Digipak - 09/02/12

Below is a screen grab of my Digipak. 

The front cover has an image of the band, with their band name, logo and the name of the new album. This is iconic and similar to other girl band's album covers. This would help the audience and customers relate to the band and realise what it is they are going to buy. 

The back cover has the song titles in a red road sign/direction post. The red colour links in with the web site and iconography as they both have the same colour red in them as a main feature. I got inspiration from the road sign based around the name. 'Orbit' is what the Earth does as it rotates around the universe. The road sign helps you to get directions and "orbit" your own way around the world, so it is a play on the word and theme. It also has an image of the band below the road sign, looking like Lucy is pointing at the directions. The Dog Eat Frog Productions image and slogan are at the bottom of the back page as most existing albums from girl bands have these things featured on their back cover as a form of copyright. There is also a barcode to make it look more official and realistic as if someone could actually go and buy the CD. 

The inside right is where the CD would go. It has the Earth and the Universe. The Earth links in with the "Orbit" in the name and also the world inside the "O". The bands name and logo is on top of the world so that the customer can see the iconography and logo of the band they are listening too. The actual CD would have the same thing of the Earth and Pure Orbit logo on it. If the CD was to get lost, then the customer can see what artist and CD Cover it is meant to go in. 

The inside left panel has to other images of the band on it, allowing the customers to see even more of the band and help them to relate to the band even more. There are also some of the lyrics from the main song 'Here I Am'. This will help the listeners to link in with the song and the band, and get to feel closer to the artist. The lyrics are saying about expressing who they are and about standing out from the crowd.

On the spine is the band's name, the name for the album and also Dog Eat Frog Productions (with the registered and copyright symbols). This is what you normally see on existing, real CD's/albums and I didn't want to leave the spine blank so I put what you would normally see on there on the spine. 

iWeb Web Site - 09/02/12

These are screen grabs of my finished iWeb web site.

This is my finished iWeb homepage. It has the Digipak front cover in the white square which relates all to the web page and video as the Pure Orbit name is on both the album cover and the web page. The image is from the video shoot. I have tour dates on there in the red square which is on most other band websites, so fits in with conventions and iconography. I have hyperlinks to Facebook and Twitter too. I have featured my production company image as well. I have a shout box so that anyone viewing my site can leave a message and comment for the band.

This is at the bottom of every page. The 'Contact Us' link opens and email addressed to the band's direct email address. The production companies picture also features at the bottom of the page. I have also added a phrase that you see on most other artist's websites; "Pure Orbit are a band under the company of Dog Eat Frog Productions. All rights reserved." This makes it look more effective and more realistic to other existing band's pages. ©®

This is my 'Gigs & Events' page where the key dates for the 'New Life Tour' are on there where the viewers can click on the hyperlink and directly go to the arena's home page.

This is my gallery page. I have uploaded photos from the video shoot and put them into a virtual slide show so the viewers can flick through the pictures. These pages also have a slightly different banner so that it varies the look of the pages and make things more interesting.

This is a screen grab of my 'Music' page. As I don't have much content to put on here, I have put the page under construction title so the viewing audience and examiner don't I have just forgotten about these pages and not looked over or checked my web pages. 

Today's Lesson - 01/02/12

In today's lesson, Sir got our footage off of the HDV Camera and we uploaded it into iMovie and then transferred it to Final Cut. We started to edit the new footage and found out that we had a clip which was a different colour to the others. We added a colour effect on the clip so that the two separate clips were now the same colour and it looked a lot more effective and consistent.


Before the footage got uploaded, I carried on with my Digi Pak. I combined the two separate digi pak's together so that it makes one Album Cover.

This is the first cover I created with the Earth and name on it.

This is the second one I created with the track list and the front image on it.

This is the new CD Cover. It involves all of the images and logos. It still needs work as there are white patches and odd problems in other places. 

