Digipak Research and Analysis

Conventions of a Digipak
• The Digipak’s aim is to promote the artist and sell the physical album.
• The Digipak must have a consistent ‘house style’; this may include colour, font
and imagery.
• The design and content must not only be consistent throughout the product
itself but also with affiliated products which together make up the brand of
the artist; this includes the music video and website.
• The Digipak’s style should also clearly reflect the genre of music that the artist
belongs to.
• The Digipak must be of very high quality as it is a relatively expensive product
(in comparison to cd’s or mp3’s); and so should be presented as an attractive
luxury/novelty product.
• The Digipak must be ergonomic; it’s design should make the product as easy
and pleasant to use for the audience as possible- this may be achieved
through the use of cut outs, tabs and pockets, and an easy to follow layout.
• Many Digipaks are constructed to present a ‘subliminal message’ to the
audience, particularly a message that is also conveyed by the music itself.

THE EXTERIOR
• The exterior of the Digipak must clearly show the name of the artist and the album, as well as the artist’s
recognised logo if applicable.
• The Digipak should have images of the artist themselves, to make the product instantly recognisable as
their work and to help promote the artist.
• There should be a track list (usually on the back) detailing the names of the songs that are included in the
album, along with numbers showing their order on the CD for ease of use as the audience can then skip
straight to the song that they want to listen to. This is also important as the audience would be attracted
to purchase the album when they see that it features particular songs, and will also give them an idea of
how much content they are getting for their money.
• There must be a barcode to allow the album to be bought, along with the price.
• There should also be ownership acknowledgements to cater for legal requirements; these would include
the name and often logo of the production company, and copyright information.
• The web address of the artist’s website should be included somewhere on the Digipak, to promote further
content and create a larger audience for the site which works as another promotion tool for the artist as
well as being a place from which the audience can purchase further products such as merchandise, tickets
or music.
• Some Digipaks include review quotes which give a good reference for the album/artist. This would appeal
to an audience who may not be familiar with the artist but would trust the source. (this is particularly
useful if the quote is from an institution popular with the target audience.)
• Some Digipaks also include a sticker on the front to add extra interest; the sticker usually promotes one of
the singles included on the album if the song has been popular and well known. Alternatively it may
advertise ‘extras’ included in the purchase of the Digipak, or awards that the artist has received for the
album.
• Some Digipaks print the date and timespan of the production of the album somewhere on the Digipak.
This makes the Digipak seem like a ‘collectors item’ and gives the audience a degree of personal insight
and sense of value for the album. It also implies that the release of the album should be considered as a
sort of ‘historical event’, making it exciting for the audience.
• There should be advertisements highlighting any exclusive features of the album, such as bonus tracks,
videos, and lyrics.

THE INTERIOR
• The interior should also include further images of the artist, to reinforce their
importance and add interest to the Digipak for their fans. This may include set up,
stylised, and often edited photo-shoot images, as well as more natural
performance and backstage shots taken from the artist’s tour.
• The Digipak should contain at least two disks. This may consist of the album split
into multiple parts; this would be used in the case of very long albums containing
lots of songs. This may also be used to separate songs in cases where the artist has
produced songs in contrasting styles (such as in the case of Beyoncé's “I am…
Sasha Fierce”). Alternatively there may be just one disk containing the album
alongside other disks containing exclusive or reworked music, DVD’s of the
corresponding music videos, live performance footage or behind the
scenes/”making of” documentaries. There should be a good quantity of content
included, to make the audience feel that they are getting their money’s worth.
• Digipaks usually contain a take out booklet, which allows much more content to be
included. The booklet would contain lyrics to the songs, allowing the audience to
learn the words and sing along. There would also be lots of images of the artist as
well as other images that are relevant to the songs and ideas presented by the
album and add an atmospheric effect. Many of the images are printed in the
booklet as a double page spread, which grabs the audience’s attention and allows
for more detail. The booklet may also contain interviews with the artist,
biographical information, quotes, tour details, credits and thanks.
• Details providing ‘extras’ should be included; this may be a link to a free download
of a song or competition information.

