Digipak Analysis

Fahmida Yasmin

Digipak Analysis:

Front cover:Front Cover:The main focal point of the album cover is the title. By having the title on an background with (a brick wall) makes the title stand out as it is written in a white font colour. The colour white usually connotes lights, purity and innocence. However the way Calvin Harris has used the colour white connotes more of an coolness. In advertising the colour white usually refers to being ‘cool’. This use of colour fits in with the genre of EDM as most EDM music videos and album cover follow this conventional use of the colour white.

This image of the artist Calvin Harris is really attention grabbing. As he is the artist behind this album however he is not looking directly at the camera in an mode of address which stereotypically happens across all genres and has become a convention. However Calvin Harris chose to subvert this convention of looking directly at the camera or have an close up. However this is very common with EDM album cover as most artists use graphical designs. And they avoid having the stereotypical shots taken that the mainstream album covers would have. Therefore Calvin Harris may not be conforming to the mainstream conventions, but is certainly conforming to the EDM genre. Also Calvin Harris’s use of costume really links to his target audience. As the target audience consists of young people they would relate to his clothing as they would dress casually like him. And relating to any artist is really important as then the audience would start to engage more with the artists and buy more of his music.

Having the satellite positioned at the top allows the audience to think more about his album cover and wonder more into his music. As you would not typically find satellites on an album cover. This then reinforces how Calvin Harris wants to correlate how much his music is different compared other artists. Many EDM artist such AVCII tend do this as the genre EDM is quite different and EDM allows their artists to be as different as they want. Also the satellites gives the album a retro feel to it, which suggest that music might feature some retro sounds.

Moreover by Calvin Harris wearing white trainers relates to his audience even more. As young people would relate to these trainers as stereotypically young people are the main consumers of trainers. Therefore this album cover is more appealing to this age range rather than an 30 year old for example. As the young people would more likely to buy this as this links to their persona. The use of colours that Calvin Harris has used are primarily neutral based colours. Ranging from whites, light blues and brown. These colours are usually on the neutral side of the colour spectrum. By Calvin Harris using these colours allows his album to stand out as he is subverting from the EDM genre. As most EDM album covers tend to be exagrivgant and consist of bright colours such as; yellows, purples, pinks and reds. An example of how a EDM artist used these colors can be seen in the album cover of Zedd-True Colours, which consists a lot of bright colours. As Calvin Harris chose these neutral colors it makes his album stand out to the audience. As the other EDM album covers are generally really bright and to have an album cover like this would make it already stand out in the EDM genre. Also as he has used these colours shows that he wants to relate to the audience even more as these colours give an 'chilled' approach which EDM album covers do not give as they tend to give a 'feel good', 'party feel'. Therefore this use of colour may relate to an older target audience which EDM is not usually targeted at.

The houses at the background shows that anyone from any geographical location can listen to Calvin Harris's music. As the houses look predominantly a working class house, even though the main consumers of EDM is mainly middle class people. Thus, Calvin Harris continuously tries to relate to his audience even the ones that the album may have not been targeted too. However the more he relates to his audience the more likely he is to sell records. Also it is clear that Calvin Harris used props and location effectively, as the location of this image is 'normal street' as the mainstream album covers tend to have locations set in unique locations or have no background as they tend to have colored backgrounds or an extreme close up of the artists' face. As Calvin Harris chose to subvert to conventions this makes his album cover more relatable to the young audience he is targeting, as they are more likely to relate to the colours, location, props and costumes (mise-en-scene) used on this album cover than one with just a extreme close up of the artists' face.

The CD itself tends to be really plain with limited designs, not like the album cover as the CD is not the main selling point for the artist as the CD goes into the technology in which it would be played from. Therefore many artists do not edit anything onto the CD. However conventionally many artist still have the title of the album and their name on the CD to make sure the audience know it is their music they're playing. As Calvin Harris did not have much designs or edited features on his CD, as a group we would do the same as the CD does not need to be edited as it is not the front or the back of the album cover. However we would try to use a certain unique feature to show that it is from our group as many artists do that.

CD:x

Album Cover back:

The use of the similar images from the front to the back of the album cover allows the audience to recognize that the album is from the same artist just by seeing the back of the album for example.Calvin Harris has also

listed the names of the songs that would feature on his album. However the text against this background is unclear and hard to read as the white does not show as well as the white text on the front cover. In particular the 12th song blends in with the house colour. Therefore as a group we decided to avoid this on our album cover as if the text is matching with the background it becomes unclear and hard to read which we would not want for our target audience as they should know what songs our album would feature. However we would follow the layout as he listed the songs which tells the audience what order the album would play.

However even though this image is similar to the front cover it is more of an mid to long shot range which shows the audience that this is not the front cover of the album and reinforces that the back of the album cover is not as important as the front. As a group we would want to have a mid to long shot on the back of the album to show that it is the back. However in this image Calvin Harris is directly looking at the camera in an mode of address which he did not do on the front cover. Alternatively Calvin Harris has done this to subvert conventions as most artists do not look directly at the camera in an mode of address on the back of the album cover as they tend to do this at the front of the album. Calvin Harris really challenges conventions as he does have unique aspects that many mainstream artists do not include for example; Rihanna as her album covers consists of her being objectified and sexualised. Calvin Harris does not do those things on his album covers as he does not need to be sexualised as he a man and men tend to not be sexualised or objectified within the music industry.

The use of logos and barcode would certainly be included onto the back of our album cover as it shows the audience the price of the album and which companies are involved in the making of our album therefore, we would include these features as it gives the album more of a professional feel to it.