Digipack analysis

Robert Wilson

Digipack analysis 1
This was the main digipak concept for the album Demon Days by the Gorillaz, the album can be bought on
vinyl but it is a collectors item and retails at around 200. The album was released in 2005 but uses some
modern day trends and colours. We see the artists are animated which is a motif throughout their work.
We see that the album name is found at the top of the album in the centre and the album name is found at
the bottom of the cd cover in the centre. This is a common technique used within most digipaks as the
centre of the album is usually where the audience/ customer is likely to look first as they pick it up resulting
in it appearing clearly. The reasoning to why the title of the band is so small is because their iconography is
very popular so the customer would be able to pick this out if they saw it on the shelf.
The disk itself I feel is very plain as it just replicates the front of the digipak which I dont feel is that creative
especially for the Gorillaz who have used this animated motif throughout their work which is very creative
so this I feel is slightly disappointing but I do like the colour scheme presented and I feel that the uniform of
the digipak looks very smooth.
The back of the digipak has a plain white theme throughout it which I feel is very plain but I still think looks
good with the uniform of the digipak. As we see the band are presented to the right of the casing and the
tracks fall down from the left . The band are shown to be in a white room due to the positioning of the
other band members. The legal documentation is found at the bottom of the sheet with the barcode to the
left of it. A link to the website is found above the barcode. On other digipaks a link to a secret part of the
website is shown and this allows access to a bonus track and band merchandise such as posters. As we see
the Parlophone logo s located in the bottom right which advertises their music label to the audience.
The colour scheme of the digipak appears to be rather dark other than the back of the pack and they use
plain colours but I feel this works and I feel as if the colour scheme looks really smooth and not to dull as
the band members are shown with bright colours so they stand out to the customer and on the shelf, I
think its a great use of the motif that they developed and I feel that they have produced a smooth piece of
artwork.
They have used a fairly plain title by using just a white front although it is bold on the black back ground but
this makes it easy to understand if the customer does not recognize the motifs on the digipak. Also using a
smaller title it allows the photos of the band to stand out to the customer as otherwise the title may take
the spotlight. I may use a similar colour theme to my digipak so that it matches the genre that I am aiming
to appeal to as rock music is usually linked to darker colours and dull schemes and so I feel that this would
suit the marketplace I am aiming for. I do not think I will use a motif like the animation but will use dark
iconography so that it interrelates with my genre.

Magazine advert analysis

The poster which is located to the right of the screen is a poster advertising the album released in 2010 called
Plastic Beach. As we see they have repeated their motif using animating software to present the setting. This
animated setting takes place in the centre of the screen so that it is the main focus when a customer sees the
poster. This should help the customer recognize the motif presented to them. As we see for the new album they
have decided to use a bolder and larger title as the band members are not shown on the poster, this will help make
the audience aware that it is a Gorillaz piece of work.
We also see that the album title is in bold and also there advertisement that it is out now is presented, with a
ripple font so that it matches the ripples presented in the sea, I feel that this effect looks really good and is really
smooth. Using these bold fonts help make the advertisement stand out to the public, they have advertised their
website using a smaller and more hidden font which is found under the main advert. They have also got their
record label logo printed in the centre at the bottom for Parlophone so that the record label also gets advertised to
the public.
As we see the artwork uses a similar colour scheme to the previous album artwork
and this shows that they have used iconography and a motif of dark and gloomy
colours to advertise their album, they would have done this so the audience feel
as if they are using a consistent scheme throughout their work. We see they are
using dark colours again with a variety of shades of brown which looks cooling and
has a chilled effect on the audience it is presented too.
The image presented on the poster has a bit of a deeper meaning as it shows
them as alone and that they are surviving alone away from humanity which will
give the audience something to think about when they are looking at the album
artwork. They appear to be building a fleet of boats or army which may give the
audience a idea of some of the meanings of the songs.
I found this quite helpful as I now recognize that artists will even use tiny things to
present their work even as small as the colour scheme on their poster to present
their work so that the audience are aware it is their work. I will try to use a similar
effect within my digipak ensuring that the colour scheme will interrelate
throughout.

