Def Jam Records

The record label we have chosen is Def Jam Records. We chose this record company as similar artist to ours are signed such as Rihanna and kanye West. Def jam records are seen to be related with an R&B genre.

Def Jam Records is an American record label, focused primarily on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group. In the UK, the label takes on the name Def Jam UK and is operated through Mercury Music Group. Def Jam was created by Rick Rubin and its first release was a single by his punk-rock group Hose. Below are some of the videos signed up to Def Jam Records. 

Final Digipak Back/Front Panel

Front panel of digipak (left)

This is the original picture we took for our last panel of our digipak. As we didn’t have a close-up in any other panels we thought we should include at least one. Most album covers always consist of close-ups of the artist. 

These images are normally placed on the front cover for their album however we thought it would work well on the inside as our other pictures where very good. This picture looks very natural which is what we wanted. It shows the artists facial expression. You can see he has a slight grin. Bellow is the steps we went through to get our final image. 

picture of final photo-

This is the final version of the left panel of our digipak. We adjusted the picture by using the brightness tool. We thought the picture looked to dull and the colour were very bland. We then played around with the exposure and contrast to enable the colours to stand out almost creating a outline around the artist. We also changed the colour of the sky slightly making it look more blue like on the other pictures on the back panel. 

picture of brightness/contrast and gradient 

Picture before the final product 

Feedback on left panel

-          - I like the close up of the artist. The shot looks better form the side angle of him looking at something rather than just a plain close-up from the front. I also like the background where the artist is; it goes well with the R&B genre. To improve you could make the image stand out by making it brighter.

-         -  I like how you have taken the close-up of the artist. I also like the effects you have done with the picture. To improve you could the colour stand out more

Front panel of digipak (middle)

This is the finished version of the middle of my digipak. Looking at the research we done we found that most digipaks just have a simple image or text in the middle, were the CD goes. At first we had a picture on the middle panel; however we then changed it to a simple text of “champion” written in an angle. We thought this would look much better and more professional. The font we used was the same font, street soul. 

Feedback given for middle panel

-         -  I like how you have gone for the simple look with just the main title written across. This is different as most other people have put a picture. However the “champion” is slightly out for place

-          - The background blends in with the other pictures which is good. I like how u wrote “champion” in a slant that works well. It would be better if you made the font slightly bigger. 

      

Overall I think that I like the simple design we came up with for the middle panel of the digipak. It makes the digipak look more professional as seen in other albums related to our genre.

Front panel of digipak (right)

This is the original picture we took for our right hand panel of your digipak. As we wanted a different scene and location we decided to shoot it in the Zen Garden I our school. As the place looks very modern it worked well with the genre of our music video. We angle the camera slightly to make the shot looks more professional. The artist looks natural and looks as if he’s in his own world. We wanted a natural shot as this makes the shot look more professional.

 

This is the finished picture for my front panel for my digipak. As my back panel pictures were based on a sky in the background we thought we need a new scene for the inside.  We decided take an angled photo rather than straight on or to the side. In most other album covers we noticed that some pictures were taken in a certain angle. Here the artist looks like he’s in his own world. We took a slightly high angle picture to show the surrounding he was in. 

We used this particular style of shot as it looks very professional and different.  The shot look very natural not as if he didn’t know we were taking it. We had done certain effects on Adobe Photoshop to make the image look clearer and stand out. Bellow is some of the effects we had used in order to produce the final product.As this is the inside panel we decided not do have any writing.

(picture of the brightness we used on picture)-

You can notice that from the original picture to the new one, the picture looks clearer. This was an effect we made by making the brightness of the image increase. I also made the exposure less to give the effect of the artist standing out. I also played around with the Red, green and blue gradient tool to give a crisp effect. 

 

Feedback given for the right panel of digipak

-          I like the angle of the shot; it looks very professional and unique. I also like how the artist has his hood up, it gives a sense that he is in his own world. To improve you could make the picture brighter as right know it looks very dull and moody.

-       I like the background of where the shot is taken. I like the pebbles and the modern effect; it helps create the urban theme. I also like how the artist is sitting down not looking at the camera, as these shots are too common. To improve I think you should make the picture brighter which pay help make it more clear.

-          I like the angle of the picture as it goes with the background. It looks like a proper album cover. To improve you could make the image slightly bigger and brighter.

      The picture above is the picture we had created. After the feedback we changed the brightness and contrast so they picture looked more clear was stated in the feedback and also we played around with the gradient tool making the colours of the picture stand out. 

Back panel 3 of digipak

This picture was taken for our third remaining panel of the digipak. As our album cover was going to be called "Champion" we decided to take a picture to relate to this. Here you can see that the male is shown to be the king, were he is seen looking at his audience. This was a good picture to define our name. As all of your other digipak photos where the artist facing the camera we thought we would mix the shots up so we took one of his back. Bellow is the effects we had done in order to make the final product.

