This is the front two panels from the debut album from Fleet Foxes, an indie/rock folk band from Seattle. The artwork is reminiscent of the renaissance period, as is the font of the songs on the back cover. This is a theme that the band have adopted as a similar image is used for their first EP and their second album, Helplessness Blues. They have kept the same font from the band name on the cover and used it for the track listing to provide a link between the two and to keep a form of continuity. They have included copyright information on the back cover as well as their record label logo for legal reasons. In terms of the positioning of this information, it is below the lyrics on the back cover to keep it out of the way and not interfere with the main artwork and track listing.
On the inside panels they have done for a simple pattern covering both of the panels. The pattern itself is made to look like it is from the same era as the album artwork to create a link between the inside and the outside panels. The CD itself has the name of the artist and the same pattern as on the adjacent panel but in a different colour to make it stand out from the panel.
This is the front two panels of the album Visions by Grimes. This artist contains elements of the same genre as my music video so will help to display some genre characteristics (if there are any). Like the Fleet Foxes album, the designer has chosen to have the front cover to display the artist name and album and the back cover to show the track listing as well as show copyright information. The font used is very simple and just in white, which is done so as to not retract from the album artwork and other images on the digipak. It could be connoted that the artist doesn't really care that much about getting her name known, rather she just wants people to listen to her music. The artist name and album has also been written down the middle spine so that it can be read if put on a shelf or the equivalent storage place. The artist has chosen to have some poetry written in Russian to the side of the main artwork on the front cover, not being able to read Russian I am not quite sure of the significance of this but it does seem fairly alternative, possibly to fit with the artist's personality/musical style. The same can be said about the main artwork, a psychedelic picture of a skull with lots of patterns. shapes and swirls all in black and white. The artist's name is drawn on this picture in a style fitting with the rest of the picture and is done to subvert expectations as this picture may make some people think that is heavy metal rather than electronic/dream pop. The subversion originates from the name of the artist - Grimes, which is close to the being genre grime, which is in turn very different to the kind of music she makes.
There are the inside panels for the album and continue the style introduced by the artwork on the front cover. The name of the artist as well as the album name this time are both drawn in the same style as the artwork they are in, although the album name is not as prominent as the artist's name. The style of artwork is likely to be because of the name of the album - Visions, as the images within the artwork seem unconnected and random - the sort of things you would see in a vision especially a drug enhanced one. Like the fleet foxes album they have kept a theme running throughout the digipak and repeated the name of the artist to provide links between the panels.
This is the front and back panels from the album Plastic Beach by Gorillaz. This contains very similar characteristics that are included from the previous two digipaks. These are that the artist and album name are written on the front cover in the same font, the track listing is on the back cover, there is copyright information underneath the track listing as well as a record label and the artist and album name on the spine. These two panels link to each other through the use of the island on the front cover, which is blurred and put behind the characters on the back panel. This is has very much to do with the name of the album and the message they are trying to get across about the environment. This is reflected somewhat on the inside panels.
These are the inside panels, which show a submarine, presumably underneath the island shown on the front cover, near lots of junk metal that has been dumped into the sea. This is the theme contained with the songs on the album as well as the the front cover.
This is the album front cover and back cover from Arcade Fire's album, The Suburbs. This is slightly different to the other digipaks as they have decided to not include the album name on the front cover or a track listing on the back cover. This is to do with the nature of the music on the album. They are quite a theatrical band in terms of the themes that links their songs. The songs on this album are all related to people living in the suburbs as the name of the album would suggest, and so they have put on the back cover - Arcade Fire presents "The Suburbs". The front cover of the digipak reinforces the name of the album with a picture of a car parked in front of some bungalows, a typical type of housing found in suburbs particularly in North America where the band is from. The sepia filter added to the front cover connotes that they are harking back to their childhood as it gives a 70s look as well as looking more theatrical. They have also chosen to not put a record label or any copyright information on the back cover. This was done to not break any continuity in terms of the suburban theme by having unrelated information written on it.
This is the inside of the digipak and both panels are part of the same image, which is a similar technique used in the Gorillaz album. This is probably because these albums are different to the first two in that they do not have the CD attached directly to the inside, rather in a sleeve between the front and inside panels. This allows for the designer to have one complete image on the inside as there is not a CD blocking one of the panels. This image fits with the name of the album as it is another picture of housing found in the suburbs and also has a sepia filter like the front cover.
From these digipaks I can gather a few key elements that I will include in my digipak.
- Copyright information on the back panel underneath the track listing
- Record label logo near copyright information on back
- Artist name written above album name
- Font used for artist name re-used throughout digipak
- Artwork relating to the name of the album/content of album
- Themes carried through each panel and linked to album
- Name of artist and album on spine
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