Digipak analysisSophie Harris-Brotherhood

Digipak analysis 1

Contra is the second studio album by the American indie rock band Vampire Weekend, released in January 2010. The album is aimed at people interested in the indie rock genre and their music is mostly aimed at young adults. The front cover contains a mid shot of a young girl illuminated by vibrant lighting which gives her an attractive glow, this will draw the audience in. I particularly like the colours of this album as they stand out and gives the album a nice aesthetic, the pink background blends well together with the yellow polo top. However this image is not of the band themselves which is something I want to do on my own Digipak as I feel like it would advertise the band more and get them more well known. I like the font used on the front cover as it is bold and stands out, the colours all go well together and the white texts stands out on the yellow polo top. The young girl in the digipak is wearing simple clothes with simple make-up, this changes the entire look of the front cover as it makes it look more simplistic and makes it more aesthetically pleasing. I like the boarder going round the edge as it gives the digipak a neat look and makes it look presentable. One thing that stands out is the blue strip on the left hand side, it stands out as it is bright and adds something different to the front cover.

The style of the rest of the digipak is totally different from the front cover and is much more simplistic with no colour at all. The black and white design is simple but effective, the square design on the back cover not only fills up a n empty gap but ads a certain edgy look to the digipak. A similar design can been seen on the disk itself, this is something I want to adopt for my own digipak as I think it makes the disk stand out and looks more original rather than having a plain disk with writing on.

Another thing that stands out to me as eyecatching is the track listing, the layout and positioning of each track is unusual as they don’t seem to follow any order and are just randomly placed, the black text against the write background again portrays the simplicity of the album.

Like most digipaks the barcode is placed at the bottom in a fairly small size along with other important information such as legal information and often a small logo of the record company is placed next to the barcode.

This digipak also comes with a small free picture , with my digipak I want to include either a small free picture or a poster as I think this is an appealing factor and would and would make people want to buy it is as it will attract people to it.

These magazine averts all follow the same color scheme as each other and the front cover of the Digipak. Two of these magazine adverts contain the track listing from the album and this is something I would like to do for my own magazine advert. The last magazine advert is more plain but still effective, the large picture would draw the audience in and make them want to read when the album is out.

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In advert 2 I particularly like the way the release date is laid out, it stands out and is noticeable, this is something I want to do on my own magazine advert as I haven't seen any other magazine adverts like this one. The overall shape of the advert is appealing as in adverts one and two it doesn’t take up the whole page, the rectangle shape makes the advert more original. Advert 3 however has little information on but takes up the entire page. The text on advert 3 is much bigger I'm no too keen on the blue font used in advert 3 as I think it blends too much into the white background and makes it hard to read

Magazine advert

Digipak analysis 2 Lana Del Rey is an artist who’s music is mainly indie pop. Her album ‘born to die’ was releases January 2012. her music is targeted at an indie styled vintage young adults. The front cover of the digpak shows a medium close-up of the artists face and outfit. This is a common shot used in the indie genre as it makes the audience feel closer to the band/artists. On my own digipak I want to use a photo of my band as I feel it is a good opportunity to show people my band. By showing a medium close up we are able to see the artists hair, make-up and outfit choice. In this digipak example we can see Lana Del Rey pouting and looking straight at the camera, something she is known for doing in posters, adverts and other phot shoots. The shot also enables the target audience to see what she looks like and be inspired to look like that or wear a particular item of clothing.

For this particular front cover the artist is standing outside, this adds more colour to the digipak as the blue sky is featured. This particular setting creates a certain type of mood for the album, it creates a relaxed mood through the colours and the setting. Some sort of filter has been used to dull the colours down and make it less bright and makes it look more artificial. I like the text used for this front cover as the pink text stands out against the white blouse being worn by the artist. Although the title of the album isnt very big her name is in a very big font and stands out the most out of all the other elements. I really like the colour scheme and I would be tempted to use a similar colour scheme for my own digipak.

On the back of the digipak the track listing is in the same font as the front cover. In my opinion the red background doesn’t fit in with the overall appearance of the dgipak. The barcode is an unusual shape to other barcodes that I have seen on digipaks, I like the layout of the barcode, record label and other information.

The inside of the digipak has the same styled image as the front cover. This links the digpiak nicely together and again lets the audience focus on the main artists face. The fact that it is a close up and is spread across to sides shows her importance and enforces the idea that she should be recognised and that this is an important album for her. The colour scheme of the inside displays a natural look just like the front cover. This gives the audience an idea that her album is more natural and laid back.