DIGIPAK ANALYSIS 1
GRIMES – ART ANGELS
For the Art Angels album by Grimes there is one cover, with a variety
of different featuring artwork. All of the artwork is featured in both
the CD and Vinyl editions, with the exceptions of the CD version
containing the artwork in a booklet and the Vinyl version containing
the artwork as separate prints. The constant within all varieties is the
colour scheme and the fonts used. The main featured character of the
“Art Angels” takes the central position on the cover. The album title,
always slightly above. This is hardly a non conventional technique and
is adopted by a great many CD digipaks and album covers. The three
separate fonts used on the cover are distinctly different, one, very
digitalised and formal and the other extremely scruffy and almost
handwritten like. This provides an effective counterpoint. Having
three separate fonts on a cover is a more standard technique used on
digipaks unless a very standardized theme is used. The fonts used are
actually very unique and recognizable which is helps the viewer
remember the album cover, typically.
The colour scheme is something I would not
consider to be exactly conventional even
though it follows a standardized rule of
primary colours. The use of bright blue and
red next to each other are not often seen,
but work very well in this circumstance. It
provides an extremely unusual eye-catching
effect, especially making the Japanese
anime looking characters stand out in their
sections.
Due to the slightly odd nature of the “Art Angels” album
cover, it would be expected that the imagery/stylings used
would similarly follow suit – which this album cover in
particular does. The illustrative character on the front
appears as an eccentric piece of art, with features like three
eyes and roots growing from its side. The image stands out
to emphasize the unusualness of the Grimes album,
alongside her personality that is brought across through
artwork, instrumentation and lyrical content.
Art Angels is the fourth studio album by
Canadian singer and songwriter Claire
Boucher, professionally known as Grimes. It
was digitally released on November 6, 2015 by
4AD, and in physical formats on December 11.

Grimes released Art Angels on both CD and vinyl, with the vinyl version missing out the song “Realiti”
due to a lack of quality space on the vinyl.
Special edition artwork prints drawn by Grimes herself were included in the vinyl package.
Grime’s digipak includes the following:
• Name of artist
• Name of album
• Tracklisting
• Barcode
• Artist website
• Record label website
• Artwork prints (vinyl version only)
• Record label/Production company credits
• Ownership acknowledgements
• Free mp3 download link (vinyl version only)
• 4, 6 and 8 panel card wallet

DIGIPAK ANALYSIS 2
FLUME - SKIN
There is very little text on this album (digipak).
Like Art Angels, there are a lot of single artworks
for “Skin”, however it features a lot less text that is
done in a very simplistic and standardised font,
and is made to be the less important aspect of the
cover so that you can focus more on the design.
Due to the graphics on the cover, there isn't really
any room for a ‘huge’ amount of text, so
personally this works well for an unusual, but
creative design.
The colour scheme employed is obviously, again,
very bright and unusual, however this time it
features a set of colours (purples, pinks and
blues) that match closer than the Art Angels
colours do. This is very abstract, not only is it
intriguing to look at, but the colours used are
very harmonious and generally gives the album
cover a very ‘soft’ feel in terms of cover. This
unusual and contrasting colour scheme is used
on every variation of the album artwork, with
certain pieces of artwork containing greens and
yellows also.
The imagery, or rather, graphics used on the album
artwork for ‘Skin’ are obviously varied (as stated
before) – they are often abstract and flower like. It is
definitely detailed within the different petals and
because of this it can be considered a very interesting
piece of artwork. The variations of the imagery are
also ‘nice’ to look at, however may not be considered
for a large majority of album covers due to its unique
abstract abilites.
Skin is the second studio album by Australian electronic
musician Flume. It marks the second full-length release
since his self-titled debut in 2012, marking four years
between releases.

Flume released Skin on both CD and vinyl, with 3 different vinyl types to choose from:
• Black
• Transparent
• Limited Edition Purple/Patterned
Special edition artwork prints were included in the limited edition purple vinyl package, however every format of his
album came with standard artwork visuals that were attached to the album booklet/credits.
Flume’s digipak includes the following:
• Name of artist
• Name of album
• Tracklisting
• A promotional sticker on the front listing hit singles
• Artwork prints (CD version in booklet, vinyl version as vinyl covers/additional prints in limited edition version)
• Record label websites
• Take out booklet

DIGIPAK ANALYSIS 3
FKA TWIGS – M3LL155X
Unlike Skin and Art Angels “M3LL155X”
contains no text on its cover or its back
whatsoever, only images. This is an unusual
feature for an album digipak to leave out, but
works well to create a greater feel towards the
genre that FKA Twigs’ album represents and
emphasizes the use of the imagery more.
The images used are particularly unusual and non
conventional. On the cover we experience FKA Twigs’ hand to
be literally inside of her face, expressing an eccentric feel even
further throughout this genre and her personality within
music. Similar aspects are featured on the back with a male
going through her body. This is incredibly interesting and is
certainly more than affective at capturing the eye. Alongside
having a plain black background, these images stand out more
due to the bright contrast they obtain, which again makes the
viewer focus more on the ‘freaky’ looking individual.
The colour palette used is completely natural. The
use of black and white creates a simplistic feel
towards the cover, alongside the natural difference
in human skin colours to stand out alongside their
costume choices against the background. This
provides not only a nice contrast, but because of this
contrast in colours, again, the individual is
highlighted and is more of a focus to the viewer.
Overall the digipak cover has a very ‘naturalistic’ feel
towards it colour wise, and a rugged feel which is
provoked by the imagery.
M3LL155X is the third extended play by English
singer and songwriter FKA Twigs, released on 13
August 2015 by Young Turks.

