I looked at three different digipaks, two from the indie genre and one from a pop genre to see the contrast and tried to notice common conventions and distinctive features on each.
Front Cover
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| Kasabian Empire (Indie) |
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| Pixies Indie Cindy (Indie) |
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| Sam Smith In The Lonely Hour (Pop) |
The three front covers I looked at, these are the common conventions:
- Front Cover image/design
- Band name + Album title
- Parental Advisory Sticker (if needed)
- Stickers to highlight special edition or limited edition explaing whats in it
Not much different rather than a striking image on all of them which the audience will recognise. Also increases chances of being noticed in a CD store or another retailer such as US number 1 retailer Walmart.
Possible Influences
Sticker with limited edition
Striking cover
Back Cover
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| Ariana Grande Yours Truly (Pop) |
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| Arctic Monkeys AM (Indie) |
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| Oasis Stop The Clocks (Indie/Pop) |
These are the three back covers I looked at. Common Conventions are:
- Track list
- Barcode
- Copyright statement
- Copyright logos
- All these will be on our digipak
The recipe is seems very similar just with different art styles, Indie being a bit more subtle sans serif bold font whereas Ariana Grande has a serif bold font and has colour coded where someone is featured. The font is also pink rather than white. Arctic Monkeys and Oasis have also gone for a design as a back cover rather than an image of the band or lead singer etc.
Possible Influences
Track list + copyright statement + barcode and copyright logos + record lable logos
Inside Cover
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| Coldplay Ghost Stories (Soft Rock/Pop) |
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| Depeche Mode Violator (Dance/Indie) |
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| Metallica, Metallica (Heavy Metal) |
There are a few common conventions I can spot here but each seems to have a small difference.
- Copyright logos
- Compact disc logo
- Band name on CD + Album Name
- Tracklist on CD
- Blank or minimal inside cover
I also noticed that Metallica has the track list on the inside as well as on the CD where Coldplay has the copyright statement on the CD and Depeche mode has both the copyright statement and tracklist. Depeche Mode inside cover on the left has the record company name and a P.O box for fans "Depeche Mode fanclub".
Possible influences
I think we might go for a minimalist design, maybe with the band being part of the both sides.
Spine
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Queen Greatest Hits ll (Classic Rock)
David Bowie Changesbowie (Dance/Pop)
AQUA Aquarium (Electro/Dance) |
Common conventions:
- Band name/logo
- Album Title
- Serial Number (with letters)
- Mainly formatted album title in middle with band name a bit to the left
There is also a universal logo for aqua album
Possible Influences
We will have both band name + album title and serial number, maybe even the band logo
