XVIII: Digipak Research

What is digipak?

The CD DigiPak (or CD Digi-pak) is a modern, stylish alternative to the standard CD Jewel Case. CD Digipaks are a custom printed card packaging that can hold one or more CDs which are held in place with plastic trays (CD flexitrays) which are glued into the digipak.

CD Digipaks were originally only seen as limited edition or specialist CD products however improvements in CD production and CD packaging printing techniques has meant that this sleek CD packaging solution is now available at much lower quantities and at much lower prices.

Purpose of Digipak

• To promote an album and an artist
• To create a sense of branding for the artist
• The packaging would be modeled to their target audience
• To make the album asthetically appealing
• To use the art ans the asthetics to promote the artist’s message

Front cover

• The front cover would consist of an eye catching picture/logo, name of the song and picture of the artist.

Inside left

• Photo of the artist/ lyrics/ artist info

Inside Right

• holds the disk

Back cover

• Track list of the album
• barcode
• artist/band website
• distribution info/ recording info

Spine

• Name of the artist/band
• Name of the album
• Serial number
• Logo/ Name of the record company

Digipak examples

Sam Smith : In the lonly hour

Genere : Blues/pop

What I like

• The colour scheme is consistent with the theme of the album. The dominant colour in this digipak is black, which fits with the name of the album ‘In the lonely hour’.
• The minimalistic design. I appreciate the minimalistic style of the design as it doesnt contain that much element, which in returns makes people focus on the only eye catching element, being the artist.

Eminem : Kamikaze

Genre : Rap

What I like

• Conveys the artist’s characteristic perfectly. Eminem is a rap artist that is seen very ferocious, and the use of the infamous suicide tactics used by the japanese back in WWII doest fit with his ideologies.
• Asthetically very interesting. I enjoy the general asthetic with a plane across the whole digipak, additionally the decoration of the plane adds on to the character of Eminem.

What I dont like

• The design is missing the artist’s image, which may result in audience unable to form a star image that well.

Digipak Analysis

Drake : Take Care

Front cover

The front cover introduces that artist, Drake, which is placed in the centre and is where everyone would pay the most attention. In this fron cover you can see that Drake’s costume fits with the conventional rapper image to an extent, with gold chains and gold furnatures. However, the background also seperates Drake from the convention as it portrays a high class celeb feel, which differes from the typical lamborghini/ surrounded by hot lady. In this cover Drave is making minimal eye contact with the camera, with the title ‘TakeCare’ it suggests the topic of the music, perhaps about love. Unlike many artists Drake didnt put his name on the front cover, which could suggest that Drave’s star persona is so huge that he doesnt even need to put his name, because he is just so famous.

Inside pannel

In this Drake still has a consistent style of fashion, with the classical looking background and the prominent gold colour. This is a good example of Dyer’s ‘Star theory’. This picture features Drake smoking a cigar, this could be suggesting Drake having a ‘bad boy image’ this is not out of the norm considering Drake’s genere of music being rap and R&B.

Music list page

This page shows that different singles that are contained in this album, and in the bottom of each it shows a brief discription of the members that worked on the production. The background remains consistent with the previous pages, consisting the gold and the classical looking background.

Dedications page

This page is a thanks to all the people that help Drake in his career. The owl in the background can be seen as Drake him self as Drake’s own record lable, OVOXO. The gold look of the owl also is consistent with the welthy image portaid through out the digipak.

Poster page

This poster page enriches Drake’s star persona. It adds a sense of depth to an extent to Drake’s persona. It is no longer just gold and fansy decorations, but adds a sense of art. The limited use of text is also a charateristic in Drake’s design, possibly anot strategy in building Drake’s star persona, as it portraids a star that believe their work doesnt need much explanation.

End credit

This page is purely buisness intended, however still important as Drake gets to appreciate the individuals that asisted Drake in his way. This also feeds into the star image as it adds another layer of of humbleness to the original persona, which breaks the typical rapper persona.

back cover

The font in the back cover remains consistent with the previous pages. The gold colour of the font allows it to stay consistent with the wealth image that was built throughout the digipak.

What I might use

• A consistent star persona of the artist is built through the digipak.
• Relatively minamalistic look
• A retro feeling typograph