Analysis of Digipack by Artist in my Genre- Bon Iver (Indie Pop Genre)

The digipack that I am analysing is the digipack from a Bon Iver CD called 'Blood Bank' which was released in 2009.  The images below are the actual digipack that came with the CD.



This shows the front cover of the digipack.

As you can see from the first image, there is an image on the front cover. The image is a very simple shot of a car with snow on it. We can't make out the whole car, only a section showing the car door open, as well as the window. We can make out the back seats and that's about it. It doesn't tell the audience much and leaves it open to imagination of what you think it is supposed to be implying. The framing of the shot is quite specific, it is aimed towards the seats. By having the window open it means the audiences eyes are attracted to the open window, and we feel as though we are looking through the window and then as previously stated, leaves it open to the imagination what the rest of the photo is about.
There is lots of the colour white on the front cover. This stereotypically connotes purity and 'angel-like'. This could maybe be a hint and be suggestive of something later on when we hear the music from the CD.




This is the inside of the digipack.

The inside of the digipack consists of gold and white colour scheme. The white writing stands out against the gold background, making it very eye catching to the audience. Also on the furthest left image, we can see another image. This image is showing footprints in the snow. This is very clever as the footprints are the same colour as the background. When first looking at the image, it took me a while to work out and understand what it was showing, however that helps engage the audience and make them concentrate on the digipack. The writing is in very small text and is hard to read. However, when studied, the writing is from the artist and is him thanking many people who helped him produce the CD. Other than the points I've made above, there isn't much else to look at, as it is on the whole very simple. Therefore the simplicity of the album is what makes it effective and is what engages the audience in the digipack.


This is the back of the digipack.

The back of the digipack in the majority is white. This is opposite to the inside of the digipack as we can see from the previous image. In the previous image the main colour was gold, now it is white with the text being gold. This is a complete reverse of previously and shows there is no consistent house style throughout. The back of the digipack has 6 words in gold. This could connote they are the important ones and the ones that the artist wants people to see most. This could be the names of the songs or just important words. Also found on the back is a bar code. This is important as allows it to be scanned in shops and therefore sold to the consumer, helping the audience make money. On the spine of the digipack we can also see the words 'Bon Iver Blood Bath'. The words 'Bon Iver' is in all capitals and gold, whereas the words 'Blood Bank' is in capitals but is in black writing, meaning it doesn't stand out quite as much. This could mean they are more interested in people knowing the name of there band rather than the album name.


This is the CD itself.

The font used is very simple and easy to read. This is important as the audience won't expect to have to strain to read the text, else they won't read it, meaning the digipack wasn't worth producing. The font is the same throughout and doesn't change, although the size of the text does change. On the exterior of the digipack the text is a lot larger, however as we can see from images above, the interior text is a lot smaller font, this is because of two main reasons, the first is that it has to be smaller in order to fit all the writing in that they wanted without making the digipack any bigger. The second reason is because it isn't as important as the exterior text as by the time the user is reading the inside they have already bought the CD meaning the exterior writing and overall front and back cover did its job.

The visual imagery on this digipack and CD itself could help to attract an audience as both imaged are quite intriguing and can take a moment to look at in order to work out what they are. Therefore it attracts the audiences eye, meaning they will take interest in the CD and digipack, therefore this could be a good idea to take from this digipack, that adding an interesting and slightly ironic image can help attract people to look at the CD and potentially influence them to then buy the CD.

Overall from looking at this digipack I feel that there are many positives of it, and also many things that could be improved. However the main benefits that I am going to take from the product is:

- The use of visual imagery to attract audience to purchase the CD can be used to our advantage.
- The size of the text is important, it must be easy to read without being ridiculously large.
- Consider colour schemes, a common house style throughout can be good. Even extending out to other media products that are helping to sell the CD could be colour themed.

By analysing the positives and negatives of the digipack, it will allow me to take the good things and include them in my own digipack, whilst ensuring that the lesser ideas I don't include, meaning I shouldn't have to many problems or issues when creating my digipack. Also by looking at this digipack (and multiple other digipack's) I can start to see trends in the way digipack's include certain things and do certain things in order to catch the attention of the audience, which again is beneficial as I can include these trends and generic conventions in my own digipack.