Throughout the design process, I wanted to use polaroids to create a nostalgic feeling and polaroids link to the influential 80's era. As polaroids are popular and used to demostrate "vintage" I wanted to twist how they were used, in order to make the polaroids more interesting. As seen in the image on the left, I used one image but multiple polaroids so the image flows.Progressing o
n from the idea above, I decided to create an entire image, however make it appear as though it was individual polaroids achieving this. I found that this idea worked incredibly well and with the use of Photoshop Elements I was able to create the desired idea. Although, the image on the left was the one I originally used, I realised that the singer wasn't the main focus of the image, because he wasn't positioned in an obvious place. The singer was shadowed in the darkness and on the left of the polaroid, which takes the focus off him and places it on the microphone and the light as these are more central.
Due to the fact I had a few ideas, I experimented with different ones to see which idea worked best. As well as looking at the idea of just using one image in the polaroids I also experiemented with using more than one image. Although, this created a different effect and gave the consumer more to look at, I felt for a front cover it was too busy. It also didn't look as impressive as using just the one image, because it wasn't as challenging; however, the image does portray the bands genre well and because of this I felt it would work better on the inside cover with the lyrics; the image gave too much away about the band and didn't leave anything up to the audience's imagination.
This is the beginning of my CD cover design and how I positioned all the the polaroids in order to create a "thrown down on the table" effect. I wanted the cover to have a natural messy desk feel to it, which is another reason why I have created a "thrown down" look to the polaroids; I also layered paper behind the polaroids to imply the idea of a desk clearly. The writing on the paper added depth to the cover, because I experimented without the writing and I felt the paper blended too much with the desk wood. Before deciding on the image of the singer, I had an image of a small, old street from the back streets of Norwich, I felt that the image linked well with the genre of the band because it was quirky, however when I incorporated it into my design although the quirkiness linked to the genre the image itself wasn't relevent to the band and I wanted the audience to be able to relate to the band. This was the original finished design and although the imag
e and the font tie-in well with each other because they are both traditional; I think the font is too traditional and too busy with the image as well. It isn't accessib
le to the audience either; it gives the impression that that band aren't engaged with their audience, compared with my second experiment. The image is that of the singer from the video and because of this exposure in both the video and the CD cover the audience are familiar to him and therefore can engage with the music differently. The simplisity 
of the font doesn't place a timeframe on the font, because it is relatively nondescript, whereas the previous was slightly "olde-worlde" which again would distance the audience because it's not something they can necessarily relate to as a majority. The main reason I kept the idea of the paper was because of the theme of school that runs throughout the video and I wanted to link the CD cover with the video. I also experimented with the positioning of the writing on the cover, because I decided that perhaps generic wasn't best. The writing frames the polaroids rather than crowding it and by having the titles near each other instead a width apart concentrates the audiences focus onto the image because they're not having to change their attention between three different areas on the cover as they would have to in the second experiment I did.
e and the font tie-in well with each other because they are both traditional; I think the font is too traditional and too busy with the image as well. It isn't accessib
le to the audience either; it gives the impression that that band aren't engaged with their audience, compared with my second experiment. The image is that of the singer from the video and because of this exposure in both the video and the CD cover the audience are familiar to him and therefore can engage with the music differently. The simplisity 
of the font doesn't place a timeframe on the font, because it is relatively nondescript, whereas the previous was slightly "olde-worlde" which again would distance the audience because it's not something they can necessarily relate to as a majority. The main reason I kept the idea of the paper was because of the theme of school that runs throughout the video and I wanted to link the CD cover with the video. I also experimented with the positioning of the writing on the cover, because I decided that perhaps generic wasn't best. The writing frames the polaroids rather than crowding it and by having the titles near each other instead a width apart concentrates the audiences focus onto the image because they're not having to change their attention between three different areas on the cover as they would have to in the second experiment I did.My original inside pane was going to be the lyrics of "The Exam" although th
is worked well, I decided to use lyrics from 
two different 'Blighters' songs because the paper was layered on top of each other, the audience couldn't read all the lyrics anyways; it also gave a variety and linked well the songs that were on the CD. I finally decided to have three pieces of paper, each with the beginning of three different Blighter's lyrics on (one of which was "The Exam"). I decided to experiment with the use of images on the inside panes as well and because I didn't feel the montage of images was appropriate for the front cover I chose to use them inside the CD case instead. I felt this engaged the audience more because there is the sense of mystery on the front cover, because it doesn't give much away (imagewise) and in order to find out more they just have to look inside the case where there are more images that suggest slightly more about the band. The use of polaroids also link the front and inside cover, as does the paper, creating a smooth flow between each pane.
is worked well, I decided to use lyrics from 
two different 'Blighters' songs because the paper was layered on top of each other, the audience couldn't read all the lyrics anyways; it also gave a variety and linked well the songs that were on the CD. I finally decided to have three pieces of paper, each with the beginning of three different Blighter's lyrics on (one of which was "The Exam"). I decided to experiment with the use of images on the inside panes as well and because I didn't feel the montage of images was appropriate for the front cover I chose to use them inside the CD case instead. I felt this engaged the audience more because there is the sense of mystery on the front cover, because it doesn't give much away (imagewise) and in order to find out more they just have to look inside the case where there are more images that suggest slightly more about the band. The use of polaroids also link the front and inside cover, as does the paper, creating a smooth flow between each pane. I wanted the CD cover to resemble a desk; this was the base of my
idea and through experimenting I was able to create the effect I wanted. The most difficult pane to make realistic was the back pane, because I wanted it to appear as though it was the underneath of a table; however I wasn't sure how to incorporate graffiti and layer it to make it look realistic. By scanning a piece of paper with random pieces of graffiti written on it and layering above the background and changing the transparency I was able to replicate the underneath side of a table. Due to the font being simplisitc throughout the CD cover the graffiti, similar to the writing on the paper, added depth rather then making it appear too busy. 
As well as the back pane being difficult, the pane behind the CD was also difficult. This can sometimes be forgotten and it doesn't need too much design because it is behind the CD, however I decided to create something that was better to look at than a blank wood effect pane. I experimented and attempted to incorporate the exam idea, however the handwritten element didn't work well and neither did the pen and paper idea. Instead of the exam idea, I experimented with just using polaroids and titles without paper and the effect worked better than when I included paper as well. The choice to use the website address again (I used it on the back pane as well) was to familairise the audience with the band more because it is although the band truly want their fans to visit their site because they've mentioned the site twice.
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