CONVENTIONS OF PHYSICAL ALBUM VISUALS

(DIGIPAK)Research conducted through investigation of existing

products in the market today.

WHAT IS A DIGIPAK?• ‘Digipak’ is a term used to define a particular house style

maintained across a series of various visual graphics placed together to construct album artwork. Each individual artist’s products will vary drastically following their own unique trend, building identity and memorable, recognisable imagery.

• Digipak’s usually have a gatefold in the same way books do, with packaging made of card and paper printed with the disc on the interior confined within a plastic display case.

• Digipaks became popular with the growth of consumerism and establishment of identity; This occured within artist and production company branding developments. This occurred around the early 2000s, following change in market type where society became preoccupied with the acquisition of consumer goods.

EXISTING PRODUCTS

CONVENTIONS OF FRONT COVER:• House Style (inc. colour, font stylisation, image manipulation technique

and process, i.e. theme)• Features iconic, memorable imagery - often unique and sometimes

semi-abstract but most usually effective for representation of the media product. This is due to individuality and more common appreciation of various art forms from consumers in the modern day. This imagery also is commonly used in social media, advertising and merchandise artwork, making it an essential graphic for the album/single.

• Occasionally has hidden meaning and references the album’s theme discreetly.

• Album name/ artist name should stand out above other album contents. The artist name is usually featured in the logo which will be displayed on the product strengthening identity and building memorable publicity.

EXAMPLE. HALSEY - BADLANDS

• This is the album cover for ‘Bandlands’ by Halsey. • As you can clearly see, the main subject of the cover is Halsey

framed with a mid-straight shot. This captures her upper body allowing for easy recognition of identity. She is framed in front of a scene from Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA. This is a desolate, yet impressive geographical location with imposing scenery and aesthetics.

• Colour within the scene has been exaggerated for blue tones and filtered warmly for the rock, her jacket and skin tone to create a washed out appeal. This combines with the strongly pigmented blue in her hair and the sky to induce diversity in colour range and aesthetic tonal balance.

• This colour scheme on the cover is semi-realistic and simplified giving the false impression of retro camera cinematography. This helps build upon the theme of her album and closely ties with the scenes seen within some music videos for songs within this album of hers. This idea of retro imagery is strengthened by the border of the image looking torn and almost like a polaroid picture, each having old-style connotations.

• The name of the artist and album has been strategically placed over Halsey’s face, obstructing her identity and facial characteristics. This gives the image an impersonal, mysterious sense and promotes the product as iconic yet focussed around the music rather than being purely commercial exhibitionist promoting the artist above all.

• References content of the media product clearly for the audience to clearly understand what the album features and what they’re potentially buying.

• A barcode will be located in the bottom (usually) for sales purposes.• Name/ address of production company/ record label.• Often mention of those involved with production/ distribution/

manufacture.• Legal legislation in small print – copyright ownership• Year of production.• External links (websites) to the record label and artist, subtly promoting

these.• Visually pleasing aesthetics following a similar house style to that of the

front cover. This enables consistency and identity to be built within the product.

CONVENTIONS OF BACK COVER:

• This is the back cover for the album ‘Badlands’ by Halsey. It features track contents listed and centred to induce dominating qualities, this being a convention for this graphic media product. Typography stylisation here is bold and simple to enforce easy legibility for the consumer.

• Aesthetics as a whole are kept moderately simple here with the inclusion of a torn region of the front cover featuring as imagery confined within the header region. This is a choice made by designers and producers to ensure that a house style is made consistent across the product, maintaining identity.

• The cover conventionally follows expected traits for the product such as the inclusion of legal legislation printed in extremely small text and the barcode positioned in the bottom right of the image. This is essential in order to protect the rights of the product and ensure stable consumerism continues.

• Another conventional feature contained within this piece of graphic imagery is the mention of an external link directing the consumer to a place within which they can consume more media from that particular artist or producer. The producers logo is displayed below this on this particular sample to claim identity and recognition from the consumer.

EXAMPLE. HALSEY - BADLANDS

CONVENTIONS OF SPINE• Conventionally, the spinal region of the digipack

will feature the artist name and the album name for the obvious reason of easy categorisation and sorting. This benefits the sales retailers and consumers own personal use and experience with regards to handling of the product.

• Aesthetic stylisation of this piece will compliment the house style in a basic sense in order to avoid potential over-complication. This is deliberate to ensure attention and focus of the consumer is not detracted from the more significant content in terms of importance, this being the text. This typography is often stylised to create artist identity. This is a fairly simple, yet essential, aspect of the product – examples displayed on the right.

CONVENTIONS OF INNER ALBUM IMAGERY• This digipak component conventionally features more album artwork, suiting the

products general house style. Extra information included within this packaging aspect includes lyrics, artist information and personal messages from the artist relative to the album theme/ message. In the modern day, transparent plastic holders are used to confine the disc; Due to the transparency of this, album graphics are often displayed behind here, improving visual qualities.

CONVENTIONS OF DISC IMAGERY

• More imagery is conventionally printed on the products disc relative to the albums visual style. This is usually resolved most around imagery as opposed to text, and therefore it is essential that the disc clearly belongs with that particular album.

• Small printed typography is an convention here, where it will be printed around the edge of the product following its circular shape. This type is not designed to be read, but instead is included in order to protect the products legal rights, copyright and rightful ownership.