I will also be producing a digipak as part of my piece, this will involve the front cover of a CD, the rear of a CD with the songs on, A CD and an inside information booklet. To try and expand my knowledge of Digipaks I have decided to do some research into this area and to analyse some digipaks which are already out there by successful artist's.
I have decided to look at Frank Ocean's Digipak for his album 'channel ORANGE' this is because Frank Ocean is a new artist and i was interested what would be considered as a new and fresh Digipak.
Firstly, in my opinon, the front of the digipak is very bold and massivley stands out to any other digipak being sold in a shop. This is becuase of the bright colour of the digipak, it will be seen from a distance, put also the simplicity of the pack also helps to draw people in. With just the text 'channel ORANGE' written on the front of the cover, people will be intreaged to find out who's the album is and may flip over the case to see the featured songs on the CD. This is a very unusal technique used by the record company to help draw in potential customers, most album covers are usually alot more detailed and packed than this, but it would seem that this technique was succesful due to the high amount of sales this CD generated. We also see the sticker in the bottom right hand corner of the Digipak which tells us some of the more recognised songs on the album, encourging the potential customer to buy the CD as these are likely to be the best songs on it. The sticker also shows songs featuring other artists, this could be seen as a convention as in this type of music collaboration between artist's plays a big part.
Unforntunately this was the only image which i could find of the back of a digipak and it is not very clear, but here is a link with a nicer picture which could not be uploaded.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh029t3kYV2_Sf4XKWQnvQg17h4YYLIxl0Hdp7K7BL0srpyZwY6ECQ-Ws_jy8_qsioKeSJwW2CiDFDfYhY90rU_PjFabq-nOWGxSwy-qGvnbiBknQEdMk0AO_CLh3yVu9WzXGbRRzN_WGw/s1600/Photo-2012-07-12-12-40-06-PM.jpg
The back of the digipak is particular interesting, in comparision to the usual video which would simply state the songs on the CD. Instead, there are two paragraphs written by artist Frank Ocean directed to the fans and the audience who have purchased this album. This including how his life has changed over the last four years and thanking his fans for their continuous support. As this message is a personal one, it brings the artist and the audience closer together. Cutting out the difference between celebrity lifestyle and the lifestlye of a normal human. This is very unusual pertically in the hip hop/R&B market which Frank operates in, fans are often seperated from the star but here Franks cuts this out, brining him closer to his fans. In my opinion, a great decision.
The inside of the CD folds open into three seperate panels. the right side of which holds the CD and also has a poster of Frank. This form of Digipak is a pretty standard one but the fact that it also includes a poster of frank again brings him closer to the audience as it is asif it is a more personal albums on the market. The inside panels include a photograph of a big house and the cd cover includes a picture a what seems to be a piece of jewelrey. The use of these two types of imagery are both stereotypical of hip-hop as a genre, this is again very conventional.
The CD itself is very conventional of Hip Hop/R&B artist's CD's. The relfective surface is what comes on a blank vinyl anyway, so frank is staying with the idea of simplicity for his CD. It then has a eject button and some text which has been added by the record company, so it is a very simple CD. The imagery of the upside eject button could be a connotation that people should insert the disc and not eject it. The text is standard legal info as well as the name of the album, conventional.I
Although this is the first digipak I have fully analyse I believe this is a very unique Digipak and reflects how Frank Ocean appretiates his fans and does not want to complicate anythig, with everything being very bland and simple, yet at the same time, very stylish.
