Digipack

What is a digipack?

A digipak has the size and look of a CD or DVD jewel case but it is made of paper with a plastic tray glued to hold the disk. With a typical clear tray, a digipak has 4-panels for putting the artwork on. One advantage of digipak over jewel case is that it has better shock absorption than jewel case. When a jewel case is dropped it breaks. But a digipak will still be in one piece even if it is dropped.

A promopack is an umbrella term that is used when talking about the diffrent types of promotion used in selling an artist / bands CD or DVD. The promotion would be the how popular the adverts are, along with the posters & the CD / DVD itself. This includes all the TV coverage they receive. They must therefore all be linked in order to portray one image in every media representation. This means that one theme should coincide throughout them all.

Digipacks are a type of CD / DVD packaging made out of card or otherheavy paper materials. Digipacks often flip open just like a book, or they can sometimes have three parts - one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the disk kept in the center portion. In this type of digipack, the portion of the digipack that hold the disk will usually be made of plastic like a traditional jewel case. The plastic part is simply attached to the paper background. Pictures of the band or the general setting from their videos are normally a common theme throughout photos used.

Research into digipacks currently available...

In order for my digipack to follow common conventions of a digipack, I will analyse some existing ones that are available from artists similar to Mumford and Sons.

I will be looking at:

- Images used

- Font / Text used

- Where barcodes are located

- If details of a record label are shown

- Messages from the band / artist

- How the track lists are presented

- If websites are mentioned

Analysis of existing digipacks...

Paolo Nutini - Sunny SideUp

The digipack cover shows a portrait of the artist sat at a breakfast table eating fried eggs (referencing album title). The background introduces a colour theme which is then continued throughout the digipack of yellow, red and green stripes - all three colours are very eye-catching and make the digipack stand out on a shelf.

The masthead showing the artists name and album are in a cartoon font and is the same again throughout the digipack. It is presented in a white font which contrasts well against the colourful background.

The track-list is printed centrally on the back cover in asimilar cartoon, white font used for the masthead. It does not use numbers, just lists the track in order they play.

A small barcode is printed on the ride hand side ofthe back cover along with the artists website and record company details.

Paolo Nutini's genre normally falls into the pop/rock category and I believe that his digipack works well in presenting this too. The bright colours and cartoon pictures all give a pop appeal yet with a rock edge to it too.

James Morrison - Undiscovered

The front cover uses a mid shot of the artist against a subtle / calming background of clouds using grey, white and other very pale colours. This relates well to the genre of the artist being soul / pop and his songs being very relaxing and also the names of his tracks eg. 'Wonderful World'.

A similar subtle / calming background with the same colour scheme is used on the back cover presenting a running theme throughout the digipack.

The masthead is vertically shown on the front cover, in a multi-toned green font along with the digipack name below it. The colours work well with the shades of the artists face in the photograph and are also shaped well into the little space available on the cover. A sans serif, upper case font is used, which makes it more eye-catching.

The track-list is presented on the left hand side of the back cover in the same font used for the masthead. Again it is not numbered, however the tracks appear in the same order as they do on the disk.

A barcode is vertically placed on the back cover, to the right hand side of the small print containing James Morrison's fan site and record company details and label.

James Morrison would be considered as a soul, accoustic singer and I think this digipack works well in encorperating this image. The use of a photograph outside shows depth in soul and the use of colours throughout also shows this.

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

The front cover uses a very eye-catching bright yellow background which immediately catches the customer's attention. An image is used of a tree with a man with a guitar reaching up to it. The image is extremely detailed in showing the leaves on the tree, however only uses the colour black which contrasts a lot from the vibrant background.

The back cover again uses the same bright yellow background with a continued theme of the tree coming down the right hand side now showing a thin trunk. Again, the image is very detailed but only uses the colour black.

The masthead is shown in the top right-hand corner on the front cover. It uses a very basic font with the artists name in black and the album title in white both contrasting from the yellow.

On the back cover the track-list is shown down the left hand side in the same font used for the masthead on the front cover. It is again in black. The tracks are unnumbered, however do, as before, appear in the same order they do on the disk.

Jack Johnson is seen as an accoustic, chilled singer. This is shown throughout the digipack by the 'chilled out' image used on the cover. The whole digipack is very relaxed and this is also noticed throughout his songs too.