This blog contains the research and development of creating the digipak for component 3, this blog was created by Cassie.
⋆｡˚ʚ ୨ Digipak Research ৎ ɞ˚｡⋆
Cassie’s Media Dictionary 📖 𓂃🪶
Definition by Oxford Languages
DIGIPAK
/ˈdijēˌpak/
noun | TRADEMARK
a type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs.
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What is a DIGIPAK and what’s it purpose?
From my research, we found out there are two different types of digipaks: a regular digipak and a jewel case digipak. A regular digipak is a form of card-based packaging used for CDs and DVDs. It’s made out of hard cardboard to hold its shape, and a plastic structure inside to keep the CD/DVDs in place. The outer cardboard is custom printed, usually used as an album cover for artists who release physical copies of their songs. A jewel case digipak uses a plastic outer covering, in which the album cover is in the form of a booklet and slipped into the plastic packaging. The jewel case digipak also holds CDs and DVDs with an internal plastic structure. Digipaks are usually a form of advertisement or branding for the artists, to promote their new releases and enhance their visual identity.
In this case, we have to create a 4-panel digipak for our artist, ELLIE COLLINS, on her new album, POV.
4 PANEL DIGIPAK includes:
❀ Front Cover - Album cover, usually shows artist direction and their visual branding for their album. This is what people first see on the digipak. Sometimes it is just a photo, while other times they have the artist name and album name too.
❀ Back Cover - Contains copyright information and record label/company. Sometimes track lists and runtimes are shown too, and the design usually matches the front cover. It also has a barcode known as a UPC (Universal Product Code), is a 12-digit code that allows retailers to access information about the album for sales reporting and inventory management. This could also be a EAN (European Article Number), which is a 13-digit code.
❀ Spine - The spine holds the front and back together. It usually displays the artist’s name, the album name, and the catalogue number to make it easily findable when the cover isn’t visible e.g. in CD stores.
❀ Inside Panels (2) - One side has space for track lists, graphics, lyrics or QR. Usually a lyric booklet is kept on this side. The other side is where the CD is kept.
❀ CD - The CD is the physical release of the album. Since the CD can only be read on one side, there is no side A/side B like a vinyl record. The top of the CD’s usually come with designs that align with the album’s overall theme and design.
❀ Others - Sometimes artists add other things into their digipak thats not included in the standard digipak. This could be photo cards, folded posters, lyric sheets, stickers, etc.
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CONVENTIONS of RNB Digipaks
Newer RNB albums vs Older RNB albums
❀ Front Cover:
Front covers tend to be solo shots of the artist, especially the older RNB albums. In the older albums, warmed tones are more common. Even though orange and warmer tones are still common in newer albums, theres also albums that are more cool and have blue (e.g SOS - SZA). Older albums have the artist name and album names on the cover, while newer albums don’t. In the older albums, they usually contain close-up shots of the artist, making us feel closer. However, newer albums have a mix of close-ups and long shots, depending on the themes of the album. The fashion used in RNB albums is very broad and varied. Some albums utilize simple styling, using single-color tank tops, while others use very detailed and elaborate clothing.
Newer RNB albums vs Older RNB albums
❀ Back Cover:
Almost all back covers have the track lists of the albums. Sometimes, the rundown time is also included. In older albums, the back covers is mostly always a photo of the artist in the same or similar outfits as the cover. Most of the time, it is a medium shot, showing artist from thigh and up. In newer albums, it’s coming more and more common to make the back cover a photo of the set used in the cover (e.g. Ctrl - SZA) or using graphics with solid color backgrounds. Most back covers contain copyright information and the record label stated. It is an industry standard to have a UPC/EAN barcode at the back along with all other technical information.
❀ Spine:
Finding the spine designs of RNB albums was very challenging, but thankfully I found an RNB digipak collector on Pinterest (@irfani6622), where I searched through his account to find this photo. The spines usually are single color backgrounds, with the album, artist and record label names on them. The center is usually reserved for either the artist name or album name, or even both. They also have the catalogue numbers on them, usually pushed to the side, just like the record label. Spine conventions have not changed much over the years. The spines usually follow the cohesive theme of the album.