Digipack analysis 2
This digipak is the digipak for the very successful album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum(WRPLA) by
Kasabian which was released in 2009 . It is not yet a collectors item as it has only been released of recent. As we
see they use a variety of colours throughout the digipak that comply with the genre characteristics as we darker
colours. We see the bands name is presented in bold at the bottom of the digipak cover which is almost squared
off and this bold font stands out to the customer. The only negative about the title of the band is that it is in a
dark red which is kind of hidden on the cover as the colours used for the band stand out more so it appears to be
slightly discreet and so I do not think that I will use this font style and colour within my own artwork. As we see
the stance of the band presents the lead singer at the front so he is the one that is first focused on when the
customer sees the album, this is because he is the most known figure of Kasabian and Serg is presented behind
him as he also really well known to the audience. They have reoccurring iconography in this photo as they use
war as a base for lots of the music videos as they appear to be in a war with modern time and so they are
presented with army clothing on and the British flag. The disk appears to be very different to the front cover of
the album using a completely different colour scheme as it uses neon colours which is not presented on the front
of the digipak, the CDs present a image of a eye which is not a common motif throughout their work and
appears to be quite random until you see the back of the digipak which portrays a eye in the centre of the page.
The style of the back of the digipak is slightly different and appears to not follow a style of a digipak, as we see
the tracks are listed in the top left and bottom right of the digipack with the circle, but in the other quadrants of
the circle there appears to words that interrelates to the songs and theme of the work they have done on the
album. The colour scheme that runs throughout the work appears to use lots of red textures on the back of the
pack which relates to the colour of the title on the front where as on the front of the digipack there appears to
be a lot of darker such black and grey and this is due to them relating to genre characteristics. On the back of the
digipak the legal information is located at the bottom in the small print where it also advertises the record label
they use which is Sony music and Columbia. The logo of Columbia music is similar to the eye that appears on the
digipak which could then result in them advertising their record label to the general public. The font on the back
of the digipak uses a old style font that matches the texture of a old Western theme.

Magazine advert analysis

This is the poster that was produced to advertise the album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, as we see it is a replicated photo
from the album of the band in the same stance using the same mise en scene as they used for the album cover which is very
different to the usual genre characteristics as they appear to be in a war themed mise en scene. The reason they have used the
same shot is so that it is linked to the album so people when they see it know what to expect when the album is released and on
the shelves. The band appear to be the main theme of the poster as this is the reoccurring motif through both of the album and
the poster which will present the audience with a link to the two. As we see there is a difference in the title of the band name as
we see they have used a different background to the album so that the name of the band stands out more so that the audience
are more aware that it is Kasabians work as they will be new to this theme as these posters will be shown before the digipak is
released so it is important that they present this to their target mark so that they can easily recognize that it is Kasabian's work.
The name of the band appears to have the boldest font and in a brighter font compared to the other fonts, the album name is
presented in a old style font which may represent a hint to the audience the theme of the album. The release date is also
presented at the bottom of the artwork and this is also in a old style font.
As we see the logo for the record label is presented to the right of the poster which is used to
show that it is also their work which will advertise it to the public. As we see the colour scheme is
very dark and uses very dull colours which links to the genre characteristics of dark and a
depressive theme which I would look to resemble throughout my digipak. I also feel that this
poster looks like a Dead or alive poster which was used in western America primarily Texas and
has a intertextual reference to lots of cowboy and western films.
I feel as if the poster presents the style of music to the audience as previously mentioned they
present lots of music videos with them fighting against modern music download software so they
are presented with a British style of army clothing which would present this motif in this work
which audiences may be able to recognize.

