Album Research

Before making our digipak we need to look at the key conventions of professional albums, and to see how the use of colours and fonts are used over the four panels.

The main conventions of the front panel is to promote the artist and the name of the album. The picture is generally a close up of the artist, this is done to create eye contact between the artist and the audience. On the disc is normally the name of the artist and the album name. There is generally some form of legal content on the disc but the position is varied and the record label is normally given recognition. The CD cover colour is normally a block colour and images are rarely used, this is something for us to consider when making our CD disc. The back cover of an album has the song list, generally the song list is vertical with numbers next to them but on occasions it can be horizontal depending on the picture. The back cover then has more legal content followed by a bar code and other ways to promote the artist such as their website.

The picture is a close up and the colours that Jessie J is wearing have been carefully selected so that they can be used across the four panels. The use of colours across Jessie J's digipak is very consistent the backgrounds are all white which helps create a house style. This is also  maintained by the consistent use of font. The artists name is in the same font on the front cover and the CD disc. The font for the song title 'Who you are' is also in the same font but they have chosen to change the colour of this font. The back cover is dominated by the colour black which is key to the front panel, most of Jessie's accessories are black. Overall the colour scheme is consistent and the use of fonts help link the panels together. However I believe that the colours on the disc do not fit in with the hous style as this colour is not used anywhere else, perhaps picking a colour from the front cover would have looked better.

 Here is Adeles digipak, I believe that the house style they have created is very strong, again this is done by the use of fonts and colours but also the use of images. The image on the front cover is again a close up which promotes the artist, this image links well with the back cover although she is looking at the camera in this picture they are similar. Both close ups and in black and white.The green that is used on the front cover is picked out and used on the disc, this gives the digipak colour and the title of the album is also on the disc cover which stregthens the house style. The fonts used are consistent and simple, this helps increase the house style of the digipak.

Here is the digipak for Tinie Tempahs album Discovery.The strong house style is created in large by the colours and effects used on the front and back panels. The stylish effects to give the album a mystical aura gives the album a unique look which also links to the title, Discovery suggests something new, something different which is certainley the case for the effect used. The triangle also strengthens the house style, it makes the images look similar to each other. The colour of the CD is again a block colour and is picked from the front cover which strengthens the link between the two. The font is used throughout the whole album, its used for the title font, the font on the disc and the song list.

The use of bright and vibrant colours is the key factor is creating a strong house style in Coldplays digipak. The front covers bold colour is picked up upon and used over all the panels.

This ideas are apparent in the digipaks for Oasis, Plan B and Noel Gallagher