This follows the standard convention used on pretty much all websites. Here are some examples:
The style of homepage I wanted was one that was informative, one that linked itself to other pages on the site rather than cram everything into it rather than on the other side of the dice, one that had no content whatsoever and was much more of a splash page rather than a detailed homepage. I feel that a homepage that has links to other pages are much more effective than ones that simply have a navigation bar along the top without the added touch of a few video clips, image galleries etc.
What I have done is have a little 'taster' of a few different things the site contains and input small chunks of it into my homepage. I feel this was one of the differences I had to other few websites I have looked at previously. I have therefore gone against the convention of having limited things on the homepage so that more information is portrayed to the audience without them having to go searching page after page. All the snippets are on the homepage to browse down and click on the links they like to view the content in more detail on the correct page.
Another key feature of a website is to have links to social media sites. This is so that when audiences visit the webpage, they can see ways of connecting with the band/artist further.
As you can see from this image, I have a "Connect With Us" section with thumbnails which link to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Google+. This is an important feature for my website to have as fans would like to view as many things as possible about their favourite music stars.
The colour scheme used is vital. A scheme that somehow relates to the artist/band is something that I feel is a crucial component. The website that Nickelback have uses a black and white colour scheme. This is due to the fact they are a rock band and black is the general colour used when portraying the rock genre whereas the colour scheme of Weird Al Yankovic's website is a multi-coloured, fun looking one. This signifies the type of music genre that it is. A parody.
Moving to Olly Murs, his colour scheme appears very sophisticated with neutral colours. This is a reflection on the kind of artist he is.
I have gone for a white background on the main content page with blue boxes and in some points the same blue for the text. Then again for the exterior background of the right hand side content panel which continues across the foot of the webpage.
I chose the blue as it is a bright and bold colour that you could class as a 'feel good' colour. It links in to the fact parodies are a feel good type of music genre and are bright and funny.
Digipak
Digipak's can be varying sizes but I decided the design I wanted to go for was 6 panel one, containing, a front cover, back page with track listing, a CD holder page, lyrics page, a large image from a video shoot and a little message to the fans.
Some of the digipak's I have looked at used the 6 panel design to great effect, enabling plenty of information and images to be displayed to the audience.
The first convention would be to have a house style to the digipak. I have completed all the digipak using 'Segoe Script' and 'Segoe Print'. I looked through many fonts but decided that these would catch the eye of the audience better than maybe simpler fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman would have done. I have used the same font for my logo (Segoe Script) as I have for other page heading etc.The other content (track listing/message to fans/lyrics) use the sister font 'Segoe Print'. As these fonts are part of the same 'family' it looks pretty effective when I merged the two into my house style.
The colour scheme again all links in with other aspects of the artists work. I stuck with the same blue as my website, just as the likes of Rihanna and Oasis did when they're particular albums came out. They would have a colour scheme that ties in with them as an artist that is the same on all platforms of their work.
These are some of the example digipak's I looked at. Firstly, I liked the Rihanna one with the fact that the image spreads across 3 panel, enabling a great rule of thirds convention. Rihanna is spread across the left and central thirds of the digipak. I loved this convention, however, I didn't use the same technique of using one image across the 3 panel, I did however use the rule of thirds on my back (track listing) page.
As you can see from the image of my back (track listings) page. I have used 6 images of the band, covering the right third and the left third, with the track listing in the centre third. I have chosen this as the track listings I felt needed to be centred as it would be the first thing the audience see.
The thought behind the rule of thirds is that it creates more tension and energy. I think that it in my case, it also splits up your content into more manageable chunks. There is something to catch your eye initially, and then something else to further your skills.
Looking at the Oasis digipak, you can see the front cover and back page consisting of the track listing. These are important factors of a digipak and are the first things the audience see when picking up the album. They need to be eye catching and informative. They need to have that Unique Selling Point (USP). My digipak front cover is an image of the band, coupled with the name of the band and the name of the album. This is a major convention and will be something that every music digipak will have.
Existing products front covers that I looked at included these. The first one was Rizzle Kicks' Stereo Typical album. I liked the 'gormless' look of the two singers and as this was the band I was parodying, I felt to conform to this convention from this band would be a good one. Although not an album, the combined half and half portraits of
Example and
Ed Sheeran was the style I almost chose right until I went into production of the actual piece.The 2 albums on the right are Chris Moyles' 2 parody albums. I looked at these to see how he went and made a parody album cover of some of the original tracks in which he has made into a parody.
I took the shots to which I would use for the half and half design but I instead went for gormless look of my two singers just like the original Rizzle Kicks album.
