The document analyzes album artwork from bands similar to Bellevue Days like Modest Mouse and Radiohead to identify genre characteristics that could inform the design of a digipack for Bellevue Days. Key characteristics identified include illustrated or cartoon-like artwork, imagery related to destruction or rebellion, use of red and earth tones in color palettes, simplifying aspects of the cover artwork for the CD itself, and using bold, legible fonts on back covers. Evaluating these examples helped determine design elements that could create identity and appeal to fans of the genre.

1. Bellevue Days- Sad Boy
Modest Mouse- Dramamine
Radiohead- These Are My
Twisted Words
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Fever To Tell Raury- Friends
Biffy Clyro- Ellipsis
The Black Keys- Chulahoma
Ethan & The Reformation- HollandiaNeck Deep- Life's Not Out to Get You
The Flaming Lips- With a Little
Help From My Fwends
Green Day- Dookie Grizzly Bear- Friend
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Mosquito Arcade Fire- Funeral Pixies- Indie Cindy Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures Muse- The 2nd Law Sufjan Stevens- Illinoise

2. Modest Mouse- Good News for
People Who Love Bad News
Sonic Youth- Sonic NurseGorillaz- Demon Days Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Mosquito Grizzly Bear- Friend
Keane- Hopes And Fears Arctic Monkeys- AM Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend Paramore- Riot The Killers- Battle Born

3. Is A Long Drive For Someone
With Nothing To Think About-
Modest Mouse
Stranger To Ourselves 2- Modest Mouse
The King Of Limbs- Radiohead
Com Lag-Radiohead
Badmotorfinger- Soundgarden Life’s Not Out To Get You- Neck Deep The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi
Battle’s The Pink Robot
The Offspring- Americana MxPx- Teenage Politics
New Found Glory- Catalyst
Millencolin- Tiny Tune The Storkes- The Modern Age
Pixies- Doolittle

5. Evaluating Examples of Print Productions
In order to identify specific genre characteristics for my digipack I gathered examples of other album artwork from artists and bands from the same or
similar genres. The band itself, Bellevue Days, states they draw influence from Modest Mouse for example which belongs to the genre alternative rock.
To better understand the theme in which I can utilise in my own digipack such as colours, images, style etc I comprised a collection of examples and bands
such as Modest Mouse, Radiohead, Neck Deep, Green Day and many more. A particularly important and even intriguing identifying factor was the cartoon
or illustrated effect many of the covers had. The album covers for Neck Deep, Flaming Lips, Raury and Yeah Yeah Yeahs share this characteristic with the
cover for the bands single ‘Sad Boy’ even employing this technique so therefore I conclude that this will be a suitable affect to create. This affect creates a
sense of playful themes which is often ironically used by the genre which creates a sense of familiarity which allows the audience to identify the genre
instantly.
The images used by the artists are also a running theme throughout the albums. Images of fire are used by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neck Deep, The Black Keys
and The Flaming Lips. This suggest destruction and connotes to themes often expressed in the lyrics of their music, other signifiers such as this include the
explosion of Green Days album and the gun show on The Black Keys cover, all of which suggest the same destructive and rebellious attitude.
Another signifier of the genre includes the colour palettes used by the artists. In The Flaming Lips, Neck Deep, Green Day, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Black
Keys artwork, as seen on the third slide, all share red tones which connotes danger and passion which is often theme of the band in which used these
colours such as suggested. Other tones include greens and black which suggest earthy tones by when compared to the cartoon exaggeration of the
illustration reveals a rejection of natural imagery and subverts the meaning, representing a political defiance which is present though many of the bands
messages.
The CD artwork of these bands often take a section or theme from the cover artwork and carry through a simplified version or specific image. Neck Deep
for example uses the logo and colours of their cover to suggests a theme or style to their product but however keep the CD simple and classic due to the
exaggeration of the front cover. CDs from Modest Mouse however often employ a simple and dark background with different variations seen with ‘Is A
Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About’ and ‘Strangers To Ourselves 2’. Both also have a simple line design over the back image which is
present in most CDs from the band. This allows identification of the bands style and is a creative way to form a ‘signature’ of which fans can use to show
support through merchandise etc.
Back covers of the album often, as the CDS, take certain aspects from the extravagant front and simplifies for the back cover in order to support their
running theme but allow for easily legible text. Gorillaz, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear and Paramore all use this idea of which they stay true to their theme
and aesthetic but allow clear and legible text. The font is also often block and bold in a contrasting colour to allow them to stand out. The Killers go a step
further with their font, employing large red, exaggerated lettering on a simple backdrop to create a cinematic affect which give its style in its own right.
Conclusively, this process allowed me to identify certain themes I can utilise in my own digipack in order to create identity, ‘signature’ and also appeal to
the audience of the genre in which my band belongs.