Website: Development of ideas for Website

This first idea for the website is very basic, with the logo at the top of the page, a huge picture of the band in the middle, and a toolbar at the bottom of the picture. We wanted one basic design so that the webpage would be simple to navigate and easy to use. This would include everything a normal webpage has, but feels minimal, so we have decided to add more in our next design.








This design has more on it than the previous, with an audio player, products available to buy and a latest news blog section aswell. I prefer this design to my last as it has more on it but also has more of a realistic layout and more realistic features that are used by actual band websites.







My final design is full of information, with a logo, toolbar, news blog section, audioplayer, tours posts and products now available. This design has a lack of pictures, and is full of info on the band, however this makes it seem cluttered and too difficult to take it all in. I think I will use the second design as it has typical conventions of a band website, and will look professional and realistic.

Website: Website research

Now we have finsihed the digipak our group can now concentrate on making the webpage for our band. I will now analyse different websites from bands, and find out what my own website should have in it. I do not really go on any official band websites, so everything I am learning is new. I have chosen the following examples as they are in the same genre of music as my own video.












Bombay Bicycle Club's official website has many useful features that we could include in ours. There is a large image of the band with the name and logo in the corner of the picture, and a toolbar above this picture with different pages available to go on such as home, news, gallery, video, etc. There is an advert in the top right corner for the new single available to download and buy now, and next to this is a track player with a couple of songs available to listen to. Latest news is displayed in a blog style below the main picture, and advertises free things for the viewer to find online. The purpose of this website is to inform and persuade, both targeted towards people that are already fans, and those that haven't heard of the band before. There are a lot of adverts for things related to the band, and a track player for new audience to listen to their songs.














The second example of a website is for Biffy Clyro, and my first impression of this website is that it is cluttered. There are lots of news posts, with a store available to click on and again a track player with a sample of the latest song in it. The band's name is clear and bold at the top of the page, a toolbar below that has options such as news, shows, gallery and a store, and a picture of the lead singer on the far right side. CD's available to buy are also shown on the right hand side, and the website has a kind of blog format again. The purpose of this website again seems to be persuasive, but has a lot more information clumped together, and seems to be forcing the reader into liking the band and wanting to find out more about them. This is something I will have to consider when making my page.

















The third example of a webpage is for Arctic Monkeys, and this is a very good comparison to make as they are in the same genre as Scarlet Harlots, and I have researched both their music video and digipaks for other tasks which gave us key information and hints on our own project. I like this example because it is very clean and clear, with not too much going on. The links to shop, news, photos, etc are at the top of the page and a huge picture in the middle shows what the band looks like. There is not much more to analyse as these are the basics that are featured in the page, however I like this because it wouldn't be too difficult to make and other examples with lots of posts on look untidy and too busy. The purpose of this webpage is to inform.

Digipak: Finshed Digipak

This first three sections of my digipak consists of the backcover on the left, front cover in the middle, and back of the cd section on the right.

These sections consist of the three middle sections that fold out. The left side would be on the back of the front cover, the middle section would have the backcover on the back, and the cd section would hold the CD and have the picture of the crocodile on the back. We decided not to have a spine as the CD would be made of thin cardboard and there would be no room.

Digipak: Making the digipak

We will be using Photoshop CS4, a program none of our group have experience with, so for the last few weeks we have been playing around with it and finding new ways to edit material. This helped us when it came to creating our final pieces. When making the digipak the first thing we needed was a background that should be a sought of screwed up rough paper effect. When trying to make our own version of this I came up with the following example, but this was not to the high quality we wanted so decided to choose one already made, on the right of the version I made below:

Using photoshop we decided to keep in our bands current theme of paper mache, as the masks are in the music video, and crumpled cut out effects with animals. Using google images we found appropriate shots of wild animals, to symbolise the danger and fierce style of Scarlet Harlots music, and diamonds. We placed these on the background as a second layer as seen below:

We cut out our photos very crudely to make sure there was still a bit of edge, and added effects such as cut out and faded pastels to the animals, diamonds, and characters. We finally had to finish by adding the barcode, information on where the CD was made and font. We decided to use all different types of font for each individual letter or word, to again show how wild the bands music is. The finished back cover is seen below after adding all these things:

Digipak: Photoshoot results

The following photos are those that we gained from our recent photoshoot, and will be the ones we work with on photoshop:

These pictures were very easy to get and we used our knowledge of photoshop to edit out the background. We chose to take pictures against white walls because it would be easier to cut these images apart from the background.

Digipak: Photoshoot

Tomorrow we have arranged a photoshoot to gather enough pictures for our digipak. The actors have been told to wear what they wore last time in the music video to keep continuity, and the actual photoshoot shouldn't take very long. After we have gathered these pictures we will edit them tomorrow in photoshop and try to finish our digipak.

