The document summarizes the research done on the album covers of Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, and Vampire Weekend. Key findings include: 1) All covers use a contrasting color scheme to make the band name or members stand out. 2) Band members are usually wearing matching outfits or parts of the color scheme. 3) Some covers feature different poses for each band member. The conclusion is these techniques could be applied to the design of their own album digipak cover.

1. DIGIPAK/ALBUM
COVER RESEARCH
Arfa Shah Candidate number: 4739

2. INTRODUCTION
One of our ancillary tasks is to create a digipak for our
chosen song in order to market it and use skills such as
designing, editing and photography. My task was to
research 3 digipak’s that are from the indie genre.
However, it was hard to find a digipak for a indie band in
HMV owing to the fact that digipak’s are more popular
with mainstream genre’s such as pop and RnB. For
example Katy Perry’s new album “Teenage Dream” was
the latest to release as a digipak. Due to the limited
availability of indie digipak’s, I used my initiative and
decided to analyse album covers in order to note key
conventions that will be useful to us when designing our
digipak. I analysed the album covers of : Franz Ferdinand,
Razorlight and Vampire Weekend.

3. The font is simple and quite big however to make
it striking the band name is coloured in a dark
golden. This may have been done in order to make
the band’s name stand out in contrast to the black
and white background.
KEY FEATURE: Band name stands out.
The logo of their record
label “Domino” is
featured on the front
cover in the bottom right
hand corner.
KEY FEATURE:
Inclusion of record
label logo.
Black, white and yellow colour scheme
that makes the album stand out and
makes it visually appealing. This
colour scheme is also used on their first
studio album.
KEY FEATURE:
Colour scheme
The band are featured in
the front cover. The band
member in the
foreground could be the
lead singer owing to the
fact that’s he stands out
the most whereas the
other members are in the
background. All band
members are wearing
the same clothes in order
to convey unity.
KEY FEATURE: Band
included on cover,
same clothes.
FRANZ
FERDINAND

4. The name of the band is bold, large and stands out against a white
background. It is above the images of the band members which
suggests that the band’s name is the most important form of
recognition.
KEY FEATURE: The font and colour of the band’s name
The band’s posture and
image is very indie. All
the band are wearing at
least one piece of black
clothing against white
clothing for example the
band member on the far
left is wearing
predominantly black
with one white t shirt.
Also, the band’s posture
is very cool and unique,
each band member has
adopted a different
pose.
KEY FEATURE:
Different poses,
correlating
clothes..
The colour scheme is
similar to Franz
Ferdinand’s album in
the use of contrasting
colours. However, no
vibrant colours are
used on this album
colour which suggests
that black and white is
the band’s scheme.
KEY FEATURE:
Colour scheme

5. The band’s name is spaced out, bold and in
white. This is another example of how the
band’s name is the most important part of
the album.
KEY FEATURE: Band name, font,
colour.
The band are not included
on the cover of the album. I
think they should’ve been
included on the front cover
of their first album in order
to establish themselves as a
band and introduce
themselves to the music
industry.
KEY FEATURE:
Absence of band on
cover. Must include
band members on our
cover.
The colour scheme is very
warm and inviting however
it has a gothic undertone
due to the golden
chandelier contrasting
against the band’s name in
white.
KEY FEATURE:
Use of contrasting soft
colours
VAMPIRE WEEKEND

6. CONCLUSION
From my research, I’ve found that all albums
have a contrasting colour scheme that either
makes the band members stand out or the
band’s name. I’ve also noted that all band
members are either wearing the same clothes
or are wearing one part of the colour scheme.
Also, on two albums the band members each
have different poses therefore for our digipak
cover we could include all the techniques
stated above.

7. CONCLUSION
From my research, I’ve found that all albums
have a contrasting colour scheme that either
makes the band members stand out or the
band’s name. I’ve also noted that all band
members are either wearing the same clothes
or are wearing one part of the colour scheme.
Also, on two albums the band members each
have different poses therefore for our digipak
cover we could include all the techniques
stated above.