This is the finished version of the back panel of our digipak. This image was taken, resembling our album name of champion. In this shot he the artist looks like the “champion” as he has his arms apart. It looks as if he an audience and he are on stage showing of. This picture is a mid shot of the back of the artist. As all of our other shots where from the front, we thought it would be better if we took one from behind. 

Our first idea was to write the lyrics on his back but as said earlier we had to make the text smaller and then wasn’t readable.  Looking at other covers there wasn’t much writing in this part of the digipak, so we didn’t include anything.




Feedback for back panel

-          I like the way the arms are wide apart almost looking as if he just performed to an audience. Also I like how the sky is in the background; it makes the image come to life. I think you have overdone the effect on the picture, so it would be better if you made the image lighter.

-          I like the effects used in this shot however I think you should make the picture slightly lighter. I like the way you have positioned the artist. As most of you other pictures are of him facing the camera it was good that you took a picture of his back.

This was our back panel before we had made changes after gaining feedback. The effects we created on this picture were mainly done by the brightness and contrast. As we wanted the image to stand out we thought we could have a purple colour then fading to a blue as seen in the image. However we thought that this didn’t work well as it made the picture look unnatural. This was also agreed by our peers.

Overall I think this is a good image as it reflects our album title. Also i like how his arms are raised as if he has just performed to an audience.

Back panel 2 of digipak (back cover)

This is a picture we took for our back panel of our digipak. As we wanted our digipak to have a sky background we took a similar type of shot. This picture as for the back panel as it had sufficient amount of space for the track list to be written. Below are the steps I went through and decisions I made in order to get the final product.

This is the finished back cover of our digipak. For this image we use a low angle shot of the main artist closely focusing on him and the sky behind him. We used this particular style of shot as it looked very professional and the background made the artist stand out more. The shot look very natural not as if he knew we were taking it. We had done certain effects on Adobe Photoshop to give the sky effect. I have taken print screens bellow to show you the step I did in order to make the background. Bellow the lyrics you can see we have included a barcode as all digipaks need this. We have arranged the size accordingly and we think that this size is appropriate, as this is similar to other album covers.

We have also included a copyright symbol to make the back cover look more professional. Looking at my album research most other digipacks had a copyright symbol. We have also included a Dolby digital logo as this was also common in most album covers.  This picture was chosen especially for the back cover because the track list was an issue in the other pictures we had taken. We had no space to write and also it wasn’t readable as we had to make it small. We then chose this picture as there was plenty of space.

 
For the barcode, copyright symbol and the Dolby Digital sign I had to you a tool called.......When I pasted the pictures onto Photoshop, there was a white background on the sign. To make my back cover look more professional I got rid of the white edges and background colour.







Trying a series of different types of fonts we finally chose that.....looked the best. You can see that the font has an italic style to it. We thought that this was good and also made the track list stand out. It gave an urban style to the back cover. Also this text is very clear and readable, unlike most others we tried out.  Below is a print screen of the other types of text we tried. We also asked some of our peers on what font they thought were best.

Here you can see that the original font and colours we were going to your for our track list was........As we wanted the track list to blend in with the background colour we had chose a white. From our feedback we found out that people found it hard to read and they wanted it to stand out. We then changed it to black as seen in the final picture. We then tried out other fonts for our track list. Here we used a black colour so it was easy to read. However we thought the text was rather boring and to simple so it didn't work well with the picture. When we got our feedback this is what our peers said. We then went for a italic style font to fit the urban mood. 

Feedback for back panel

-          I like the low angle shot, it makes the artist stand out and makes him look like the king. I also like the sky effect that you did, the different shades of blue works well and makes the picture look eye-catching. The effect you have done on the male also looks good. The lighting makes him stand out, however it would be even better if you made him lighter. We took this feedback on board and changed the lighting to make him stand out more.

-          I like the way the artist is positioned, it makes the shot look natural. I also like the sky effect you have done as it brings the whole image together. To improve you could make the picture slightly bigger so you can see a closer view of the artist. (We enlarged the picture slightly and overlapped it with the others so it looks like it was originally taken like that)

-          I like the lighting effect you have done, it makes the picture look more clear almost like it was done in a photo studio. However I think you need to change the positioning of the picture, if it was a bit lower it would look better. ( we moved the picture slightly lower)

Feedback for the fonts

-          I don’t think the font used for the track list works well with the picture. Also it looks very basic. It would be better if you had an italic font or something bolder.

-          I think the font is ok but it is slightly unclear and bit too small. As your background is light it would be better to have a dark colour.

Overall I think the image taken was good and was the right image for the back cover. I had made all of the changes that I received from my feedback.