Analysis of album cover art (Digipak) and magazine ad

Firstly, what is a digipak? Check the Wikipedia definition – but in short it is a folding CD cover/jacket. It folds on one or two spines and has room for one or two CDs inside. It's NOT the 'jewel' case which is the old plastic style CD case. 

You MUST produce an authentic-looking digipak. It must be the right dimensions, and if folded up and put onto a shelf in a music store, not look out of place. The only way to get full marks is if your artwork and design looks 100% real.

Here’s an example of some student work which got full marks.

And this is the magazine ad which went with it.

You will need to buy or borrow a music magazine and find a couple of examples of full page adverts for the release of a new album.

When analyzing an existing digipak and magazine advert you should ask yourself:

·         What information is offered by the digipak? (Band name? Track list? Lyrics? Institutional info? etc.)

·         Are there any indicators of genre? What are they?

·         Semiotics: what signs/symbols have been used? What connotations do they have?

·         Are there any stylistic themes which are present in the band/artist’s music videos?

·         How does the digipak create a brand identity?

Start by looking through yours or your parents’ CD collection. Don’t bother with anything more than 10 years old – don’t use the old-school plastic jewel CD case type of album – only use the newer folding digipak kind.

Choose a couple which you think do well at communicating the brand identity of the band or artist. Either scan them in or take good digital photographs of them folded out against a blank background (turn the flash off to reduce glare).  Now analyze how they communicate.

To get top marks for planning and research you need make your blog ‘multi-media’. So a good way to present this might be to record a podcast, screencast or video of you answering the questions above.

When it comes to designing your own, it should look real with a circular space for the CD. You can download various templates HERE (click for link). You can choose a 4 panel or 6 panel digipak. In my opinion 6 panels look more impressive.