
Without looking at the format in which the albums come in and focussing entirely on the cover art and putting them all in a collage like this I can clearly see a pattern emerge in the styles. The majority of the images have a very warm, earthy colour palette or the images represent nature and the earth for instance the moth on the Ani DeFranco album ‘Evolve’ which is pictured third down on the left. Another example is Poi Dog Ponderings self titled album (two across from the Ani DeFranco album) which pictures an abstract cartoon image of a tree with skeletons representing the roots and trunk of the tree, also on the image there is a drawing of an eye, other flowers, a bird and a human silhouette.
16/27 of this selection of cover art contains the artist on the cover, showing that the majority use this to promote the image of the artist as opposed to art reflecting their music. This may be something to consider when planning my digipak, although from looking at these images I personally find the covers not focussing on the artist are much more interesting and aesthetically pleasing, this is also something to consider.
For my artist I am aiming towards creating a form of digipak as opposed to the bog-standard jewel case because I feel a digipak is much more exciting with the potential to be a great keepsake and something that can be much more personal to the artist making the consumer feel as though from purchasing this they have purchased a special part of the artists mind, and it is just generally far more artistic. This digipak for Imogen Heaps album ‘Speak for Yourself’ I think has a combination of good and bad points that I can learn from. For instance, I don’t like how heavily the album promotes the artist with every cover consisting of an image of her. But what I do like about the digipak is the colour scheme and how it reflects her music. The front cover is mainly white but it contains lots of colourful pink, yellow and blue spots surrounding the cartoon image of her, and this is similar on the CD but with horizontal lines as well as spots. This keeps the picture crisp and clean yet upbeat, this reflects the fresh feel-good and optimistic feel of her music. Then the back cover contains a red/pink/yellow colour palette and gives a very warm feel, it reminds me of a sunset, in a way this also reflects her music as it is soothing much like a sunset. All so a sunset represents the end which I like as the back cover is literally the end of the digipak. The one thing I like most about this digipak though is the way the booklet is held. The front cover of the booklet is a picture of Heap riding a bike, once again the colour scheme is very warm, but I like the way it is slotted into the cover and together they make a bigger image revealing more of the bike.
This is another digipak, for the album ‘We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things’ by Jason Mraz. This digipak is quite different from the previous. Firstly the colour scheme is entirely black and white, there is no photography included at all. All images are hand drawings created by the artist himself. This puts a personal spin on the album that I think the consumers would appreciate as it makes them feel they have a personal insight into the artist’s life and mind. There is also a limited edition version of the album containing a bonus CD and DVD containing 10 of the albums songs unrefined when they were originally recorded for an EP including other songs that didn’t make the album, the DVD contains his full live concert, and these extras give the consumer an even deeper personal touch. The hand drawn cartoons and sketchy writing I think reflects Mraz’s music perfectly, it’s very quirky, cheeky and raw as is his music. The front cover is extremely simple which not many artists could pull off, but it works solely for the fact that his music has enough personality that the album doesn’t need a complex design to make up for any lack of. What this digipak tells me is that in order to make it successful it needs to show the artists personal style as closely as possible.
This is the digipak for the album ‘Hello…x’ by Tristan Prettyman. This artist I find most similar to my artist with a very similar voice and music style. The digipak for this album is very simple and straightforward, there are no quirky personal aspects like there is in the Mraz album, but nonetheless it works. I like how simple and neat the back cover is, a plain blue background with a very plain font used for the song titles which are placed neatly in the left third of the cover with a margin – much like a list as it would be seen typed out on a word processor. The front cover, even though it uses a cool blue for its background and black and blue fonts, it doesn’t give off a ‘cold’ feel as I would expect with this colour scheme. The warmth is given to the cover through the placement and expression of the artists face, a simple trick. She appears entirely at ease and natural which warms the cover. I like the way different colours are used for the artist name and album title while they are of the same font and size on the same line, it adds to the crisp, simple and uncomplicated feel of the digipak. I also like the way it is placed next to her mouth, as if she is literally saying ‘Hello’. Once again there is a margin on the left the same width as with the back reverse cover, this simply emphasises the neat organised theme. Again the simplicity is shown through the actual CD, pure black with ‘Hello…x’ written on it in the same font, size and colour as it is on the front cover. On the cover where the CD is pulled out from there is an image of the artist once again, her head is almost completely cut off, but her arm reaches up from the bottom right towards the top left corner of the cover, in this position it looks like her arm is reaching for the ‘Hello…x’ on the CD which is tucked behind but slightly visible where the CD peeks out of it’s slot. This once again attaches her person to the words being said, like with the front cover. I like the idea of the visual attachment between the artist and the words.


















