Left panel vs Right panel with CD vs Right panel with no CD
❀ Inside Panels (2):
Finding the inside designs of a digipak was extremely difficult. However, I found that watching unboxing videos of digipaks was the best way to see the design inside. Thankfully, I was able to find the designs of RNB albums through @CDGalor on YouTube. The left panel usually has a photo of the artist, graphics or institutional information. The right panel can either be another photo of the artist, graphics, or background photos that fit the cohesive theme. Photos of the artist are usually from the same photoshoot, having the same outfits and styling. The cover and the left panel is usually made into a booklet, with lyrics inside of it.
❀ CD:
The CD is usually once again either has a solid color background, or it keeps the holographic material of the CD, with added graphics on top. Usually, the name of the artist and album would be on the CD, along with record label and other copyright information. Usually, the CD matches the overall aesthetic of the album, however some albums (e.g. SOS - SZA) make the CD the things that stand out the most by using colors, fonts, etc.
❀ Others:
It is rare for RNB albums to include extras such as posters in their digipaks. This is more common in pop, especially K-pop albums, where it has become an industry standard. However, our song POV comes from a RNB and Pop album, where both genres collide. Positions, the album POV originates from, has a deluxe addition that contains posters, stickers and some polaroid pictures. Even though this is not the norm for RNB albums, we want to have similar inclusions to make our digipak seem more complete.
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RESEARCH of RNB Digipaks
1. Bird’s Eye - RAVYN LENAE (2024)
Technical Elements:
Ravyn Lenae has been a big inspiration for our group ever since we created Ellie Collins. Her vintage aesthetic and simplicity were big factors that we liked in this digipak. Her album cover uses a medium shot, and stands out from the rest of the digipak as they all use a single color background with little variation. This makes the album look very cohesive and clean. She almost looks isolated in the, as the rest of the digipak uses dark colors. This makes her look alone, making audiences assume the album has a more vulnerable vibe to it (dominant reading). The star, Ravyn Lenae, looks to the distance and has a sad facial expression on her face, making the album look gloomy. The cover also uses lowkey lighting, making it look more mysterious and dramatic.
Reflection on Artist’s Persona:
This album shows Ravyn Lenae’s unique persona. Her persona is not very flashy, and almost feels dream-like. The digipak is simple, showing her calm and reflective identity. She stays true to herself, not needing to conform to RNB artists’ conventions. The music in this album covers topics like love, discovery and growth, all very personal and introspective topics that show vulnerability. Her vulnerability is shown through the sad expression, dark colours, dim lighting and the lack of eye contact.
Logos:
Ravyn Lenae does not really have a logo. However, there is typography and symbols that represent Ravyn Lenae and her identity as an artist.
This vintage/olden style typography with her initials works as some sort of logo. This logo can represent her, specifically for this era of her music career. It shows off her vintage aesthetic, and works well with the theme of her album. These are not common in RNB albums, however Ravyn Lenae is known for pushing boundaries in the RNB genre, so this matches her perfectly.
What I will take from this album:
I really like the overall layout of this album. The back cover’s layout in particular allows more photos and variation, while having enough space for information and track lists. Having a photo as the back cover will make it difficult to add text that doesn’t clash with the background, so I plan to make it a solid color too. I also love the use of the vintage/olden style typography as a logo, which can help our artist’s branding.
2. Still Over It - SUMMER WALKER (2021)
DIGIPAK
ALBUM COVER
Technical Elements:
In the digipak, Summer Walker uses a medium shot, allowing us to see the surroundings. She holds a baby, a phone, and theres baby bottles and formula on the table. This makes her look like an overworked mother. In the back cover, she’s shown in a long shot, making her feel distant as she seems to be doing paperwork. The CD design (track list) looks like it’s been drawn by black marker, making it look like a grocery/to do list. However, her official album cover, which does not have a digipak, looks completely different. She looks like a celebrity caught by paparazzi, as she reaches out to cover the camera. She’s using glasses, making her look busy or uninterested. It is a close shot, making it feel like an invasion of privacy. The flash and polaroid/film effect makes it look like a paparazzi photo. In both of the albums, the only thing consistent is the font and typography of the album title, which is a handwritten cursive font, which looks like an autograph, which feels more personal.
