Digipak Anaylsis: Front and Back - Adapted Draft

Front Cover

This is a much more neutral layout, as the audience feedback we received was this was excessively overbearing, with too much going on. Our main focus was to get our target audience's attention, but upon thinking about it, our first draft would soon overwhelm them or bore them quickly. We decided this calmer, outlook might pull in an indie niche as well as our target audience.

                                                                                   Back Cover

This is essentially an inversion of the first draft. We liked the way the colour of the front cover matched with the silhouette behind Lia's portrait, and the simplicity of the white background with black text on it created and impact. The synergy between the two was good and helped us reach out to our target audience. 

Digipak Anaylsis: Inner Parts - Adapted Draft

Front Cover

After getting feedback that the space wasn't utilized and that the text didn't stand out enough I decided to add more and more photos that gave insight to our artist as a person as well as an artist. I also added more depth and effects to the text.

Back Cover

We got feedback that space wasn't managed well with this either so we decided to change the font colour, spacing as well as add a main photo. We included a game that leads to a personal message on the website from the artist herself-- you have to find the keyword somewhere on this page and input it on her personal website.

Digipak Anaylsis: Inner Parts - Initial Draft

First Inner

The first inner page was always going to be a lyrics page, and so we chose to write lyrics for the main song, "Under Control." I kept it in black and white to link to the back cover, and I added pictures of Lia that I had taken during the shoot of the music video on the top to add style.

Second Inner

We decided that our second inner would be a "Thank You" page to all the people who bought this album as it is her debut album.  This was going to tell people how to get involved with what made her more musically recognized, BBC Introducing specifically, along with behind the scenes from shooting the music video as the background.

Evaluation: Front and Back - Initial Draft

Our first digipak draft was based off of a wide spectrum of popular digipaks of world wide music genres and styles that has inspired us. You can see that here.


Front Cover

 Initially, our first idea for the digipak, linking with the main track "Under Control" was the key theme of youth. The "youth" idea was represented through the flowers behind the outline of Lia as our artist. The colour scheme is pinks-whites-blacks. The white to black gradient is supposed to reference youth, and how there isn't a colour defining youth, and that this generation's youth deals with life in different ways. The pink relates to the blooming flower, as flowers relate to youth well.

Back Cover

The back cover reflected the negative side of youth. With the title of the entire album being "The Kids Aren't Alright", we wanted to emulate both the positive and negative aspects of life, with "Under Control" being a song with the meaning that this generation has many struggles. The flowers from the front cover are in this, as well as Lia, but not just her outline like in the front cover, which leads the audience to think that the album, artist and main song has more depth to it that initially thought.

Research and Planning: What is a digipak?

Digipaks are the gateway to musical expression. Within a digipak, conventionally you will find a front cover, a back cover, and two inner parts. While the front cover and back cover are generally an image of something linking to the artist/group and title and tracklist respectively, the inner parts of a digipak can range from anything from:

• introduction to the artist/group - who they are, what their role is, quotes by them
• lyrics to the title/main song 
• pictures of them that link with the running theme of the digipak.

Here are some examples of digipaks.

Research and Planning: Digipak Examples

 


Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Pak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot" rather than a full plastic tray.

(Source - Wikipedia)

Research and Planning: Music Video and Album Cover Synergy

I decided to do a continuation of my Research and Planning for my digipak, and did Additional Research, which can be found above or in that link.