Based on my research I found that this artist generally uses very simplistic art for album covers and often links to nature. For that reason i came up with a simple idea which i developed into what it is now. I made use of a nearby forest and used different levels of lighting in order to show the conflict that the album is based on, the conflict between light and dark and therefore happiness and sadness. I therefore used photoshop in order to decolourise and darken much of the image while brightening a small area around the main character which in each different panel appears to shrink. This suggests he is walking into a world of darkness and only a little hope remains in the form of the light following him. I used some woods nearby and then came up with the idea for the name, Breaking Point, which allowed me to make use of a nearby railway which connects on one side to the town and the other, the woods i used. This allowed me to feature this railway line in one of the panels, brightening the town side of the railway as if it is the happy area while darkening the woods implying they are filled with sadness and then the character near the middle, unsure of which way to go (not ontop of the railway line for safety reasons). I also kept the face of the character out of view in almost all the panels so as to imply this is a fate which can happen to any of us and that the face of this specific person does not matter though i kept the character so that anybody who has seen the music video can recognise them easily.
This is the front cover of the digipak, i wanted to make the key theme behind the album very clear at a glance and so kept only half of the character on the image with a glow surrounding him and also made the character themself appear to glow slightly and used a mask layer gradient in order to progressively darken the rest of the image the further away we get from the character, also ensuring the darkness and light seem to blend gradually as opposed to a straight change from light to dark. We are positioned behind the character and can see the very long curving path ahead, this suggests we are going on the journey with them into the darkness, common for this genre of music as it is often based around relatable sorrows that the artist has experienced and the audience can likely relate to. I also adjusted the saturation, desaturating the darkened areas so as to make them appear gloomier while enriching the colours within the area of light, being careful not to oversaturate it and only leaving a faint rainbow effect. I then used a very simple and clear design for the text, putting the artists name at the top left, the first place anybody would read in order to instantly grab the attention of fans of the artist while placing the name at the bottom right, opposing the name meaning it stands out on its own and does not blur into the name at all.
This panel is meant to truly demonstrate the contrast of light and dark, the town on the other side of the railway is clearly much brighter with the railway acting as a middle ground at standard light levels while the woods which consume much of the image are clearly very dark, especially in the corner as the image goes deeper. The gate is also symbolic as a kind of point of no return as there is still some light on the other side but beyond it is darkness. The character is positioned in the middleground, just off the side of the railway looking back towards the town, not yet passing through the gate but clearly on the border of darkness, to emphasise this i also brightened one side of the character while darkening the other suggesting the split decision the character is facing. Furthermore the town is positioned much further away than the woods suggesting the character may be having a last minute decision about whether to go into the darkness or escape back into the light.
This image is a very simple one as from my research the panel with the disc is often a very simplistic panel but still sticking to the theme of the other images. Therefore i decided to use this as the main mediating image and so created ripples on an image of water and created a reflection of the character's face in it through the use of opacity, positioning the eyes of the character right near where the ripple begins, also the most likely place for the customer to first look when they pull out the disc. This, while showing us the emotions of the character and the ripples suggesting tears from the character also acts as another method in order to portray the emotion to the viewer making it further relatable as when looking into the case there is a reflection looking back at us. This suggests even though while it may not be our face, we have likely been in the same situation and so the face while of another person is a reflection of our past helping us remember those feelings which will be explored in the music itself.
Finally is the back panel of the digipak, settling this small story present throughout the design. We see the character has indeed ventured into the woods and the path darkens as it goes on with the light part of the path at the bottom clearly signifying the way back into the light and therefore hope which the character is walking away from. I still maintained a slight glow around the character, particularly enriching the colours on the leaves around the character suggesting there is still some hope as will be explored in the music however from what we seen in this image we cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel as the path appears endless, the only way out being the way we came in. Again suggesting the theme of self reflection and dealing with what has happened, crossing back over that breaking point into the light. I also aimed to keep this back panel quite minimalist while still adding the key information about the album, i put the track list in a bright grey at the top left, making sure not to obscure the path but again making use of our reading method then making use of the corners to position the music label's logo, barcode and a QR code linking to the artist's website and finally placing the website url of the band at the bottom of the image in clear yet unobtrusive text, ensuring the information is passed on without obscuring the image at all.