Audience feedback

These will be discussed further in my evaluation.

Music video - FINAL

I have now finished my music video, and it can be viewed above.

I initially had the video uploaded on the 21st of March, but due to an issue with YouTube uploads, I uploaded it again on the 10th of April.

Another possible album cover

I decided to design another album cover, not to replace the one designed for the song "Force Of Habit" but to to show an example of how the appearance of the mascot would alter on other releases by the band. The album is called "Trapped Under Ice" and the cover depicts the mascot frozen completely under ice. The ice was designed myself using mostly distortion and warping effects to make it look more realistic.

Digipak shown in context

I felt that it was important to show the digipak in context. That way, we can clearly see how it all comes together when the case is opened.

Magazine advertisement

Creating the magazine advert was a reasonably lengthy process; I wanted it to look as realistic as possible and include all of the details that a typical magazine advertisement for an album would have. I feel that I have achieved this aim, as the advert is complete with the artist/album title, artwork taken from the album design itself, a release time, reviews, a listing of some of the songs featured, availability of the album, tour dates for the band, and links to the band's website + social networking pages as well as the website of the label. I feel that the reviews especially help to sell the album; they are clearly very positive, even the four star reviews which reads "Severe whiplash guaranteed". Although whiplash is diagnosed from neck injuries, this is viewed in a positive light, as the tradition of fans is to bang their head to the rhythm of heavy metal music. Severe headbanging can indeed lead to whiplash, and this has been acknowledged by the heavy metal community; the Metallica song "Whiplash" for example, is about headbanging.

Final inner sleeve (2)

I decided that I would occupy the second inner sleeve with additional track list details (with song lengths) and thank-you notes. I took inspiration from existing album designs to write up thank-yous. The sleeve also includes details about the instruments used by the bandmembers. Also, I decided to give reasonably long  lengths to song of the songs (e.g. Angry Again being 7 minutes and 42 seconds, The Outlaw Torn being 10 minutes and 48 seconds) showing that the band writes complex pieces and are not interested in cutting them down to create music that could appeal to more mainstream audiences.

Final inner sleeve (1)

I decided to add another image inside the digipak, as opposed to re-using pieces of artwork already seen on the front, back and disc covers. This is an editing image of Dan. Unlike previous edit attempts, this was not meant to serve as a band mascot. Instead, this establishes Dan as the leader of the group, and I decided that some editing would increase its visual appeal. I added spots of red with the image, which was edited to literally be black and white, which can be interpreted as bloodstains, which makes it look threatening.