Digipak/Cd Cover Analysis

A2 media project 2012/13

The Killers – Greatest Hits

• The first album cover/digipak I am going to analyze is The Killers album, “Greatest Hits”.

The Killers – Greatest Hits

Digipak

The Killers – Greatest Hits

• As shown above, typography is used in an affective way to draw the attention of the audience. By placing the font vertically rather than the standard horizontal way, it adds variation to the album cover and adds interest. In addition, the font used is found both in the album name and band name. By using the same font it doesn’t create confusion and looks professional as it creates a theme for the album cover.

By showing the band in a central shot, this gives the audience knowledge to who’s album they are buying. In addition, when fans by their favorite bands album, they want to see the band appearing on the album cover itself. . In addition, the band is shown to be looking forward, directly at the audience. This creates a direct mode of address and shows that the band are trying to engage with the audience.

Chris Brown - Fame

Chris Brown - Fame

• As you can see above, the typography used for the album name, “F.A.M.E” follows a graffiti styled font as well as the background behind. Lots of variations of colours are used to make the album cover stand out. The bright images of Chris Brown help him establish himself as an artist for the audience.

As shown to the right, the artist, Chris Brown is shown to cover most of the album cover whereas the album name only covers 1/5 of the album. In addition, the artist is shown to be looking forward, directly at the audience. This shows direct contact and interaction with the audience which shows the artist to have confidence and therefore establishes a relationship with the audience and artist. By seeing the artist in loads of different shots behind the main shot of the artist facing the audience, this tells us that we are focusing mainly on the artist rather than the music. In addition, the artist, Chris Brown is seen without any musical instruments, telling us that his act is most likely just using his voice.

Deadmau5 - 4x4= 12 • The front cover for deadmau5’s album 4x5=12 is very simple yet

effective. They have simply put their logo of a mouse in the centre which fills up a large majority of space for the whole front album cover. In addition they have simply made the outline of the mouse bright and green to give the effect that it has been lit up in neon to give the impression of being in a club. Furthermore, the band’s name and album name has been placed at the top to tell the audience who’s album they are purchasing if the band’s logo wasn't clear to the buyer. Moreover, the band’s name has been written in the same font and colour as the band’s logo (the green neon colour).

The back of the album shows the song list of what song’s the band have chosen to put in the album. The band’s name as seen to the left is also in the same font as the writing used for the band’s name on the front cover of the album. By using a similar pattern for the typography it makes it easy to follow and more simplistic. Furthermore, as seen in the picture to the right, a barcode has been used in the bottom right of the back cover of the album as it is a typical convention to have the barcode in that place. Moreover, the album’s CD follows the same typography pattern by using the same font and colour scheme as well as the band’s logo.

David Guetta – One Love• The typography used for this album cover has been used

in a similar way to the font used for the typography found in Deadmau5’s album cover. The font is bright and colourful, typical colours found at a club or disco which goes well with David Guetta’s genre of music. Furthermore, the font used for the artists name is the font used for all his album covers as if it were his logo.

The appearance of the artists has been portrayed as being at a club as if he were performing/Disk Jockeying and so David Guetta is dressed very casually, as if he were at a club. Furthermore, he has his arms in the air as if he were getting the audience involved. This looks as if he is performing to us now and that we’re involved in his performance.

Guns N’ Roses – Family Tree• The reason I chose to look at and analyze a

rock album cover is to compare the differences between a rock album cover and a dance/rap album cover (the genre we’re doing for our music video). Instantly, the first noticeable thing between the two album cover genre’s is that the theme of a rock album cover is more dark and gloomy. For example, the use of skulls and fire can be found on the front of the Guns N’ Roses cd cover as that is relevant to the genre of rock, whereas on the David Guetta album cover and Chris Brown album cover, bright colours and typical conventions are used to suit the genre of dance and pop.

In addition, unlike the stereotypical pop/dance album cover, the band or artist himself doesn’t seem to appear on this rock cd, letting us know that this particular band doesn’t care whether audiences can see the band on the front cover of the album. However, they have stuck to the traditional occurring trend which is to have the band’s name at the top with the album name at the bottom, leaving the band’s logo or image in the centre of the screen covering a majority of the album cover.

Guns N’ Roses – Family Tree

• The back of the album cover is very similar to all the other album covers I have analyzed. For example, the song list goes down vertically so that it is easy for the person viewing the album cover to read. Moreover, when looking at the bottom left of the back of the album cover, a barcode is found as another typical convention.

Flo Rida - Roots• Unlike most of the other

album covers, as we can see to the right, the text used for the artist and album name has been placed in the top left hand corner of the album cover. Typically you would normally see these two names centrally as normally recognized as the most important information for the album cover. Moreover, the typography for the font has cleverly been done in a style to look like the state, Florida (Where Flo Rida is from). Flo+Rida = Florida.

As shown to the left, the artist has been portrayed to be facing to the left (not facing the audience). In addition, noticeably, Flo Rida is shown to be shirtless. Flo Rida has also stated that the album cover was done this way because he admittedly has an 'addiction to being shirtless' and he wanted to show his body, and show his addiction to the world.

Flo Rida stated the inspiration for the album comes from his success and knowing that it wasn’t an overnight thing. "It also takes inspiration to turn an album, so I had to really get everything together."