Ancillary Text research (digipak)

Digipak is a style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI-Shorewood, an Atlas Holdings LLC company. It is produced to promote and protect the artists music and also they usually reflect the artist and what the

album will contain. They usually consist of a casing, a paper book with credit to producers, sometimes lyrics and the track list and a place to hold the CD.

Examples of existing productsI decided that I would look at existing products from popular artists. Most of the time, digipaks are a way to represent the artist which I have seen on many products that I have looked at. An digipak gives the artist a chance to show their personality and reveal a little bit more about themselves, even including behind the scenes footage of the making of the album. This creates an identity for the artist by which people will recognise them by. For example: Nicki Minaj is known for her 2 albums Pink Friday and Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. By looking at her first album, Pink Friday, you can see that the main focus is the colour pink and the fact that she looks like a Barbie doll. This represents her and what she is known by, especially the fact her albums involve pink in them, even her new album, The Pink Print, which is yet to be released (15/12/14) is themed with the colour pink. This is because this is what Nicki is known and recognised for, therefore allowing people to know straight away whose album it is. Even her reissued album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, The Re-Up, which featured new songs was titled using her signature ‘pink’ theme.

Existing Covers I likeThese are a few cd covers which I really like the idea of using inspiration from for my own cover when it comes to producing my own. The first one is from Troye Sivan, I really like how both the artist and the album title features on this cover a obviously the name is a big part when promoting an album and also having the artist makes it more recognisable. Having the title of the album exactly in the middle of the cover is also a good idea as your eye is automatically drawn to it. The colours also represent the colours used in his video for Happy Little Pill. As my artist will not be that well known, having my artist on the front would be a good idea as this will make it easier for people to identify my artist if they have never seen them before. The second is from Lady Gaga, I really like this album cover as I think its simple yet artistic and it represents her as an artist as she is very out there and crazy which is portrayed through the writing and her hair. The final one is from Nicki Minaj, I really like this album cover as it is so simple but looks nice. I like how it shows the title and the artists name. I also like how the image on the cover matches the naming of the album, ‘The Pink Print’. I feel as though this would be a good idea as it shows organisation and keeps it simple and professional.

Existing cd’s I likeI think looking at existing CD’s is also a good idea in preparation for producing my own as this is another important part to a digipak. I have looked at a few different CD’s and these are a few which have been my favourite. The first is from Nicki Minaj, I really like this CD as I like how she features on the disc as well as everywhere else. I think this is a good idea as people will know straight away the album belongs to her as her face features on it as well as the title and her name. This is one of my favourites so far and is something I intend to look at more to possibly incorporate onto my own digipak. The second is from Beyoncé, I really like how her CD is so simple and it shows continuity with the rest of the album, like the front cover. I think this is a good idea and I like it so it could be possibly used as inspiration in my own work. The last is from Iggy Azalea and I really like her CD as I think it is artistic and reflects the theme on the album cover and she keeps it very simple with no title or artist name, which could be a problem but as she is well known it works for her.

Existing back track list I likeI also looked at existing track lists which feature on the back of the digipak. Although this is straight forward and it obviously has to include the tracks, I thought I would look to see if there were any ways people did their track list which I liked. The first and second are from Nicki Minaj, I really like how she does her album covers (as you can tell) and both The Pink Print and Pink Friday are both good and I like the way they’re set out. The Pink Print is set out so simple and it is easy to read the track list and also Pink Friday features the track list but also a picture of the artist which I think is good as it adds more to the back of the cover rather than just text. The last is from Ariana Grande. Her way of showing the track list is also similar to The Pink Print and I really like it as it is simple and easy to read, it also has the timings of the songs which is helpful in case you want to skip to a different track.