Digipaks are commonly used CD packaging made of paperboard with plastic trays holding the disc. They became popular after being created by MeadWestvaco under the trademark "Digi-Pak". The front cover aims to represent the artist's genre and brand through themes and imagery. This helps promote the artist and encourage fans to listen to and purchase their music. The design aims to give audiences a sense of the artist's style and message.

1. By Mollie Harper

2.  CD singles or special edition CD albums are often made up
from the use of Digipak-style packaging.
 Generally a Digipak is made of a gatefold paperboard or has
a outer binding of card stock, with one or multiple plastic
trays to keep the CD or DVD intact with the casing.
 All soft CD packaging is now known by the word ‘Digipak’,
after it was created by MeadWestvaco whose product ‘Digi-
Pak’ is trademarked.Their format started to become more
popular and was used more and more by other
manufacturers.
 Today Digipaks are very common and popular in the media
industry.

3.  The front of a Digipak will include aspects of the artist’s genre and
what they represent. It will most likely present a theme and a
message about the artist and their image.This helps promote the
artists brand image which increases their popularity within the
general public. A Digipak can also emphasise the artists artistic and
creative ability that they are trying to create throughout their music
career.
 A Digipak is a promotional aspect of the music industry so benefits
the artist and their music massively as it gives the public an idea of
who the artist is and what type of music they produce.This
encourages consumers to listen to the artists music, which may
potentially lead them on to buy their work.
 It can be argued that buying a Digipak establishes the audiences
loyalty to the artist as in today’s society streaming and
downloading music is on the increase and are more popular then
buying a physical album copy.

4. Digipak Analysis:

5. The 1975’s album cover for ‘The 1975’
is very simplistic, has a stylish design
and has a modern take on album cover.
Although the digipak is made up of a
greyscale tone, it is very eye-catching
and different.
The title of the digipak is very clear and stands out
immediately due to the illuminated box around it.The
design of the lighting effect grabs our attention as an
audience.The white glow of the line around the title
illustrates a strong contrast against the black background,
allowing the name ‘The 1975’ to stand out.The font used
is very distinctive to the band. It is very simple and unique
so makes the band very familiar with their audience.The
fact that the band themselves do not appear on the front
cover of the digipak is different to many other’s in the
indie alternative genre.This again makes the album stand
out just by using simple layout.This also subverts the
idea that all boy bands want a poesy picture for their
digipak cover,The 1975 have kept it original and different,
and have gone against the stereotype.The use of colour
scheme doesn’t give to much information away about the
genre of music. It has a gothic vibe, but can also be seen
to be vintage.This once again is intriguing and leaves you
wanting to know more.

6. The back panel of the digipak is almost
identical to the front panel apart from
the sight change in font, text, size in text
and added information (barcode and
production credits).
The names of the songs on the album are number bullet
pointed and spread out clearly and evenly down the
middle section of the panel. By the text being positioned
in the centre, we get the idea that the track listing is the
most important information on the back cover.This gives
the audience all kinds of information, for example what
track number a certain song is or what songs are actually
on the album.The use of a different font has given the
back panel a more simple look and has made it clearer to
read.The use of block capitals is something iconic to their
existing target audience, as the band use this technique on
their social media accounts (Twitter).The black, white and
grey colour scheme is continued to the back panel and is
used to maintain the simplistic theme of the digipak cover.
The glowing light effect is again used and is shown to be
really bright through the use of the images reflection on
the floor. The production details can be found on the right
hand side of the back panel, and are in a small white print.
The white font stands out against the black faded
background making it easy to read.This is also coupled
with the production company logo’s, along with a
barcode.

