My Creative Journey Explained // Sachin Mistry

My initial ideas started with the band Placebo in the top right hand corner. I saw this image and was intrigued by the framing of the people and the different expressions they possess. As you can see to the right of this image I tried to duplicate this image but with a slight difference putting a twist on the image. I did this by creating a shadow on on of the band members but essentially making their faces brighter. I like this affect as it also emphasises my album title 'Hard Light' which was the effect that I was going for. The third image is also interesting as it is similar to the Placebo's photo but it is painted and likewise the faces are connected which makes the painting stand out more.

The next step was to establish a font, the one that you see at the top is the Orator Std Medium. The reason that I like this font is because of the larger than normal space in between the letters. Also I like how they are all caps as it brings a simplistic feels to the Album cover I like. The next one is Roboto Regular Condensed, this is also another simple font, and style of the letters are slightly bold which makes it easy to read and attractive to the eye. The third one down is the AR Bonnie Regular font, the reason why I liked this font is because of the way it looks slightly old fashioned but I don't think that it would suit our music genre too well. The last one is AR Blanca Regular which is an unusual font, as it is in italics and also it has quite an old fashioned theme to it sort of like calligraphy. 

Then I decided on a colour scheme which I could potentially use throughout my digipak. I then did some experiments with Max, as he was playing one of the band members and on a photo I took, from a photoshoot, I added a black and white filter which matched the colour scheme.At this point I spent some time looking at images of double exposure photos which I thought looked amazing, and the effect is as if the person is fading away. As you can see on the far right that I have tried this effect with Max and George, I fell like this could have been a goof idea for an album cover. Also when choosing images to 'overlay' on top of the original image I made sure that they where matching the colour scheme of the blacks, greys and whites. 

This is the Dirty Projectors album cover which I found when search for album cover inspirations, I have also analysed this album cover and said that I like the way that they have photographed a two because it looks like they are looking at each other and also as they have blank facial expressions it intrigues me as the font of the name of the band and the name of the album in small and situated in the top left and right hand corners. Below is a photo from one of the photo shoots I did and what I tried to do is recreate the photos, but as i took them from a higher angle I didn't quite like the look of photo. 

This is the 'Ghajini' digipak where I took my inspiration from. It is an indian movie and this is the sound track on CD presented in a digipak form. The reason why I like this is because the photos, specifically the polaroid like photos which I thought looked authentic. 

This is the side shot that I used for one of the panels in my digipak. The image to the right is edited with a sepia effect on it. I think that this looks good as it gives deep blues and orangey coppery colours which I really like. I then copied the same image over onto a Photo Shop page and started to experiment with the image. What I eventually did was smudge the image so that it looked like a brushed effect which became the background to the other two inside panels. If I could make changes I wish that I could use the edited image in my digipak as it would maintain the same colour scheme.



As you can see on the right the top image is of the band 'Years and Years' and these photos are form the interview by COUPdeMAIN a music/lifestyle magazine from New Zealand. I liked the idea of the polaroid which is a development from the 'Ghajini' digipak as these also include them. 

This is the colour scheme for my digipak,, and even though I has 6 colours I think that this is the main colours as these are the ones which attract the consumers attentions when looked at.

This is the splash hands which I created. I saw this effect on Tumblr and then I looked on YouTube for tutorials, and then made this hand image. I then tried to make this on Max who played the main character in the music video. 

This is the band logo that I created for the band and also for our group. I think that this represents us very well and also as I used this in our pitch our peers identified this and linked it to our band which is exactly what we wanted. 

This is the final digipak on the bottom right hand corner and the one to the left is the album cover. The image above and to the left of this is the image which I used and also edited in Photo Shop for my digipak album cover and advert. 

Music Video Update - Michael

Since completing our first draft, we've been receiving feedback in order to attempt to improve on our video and make our media product the best it can be. We have also filmed more scenes in order to adapt our music video to the song we're using and to try and make it as professional appearing as possible.  We currently have all the shots we need to complete the video and will spend the next week carefully editing and finalizing our media product. 

Creative Journey // Sachin Mistry

Draft Music Video: Alcazar // Spark

Creative Journey - Max

1. This was my first inspiration or my final piece. I really like the simplicity of the artwork and how the band members are facing the camera. Also the placement of the band name I liked.

2. My next piece was instead of having someone look at the camera I could go for something different from the majority, I decided that having the back of the heads would look good.

3. I kept looking the same artist has he had done many photo shoots in the style that I was a fan of, this is where I got the idea of using a plain background to take the photos on.

4. After looking at different styles of the images I liked, I decided to not use an image of the backs of the artist’s heads as it does not look professional, instead I went for a face on image of both the artists staring at the camera.

5. I got inspiration to use a blank background of one solid colour from this. Although it is not an album cover I took a look at photo shoots and magazine covers or inspiration.

6. I was contemplating using a black and white edit on my cover image, after much consideration I decided not to go with it as it did not look professional also it did not suit the pictures I had taken.

7. This image I liked as it was almost exactly what I wanted mine to look like, however the colours were too bright. The artist is staring blankly at the camera in a somewhat slumped position.

8. Following on from the previous image I wanted to find something similar to this style. In this image I liked the use of a slid colour being the background as it made the artist stand out more.

9. Whilst looking at similar images to the ones I had looked at before, this was a possibility. I could have changed the colour scheme I would have used to have lots of colour in it; however I chose not to do this in the end as it did not reflect the ideas of our music video.

10. From this cover I was primarily looking at the background, as I had already chosen how my artists were placed. I liked the background of this as it was natural and the band members did not stand out. However I could not find a place in real life that I liked and also the lighting was wrong when taking mine.

