3 digipaks and 3 adverts analysed

1. The Years & Years digipak displays ‘Y’ artwork
incorporating the colours of the rainbow. The
main colour of the outside of the digipak is
black which makes the digipak look slick and
minimalistic. The Years and Years ‘Y’ is a
common motif for the band and they use the
graphology as a backdrop for their stage
performances and merchandise thus making the
album distinctive to the artist. Not only does the
rainbow gradient stand out against the black,
but also acts as a lowkey symbol for the LGBT+
community of which the band are advocates for.
The front of the digipak doesn’t actually say the
album name or the band name, the Y is the only
indication that the album is by Y&Y. Although
the Y is subject and identifiable to just that
band, people unfamiliar to years and Years
won’t know that this digipak belongs to them
and could disregard it. The CD album however
does include the band’s and album’s name and
is the same design as the insert booklet found in
the digipak.
The back panel of the digipak has the songs listed in the centre and
still follows through with the rainbow gradient effect. By having the
album tracklist in the centre of the back panel, there is a sole focus
on it and the buyer’s attention is drawn to the song titles. The
tracklist doesn’t contain the song timings which is a feature that I
think is important. The barcode and legal information is also
centrally aligned which doesn’t make the aesthetic look messy.
The spine of the digipak is in-keeping with
the matte black panels however is in white
writing instead of rainbow to coincide with
the legal information and is easier to read
due to the text being very small
The inside panels follow through with the ‘Y’
artistic motif however is split into different
ends of the colour spectrum (red and blue vs
green and yellow). The background of the CD
holder is again a gradient of the rainbow
which ties in with the rainbow theme.
YEARS AND YEARS
COMMUNION
The disc displays a black
background as well as the ‘&’ sign
of the same colour scheme; the
only graphics through the whole
panel designs are ‘Y’ and ‘&’ which
indicate that the band is Years &
Years.

2. This is a poster for Years and Years’ album
release which was most likely used in a
music magazine (although it wasn’t
confirmed). The poster includes the star
image in the centre and focuses more on
pinks and purples as opposed to the whole
rainbow seen in the album. A picture of the
album cover is included in the poster along
with promotional jargon above it. The
poster includes very little black – unlike the
album – but contains the same font which
is found on the album and merchandise.
YEARS & YEARS advert
The main image consumes the bottom two thirds of the advert and the frontman of the band, Olly, is framed
centrally with the other band members framed symmetrically behind him. The advert contrasts the album in that
the main focus of the advert is the image of the band whereas the album is very graphics heavy. Other promotional
posters made include the Y rainbow graphic (such as tour date posters),however as the band have been developing
their look recently, more photos of Olly have been used.
Throughout all of the Years and Years
products, the Y graphic is very prominent
thus making the band easily identifiable.
This band bends the norm of indie pop
aesthetic and instead of using
monochrome designs, they have done the
opposite and gone for all colours of the
rainbow with a main focus on purple. The
bright colours could be an indication of the
electric pop sound the band has as well as
the font used (Macula) which contains lots
of hard edges and
appears like an illusion.

3. Despite Years and Years changing up their
image slightly, the rainbow Y motif has been
constant at concerts and in promotional
material, so it is likely that it will continue for
their next album. ‘Dolvador’ is Years’ record
company hence their logo on the back od the
CD, and similar to the Y motif, will stay the same
through Years’ career.

4. PANIC! AT THE DISCO
TOO WEIRD TO LIVE, TOO RARE TO DIE
The outer panels of the album take on a black
and white aesthetic as well as the influence of
a desert in Vegas due to this album being
based on Brendon’s life living in the Western
state. The desert motif continues to the inside
of the digipak and album however these aren’t
monochrome and instead are sepia which
gives a visualisation of the desert however isn’t
(in my opinion) as edgy as the front cover.
There is a large focus on the car within this
album – The CDs insert cover displays an
image of the red car which is followed through
to the back panel of the album where Brendon
is shown in the car however the image is now
black and white.
I am a fan of how colour is distributed through this
album. I think that the colour pop of smoke on the
cover adds to the edgy alternative/rock sound that
this album was going for. Also, I think that the desert
motive works well for this album and the
monochrome and sepia effects go well together; it’s
as if when opening the CD/digipak the content
comes to life.
The band name and album title is positioned in the
sky to the top left of the panel which makes the titles
clear to read and balances the frame out in relation
to the star image, the desert and the coloured fumes.
The tracklist is presented to mirror the car
windscreen and is split into thirds, two of which
display 5 tracks per side. The other third is
added to include legal information such as the
barcode as well as website addresses and the
album’s producer.
The CD uses the same logo used to present the
album and band name which is imposed on top of
an image of the desert in a sepia filter. The image
behind the CD holder is again the sepia desert,
carrying on the theme of Vegas through the album
and its artwork.
The artwork on the cover of the CDs insert
resembles a polaroid type image with just a plain
white background. This look is quite simplistic and
takes away commotion from the outer panels to
make the album seem more sombre.

