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Digipak: Back Cover (First Draft)

Alongside the front cover, we also worked on the back cover of our digipak.

I started of by opening a new file on Photoshop (Ctrl + O) and inputting the same dimensions (5.45 inches and 4.95 inches, width and height respectively) we used for the front cover for standardisation.


Next I opened the image we selected (Ctrl + O) to use for the back cover, a close up of the painting, in particular a close up of the upper right corner with the lighthouse. We decided to use this specific part of the painting since the lighthouse is symbolic for the artist finding their way. Having this on the back cover where the track list is supposed to be insinuates that through their music they ended up doing just that. I dragged the image onto the file.


I, then pressed Ctrl + T to transform the image since the image itself was much larger than the file due to it's high resolution. I pressed shift to perverse the picture's proportions and adjusted the image, in a way that the lighthouse was less centralised on the file compared to the picture, creating ample space for the track list and decreasing negative space on it's right, leaving just the right amount of space for copyrights (conventionally placed on the back). I then used the warp tool to straighten the image, making the lighthouse appear more upright.


I used the text tool to first, write the title 'Tracklist' and then the tracks, previously brainstormed by the team on a different layer. The 'Tracklist' was written in a significant larger font so that's the first place the consumer's eyes fall on, guiding them. I used Bebas Neue from DaFonts. Since we made all elements of the digipak side by side the decisions pre refinement and post refinement are similar. We decided to use the colour red for the font in accordance to the colour scheme and to match the colours of the lighthouse. Opening the properties of the text layer in which the tracks were listed, we increased the spaces between each track to make it seem less crowded and decrease negative space.



While I wrote and phrased the copy rights to go onto the back cover and the first page of the inlay, Mahnoor increased the brightness and contrast of the image, to match the front cover and to get rid of any reflections of the sun.


Much like the front cover, Mahnoor used the blemish tool to refine the picture of the painting we're using for the back cover. Below are pictures before and after using the blemish tool, respectively.



Once that was complete, a transparent version of the record label logo (also created on Photoshop with the help of the magic eraser tool) was added to the file and resized with the help of the transformation tool (Ctrl + T) and shift (to preserve proportions). While still in transformation, Mahnoor rotated it 90 degrees and then pressed enter, completing the transformation, using the move tool to adjust the logo along the side where we planned to place our copy rights. Next she copied the copy rights I sent to her and rotated them to fit next to the logo of the record label, stretching the text till it looked right and covered the right side of the back cover. 


Having already decided on the change of font (reasoning mentioned in Digipak: Front Cover), Mahnoor changed the font of 'Tracklist' to match that of the title of the album for cohesion and narrative richness. She also changed the font of the tracks themselves to another variation of a pixelated font, taken from DaFonts. The colour of the tracks was turn to a brighter red matching the red of the background with the help of the dropper tool. The title 'Tracklist' and the credits however were turned a dark blue in accordance to the colour scheme, to stand out and be more eye catching, especially the copy rights since the font itself is very small as it isn't the most significant element on the digipak.



The next and final stage, was to place the barcode. We decided to place it on the lower left corner to cover the space between the waves and the black patch. We picked up a transparent PNG of a barcode from google.


This is what the back cover of our digipak looks like:



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