7. The inside of the digipak fold out to show a landscape image of all four band members .The inside of the
digipak continues the black and white theme from the use of filter on the photograph.The audience can get
an idea of who the band member are and the image adds a personal touch to the digipak, without causing to
much attention to themselves and their appearances.As the colour scheme has stayed consistent
throughout the digipak, we as an audience get a sense of their laidback attitudes, which is also expressed
through their choices of clothing (casual and dark colours) which fit in with the idea that their an indie
alternative band.The use of the image brings a bit more alive to the digipak and makes it look attractive even
on the inside. The digipak can be seen to be aimed at a female audience (due to the fact its an all boy band)
but due to the contrast of dark colours and the laidback postures of the band members in the image, it can
also be relatable to a male audience.
The disk of the digipak is very simple. It conforms to the
colour scheme which is seen across the whole of the digipak,
it being a dark shade of grey. It again shows the title of the
bank and the name of the album in the distinctive 197f font.
Which is easy and clear to read as it’s in black and contrast
with it’s grey toned background

8. Digipak Analysis:

9. There is a very simple image of the
artist on the front panel on the 21
album by Adele. This makes the
digipak personal to Adele herself as
she essentially labelled her work with
her face.
The use of the black and white filter on the image gives a classy
representation of Adele herself and what her music is going to
be like. From the image we see Adele posing with her eyes shut
and resting her head on her arm. From this we can gather that
her songs can potentially be relaxing, moving and about day to
day life.This will relate to many people making her album
appealable to a wider audience. Her already assisting audience
will now that her music is of a pop genre, and that she sometime
through a few ballads into the mix.This again in reinforced from
the use of the black and white colouring of the image and her
body language. A clear bold title has been used on the cover of
the digipak which makes the album easily recognisable .This
coupled with the block capital letters catch our eyes as the
audience. Due to the simplistic nature of the font we again get
the sense of class and sophistication as it’s not too much to look
at and fits with the relaxing theme of the cover.The pop of
colour on the Digipaks title ‘21’ makes the name stand out as it
has a soft contrast with the black and white background colour.
It also makes allows the audience to know which album it is (new
or old) as her other albums follow the idea of numbers (her age
at time of release), e.g. Her new album is called 25 .

10. The image that is found on the back
panel of the digipak is very similar to
the one on the front, expect Adele is
now looking into the camera. This
again makes it more personal, as it’s
as she's looking at you.
However the image on the back cover seems to be slightly
darker and more muted than the one found on the front.
The track listing is positioned more to the left on the back
cover, and the songs are all number bullet pointed. The
song titles are also written in a white font, using block
capitals.This makes the song title information clear and
easy to read.This much like the 1975’s album allows the
audience to know what number each track is and what
songs are on the album. The white font of the text is has a
strong contrast with the black background, further
emphasising the song titles.The pop of light green again
is incorporated into the back panel of the digipak. All of
the numbers for the bullet points are this colour along
with the small title ‘bonus tracks’.This makes the Digipaks
special feature stand out, which catches the eye of the
audience, with the intension to get people to buy ‘21’. At
the bottom of the back panel we can see a bar code and
production company information, such as name and logo.
This is in small print to avoid the attention being taken
away from important information like track listing and
Adele herself.

11. The spine of the Digipak follows
the same rules and convention of
the front panel. It follows the same
colour scheme of black and white,
with the title ‘Adele’ in white. It also
has the same pop of green in the
album title ‘21’.This allows an
audience member to see what
album it is if stood up right. It is
very simple which again adds to the
relaxing, classy and sop theme
which runs throughout.There is
small code, found at the bottom of
the spine. This is the Digipaks
catalogue number which is it’s
identification number which the
record label assigns to a release. It
is used for tracking purposes by
both the label and the distributor.
The album cover name has been printed onto a
light green background. The disk links to both
the front and back panel’s use of colour by
incorporating the pop of green as the main
focus colour of the disk.This ties the digipak
together and continues the convention of being
classy and sophisticated. The ’21’ title looks as if it
has also been hand written,
which adds to the personal
perspective the album has.
The font establishes the
titles name, so it’s easily
distinctive to the other
parts of the digipak.There
is also some very small
white text on the curve of
the bottom of the disk.This
is production details, which
is also accompanied by the
production company logo.