5. This album advert incorporates the
same image as is found on the CD/
digipak which ties the two products
together. The star image (Brendon) is
off centre however is still a main
feature of the ad as his attractiveness
attributes to the selling point of the
band.
PANIC! AT THE DISCO advert
Below the name of the album is the
promotional jargon stating that ‘the
new album’ is ‘available now’ (short
and snappy) and is also in a different
colour to the rest of the poster in order
to stand out and make it clear that this
poster is an advert for the band’s
album.
The band’s font changes every album, and
this album uses the font ‘thirsty rough
light’ which is a font that the band seem to
have stuck with. This design of the band
name is still on the drum set even after a
new album was released with this font
.
The exclamation mark is Panic!’s symbol
and a lot of the merchandise uses the ‘!’ in
the ‘thirsty rough light’ font thus
portraying the link between this album art
and the band three years later.
The bottom of the advert has 4
‘uninteresting’ pieces of information such
as a website in the bottom left corner, the
record companies in the centre and the
iTunes logo in the right hand corner which
allows anyone who has come across the
advert to access the album, merchandise
and/or other music associated with the
record label, thus promoting all of the
other companies synergised with the band.
This poster, similar to the advert isn’t very computer graphic heavy as more
of the focus is upon the image of the frontman.

6. Other promotional material for Panic! Includes billboard-esque posters (below are examples from the band’s second album
and fourth studio album) which give information of when the album will be released and promoting the single ‘Miss Jackson’.
The evolution of the albums have very different aesthetics which in some ways document the band’s sound change; despite
their sound varying, Panic! have still stayed with the record label Fuelled By Ramen (noted at the bottom of the posters). Both
of the advertisements below use the same theme as the album displays (the floral image for Pretty Odd and the desert for Too
Weird) which ties the products together.

7. PJ HARVEY
STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA
This digipak is made up of 6
panels, of which the front displays
the singer (PJ Harvey) in a busy
city street – presumably in New
York or somewhere similar – which
links with the first part of the
album title ‘Stories from the city’.
The back panel is split into two
parts with the image of a moving
car in a busy city street taking up
slightly more of the panel than the
black part displaying the track list
and legal information. The front
and back panels have similar
aesthetics and link due to the
setting and colour scheme,
whereas the inside 4 panels have
a different aesthetic and link in
that way.
The inside panels of the digipak are all
snippets of PJ’s recording journey Three
of the inside panels display blurred
images of the artist in the recording
studio and have a glazed effect on
them as though they were taken
through a glass window. The panel
behind the panel which holds the CD
uses the image of a mixing desk to
again, link with the aesthetic of the
recording journey.
The CD is black with silver writing
and ties in with the cover aesthetic
(the busy city). On the CD is the
tracklist again with some legal
information (such as the record
label) and seems minimalistic.
The black back panel displays the tracklist on the top third and is aligned to
the left of the panel. Below the tracklist is the middle third which is blank
black space and below that is the barcode and copyright information as
well as the record label which is a common feature on digipaks and CDs.

8. PJ HARVEY advert
This poster uses the same image as
on the album – PJ Harvey on a busy
city street. The styling of the artist is
appropriate for the time of release
(2000) and demonstrates an indie
rock vibe which is the genre of music
the album emits.
Continuing from the album, the artist
and album name is laid out in the
same fashion as the digipak and
below that is the album release date
as well as promotion of a single from
the album. In the bottom right hand
corner the record label is displayed;
often in album adverts the record
label is featured in the bottom right
had corner. Due to this album being
released in 2000, the advert doesn’t
include the iTunes logo as music
streaming wasn’t around during that
time.
The album and advert are quite
simplistic however are effective. The
framing of the artist is slightly off centre
yet still makes it clear that she is the
star artist of this album. The image is
also slightly blurry as it is in movement
but also because the cameras around
in 2000 weren’t as sharp as they are
today in 2016 so the fact that the image
is blurry due to movement helps the
case of it being blurry.
The font used is fairly basic but is clear
to make out what the poster is giving
off. The writing is also white so that it
stands out against the dark
background. I think the writing fits well
with the image as it is placed in a clear
position on the image and doesn’t
mask anything important in the photo.