The disk of the digipak is mostly white with three red roses. The white background makes the red roses stand out more, the theme of nature is again carried through to the disk and is still very natural and simplistic. The fact that the cd doesn’t have her name printed could imply that she feels important enough to not have it on there.

Inside the digipak there is a fold out which displays the lyrics of each track listing. What I find interesting about this lyrics fold out is the font used. A type writer styled font is used, this displays a vintage retro style look. The paper appears to have a brown tinge to it making it appear old and vintage. This type of look will appeal to her target audience of retro young adults. The blood splatters across the pages could link in with the back cover of the digipak, this suggests that there is two sides to her album. By doing this she will draw people in and make them want to buy her digipak.

Magazine advert

The magazine advert obviously follows the same style as the digipak as the image, font and colours are exactly the same. I like how the entire image covers the page. By doing this the audience will be drawn in to the magazine and are therefore more likely to buy it. As the image used is a mid shot of Lana herself it makes it more focused so people will be attracted to her and then read the advert.

The text gets smaller the further down the page, this make the release date and other crucial information hard to read. I believe that the release date should stand out the most as that’s what is being advertised. When making my own magazine this is something I will defiantly do. I do like how the text is the same colour as the sky as I think this makes the advert look aesthetically pleasing and easy to look at.

This magazine advert defiantly fits in with the indie genre, not only thorough the colours but through the way the artist is styled. Her plain outfit and make up presents her in a mysterious way along with her pose and the camera angle. I think it presents the idea that her album is a more serous one, this is also links in with the title of her album ‘Born to die’

Digipak analysis 3

The 1975 are an English rock band originating from Wilmslow, Cheshire. The group consists of Matthew Healy, Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald, and George Daniel. The front cover of their digipak features the bands name and the name of the album. As the album and band name are the same it makes it stand out as less text is needed on the front cover.

The colours used are monochrome and very dark, this could represent the type of music on the album. On my own digipak and want to do a dark front cover but then bring some colour in on the back cover and the inside. This album cover has a stylish look to it and would appeal to young adults, the same target audience as my own band

By placing the album/band name in the center and in illuminated white lighting it makes the front cover eye-catching and appealing. I like the font used for the text as it is bold and appealing.

Like many indie/alternative artists the 1975 have chosen not to appear on their own front cover. By doing this they make the album more mysterious as by putting a simple image like this one they make it more intriguing and leave it to the audiences imagination to guess what the album is like and about. Although I do like the idea of not having the artist appear on the front I am going to use a photo of my band when making my own digipak.

The back of the digipak again keeps with the black and white theme and has the exact same layout as the front cover. The track listing is written in the same font as the album name on the front. By doing this the digipak is linked throughout and looks neat and orderly. The black and white theme is not only seen on the front and back but it can be seen on the inside cover and the pull out. The disk is a dark brown with black text on. This colour scheme presents a dark mood for the album. The track listing is smaller than most track listings on digipaks. For my own digipak I want my track listing to be in a big text so it is easy to see.

The digipak contains a pull out picture of the band themselves, this is the first and only time on the digipak that we see the band. By using a pull out image they remind the audience who they are and make it easy to relate to the album. The clothes thy are wearing also fits in with the colour scheme. The positioning of the band will make the album appeal to girls and boys. Girls will like the the overall appearance of the band and boys will like aspects like them having their hand sin their pockets.The plain brown disk with black writing in my opinion is boring and as it is brown it doesn’t really fit in with the overall appearance of the digipak. For my own digipak I want the disk to have some colour on and more writing that this one.

One thing that stands out to me is the fact that a barcode can not be seen on the digipak. On most digipak’s the barcode and record label can be found at the bottom usually under the track listing. By not having a barcode there it again suggests that the album is very stripped back and ‘dark’

This magazine advert is simple but effective. The black and white colour scheme is followed on and this makes the black text stand out and become very noticeable to the audience. This advert contains very little information about the album and the release date, for my own magazine advert I want to have more writing than this one as I feel like it is an important way of getting the information across to the target audience

The font used is a lot more simple than fonts that they usually use. I think this font works though as it makes the advert look more sophisticated and gives the album a different look and feel to the actual appearance of the digpak by doing this they might attract a different type of audience as they might expect the album to be more subtle.

By having their magazine image the same as their album cover they are making the album more recognisable, this will mean they attract a bigger audience and will become a bigger band. When I make my magazine I want to use the same image as my digipak for this reason