Digipaks

What is a digipak?
A digipak is a type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more disks.

Background information:
IMPAC Group, Inc. originally owned the Digipak trademark. That company was acquired by MeadWestvaco in the year 2000 and folded into its AGI Media division. Following on from this, the Digipak name and designs were licensed to manufacturers all around the world. MeadWestvaco sold AGI Media to Atlas Holdings in 2010. Then, in 2012, Atlas purchased Shorewood Packaging from International Paper and merged the two companies to create AGI-Shorewood. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s and is considered a premium package for the product. Manufacturers have sought to reduce environmental impact and improve functionality by introducing recycled components into its trays; one has announced a 100% post-consumer PET tray made from recycled bottles, which also eliminates the need for the brittle "teeth". Another one goes one step further by totally eliminating the plastic tray and replacing it with a paper tray made from sugarcane and egg carton. Many printers use recycled or sustainable material for the board stock.

A digipak is used by record labels to promote sales similarly to a music video, The popularity of digipaks came about in the early 2000s amongst recording artists and record labels.  The idea of a digipak is to give the customer/fan something physical with a multitude of features which they can keep as opposed to downloading the song or album from the internet, a digipak gives fans more features than the regular CD. Digipaks are made up of either a 4 or 6 plate net with the physical CD in the middle and some generic features are: •CD •Songs list •Photos of the artist or other relevant images •Lyric/song book The overall idea of a digipak is to provide a fan with a creative package which creates more appeal and demand than the standard CD.

The artist which i will be creating the music video for has never released their own album before which means that there is no previous digipak art work which i can study and analyse to figure out how i will approach creating my own, because of this i will look at similar musicians to my artist and research their digipaks to see if there are any conventions which are found between the acoustic genre. One artist which creates similar music to the one i am working with is called Ben Howard, first i will look at this album digipaks.

Ben Howard released this album 'Every Kingdom' on the 30th of September 2011. The front cover was created by an artist called Owen Towzer. The front cover links to the messages which are in his album and found in this lyrics which is his love for nature, the front cover portrays this by showing his likeness for the ocean. The artist is featured on the front cover but the cover is not solely focused on him, this is commonly found in acoustic album covers, they feature the artist on the front cover but it is not just the artist, there is always something else which the viewer can be intrigued by and other things to look at. The target audience for Ben Howard would like this album cover, front and back because they are a fan of simplicity, again simplicity is also another convention for acoustic album covers. 'Ben Howard' typed in a bold and large font on the cover is there to stand out and catch a passerby eye and also to stress the importance of the artist being a solo artist, this artist is also popular so people may spot the name and recognise it resulting them to go look further into it. 

The back cover of the album cover is extremely simple providing only the required information such as track listing, it links to the front cover because of the font used and the colour of the font on the front cover is the same as the colour of the back cover.

http://www.owentozer.co.uk/Ben-Howard-Every-Kingdom

Another artist which is similar to the one i will be using is called Lewis Watson, i have looked into this artist before and know that their digipak would be similar to how i would approach mine for my chosen artist. On the front cover of Lewis Watson's album cover, it features him in centre of the image, this is fairly similar to Ben Howard's just in Lewis' he is in focus and the main part of the image however there is lots of scenery which could be studied. On Lewis' cover you can recognise that it is the artist if you know of him, if not it gives you a clear image of what he looks like, in Ben Howard's you wouldn't know if it is him or not unless you did research, it isn't clear who is in the picture. In Lewis' cover his text is formatted differently but again still has some similarities, this is that the artists name and name of the album is placed at the top of the cover but in Lewis' the name of album and artist are the same size and both a fairly small font size, it isn't there to catch the attention of anyone it is just there to inform. It is also different because the text isn't put over the top of the photograph, there is a separate section just for the text, this means that none of the photo is covered up. The back cover of Lewis' album cover links well to the overall aesthetic of the digipak and links very well to the front cover. The overall theme of the digipak is nature, this is a common convention within acoustic album covers, natures is often a popular theme within the acoustic genre. The back cover continues the same style as the front cover by putting the text on a separate section and not over the photograph leaving the whole photograph completely clear. Once opened up the digipak features the same similar theme of images of Lewis outside with different scenery with nicely positioned and well done photography.

    Ed Sheeran is another acoustic artist which has created a digipak. His digipak is different to usual acoustic album covers, with Eds album cover he doesn't follow the standard conventions. The colour theme of the album cover is orange and white, the orange is very bold and is used all over the digipak, this shows that Ed Sheeran wanted the colour to be connected to his identity and people will recognise and think of him when they see posters and other advertisements with this colour. This is different from the other artists i have looked at, they haven't really focused on one individual colour to represent them. The cover is very simple which is a common theme with acoustic artists, covers are usually quite simple but always effective and bold. The size of the font is small so it doesn't become the centre focus of the album, the colour is in a neutral white which shows simplicity this is a common theme which runs through adverts and other promotion techniques. This album cover helps people understand what type of artist he is, they will notice that he is a singer/songwriter artist. This is shown by the front cover being very simple by just showing the artists face, this is a common convention with these type of artists e.g. Ben Howards Latest Album cover his face is the central four of the cover, this is again down for simplicity and to to be clear to an audience what this album is.

This is Ben Howards latest album 'I forgot where we were' which is similar to Ed Sheerans cover

Digipak layout

Foo Fighters, Wasting Light

Looking at the case the colours red, blue, pink, yellow and green are used on a black background. The images are edited together and formulated into one image, helping it stand out on the black surroundings to catch the attention of consumers. The title is situated above the image, formatted in a simple, with clean, non serif text. The song list is placed on the back of the digipak, with some letters highlighted yellow for aesthetic reasons. The background is simple and bold, using the same tone pink and red as on the front for continuity. The copyright information and barcode which are major conventions of digipaks are also put on the back. The spin of the digipak just has the name of the artist and album, using red and white, again for continuity.

The CD holders themselves are one image cut across both. The image began as a photo, and as a resulted of editing it now uses the same colours, red, pink and yellow, along with a more pixelated filter layered onto the image. It has almost grainy effect which connotes rock music.

The CD itself using just black white and yellow, with the outline of an image of a guitar, along with the artists name and album name, with copyright info at the bottom. It has a paint splattered effect for aesthetic appreciation and small details around the edges.