Blog Post 26 - Stage 1 - Completed Design: Rear Cover - Actor and Music Information

My finished design for Stage One: DVD Amaray Case Wrap

As mentioned in Blog Post 11, the third and final element of the DVD Case Warp that I will explaining and evaluating is that of the Rear Cover. In a similar vein to that of the Front Cover, the Rear Cover also features a large range of elements which when brought together will form the Rear Cover. For reference, my finished design is posted here. In regards to the different elements of the Rear Cover, these include the following which will be discussed and explained; Background; DVD Information; Gene Hunt; Ford Capri; DVD Summary Information; Actors and Music Information. Having just completed the element of the DVD Summary Information the final stage would be that of the Actors and Music Information.

Actors and Music Information

I must admit that this element of the Rear Cover was not one that I originally envisaged on my cover, and you will probably notice this from my design ideas back in Blog Post 10. However, with all of other different elements finished and added to the Rear of the cover this left a space just below the Capri and above that of the DVD Information. 

Steel Tongs Font from the Abstract Fonts website

I was thinking for quite a while as to what I could possibly put in there, however I did not wish to just put something on there just for the sake of doing so as that would not be professional and could hinder as opposed to help with the appearance of the cover. With this in mind I decided to revert to the original DVD cases that had already been made as to try and get some inspiration. When reading through the back cover I realised that I had overlooked an element that I really should not of done at all. On them all was a section dedicated to that of the Actors that would be included in the DVD, but also that of the Music too. In modern day DVDs and films the music included would not bee publicised that much, however in this case of a retro 1980s DVD the music is very much part of everything and therefore should be included.

With this in mind, I set about once again using the Rectangle Tool which would allow me to draw a rectangle to the size that I wanted and also in the area that I wanted too. In regards to the colour, I decided to set it to a 100% total Black which in the Hex colouring is 0 for Red, Green and Blue, however once I had drawn the rectangle, I decided to change the Opacity. By doing this and having changed the opacity down from 100% to that of 75% this gave an aesthetically pleasing effect whereas the black rectangle was of course still visible, however you can just see through the background too, just like that of the DVD Information panels in Blog Post 25. 

Actor and Music Information added to the Rear Cover

Once this was completed I now had a base to work with however the issue I was battling with was that of the font choice as no matter what I tried it just did not look right. With this in mind I did not just want to settle for something that I was not happy with and thus had to look at another option. Then, I noticed on the previous DVD Covers the font they used was quite specific and decided to research on Google to find out what it was. After some research I managed to find that the font used by the majority of DVD Covers for the Actor and Music Information is called SteelTongs. Some further searching found that I could download and install this font onto my computer, and this was from Abstract Fonts this time  (http://www.abstractfonts.com/font/11551). Once downloaded and installed I could then adding in the different information including the some example Direction and Producer Names, but not forgetting Phillip Glenister who plays the character of Gene Hunt. With this in place, I really felt this was the icing on the cake so to speak, as it really added to that professional appearance that I was so trying to keep to.

With this element of the Rear Cover now being completed this meant that I had actually finished the design of the entire cover. With all of the different elements and stages being completed and brought together this meant I was now at a stage that I could conclude an evaluation of Stage One of this assignment after receiving some feedback from peers and to gauge their thoughts and if they had any suggestions or alternations from an outside source. With this in mind, the next stage will be in regards to the feedback received.