Digipak research

Digipaks are usually limited edition, and are a type of packaging which accompany CD's. They can have a minimum of six panels, and may include features such as images of the artist/s, track listing, lyrics and so on. Depending on the genre of the of the artist/s, digipaks are presented in a certain way which are typical of certain conventions. As a lead up to creating our own digipak, in class we looked at various digipaks, and the way in which they were represented.

Chloe Connell took to researching the digipak, for album 'Teenage Dream' by pop artist Katy Perry:

My first Digipak I have chosen to research is the Katy Perry 'teenage dream' album, it follows the typical conventions of a Digipak such as having six panels in order to connote pictures of the artist using different shots such as a close up and extreme long shot. The use of bright pink colours help relate to Katy Perry's personality and is one of her artist conventions to use a lot of girly colours which also helps appeal to her target audience of being majorly females. The digipack also consists of a track list which usually appears on most digipacks to inform the distributers and audience what is featured on the CD so they know what they are buying. The CD also features Katy laying on clouds which represents one of her well known songs 'Teenage Dream' which most of her audience would be aware of. The digipack also denotes a parental advisory label as her audience may be quite young it informs those that the CD has no use of profanities and is suitable for a younger audience. Katy also appears to be laying in a sexual way, this shows that it would fit Laura Mulvey's male gaze which would also suit her male target audience.

I then went on to researching the conventions of 2pac's digipak, which is an album of his best hits:

I then went on to researching the conventions of 2pac's digipak, which is an album of his best hits. The first conventional feature on the cover, is the image of what appears to be the top half of 2pac from the back. From this image we can see that he is topless, but is wearing things such as a gold chain and watch. This links in with the hip-hop genre, as this connotes success and masculinity.
The font used to present 2pac's name, appears to look rough and battered. This may make 2pac seem raw and tough; which also links in with many other artists in the hip-hop genre. In terms of editing, the image of 2pac on the front cover, seems to have a sepia edit. This creates a dim light which emphasises his muscular body, which once again emphasises 2pac's macho persona. The front cover includes a 'parental advisory' label; this enables the audience to know that what they are about to buy may include explicit content.

By researching digipaks of different artists, I was able to see what particular conventions were used to meet a certain genre. The Katy Perry digipak differs greatly from the 2pac digipak. By looking into the 'Teenage Dream' digipak, it will help when creating our own as they both cater for a pop genre. For an example the 'Teenage Dream' digipak used vivid imagery through the use of bright colours. We may also opt to use bright colours for our digipak, in order to make it conventional of a pop genre.