Digipak Designs - 20/01/12

Today I started to design the digipak cover for my band's album. Below are the pictures of the designs with a description of each:

This is the front cover. On it will be an image of the Earth with a photo of the band over lapped with the earth. The Earth helps link in with the band as the Earth 'Orbits' and the band name is Pure Orbit, so it fits in with the name. The image will help the buyers to see the band, who they are buying and also it will help them to realise who it is, so if they are a fan, they would want to buy the album. It will have the Pure Orbit name and logo (the red font with the Earth in the 'O') on the top of the front cover. This will help relate the Digipak with the webpage and keep my iconography consistent. The album name is 'New Life' which is also the name of the band's tour. This will help link all media products together as it is consistent in the album and web page. 

This is the back cover where my track list will be. It will have a silhouette of two figures looking up at a road sign with directions. The arrows will have each track name on instead of actual directions. This will link in with the Earth as people need directions and these direction signs are all over the world.

 This will be the inside cover where the CD will go. Under the CD will be and Earth which links in with the front cover and the name of the band. Around the edge will be a dark colour with the moon and stars on connoting the Universe. This will, again, link in with the Earth/Orbit theme. The actual CD will have the same Earth image on, and the Pure Orbit name and logo would be on the CD. The 'O' of Orbit would be around the hole in the CD.

Editing Web Page - 18/01/12

In today's lesson, I decided to change the smaller banner on my web page as I didn't think it looked good having the same image of the girls on two separate banners. I used a different picture for the other pages' banner to make it change and look a bit better. I used a photo taken from the video shoot, then edited it in Gimp to get the white background and get it in line with the text. I then put this on my Music, Videos, Gigs & Events, Gallery and On-line Store pages. 

This is the old banner I had created which used the same picture as the 'Homepage'.

This is the new banner which has a different picture. I think this new banner makes the web site look better as it is slightly different, but still fits in with the iconography as there is an image of the band and it also uses the same font, and band name as the other banners and other media texts that are associated with the band. 

Today's Lesson - 13/01/12

In today's lesson I decided to look for a new chat box as the one I had didn't work properly. I surfed the web and found a new site which allowed me to use a free shout box. This one works properly and I can now have a fully working shoutbox. This allows guests to send messages to the group to support them and say what they like. If a guest gets too explicit, there is also a ban button so I can stop them from commenting on Pure Orbit's website. This is the address for my website. I also decided to add photo's from the video shoot onto the 'Gallery' page so that there is more content to my website and so the viewing audience can see how the shoot went and what went on behind the camera. Below are some screen shots from  my website showing the new chat box.

Website URL:
file:///Volumes/machomes/05dpreston-rider/Sites/Pure_Orbit/Homepage.html

This picture shows the Homepage of my site. The new chat box is the black box to the left or the lowest red square. Guests can enter a name and message to post to the group.

The lowest photo is the photos I uploaded form the video shoot. The viewer can flick through them themselves or they can view them as an automated slideshow.

Today's Lesson - 04/01/12

Today in lesson I decided to carry on with my web site. I put a content marker into my 'Videos' page where my coursework music video will go once complete. I decided to do this so that the rest of my pages aren't just blank, they have some content on them and I thought the video page would be a good page to put some more content as my coursework is to produce a music video. I also moved some of the text and pictures around to make them fit better on the page.

My main achievement in lesson was that I was able to use the HTML box the put a chat roll onto my home page. This would be where 'fans' could comment about the video, and also chat to other fans and members of the band. Other members of my class liked this idea and also used the chat roll on their web sites. This is what I put down on my paper design, so I have stuck to my original web site design I made a few moths ago.
This is a link to my Pure Orbit website and my chat roll is on there:
file:///Volumes/machomes/05dpreston-rider/Sites/Pure_Orbit/Homepage.html

However, I asked other members of my class to comment on the chat and it wouldn't let them post a comment. I will have to look into this and try to get it fixed as the whole point behind a chat roll is so people can leave comments for the band on our page.

