Existing Digipak analysis

What is a digipak?
 A digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI-Shorewood, an Atlas Holdings LLC company.
Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak) is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets. Such packaging is less resistant to abrasion than jewel cases, so it tends to show signs of wear relatively quickly.

      


In order to help myself understand what a digipak looks like and its style of the genre, I needed to analyse existing products. This is a digipak of Indie Pop artist Ellie Goulding. Within the digipak there is a similar colour coordination and theme to the digipak's visuals as well as the font use and simple layout. I will need to consider the kind of layout I want for my own digipak and how it will look to match my chosen song and the magazine advert. 

 Front Cover

The front cover shows Ellie Goulding: The main artist with a relaxed expression almost in a euphoric state. The image is bright and dominant over the text which is attractive to the audience and helps sell the digipak. In order for mine to look appealing, I need to consider having a key image for the front cover that will match the theme/s of the song I will choose and make it look stylish yet simplistic to the genres conventions. Indie/Indie Pop music is meant to be different from mainstream music, as it highly prides itself on the artists voice rather than loud or bold sounds and visuals, which is why this design links to the genre in it's natural look. 

The use of the special effects can visually enhance the digipak and artist of which I would like to do for my own product. This effect is continued throughout the digipak and instantly grabs the audiences attention to it by it's subtle and different appearance. The font style relates to the light effect in the letters glowing and makes the image more vibrant to help promote the artist and albums name. I will need to pick a font style that can be just as appealing as the image itself and is modern to my audience.

Back Cover

The back cover is simultaneous to the front cover, which is important for my own products to match too. The background has the same special effects placed on with the light effect as well as the colours, making it look more visually appealing alike with the front cover. Possibly I will use certain effects to transform my own digipak's look and make it more of a visual medium as alongside the information I will show. The artist's songs are listed, along with the information, copyright details and barcode which are the main conventions of a digipaks back cover.
The positioning of the songs are centred to the back cover and the smaller details are just below, helping me understand its layout that I can duplicate. The same font style is used to make the digipak continuous and link to the lighting effect of the background. Again, this will help me acknowledge what I need to do for my own digipak to look professional.

                                                                                                                                                            
The Disc/Disc insert

The Disc itself is simple and again natural to the digipaks design and the artist's themes.
Even though this doesn't have a abstract or artistic image, it is till bold with the disc's block colour of yellow and doesn't make the digipak look chaotic in it's visuals. There is a clear plastic case that keeps it in place, and can be easily taken out for audience use. At this point I am not sure whether to use a clear CD and make a cover for it, depending on my resources and time.



Extra image/Side image

Since this digipak is a 4 panel digipak with the CD placed on the inside, it always has an extra image either on the inside or outside extra panel. The image is to reflect the songs or albums themes of peace and a casual ambience to their tones. A lot of Indie music can be considered quieter and slow paced, which is why the side images are important to recognise the digipak in promoting the Indie genre and to add as an extra feature. This can also reflect the artist as a song writer and singer in the type of music they make, which adds to their personality. These extra images can help advertise the digipak, which is why I will need to shoot other images that can make the digipak more appealing to my audience.