DigiPak Analysis

Analyzing digipaks is a key part of our pre-production phase as it allows us to make note of the key conventions of our genre's digipaks (indie pop), including colour palettes, fonts, artwork and overall energy. In general, digipaks should be 140mm by 125mm in order for it to fit well on a shelf with the spine width between 5-10mm. They also have a coherent visual style across each of the different panels with similar colours (up to 3 dominant), texture and font. The photos used are not lifted shots from set or the music video and the artwork is a way of adding value to the physical product as it makes them collectable and also allows for special editions. 

The key conventions of this media form are:

• Size of the packaging (already noted as the same for practicality)
• Legal disclaimer - copyright etc. 
• Barcode - on the back of the digipak to ensure it is scannable through protective seal
• Track list - often small as it is close to the shopper's face
• Artist + album name - in that order with the artist's name bigger than the album as it is selling the person rather than the album itself. This can be placed either left to right or top to bottom)
• Along with this is; stickers on the front or back, company logos and website address on the back

The photos across the back are often heavily designed or edited, the inside including lyrics, song inspiration, photographs etc. however, these are only seen by the purchaser, not the shopper. The back of the pack is often a clean layout with the names of the tracks and a lot of empty space. 

Indie Pop DigiPaks:

At first glance, I noticed the colour palettes used. Within this pastel colours are the most dominant alongside blue. Other than that, there is also use of white, yellow and orange. Many of them use various fonts within the same phrase. Examples of this are in Rex Orange County's 'Apricot Princess' and The Wombats covers. This has a more 'quirky' vibe to it and makes it seem slightly more handmade, it is often a combination between a type writer style of long letters with a cursive font. This 'hand-made' style is also reflected by the illustrations on many of the digipaks. Boy Pablo, Foster the People and Dayglow all have an element of illustrations or hand-made items on the cover of their packs. Dayglow's is different as its is a clay sculpture compared to the drawn illustrations on the other two. The digipaks in this genre also play around with empty space, excluding the Wombats, making the photo/ illustrations stand for themselves. Additionally, the poses and costumes are very casual and natural, reflecting the naturally up-beat artists - this is something that will be reflected through the entire campaign (rather than high editorial shoots).

Key elements to include in our digipak:

• Pastel colour palette
• Illustrations
• Negative space
• Playing with various fonts
• Natural poses