Following/Challenging Conventions: Digipak

The digipak was one area of my project where I really wanted to try and be as conventional as possible because I think challenging conventions too much would have produced a product that looked amateur. The research I did into existing products before I started drafting was really helpful as it meant I had a good idea of what conventions to include.

In this presentation I’ve taken each element of the digipak and discussed how it has followed, or in some cases challenged, conventions. I’ve also considered the digipak as a whole towards the end.

FRONT COVER

Front covers of albums are generally spaces where artists are free to express their style and image and thus there are only really a few conventions that you are guaranteed to find across all albums. I chose to conventionally have both the album and band name on my front cover, because I felt it wasn’t just important, it was essential, as a potential buyer needs to know who and what they are consuming. The other conventions I followed were to have one main image, a simple colour scheme and cohesion through fonts. Most album covers only use one or two fonts and they tend to be clear and bold. I chose to use one because I think it helps create a simple but effective style. The only convention I broke with the front cover was choosing to not have an image of my artist. However, this convention is being challenged more and more with recent albums, and I think it’s definitely something that the Indie genre often opts to not include so I don’t think using a more abstract image has made my product less professional in any way.

CONVENTIONS FOLLOWED CONVENTIONS CHALLENGED

• Band name• Album name• One main image• Simple colour scheme• Only one font used,

which is clear and easy to read

• Image of the artist

How conventional is the front cover in relation to other media products?

Vampire Weekend’s style, and this album in

particular, was one thing that inspired my design.

The album is of the same genre as my chosen song so I found it useful to look at the band’s visual style.

The similarities here between their front cover

for their second album Contra and my own front

cover are clear – both choose to challenge

conventions by having a main image not of the

artist, both use a clear bold white font to print the

album and artist name, both have a simple colour

scheme, and both are fairly basic but effective designs.

This front cover for Bastille’s Bad Blood was another design that inspired my work. The use of water in both links them, as well as again the bold white font. I liked the way Bastille positioned the text and so I did create some drafts where the text on my own front cover was positioned in a similar way. However in the end I decided that was better suited to the back cover and so kept the text as you see it here. It did inspire me to try positioning the text within the scene though, which resulted in the band name looking like it’s behind the glass.

BACK COVER

With my back cover, there were a lot more conventions to follow and include and I tried to use them as far as possible. The tracklist, album name and artist name are clearly all there. I also conventionally included a barcode, copyright information, the record label logo and social media for my artist. Not every album back cover has every one of these conventions but I wanted to include them all the keep my digipak looking professional.

I chose not to directly challenge any conventions with my back cover, but I did develop some. Obviously it’s conventional to have a tracklist but I chose to position it to the left instead of centrally, where it usually is. I also chose to have the band and album name positioned larger to the right, whereas usually on back covers they feature in smaller print towards the top, if at all. I like the style I managed to create though and I think here building on existing conventions was the right thing to do. I feel it makes my product more original and thus more likely to catch a potential consumer’s attention.


• Tracklist• Album and band name

printed again• Main image linked to the

front cover• Barcode• Copyright information• Record label logo• Social media links

• Positioning of the tracklist• Size of the album and

band name

How conventional is the back cover in relation to other media products?

Fun’s album Some Nights was one that inspired my back cover design. I liked

the way they printed the album and band name

again in a large bold font and so I decided to

incorporate this into my own work. I also liked that they didn’t simply followed

the conventional one-column tracklist and

instead created variation by going with two. Although I wanted one column, their

design encourage me to experiment with positioning

and therefore end up with the design shown here.

The back cover for Drake’s Take Care album was another design that I used to help make my product as conventional as possible. I liked the central alignment and therefore tried to recreate this kind of symmetry in my own design. I also liked the darker block colour background, I think it adds a simplicity to the design. I knew I wanted an image rather than just colour for my own back cover but Drake’s design meant I decided I didn’t want the image to be too extravagant, just a plain darker backdrop for the text.

SPINE

Again with the digipak spine I tried to be as conventional as possible. There’s not much room for experimentation and challenging conventions with the spine because it’s such a small area; it needs to be clear and easy to read. I included the conventions of the album and band name printed as the main part of the spine. I also added the conventional record label logo and serial number. For the background of my spine I chose to follow conventions again, using an image that was a continuation of the back cover. Most albums do this, whether it’s with the back or front cover, or they opt for just a plain colour background. I think following this convention helped to make my overall digipak more cohesive, particularly because I followed conventions with fonts as well, and used the same one as on the back and front covers.

The positioning of the the features on my spine is another area that I kept conventional because, as I said, experimenting with changing things on the spine is risky – the conventional way is the best in this case.


• Album and band name• Background a

continuation of the back cover image

• Record label logo• Serial number

How conventional is the spine in relation to other media products?

I liked the use of colour on this White Stripes album

spine. It was one that followed the convention of

continuing the image/artwork and fonts from the front and back covers onto the spine,

which you can see is something I chose to do as

well. It doesn’t have a record label logo, probably

due to lack of space, whereas I chose to include

that in order to be as conventional as possible.

Grizzly Bear’s Shield album spine also inspired mine. I liked the way they used fonts and text size to distinguish between the album name and the band name. I also liked their positioning, the conventions of the serial number and record label logo where there without taking over the design. I think it looks very neat and professional and that was something I wanted to try and achieve with my design too.

