I will look at a range of artists and bands' digipaks, analysing front covers, back covers and insides, noting what they have on them and what they do not have on them to help me create my own. As my group's artist (Keith Tyler) is a contemporary pop rock artist, I will be researching mainly British artists/bands like Oasis, Take That, Blur, Snow Patrol, Robbie Williams, Coldplay, Radiohead, Kings of Leon, U2, Arctic Monkeys etc.
Starting with some digipaks...
COldplay
The song my group used in our music video was a Coldplay track, so I've chosen to analyse their album 'In My Place'. I was able to find a digipak back image, so I have looked at the front and back cover. Firstly, I noticed the central image on the front is not an image of the brand themselves. Instead its a small sketchy black and white graphical image of part of a profile face. I like this sort of design and considered it as an idea when creating my own digipak however, as Coldplay are already a well-known brand it is not necessary for them to be on the front cover where Keith Tyler (the artist in my video) is upcoming and needs recognition as he is not known. The colour scheme of black white and grey run throughout the back and front cover which is expected and I think fits the mellow male genre of music they produce. These colours plus maybe a hint of colour (blue?) I have strongly decided on when making my digipak. On the back cover, they have included essentials such as bar code, record label (Parlophone), written and produced by, a website, logo etc.
SnOw PatrOl
I've chose to analyse a Snow Patrol front and back cover (again as I cannot find examples of their digipaks) because they are also a British contemporary pop rock band like Coldplay and more importantly link to the genre of music my music video is. Their album 'When it's all over we still have to clear up' is quite a lengthy title. Its written small in white, positioned at the bottom of the front cover which isn't really an ideal place to put a title. Their name however, Snow Patrol is also written in white positioned in the top right corner with a little graphic image of a snowflake beside it - simple yet significant. The similar image used on the front and back of a fairy-like person on a cliff with little white wings keeps consistency, but again like Coldplay's album has no reference to the band themselves. Surprisingly, the back cover of this album has nothing but 'JPR 12' written in white, which i have no idea what it stands for.
Kings Of LeOn
The last of the digipaks is American rock band Kings of Leon's 'Because of the Time' album (again in album not digipak form). I wanted to look at a non British band to compare any major similarities or differences. I noticed straight away the graphic design used again on the front cover as Kings of Leon are already established artists. The image of a light bulb breaking in positioned in the centre of the frame which is expected, placed on a black background. The colour scheme of the album is black white grey and orange, which I think again are colours closely associated with the genre rock. Again the back cover doesn't contain much of the features I expected like barcodes, industry logos, web address, copyright, date of release, song lists etc. Instead it has another graphic image of a white flower or plant with text above saying 'Kings of Leon' and something underneath which is too unclear to read. The house style of the font is not consistent as they have more than 2 types of font, some which is quite hard to read. I like the idea of the graphic images and feel they're a strong feature especially with this type of genre, and will incorporate some kind of design onto my digipak.
As I struggled to find images of specific digipaks, below I have added some images of different types of cd digipaks...
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| 4 panel digipak |
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| 6 panel digipak |
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| 8 panel digipak |