Digipack analysis 3
This is the digipak from the American rap duo Run The Jewels for the album Run The Jewels 2, this was released in
October 2014, the album was released on vinyl and also CD, the vinyl edition can be bought from shops like Urban
Outfitters and is not a collection piece as of yet. We see the common Run The Jewels motif of the first and gun
which is used throughout a lot of their work and they present this at concerts and on the majority of their songs. This
reoccurring motif helps make the audience aware that this album is their piece of work as the audience will
recognize when they see it on the shelf. As we see the band members and other photos on the album appear to be
animated with bright colours which will stand out to the audience as the bright colour pallets will take the attention
on the shelf. This digipak does not follow common digipak practises as the artists do not feature on the front cover of
the album or the back just the inside page as show below and this is still a animated picture. As we see the digipak
uses lots of Run the jewels motifs as we see guns, jewels and a expensive car which are common themes throughout
their work. As we see the hands on the cover, back cover and disk all appear to be mummified hands and the
reasoning for this is because they aim to be frightening such as old horror films but they also should be seen as
friendly as they are animated and children are likely to watch animated cartoons which is seen as calm and normal so
it generates a thought for the audience of whether they see the hands as frightening or friendly this concept was
developed by Nick Gazin who created the art work for Run the jewels. The blood stains use a intertextual relationship
with horror and gore movies but still symbolize how these ancient mummified hands have still survived after all this
time.
I really like the colour scheme used for this digipak as it appears to be quite illuminated which I feel works really well
for this digipak as I feel it looks really clean and really fresh every time I look at it as it seems to never get boring. I
may use a similar colour pallet within my own work although this colour scheme does not fully match my genre
characteristics that its presented within British indie rock but it could be seen as using a new style and trend which
would make it stand out to the audience. We see that there is very little fonts used throughout the digipak especially
on the cover which is quite different for a digipak as the band are relying
entirely on the bands motif to present this work to the audience
which I would not use as our band is not to this level of popularity
although I think it is a great concept. A hidden sort of message is
presented to the audience who are viewing this digipak as we see
the hand present 3 fingers then 2 and finally 1 on the disk which is
like a count down until the album is played which I feel is a really
cool concept.

Magazine advert analysis

This is the poster that is given to all of the customers who have purchased the vinyl copy of the album which clearly portrays a politically incorrect
image of them with guns and clearly speeding which tells a story to the customer that this album will present some politically incorrect themes and
stories throughout which links in with the hip-hop genre. We see the colour pallet is very similar to the front cover of the album of the bright red
back ground and the gold /yellow tone used on anything that is shown to be expensive which I think looks
really good and we see that anything that is dangerous is shown in blue such as the guns, the dust from
the speed that they are travelling at and also the two band members themselves which conforms a clear
indication to the audience who are viewing the digipak that is presented to the audience. As we see the
artists signature is presented in the bottom right of the digipak which advertises him as the artist of the
work and makes the public more aware of him.
As the colour pallet shown in the bottom right shows us how they have used a very similar colour
scheme to the other parts of the digipak as we see the red theme is still used throughout and also the
yellow and blue which shows that the iconography is presented throughout the artists work. As we see
the mise en scene of the art work shows us typical genre characteristics that would presented within Hip
Hop as we see violence is suggested through the guns fast cars which usually states someone's wealth
especially within Hip Hop as the artists like to buy pimped up cars. We also see how their record label
Mass Appeal have shown the audience visuals of the artists so that they can sell the image of the artist
such as their clothing and fashion. We do not actually see any link to the record label throughout the
digipak which is very different to other digipaks as other labels require lots of media attention such as
Kasabians digipak. When I purchased the vinyl edition of this album I also received some Run the jewels
stickers which contained similar photos and themes to the digipak and the reason behind this is because
they can interact with their customers and advertise the iconography even further, this will also make the
customers feel more involved with the band and feel more chemistry which will get people talking, this is
similar to the digipak used for the Gorilaz album as they gave a link to the website to access a bonus song
which also interacts with the customers.