Indie Digipak Analysis
- 1. Indie Digipak Analysis Humbug, Arctic Monkeys This digipak by Arctic Monkeys is extremely typical of its genre for a number of reasons. What's expected of the indie genre is that it dismisses mainstream ideas and instead adopts its own style. Firstly, the front cover shows the band in a purple-tinted, sepia toned photograph. This dull colour scheme is used throughout the digipak with the writing on the front and back being black and the title on the back being a maroon colour, therefore creating a consistent colour scheme as all digipaks tend to across genres to make them more visually appealing. This colour choice however is more typical of the indie genre as it has a duller effect as opposed to the vivid and striking colours typically used by pop artists in order to catch the audience's eye. It's also key to note that the titles on the front of the cover are kept small and discreet making the band the main focus of the front cover, Again, the artists themselves are more often than not used on the front cover of digipaks from all genres as they are usually what the audience identifies with, so in this sense Arctic Monkeys have adhered to some mainstream features. Therefore on the back is an enlarged version of the band's name and then a list of the songs on the album. Again this is a feature of most digipaks and so this is something we will look to incorporate in our own designs. Similarly to the consistent colour scheme, there is consistent use of font with all the black writing being in the same font which creates a more visually appealing end product. What Is A Digipak? This is a type of packaging for CD's or DVD'S, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more disks. As the aim goal is to create our own to promote our artist's album alongside the music video, I'm going to look at and analyse several digipaks from different artists in the indie music genre in order to gain greater perspective on the typicality of the genre and what features make the digipak's successful. Matilda, Alt-J Alt-J, similarly to Arctic Monkeys, are an indie rock band however they have taken a different approach in terms of their digipak. Firstly, the digipak is similar in terms of having a consistent colour scheme (orange, purple, and black) as well as a consistent font to create the same professional finish. Aside from this, the main difference is the fact that Alt-J have decided to create a conceptual piece, with space, landscapes and their logo. This is more typical of the indie genre as they tend to focus on the music rather than their personas as is done within the pop music industry. The use of colour, symbols and the size of the title on the front of the cover overall creates an effective digipak as although it doesn't incorporate images of the artist it's still clear who the album's by as well as being attractive and aesthetically pleasing. In our own design I feel we may incorporate this conceptual idea with the logo due to the outcome it creates.