Digipaks
This is 'Rihanna's' 'Loud' Album Digipak. The two shots used in this digipak are a medium shot and an extreme close up. The extreme close up is typical of all digipaks for mainstream pop and r&b artists. The star persona and image is emphasised, the focus in the digipak is only on Rihanna, showing the audience clearly that she is the star. This also helps when they are distributed as the target audience can easily spot the digipak on a shelf in a store such as 'hmv'. The mis-en-scene of soft colours highlights Rihanna's feminine image. The red roses compliment with the current red colour of her hair, and the off white dress and green foliage contrast with this soft red colour that has been intensified by the editing process, making the image more interesting. This digipak has redundant features; it is typical to the 'pop' genre; many other mainstream digipaks use soft colours and 'pretty' photos of the star to advertise their artists. The design is also appropriate for the target audience of teenage girls; the picture it's not explicit but still gives the artist a 'clean' but sexy look. In the editing process Rihanna's skin has been made paler and the hair and red lipstick had been intensified to make her look perfect. We don't see any imperfections on her and her make-up is perfect, this all adds to the perfect star image that she's created. Also the images that have been chosen also subtly show the seductive side to rihanna, her expression with her mouth open is typical and stereotypical to show seductiveness in current music videos and digipaks photos. The font and colour of the font used is just about noticable, the attention is drawn to Rihanna herself, not the name of the album, again reinforcing the star image.
Digipaks were more popular probably ten years ago than they are today. This is due to online music downloads becoming more popular. Instead of going to a shop and physically buying the digipak, most consumers purchase their music online; for example on 'iTunes' It is normally cheaper and you can get the music instantly and efficiently. This however now effects the role of the digipak; online music purchases usually only show the front cover of the physical digipak on the downloaded song, therefore the rest of the digipak is not seen. There is less room for the record label to advertise their artist and create a persona; therefore other methods of advertisement are now popular such as physical magazine adverts and T.V. adverts. However thought still needs to be put into creating appropriate digipaks, for those consumers that buy them physically. This is because, all the adverts on T.V or on paper, have to all link to one another so its clear to the consumer who the artist is; this means they should have the same colour scheme and font style, as well as pictures.
The long shot used on the front cover, establishes the band as one, and doesn't single an individual singer; showing they are all equal and creating a star image altogether. In some ways the challenges stereotypical digipak front covers of this genre, in aid of establishing an artist and advertising them most record labels produce close up shots for the front cover of a digipak. However this design is still effective as the soft pink and green background contrasts with the bright coloured, extremely long and flowing dress trails. The colours in the background used are typical to that of the artists other album covers, soft and light colours and the bright coloured dresses give the individual band members their own persona within the band, reflecting their outgoing, fun personalities. The band members are also slightly sexualised something else typical to mainstream artists, the band members are wearing feminine dressed and sat in flirty poses. The font is a soft yellow similar to the above digipak, it does not distract from the main picture but is clear for the consumer to see on the shelf. The back of the digipak is the the same photo as the front but zoomed in, relating all parts of the digipak together and showing a continuous theme and colour scheme between the front and back covers.
On the back of this digipak there is the record label logo, production company logo and the official copyright logo.I will also include the official website of my artist. I will use these logos and details on my own digipak. I also will include 'All rights reserved' 'Made in UK' and other small credentials that are stated in small print on the back of professional digipaks. There will also be bar code on the back, just as above.
The close up used on the front of Kesha's album 'Animal' is typical for a mainstream female artist, also the pose that she is doing, with her mouth slightly open gives her a edgy sexy look without her having to exploit herself, this helps to create a star persona typical to her genre of mainstream pop. The black background with the effect of white scratches on top gives us a scruffy/rough view of her. This reflects 'Kesha' as an artist as she is known for her wild videos and her rugged dress sense more than her music style as her image is more original than her mainstream pop tracks. The layout enables us to clearly see the name of the artist and the track list on the back of the digipak, although it is a sketchy font style. The colours also reflect Kesha's personality and her image as an artist in one of her songs her lyrics state 'Glitter mixed with rock and roll' You could say this is reflected in the boldness of the black background used throughout the digipak and the contrasting gold glittery writing. The sketchy writing used on the digipak; as well as the wave images, gives a fun childish twist to the digipak, showing 'Kesha' as a fun bubbly artist.This digipak comes across as redundant as 'Kesha' is already established her star persona and this album clearly reflects her.