INSIDE PANELS

The inside panels were an area where I found it difficult to follow conventions, in that there aren’t really any set rules about what to include. There’s no essential features like the tracklist or album name, which left me fairly free to do what I wanted. However I still tried to be conventional by using images related to the front cover and continuing to create cohesion through fonts. A lot of inside panels use images of the artist, but I decided against this convention because I didn’t have images of the artist anywhere else on the digipak so I felt it would have looked out of place and disrupted the style I had created.

From my research before drafting, I found that a lot of inside panels chose to incorporate lyrics from some of the songs on the album. I really liked this idea and so chose to use this convention in my own digipak. I also think this convention draws attention to the song I created a music video for, which is good as it’s intended to be a promotional package all working to sell the song and the album.


• Main image linked to the front cover

• Use of lyrics

• Image of the artist

How conventional are the inside panels in relation to other media products?

Muse’s inside panels on their album Absolution had a style that I liked. I incorporated their simplicity and use of basic colour into my own design. They also used an image linked to the rest of their digipak, which I also did as I’ve already explained. Furthermore, their two panels were not separate, instead the image spanned over both of them. I really liked this convention because I think it draws the different panels together and is interesting because each panel works separately but then creates a different effect when they come together.

I’ve included an example of inside panels from Rihanna’s Loud album here to demonstrate how my work challenges conventions as well as simply follows them.

Rihanna is obviously of a different genre to the one I’m working in and I wanted to show the ways in which I’ve chosen to break conventions. Rihanna’s design includes an

image of the artist which is something I decided against, for reasons already discussed. It also features no text at all, a convention that again I chose to challenge because I felt

that due to my images being more abstract, it would be too simplistic to leave them without text. Although I’ve challenged conventions I don’t think it’s made my inside

panels unprofessional because of the genre that I’m working in.

DISCS

For the discs of my digipak I again felt it was necessary to follow conventions. There are certain features that need to be on there – the record label logo, more copyright information etc. – so I included those. However I chose to only put them on one disc and not the other, which challenges conventions slightly but I think doesn’t detract from the professionalism too much.

Again I was aiming to create cohesion so I used a similar image to the front cover and inside panels, and the same font again. Not all albums have two discs, but those that do have disc numbers so I chose to follow that convention and include them as well.

I also decided to add the text on disc two advertising the fact that it contained the music video made as part of the promotional package. This is another convention of albums where a music video is included, and I again decided to follow rather than challenge it.

The positioning of my text could be considered slightly unconventional but I wanted to add some originality so I’m happy with the final design.


• Album name• Record label logo• Copyright information• Disc numbers• Background image

similar to front cover and inside panels

• Text advertising the music video

• Image of the artist• Positioning of the text• Artist name

How conventional are the discs in relation to other media products?The Mumford & Sons’ disc design here was one that I drew inspiration from. The main thing I liked was the

way the copyright information was positioned

to follow the curve of the CD. This is conventional

positioning as the information is necessary but doesn’t really add to

the look of the disc and so doesn’t need to be in huge print. I chose to follow this

convention and keep my copyright information in small print to the right,

following the curve of the disc. I also liked the way all

the other text and logos were central, creating a

symmetrical look so again I attempted to recreate that.

This Bombay Bicycle Club disc was another design that inspired me. I liked the use of blue and also the positioning of the band name at the top centre of the disc, and you can see how both of those elements were incorporated into my own design. Again the copyright information is positioned around the edge of the disc, I liked that this design took the image from the front cover and used it, but not just in the sense that it’s exactly the same image – they adapted it slightly to create variation and I’ve done the same thing with my own; the images are linked but not identical.

DIGIPAK AS A WHOLE

The conventions of a digipak are the features I’ve discussed throughout this powerpoint. Obviously I wasn’t going to challenge conventions by not including two discs, a front and back cover, spines and two inside panels.

However, and more importantly, the main convention of digipaks is that they look cohesive. I tried to be conventional by being as cohesive as I could. This meant using consistent fonts throughout, using images that all worked together well and developing a clear colour scheme. I wanted to ensure that the final product didn’t lack variety but still make sure that each separate element combined well. I think I managed this balance by combining following and challenging conventions.

The other conventional aspect of digipaks is that they represent the artist and genre they are from. Again I tried to be conventional by adhering to the features of the Indie genre and also tried to represent my artist’s more pop/low-fi elements as well.


• Two discs• Two inside panels• Back cover• Front cover• One main spine• Cohesion through

images• Cohesion through fonts• Cohesion through

colours

• Images of the artist

How conventional is the digipak in relation to other media products?

Bon Iver is more within the genre of my chosen artist. This album design uses actual art rather than images, which is something I really liked but decided against for my own product because I felt it didn’t quite fit with my artist style. However there are

similarities in that both of us chose not to include artist images, suggesting that maybe challenging that convention is more common within the Indie genre than

people think. The Bon Iver back cover is one that clearly inspired my digipak as you can see from the symmetrical positioning of the tracklist on the back cover.

Although Katy Perry is within the pop rather than the Indie genre, her digipak is a good comparison for how my own has followed and challenged conventions. You can see the clear cohesion in both – the images and colours all compliment each other and even when you take each element separately, it’s still obvious that they come from the same digipak. However the Katy Perry album design is very focused on images of her – typical of the pop genre – whereas I chose to challenge conventions and not include any artist images.

Overall I feel my digipak has followed conventions of existing media products effectively. The only times I’ve challenged or developed conventions have been when I made the deliberate choice to do so for artistic purposes. Plus, within the Indie genre, challenging conventions in itself is not unusual so I feel I can conclude that I’ve produced a mostly professional-looking product that is conventional of a digipak you would expect to find being sold today.

Documents

Following/Challenging Conventions: Digipak