Improving My Webpage - 09/12/11

Today in lesson I updated and improved my web site. After looking into girl band web sites yesterdays, I decided to have a slightly different banner on my homepage to the other pages. Here is a screen grab of the new banner I created in Gimp.

I took my previous banner and moved the image of the girls over and put the word 'Pure' above 'Orbit' to create a slightly different banner, but one that is still similar, recognisable and still fits in with my iconography. I decided to create another banner and change my initial ideas as I thought the slightly different banners looked good on The Saturdays' site so I thought  I would include this research and new finding into my site.

This is a screen grab showing my homepage with the original banner.

Here is the new, slightly different banner on my 'Music' page and it is also on the other pages excluding the home page.

I also started to add more content and things to my web site. I uploaded the image of my production company; 'Dog Eat Frog Productions' and put it at the bottom of the page (as in image below). I also decided to include a 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of the page as this is what i decided in my paper drawings. To fit in with this and make it look more realistic and efficient, I made a Gmail account under the name Pure Orbit so I could actually receive emails from the web site audience. The email address is pureorbitofficial@gmail.com. 

The bottom of this page is the production company logo and name. I have made this image larger than the rest so you can see the 'Contact Us' link.

This screen grab shows the login in screen when I log into the band's email account.

This is pureorbitofficial@gmail.com's inbox.

Banner Creation - 02/12/11

This is a screen grab of my web page banner. I think this is good as it shows an image of the girls in the band, singing behind the microphones. This is good as it gives the viewing audience an image of what the site is about. They can clearly see the band they have just visited, doing what they are known for. The Pure Orbit is how I wanted it to be. I have stuck to my iconography that I decided on earlier, as I am still using the colour of red, and I said that I will use an earth inside the 'O' of 'Orbit'.

After looking into existing girl band websites, I noticed that the banner appears on all of their pages. I will feature my banner on every page of the site. I quite like the idea of The Saturdays web site as the home page features a big banner of the girls and the band name, and then on the other pages, it is a smaller banner with the name in a different place. I might use this idea as I think it looks quite effective.

Below are some screen grabs of the websites I looked into:

This is the Pussycat Dolls' home page. It shows the banner with the black silhouettes and the Pussycat Dolls' heart.

This is the Pussycat Dolls' news page, showing the same banner as the home page did.

This is the Girls Aloud homepage which shows the banner at the top of the page with an image of the girls and their band name.

This is the Girls Aloud news page which shows the same banner at the top of the page as the home page.

This is The Saturdays homepage which shows the banner at the top of the page with an image of the band members and their band name above the image.

This is the slightly different  banner which is on every other page at the top. This has an image of the band members and to the left of the image is their band. I am going to use this idea of slightly changing the banner so it makes it more appealing and varied for the viewing audience.

Banner Creation - 25/11/11

In today's lesson I had to create the title banner in gimp. I used my logo idea to create the banner for my web page.

I went onto Google and found this image that I was going to use as my content marker for my banner.

I imported the image into Gimp and then began to edit it and move things around.

This screen shot looks the same as the one above, but around the silhouettes are flashing dotted lines. This is where I used the wand tool to make the white background invisible so I could put it nearer the Pure Orbit words and not have the white background cover it.

This is the final piece I created in Gimp. It shows the woman as silhouettes for a content marker and the Pure Orbit name. 

This is my final title banner. I have included the words content marker so people who look at it for now knows that I won't be using the black silhouettes as I will be using an image of our performers singing in the studio or a normal photo, but for now, the content marker shows where the picture will eventually go.

Creating a logo on Gimp - 18/11/11

This is my idea for the band's logo. I have been using Gimp to create the logo, I had some difficulties loading the images and putting the earth behind the 'O'. Once I got help off miss, I then worked out how to do it and continued to create the logo. I think it looks good as the Earth in the Orbit looks effect and relates as the Earth orbits the solar system. I think the font looks effective and it works well together.