Reflection on Artist’s Persona:
Summer Walker is known for her honest and raw style in RNB. In the digipak, she represents the struggle of mothers, especially busy or single mothers. She is quite open and unfiltered, embracing her sexuality and speaking her mind. The digipak design could very well be a criticism of absent fathers or it could show how strong women are for dealing with these issues. Her sound is quite intimate and sensual, which I feel fits more with the official album cover which uses dark colours that feel more intimate. These covers clearly show her persona and her stardom, becoming key parts in her artistic identity. However, I personally don't understand why the concepts between digipak and official album cover are so different.
What I will take from this album:
I really like the thin cursive font, as it looks like handwriting, making it more personal, which I feel matches with our artist. Since my artist is starting small, the more personal vibe will support our initially small fanbase. It also appeals to the “ordinariness” aspect of stardom. I also like the polaroid/film effect used in the official album cover, which looks more vintage rather than modern and professional. The flash is too harsh in my opinion for my artist, so I would rather use soft flash to brighten up the picture to match the happy vibe of her album.
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DEVELOPMENT of DIGIPAK
After conducting research, I finally feel confident enough to start on my digipak development. First, I sketched out my ideas in my drawing app, called Ibispaint X. I took inspiration mostly from 500 Days of Summer, a rom-com movie with a very vintage aesthetic. However, I wanted to explore my options outside a movie lens and more of a music lens, so it would still look recognizable as a digipak, rather than a movie poster.
MY INSPIRATION
MY SKETCHES
MY DRAWING LAYERS
From these 5 sketches, I told my team and we started taking the pictures for these designs during our filming days, which was always easy because we always brought 3 types of cameras (including our phones), so we could choose which camera looked best for the vibe we were trying to achieve. I decided to make drafts of all these designs, just so it would be easier to visualize which one looked best as the sketches were not doing my ideas justice. By this time, I already collected all the photos from a shared google drive we have (which is very neatly organized), so it was not difficult to design at all. I created the drafts on Canva after buying Canva pro to get the best results.
OUR GOOGLE DRIVE
DRAFTS
I asked input from my group on which digipak design, mostly just based on the photos, looks the best to them. However they all had differing answers which made voting very split and also made me very conflicted. So, I decided the best way was to make a google form and send it out to people within our target audience. However, I had to first briefly describe our project and what we are trying to achieve, so people vote based on what we are looking for too, instead of solely on personal preference.
So, I created a google form. I gave them a brief description of our project, our artist, her persona, our song, etc. I then asked them to choose which album cover looks best and suits the theme and concept. Option 1 is slide 1 in the drafts Canva slide, and so on. I allowed them to choose at least 1 choice and at most 2 choices. I sent these out to teenagers in relationships, hopeless romantics, and other students.
RESULTS OF GOOGLE FORM
As you can see from the picture above, out of 24 responses, option 1 and 7 got the most votes, making up 37.5% of the votes each,
which gave me a good idea on what our target audience likes. However, this actually made me more confused because I wasn’t sure
which option to pick, and I didn’t want a tie breaker vote to go to a clueless person, as my group was also still split. So, I decided to ask
my media teacher instead, as he knows better and may have feedback for my design while we’re at it.
Before I did that though, I decided to use the collage I made earlier of newer RNB albums compared to older ones. I figured that if I put our possible album covers in a sea of other RNB albums,
I could see if it fits or stands out.
Option 1 in new RNB albums vs Option 1 in old RNB albums
Option 7 in new RNB albums vs Option 7 in old RNB albums
As you can see, visually and color wise, both options match well in both old and new RNB albums. However, one very notable
difference is the use of solo shots. Almost every single album in the collage I made uses a solo shot, and rarely has any other people
in the cover. I thought that if we used option 1, we would subvert too much from RNB conventions and it would no longer fit. I asked my
media teacher as well, and he agreed with me, saying that it would be easier to connect option 7 with the other RNB albums. I also feel like the
7th option feels more personal and shows who Ellie really is beyond a love interest.
So, I started the actual designing process of the digipak.
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FINAL DIGIPAK
Reflection: Even though most of the development was by Cassie, but I was able to create feedback and help in making decision when deciding on which design. I also helped Cassie several stuff that she needed help in such as the mockup design of the digipak. Being able to contribute in this creating also allows me to try out new stuff more than editing video but as well as design and editing designs.
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