The colour scheme is reflected throughout the digipak with black gold and hints of purple on the back cover and used for the album name 'Animal' This mix of colour is edgy and 'cool' maybe slightly challenging conventions for mainstream pop, compared to 'The Saturdays album above which is light vibrant colours, this album gives the impression of a slightly older target audience because 'Kesha' comes across less innocent compared to the artists above. However there are elements of redundancy in this digipak as the illustration on the back cover does not really relate to the album itself, it is just a random illustration placed there to interest audiences.
The use of credentials is similar to the digipak above, and i will include elements that are similar in my own work. However these credentials are bigger which makes me think how i would present them on my own digipak if i want them small at the bottom and separate from my design or like 'Kesha's album and Incorporated into the design with the same font and more spaced out.
Magazine Adverts
This magazine advert is for Gwen Stefani; she produces mainstream pop with an edge, similar to 'Kesha' but she was an established artist before 'Kesha. Her target audience would be young girls to young teenage girls aged about 10 - 16.
The medium shot of 'Gwen Stefani' is central to the advert and the largest thing, this reinforces her star image and makes it easier for her target audience to spot her whilst reading through a magazine. The colours used are white, green, pink and yellow/gold which are a vibrant and contrasting mix; again making it jump out at you in the magazine. The main photo has been edited to add interest for the consumer, you double look at the advert because your not sure if the photo is blurred or it is effects, again another advertising technique. The advert is clever as it uses the same image as on the front of the album, so the advert itself is advertising the front of the album, the target audience will be able to spot the front of the CD cover in shops because they recognize it from the advert. Also the sketchy font reflects 'Gwen Stefani' as an artist and slightly quirky and loud; this is the same font used on the album itself, again creating a whole package, the colour scheme is also used in this way.
Elements of this advert are redundant, the sketchy font is typical to 'Gwen Stefani''s image and star persona so we expect quirky fonts, also the advert contains quotes of some of the tracks on the album, this is typical to other mainstream adverts, by including released tracks from the album the consumer might recognise the songs and if they like them this might then persuade them to buy the album.
The advert is a A4 page, the is typical to the mainstream genre as record companies have the money to produce such adverts and on mass and in the best, widely read magzines. Also it is important on a advertising front, the bigger the advertisement the more likely it will probably be spotted in a magazine.
The credentials used are in the same font, so not distracting from the advertisment itself, this is mainly production companies. Also Gwen Stefani's official website is used this might interest fans as they might not have known that one existed, the website might include other Gwen Stefani merchandise that they can purchase. The advert also includes a picture of the physical album front cover in the corner; this is so the consumer knows what to look for if they try and purchase the album physically or digitally.
This magazine advert is for Jay-Z. Jay-Z produces r&b and some pop r&b. His target audience would be 15-24 year olds, mainly girls. This simple advert gives the consumer the information they need in a clear concise effective way. The main image is the same image used on the front cover of the album digipak. The artistst name 'Jay-Z' is also the exact same as on the digipak and is placed in the exact same position. The name of the album is clearly shown, however the release date is in bold and larger. This is because these are key main bits of information the consumer needs to be able to find the album, the name, release date and the artist as well as the image which gives the consumer an idea of what the digipak would look like.
The album has a very entropic feel as the advert does not show a actual picture of 'Jay-Z' most album covers for mainstream and r&b would show the artist, this style of not including the picture is often used for alternative music or indie/rock bands. However the image used is a 'cool' and 'hip' interesting image that would capture the consumers attention, the contrasting colours of white, black and red give a clean vivid vibe and reflect 'Jay-Z' as an artist. Jay-Z is an already established artist with a star image this could be why they have chosen to not use a picture of him, suggesting that he is already well known, just by putting his name and a image that reflects his star persona; people will go and buy his album.
The advert is also a A4 page, typical of this genre the advert would stand out in a magazine, again Jay-Z is a established artist with a star image, the major record label could afford to advertise this much.
Rihanna's target audience is young teenage girls, an age range of probably 10 - 14. She produces mainstream pop and r&b. Again in this advert the main image is the image used on Rihanna's 'Rated R' album, so its clear to the consumer what the album will look like. The close up is typical to the mainstream and r&b genres as they reinforce the star image constantly, this close up does this effectively. This close up however contrasts with the other picture used for the digipak front cover; this is because if record labels stuck with the same image constantly for their artists; the target audience would get bored of seeing the same thing therefore as a advertising strategy to keep fans hooked, subtle changes from album to album music wise are made and the artists star image changes, however this can be a bigger change because an artist such as Rihanna is already established and has a fan base.
The constrasting colours used on this digipak are black white and red, reflecting the mood of digipak design and of the image. The bold red writing states the alreadly released songs which the consumers will know.
