotations of friendliness and warmth, which contrasts with the theme of death. The yellow
colouring links with the album name "Sawdust" as sawdust is a cream/yellow colour. The type of font is
quite modern and digital which again contrasts the with vintage themed image.
love this album cover, as it has a minimalist theme, almost like a painting in a
museum. The colours are also minimalist, mixing creams, yellow and black. Again
the mix with the yellow creates a warm, friendly effect. I like the small
sophisticated font, slightly off centred near the bottom on the cover.
This album cover creates a very postmodern image of four men dressed in
extravagant suits sat around a wooden table in the middle of what looks like
mars? Very unique album cover, however the strange mise en scene is very
intriguing. The black bolded font contrasts well against the vibrant colouring of
orange and blue.
This album cover cleverly plays with the postmodern effect of 'Nostalgia'. The sepia toned background, and
elderly woman creates a vintage theme, however it contrasts with the modern, newspaper cutting font and image
of two young lads standing behind the woman. The casual, laid back approach is created in the mise an scene of
people waiting at a bus stop. The black, white and red font stands out well on top of the sepia background. This
cover has a sense of 'humour' incorporated within the scene of the image.

4. BEGINNING PROCESS...
This section will be the Album Cover 'LAVINE PARINE' The image of the cat has been inspired from 'TWO
DOOR CINEMA CLUB" However once edited I want to blur the image of the cat so you can faintly make out
what the image is. The reason for blurring the image is to match the name of the band 'BLOOM'. I have not
decided whether I want the name of the album to stay where it is or move into the centre of the cover as
they eye naturally see's in the centre.
This image of the recognisable logo of GoldBloom – the 'Golden Sun' will be on the third section of
the Digi Pack. I will use the same Golden Sun that I have used on the band's website. This will
create a nice link for the audience to acknowledge when visiting the website and buying the
album. I wanted to make the font quite small and in the centre of the picture to stick with the
sophisticated theme and I didn't want the font to overrule the band's logo. LESS IS MORE.
This image of the band is again using originality, as I liked the picture so much I
wanted to use it as the CD image. This image also creates a nice link for fans/
people as this is one of the main images on the slideshow of the band on their
homepage of their website. This section will be the second part inside the Digi
Pack.
This is a copy of the lead singer of GoldBloom, James Worster's hand writing of
the name of the songs that are on the album. I decided to add some originality so
I asked if I could photo copy the songs and his hand writing. This is showing a
personal interaction with their fans. This section will be on the back of the Digi
Pack, much like other current Digi Paks.

5. This album cover has been inspired from 'Two
My first creation of creating an album
Door Cinema Club' album cover. I have used
cover for GoldBloom, the inspiration
their theme of a cat, however I wanted to
came from 'Snow Patrol's' album cover.
create more of a painted effect, so I slightly
The minimalist, painting effect really
moved the camera when taking the picture to
inspired me to try out an album cover
create a slightly 'blurred' effect. When editing
similar to it. This image was taken
the image on 'Picnik' I edited the colouring of
behind a trampoline netting, to create
the image merging purple, blue and yellow. Like
the painting effect. The lighting in the
The TDCC album cover the purple created a
picture is naturally created by the
futuristic element, however the tinge of yellow
sunset that is shown in the centre of
sticks to my theme of the colour creating
the image. I wanted to create a similar
connotations of a warm, friendly effect. I have
sophisticated typeface, however I
used the same typeface as 'Snow Patrol's'
changed the colour to a golden yellow
album cover as I liked the sophistication. I have
to link back to GoldBloom's logo of a
placed the font in the centre of the page as it
golden sun. The golden colour contrast
is shown more clearly in that position.
well with the blue tint created from the
GoldBloom preferred this album cover to
netting.
represent them.

6. I decided to create a deeper understanding of how Digi-packs
work and which image goes in which sections...

7. PACKAGING
When it came to deciding on the type of packaging that GoldBloom
wanted for their album cover, I decided to try out a few ways for the band to
decide from. I found an online free site to create 'your own' cardboard cover.
As GoldBloom, the band want their audience to listen to their music
instead of liking them for their image, they wanted their packaging to
portray the same meaning. By creating a simple, non-fansy album cover was
exactly what the band wanted their album to be like.
The disadvantage of this type of packaging for a CD case is that the
packaging does not look as sophisticated or as professional as popular plastic
CD covers that are sold in current music shops. The band didn't want their
audience to feel that they wanted to go down the 'cheap/easy' route of this
type of CD cover rather than spending time and money on producing a quality
looking plastic cover.
I decided to try out this style of packaging for the band to see the cover in
real life rather than just as an image...

8. What are the typical features
that an album cover has?
- The Artist(s) feature heavily (especially on debuts)
- Eye-catching Imagery
- Album name
Back Cover?
- Track list
- Institutional Information (Bar code, Label etc.)
How would you categorise the covers? Are there any other ways of distinguishing between
them other than generically?
Many well-known bands seem to abandon the idea of featuring the artists on the cover and forgo that for a
more interesting visual that is perhaps eye-catching or memorable. For example, many people recognise
'Two Door Cinema Club' album cover of the futuristic 'tabby cat' which is very well-known so the people are
often exposed to the imagery of the album meaning it sticks in their mind. This is the same with both The
Beatles and The Killers albums which are simple yet memorable. The majority of the covers (aside from the
beatles montage) are from a music movement in the 2000's and the pattern appearing seems to favour
simplicity in album covers.

9. This is the CD template for the final design. After showing the band this template of what the final album cover would look like,
they decided they preferred this style of packaging, as it looks more professional, the cover has more space for more promoting
qualities, e.g. images and logo of the band. They felt that this option was more creative compared to the other style, as you have
to work out which image works best in which section and what colours contrast or go well with each other. Even though a website
is made to create a more personal, interaction between the band and their audience, it doesn't mean that album covers don't have
too! I feel that this type of cover is more personal, sturdy and will last longer than the 'cardboard packaging'. People/fans will feel
that their money will be worth spent on a plastic cover as it's life's span will last longer than the other type of packaging. The
plastic outerwear will protect the CD and images more than the 'cardboard' packaging, and CD's are used everywhere, e.g. car,
different CD players etc... so they are on the move a lot!
Audience Feedback
I also handed out questionnaires about GoldBlooms album cover to their focus group. Many people liked the vintage effects e.g.
vignette and tints. They liked how 'the colour scheme is eye-catching' and all contrasts well against each other. They liked how
band members look 'laid-back and cool'. As for the inner cover of the digipack many people thought it was original and said that by
keeping the colour scheme running throughout it really emphasised the band image.
The band had great responses from everyone even from adults who were not fans of the genre saying that the albums greatest
strengths was its visual aesthetics. It is clean, colourful and eye-catching which means it will be picked up off the shelves and
looked at. This means even if people do not purchase the album they are still aware of the band.