Digipak: Original Digipak design

Below is a picture of our original basic design, complete with barcode, tracklisting, suitable ideas for pictures, and space for CD:

Digipak: Track listing

Our Digipak will need songs on the back and we have composed a track list for our back cover as follows:

• A secret
• Benefits
• Sunflowers
• Cats eyes
• Backlash
• Porcelain
• Frauds
• Explain
• Enigma

Bonus track of:

• This Is How We Do It cover by Montel Jordan

Digipak: Arctic Monkey Digipaks

Finally as part of our research we have chosen to look at the Arctic Monkeys previous digipaks. These are very good examples of what our group would like to achieve and also a similar genre to The Scarlet Harlots.


The first example of these digipaks, and most plain, is the oldest, and titled Who The F**k Are The Arctic Monkeys, and is the first LP they released. The front cover is just a picture on a plain white background, with the name of the CD scribbled on the image of a mirror, showing the typical clubs and dirty pubs the band play in. The spine has the name of the CD on, and the back cover has another image, this time of the band playing live. Under this is the typical track listing, barcode and info on where the CD was made.










The second example of the digipaks is the bands second album Favourite Worst Nightmare, and as the tone of the title suggests the CD cover looks darker. In the top left corner of the cover is the bands name, logo in their original font and the name of the CD. The image is of a terraced house at night, but with bright designs and drawings being seen through the windows. The other three panels show the inside of this house and the bright art work inside in a continous way, and on the back cover is just the track listing at the bottom along with typical bar code and information on where and when the CD was made. Perhaps this artwork is meant to show that some things are not how they appear on the outside, and is refecting the songs.










The final digipak is called Humbug, and the name symoblises the new darker direction the bad are taking on their third album. The band feature on this cover for the first time, however the image is not typical for a band and is disjointed using mirrors and not a clear picture of the band. The bands name has again changed font and is smaller near the center of this CD. The back cover is very plain with just the name of the CD, band, track listing, bar code and information on when and where the CD was made. Inside is a large image stretched across two panels that dosen't make much sense. This digipak differs from the others in that the CD is pulled out of the side, as are the lyrics out of the other side.










Studying these digipaks and previous covers has made us think about our own design, and we would like to use one continous image as in Favourite Worst Nightmare of the actors in their masks, and a disjointed and collage type of layout.

Digipak: Playing around with photoshop

While thinking of what design we want our own digipak to have, and also considering previous styles the band have used on their own covers, we decided to try collage and cut out effects on Photoshop. The results are below, however these are just basic drafts:

I like the above effects because they fit into Scarlet Harlots previous cover bracket, with the image on the left a collage effect, and the one on the right labelled as a 'cut out'. Our images were posted from the blog onto photoshop to be used as a draft, therefore more pictures will need to be taken for the cover image. We will be using one or both of the above effects in order to kee continuity between prevous albums. Below is a mixture of these two effects, and in my opinion it is the most effective draft, although it isn't very clear:

Digipak: Research into the band for digipak and wepage

Whilst looking for ideas online and studying Scarlet Harlots, I found a selection of images that are used on different CD's in the past. The images looked ripped at the edges and are rough in a sought of collage type way. These images are useful as we can use the logo on our own product, and tie in conventions of our music video with the distressed type style of the earlier CD's.

Digipak research

We will be looking at CD's made by the same genre as our own music video, indie/rock. The first CD cover we looked at is Kings Of Leon - Because of the Times. This CD cover stands out because of the black background and use of light on the skull and lightbulb. The bands name logo is clear against the background and the name of the CD also stands out, but not as much as the bands name. We like this CD cover because it is clear and an original idea, using the idea of a lightbulb over someones head breaking.

Bombay Bicycle Club's debut album I Had The Blues But Shook Them Loose is again eye catching in my opinion. The image is original and interesting, even though being in a dull black and white. The bands name and logo stand out in bright blue, and I think the image features a lot of young people to appeal to this age bracket. This CD cover is good but not as original as the Kings Of Leon one, however this is a good example of something we could do with limited editing skills.

One of the bands I looked at was The Hoosiers, who are in the same genre and have the same sought of image. The Hoosiers album cover is sort of arty as the music on it is more awkward and about more emotional topics, which is why the album is called The Illusion of Safety. This idea is portrayed in the album cover as there are bad things happening, but then these are covered by the things coming out of the characters mouth, which is a good use of imagery.

The other band that we looked at was The Foals and their album called Antidotes, which also has an arty sought of image and a similar depth through its choice of image. It dosen't make a lot of sense immediately, but then makes the audience think and try to figure it out. This is good because it engages the audience and also subtly displays the image of someone having nice colourful things in their mouth and what they are saying, but still looking a bit sad. This keeps with the convention of being a bit sceptical and to an extent paranoid about things that seem fairls small.

As you can see a lot can be found out about a band, their songs and lyrics just by a bit of artwork, therefore our choice of image must show a true representation of our band and their work.