Final Digipak Pictures

Muse album covers

Throughout all of Muse's albums artwork they have always kept a sci-fi/space theme.

The first album muse release was called showbiz and and the artwork depicts a woman striding over a baron and strange world with two moons in the background. The glow of the woman draws attention to her and also blurs out the expression on her face so the audienc doesn't know what she may be feeling but with the baron landscape and her being the only being within the picture it connotes a feeling of loneliness and . The mise en scene is the essential visual signifier to the space and sci-fi theme. The secound album, 'Origin of Symmetry' and again is a simple landscape that only consists of a seemingly nevere ending rows of strange antena that connotes paranoid conspiracies of alien activity and spying on space. The third album named 'Hulabaloo' seems to be the only album that does not have any aspects of the mise en scene that depict views of space and also the only to sell the image of the band themselves. The next album once again picks up the space theme and once again thems of paranoia. The cover shows a man with a gas mark looking up to the sky with shadows on the ground. The shadows looking much like that of a human like figure onto the ground that looks much like that of the moon. The paranoia shown with the gas mark and the enigma of what the man is looking up at. The convntion of using an enigma, which is unanswered, is again used in 'Black holes and revelations' which shows 4 men sitting in spacesuit like suits on a landscape that could easily be that of the planet Mars. Their next album 'HAARP' imidietly shows that of the theme with satelites within a black background perhaps depicting space. Their most recent album uses a geometric like hexagonal artwork with a man on a path in space that is leading to Earth. Perhaps a turning back to society and away from the lonely themes that dominated the early album covers due to Muse's change in musical direction to become more mainstream.

For the album 'Black holes and revelations', which in it's title already suggests space themes, all the singles capture a similar style in artwork that mimics that of clusters of stars and galaxies turned into artwork of the band, 'Map of Problematique', a horse in 'Knights of cydonia and a couple about to kiss in 'Invincible'.

The themes of space and sci-fi themes may be due to the band wanting to target their niche potential audience who maybe a demograpahic that are interested in alternative films/TV programmes such as that of the sci-fi and space genre. But also the theme of space is a symbol of loneliness that many of their songs reflect and their potential audience may be able to reflect such feelings of loneliness.

Unprocessed and original images

The last image is a stencil of Joe mazzei from which I used to create the tape stencil of Joe which is the 3rd page of the digipak booklet. I firstly printed out the stencil of Joe and then applied the loose tape to the stencil, covering the areain which needed. I then took a picture of the new taped stencil, adding a red filter.

Digipak

Initial Sketch of Digipak design

Digipak Case Design

My design for my digipak will be a case that mimics a old Reel to reel tape. The case will screw open and shut and inside will be a small booklet and the CD itself. The booklet will have 4 sides with artwork based around cassette tapes cartridges and cassette tape tape. The use of cassettes is fitting for the band's genre. The genre of the band is alternative rock/grunge and the use of cassette is fitting to the band due to when grunge first appeared when cassette tapes would have still been widely used. The bands main singer, Joe, will be represented within the artwork using a stencil like creating with tape. Using Photoshop to create a close up still of Joe into a black and stencil i can then use tape to 'fill in' the stencil art of Joe. Also the artwork will have a bright red look to it by using the flash along with a filter type technique using my finger over the flash.

Foo Fighters - The pretender

The Foo Fighters single from their latest album 'Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace' is available in a standard CD single format as well as on Vinyl and MP3 download.

The simple artwork of the piece that just consist of a modified light-bulb along with the title of the single and the bands name is eye catching due to simplicity and draws the focus onto the light-bulb. This simplicity will be mirrored in my artwork as i'll use very simple artwork with an interesting object centered in the frame of the picture.

Genre-wise the band is grunge/rock band who often play big shows and could be said to be one of the biggest acts in rock music. This is reflected in the artwork and the font as it reminds me of a broadway like aesthetics with the white bright light-bulb and the art deco like quality to the font. Also the hand shaped light-bulb could be a symbol of the power of the band.

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