DIGIPAK ANALYSISResearch for album for BRAZEN

The green symbolises tranquillity and nature which shows the audience that he, as a singer song writer, focuses hugely on his music rather than his persona. The focus on an artists image has become increasingly important with most artists in the public eye having their own image that becomes recognisable with their popularity.

Along with this comes the fact that green is commonly seen as a soothing and cooling colour. These connotations rarely appear with popular music artists, due to the constant competition to be new and trendy. Artists such as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are known for their extravagant and glamorous image but Ed Sheeran is the opposite. This is seen with the colour scheme which is laid back and relaxed. This entices audience more as they see the artist as one that cares more about the music rather than their image.

The use of an oversized ‘X’ hints at the themes of his music which is hugely based on love and lost love. The ‘X’ has many meanings including lost love, mathematics the letter itself. This opens up the name of his album to interpretation by the audience.

The style of the album is specific to Ed Sheeran as seen with his previous and most current album. It makes him a recognisable artist by just his album cover and increases his popularity as more people from different subcultures know of him. This album style is his identity and changing it would be difficult as it is something that has become Ed Sheeran the artist.

Sheeran’s digipak for ‘X’ also includes sticker, badges and other objects which is rare and innovative for a digipak.

ED SHEERAN

‘÷’ released 2017 ‘+’ released 2011

‘X’ released 2014

Kaytranada’s debut album, 99.9%, follows the themes of his music. This is seen with his use of many colours and a ‘LSD trippy’ style portrait of himself. This reaches to the new trendy teen who goes to warehouse raves and looks back to the 1990s and 2000s rave culture as the basis of their style. This is seen hugely amongst British electronic artists, however, Kaytranada being Canadian shows that this trend is popular in many places.

His creativity pours out into his digipak as seen with the creative way that his song names have been places. The use of this horoscope style circle to name his songs is innovative and perfectly executes what kind of artist he is.

This bright shocking digipak is also extremely eye catching making it noticeable to people who have perhaps not heard of Kaytranada before. This is what I hope to do with my digipak and I will look to Kaytranada’s for inspiration.

For audiences that already know of Kaytranada, this is a very trendy and quirky digipak meaning that his fans will buy his album not only for his music but also for how it looks.

KAYTRANADA

LSD trip style art’99.9%’ released 2016

Rudimental, the four man drum and bass band, have a distinctive urban style due to their origin of Hackney in East London. This not only comes through their style of music, lyrics and instruments but also their style in terms of outfits and digipak. This sense of style is seen clearly with the use of the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural on the front side of the digipak this not only shows the audience that they are a London based band but that they also produce quirky, trendy music. The cover is recognisable to Londoners and makes them more inclined to pick one up to look at it closer and then buy it. However, it does also attract other people as its fresh, bright and clean background clashes with the urban mural in the middle. This is interesting to people and also makes them more interested in picking it up to look at it and once someone has picked it up they are more likely to buy it. The back side lists the songs in a creative way using a road sign plaque which also shows their urban origin.As I am looking to keep London as a main theme for my digipak I will look closely at this digipak for inspiration.The mural also being seen on the poster makes this digipak recognisable and opens up the band to a wider audience. While a minimalist, small font is chosen for the name of the band it still stands out and shows that, even in a huge like London, simplicity is key. This is done also to promote the band and their identity and make their image a selling point.

RUDIMENTAL

‘Home’ released 2013 Hackney Peace Carnival Mural

Disclosure’s debut album features many now well known artists, however at the time of the release of the album this was not completely true yet so a huge advertising campaign was used to promote not only Disclosure but also the artists featuring on their album. This included huge amounts of social media activity and the creation of an app, which no longer exists, that would let you edit pictures to appear similar to their album cover.

The digipak front cover shows the two artists, who are brothers. This was perhaps done to show the audience who they were as this was their debut album. As well as this is shows that the music is made by relatives which is something that is not seen as often today as it had done in the mid 20th century. This instantly makes them stand out with the fact that they are brothers being the key point mentioned in many articles published about Disclosure and their music. The edited faces that have been placed on top of the children’s face is odd, however, it has become the duos ‘thing’ with all of their music after the release of Settle including aspects that replicate the drawn faces. This makes the duo memorable and makes people more interested. The style of the faces on the front cover is similar to graffiti seen in the UK and this establishes the duo as a UK based duo. This in turn made them extremely well known across the UK and then later leading to recognition in the US and other countries around the world. This later lead to the next Disclosure album not having to use the brothers as a recognisable aspect but instead just the drawn faces.The recognisable drawn face is something that I will think about and see if it works with my digipak.

DISCLOSURE

‘Settle’ released 2013‘Caracal’ released 2015