FKA Twigs released LP1 on both CD and vinyl.
Special edition artwork prints were included in
the vinyl package.
FKA Twigs; digipak includes the following:
• Name of artist (on the disc)
• Name of album (on the disc)
• Tracklisting
• Lyric booklet
• Artwork (hidden inside the card wallet where
the disc is kept)
FKA Twigs released EP3 on vinyl.
• FKA Twigs’ digipak includes the
following:
• Tracklisting
• Record label/Production
company credits
• Free mp3 download link (vinyl
version only)
• Artwork (attached to the vinyl
sleeves)

DIGIPAK ANALYSIS 4
KAYTRANADA – 99.9%
Just like M3LL155X, “99.9%” features no text
over its front cover, but this time includes
text on the back cover for the tracklist (even
though the text has been featured very
small, so isn’t very well emphasized on the
back of the album digipak).
The colour scheme is a large variation of
colours. A running theme can clearly be
seen as a black background, with multiple
colours spread across the top of it. This
works well to outline different
shapes/objects on both the cover and the
back.
The graphics can definitely be seen as the largest
component of the digipak, but they are also the
most prominent and important part. The
incredibly detailed design that spreads across
every single gap on black background of the
digipak is really very well made through different
artistic objects. It is certainly very easy to look at
in detail when zooming into particular areas of
this digipak, and any digipak which grabs the
individuals attention enough to study the
graphics/artwork fully and with a lot of time
consumed is certainly one that is effective in the
long run. If asked which of the 4 digipaks we felt
was the most memorable, we would have to say
this digipak due to its large variety of visuals.
99.9% is the debut studio album by Canadian
electronic music producer Kaytranada,
released on May 6, 2016, through XL
Recordings worldwide and HW&W
Recordings in Canada.

KAYTRANADA released 99.9% on both CD and vinyl.
KAYTRANADA’s digipak includes the following:
• Name of artist (on a sticker stuck on the front)
• Name of album (on a sticker stuck on the front)
• Barcode
• Tracklist
• Lyric booklet
• Artwork (printed into the booklet and on the insides of the case)

Sky Ferreira released Night Time, My Time on both CD and vinyl, with 3
different vinyl types to choose from:
• Black
• Limited Edition Green
• Limited Edition Picture
Sky Ferreira also released Night Time, My Time B-Sides Part 1 as an extra CD for
promotion.
Sky Ferreira’s digipak includes the following:
• Name of artist (as a sticker to cover her nudity)
• Name of album (as a sticker to cover her nudity)
• Tracklisting
• Artwork prints (in booklet)
• Barcode
• Take out booklet
• Jewel CD case

Melanie Martinez released Dollhouse EP on both CD and vinyl,
with a special limited edition coloured vinyl to mimic her half and
half hair colour.
Melanie Martinez’s digipak includes the following:
• Name of artist
• Name of album
• Tracklisting
• Barcode
• Sticker on front cover including hit singles

Melanie Martinez released Cry Baby on both CD and vinyl, with a standard black
vinyl edition and a special limited edition picture vinyl to mimic her childhood/baby
like theme.
Melanie’s album also included a storybook containing the main storyline of
Martinez’s alter ego “Cry Baby” to go alongside her songs.
Melanie Martinez’s digipak includes the following:
• Name of artist (on disc)
• Name of album
• Tracklisting
• Barcode
• Storybook
• Parental advisory explicit content sticker (on the cover)
• Social media links

Shawn Mendes released Handwritten on both CD and vinyl, with a standard black
vinyl edition and a special limited edition blue coloured vinyl to match the font of
his logo.
Shawn released an extended version of his album called “Handwritten Revisited”
shortly after due to releasing hit song “I Know What You Did Last Summer” with
Camila Cabello of Fifth Harmony.
Shawn Mendes’ digipak includes the following:
• Name of artist
• Name of album
• Tracklisting
• Barcode
• Lyric booklet
• Jewel CD Case
• Artwork prints (vinyl version only)

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