11. I thought about having the entire body of my artists in, however after taking a few photos I did not like this as you could not see the artist’s expression on their faces.

12. This was the image that I most liked on my creative journey as it was exactly what I was looking for. This had two artists on a white background, facing the camera with blank expressions on their face. After taking many photos in similar styles to this I finally got one that looked right.

13. This was the first photo I tried as the front cover, I liked this as the lead singer (Left on the image) was looking up and the backing artist (Right on the image) was looking down. However I chose not to use this image as it did not have the background I was looking for.

14. This was another possible cover. I liked this one as it had the right background and having both artists facing the wrong way went against conventions of album covers. After much deliberation I chose not to use this as it did not look professional enough.

15. These were some of the font options I could have used for the text on my digipak. In the end I decided to use the top font as it looked professional and was very easy to read.

16. This was the colour scheme I chose. I decided that grey, white, and black made it look formal and was very clear. During this process I could have change but I thought keeping it simple would suit how I wanted to have the artists standing.

17. This was the end product of my creative journey.  The image I took most of my inspiration from was image 12 as it was what most related to the image I had in my head. Different to 12, I had the artists facing the camera, similar to image 7, as I found this made it somewhat personal between the person looking at the cover and the artists. The text was placed where it as it does not take anything away from the image however it still stands out as the black text is on a white background and the white text on a dark background.

Creative Journey finished pictures

Creative Journey (Digipak) - Michael

As part of my research and development for the creation of my digipak, I came up with many different ideas and took inspiration from many different sources and other forms of media that already existed. This document represents the 'creative journey' that I took to end up with my final media product.

In the top left hand corner of my creative journey piece, I have included three photos that broadly represent examples of 'Levitation Phototgraphy'. I have taken photos in this style in the past and found that they always have potential to look professional and intriguing. I was always interested in using this kind of photography when creating my own digipak so that I could give my own cover something interesting and a little different, so that it could stand out from the crowd..



The next section of my creative journey represents the stage in  my planning where I decided that I wanted to include both band members on the front of the digipak. When planning my own digipak, I thought of albums I knew myself and liked with a theme of two people on the front, I took inspiration from albums such a Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' , Biffy Clyro's 'Only Revolutions', The White Stripes 'Get Behind Me Satan' and Fleewood Mac's 'Rumours'. These album covers played an important role in aiding when making a decision on whether to incorporate the band on the front of the cover.

After deciding I would use both band members on my cover, I got an idea from the White Stripes album, that I had already took inspiration from. On this famous album cover the duo are shown in front of a red curtain. This gave me the idea to find other albums featuring a similar theme. I found  that Eminem's 'The Eminem Show' was very similar. I was so inspired by watching Kings of Leon's music video for 'Charmer', as is set in a sparse theater in front of a dark red curtain.  

After finding inspiration in all of these different examples, I ended my creative journey by taking a photo that incorporated all of these visual styles. I used the photo I took, alongside some minimal text, to create a digipak cover I was proud of and that fitted into a genre I was aiming for.

Changes to the Advert

After reviewing the comments people had made on my advert, I found that there were some things I could change to make it more appealing to an audience.


This was my draft advert, there was one thing that stood out in the comments for improvements, this was in the top left and right corners the background I used was creased,I ended up retaking this photo as I tried editing it and it didn't look professional.

Another part I changed was the image on he front, as I was informed it would look better if I used the same image on the cover of my digipak and on the advert, this meant that I could use the image I first used on my advert on and put it on the back of my digipak.

Whilst looking at the comments and over peoples work I thought that on mine the band logo looked too big compared with what other people had used, I decided to shrink this image so that it did not take any focus away from the image and text.

I made the decision to re-position all the the text on this as I felt it was in the working place, also it did not match my digipak, I also changed the size of the text so that it would stand out more.

After altering my advert from looking at the comments I got, I believe the changes I have made have improved my work.

Changes to Digipak

After reviewing the comments people had left on my digipak, I found that there were many places I could improve this to make it more appealing to an audience.

The first change I made as where the text was placed on the font cover, as in my draft it did not look professional, it does not fit well with the image. After looking at actual bands album covers I found that having the text over laying the image of the band looks professional. I also changed the name of the album as I did not like it. On the spine of the digipak I added the name of the album as this is what is on the spine for professional digipaks also I used a catalogue number as then it looks like an actual digipak. Also the song list on the back cover I moved due to me having to change the image I wanted the text to stand out.

The next change I made was the image on the back cover. I changed this because the draft image did not match the feel of the digipak and looked out of place with the rest of it. The image on the final piece was the image from my draft advert that I changed, I felt that having a back cover that matched the front looked professional.

Also I changed the inside right cover as, although I liked having the band logo there, I felt that having a better image there would look more professional. I first changed it to an image of an A I wrote using a light on a black background, after getting feedback on this I felt that changing it would be a good idea. I then took a screenshot of the opening scene to our finished music video as this way they would link very well together.

On my first draft of my digipak I had a black layer on the inside left panel, after getting feedback from this I decided that it was too plain so I tried to find an image that would it well there. I chose the image I had previously used on the inside right panel, this fit well in that spot. However, due to this panel having a slit in it for the in-slip to go in, it distorted the image slightly. I decided to change this for my final piece 

Updated Advert - Max

Updated Digipak and Inslip

Feedback on Advert

Feedback on Digipak

Feedback Received from Draft Magazine Advert - Michael

Feedback Received from Draft Digiak - Michael