Digipack Print Research

Bruno Mars Digipak - Doo-wops and Hooligans

Front - As you can see from the image, the front of this album does not feature any actual shots of the artist, or anything else, but is simply a computerized image. However the 'image' itself does suit the genre (Pop/Teen). It is pretty much an overhead shot of a person walking along what seems to be a jet stream from a plane.

 This is highly entropic, which appeals to the target audience of teenagers, and does fit in with the seemingly 'dreamy' 'lazy' or 'chilled' connotation we as listeners receive from this music.



 The font is also quite humorous and entropic, with it's flowing style fitting perfectly with the jet stream road. The font combined with the jet stream road, and it's simplistic design, securely apply anchorage, and connote a series of dream-like, and chilled vibes from the cover, which appeals extremely well to it's target audience.

The back of the digipak is similar to the front, using the same house style in regards to colours and font. It continues the simplistic idea, and includes just the bare minimum, the track list on the back. It also uses a circle around the track list.

 This actually works really well, as in regards to shapes, circles can be seen as the most flowing, requiring very little effort. It fits in well with the flowing nature on the front of the piece. 

The circle also separates the track list from the rest of the back, so the piece doesn't become boring.



With the inlay of the digipak, it sticks to the same house style, using the same colours and fonts incorporated throughout, and surprisingly sustains the simplistic design.

 Despite the amount of writing on the page, it is not a busy inlay, and therefore it maintains the feel of the genre and the connotations.






Ed Sheeran +



The front of the digipak is dominated by a close up of Sheerans face. However, the producers have used an orange filter all the way around the front, and faded the close up into bold areas of orange around the outside. 

The orange filter and the use of fading gives the cover a simplistic design, similar but different in ways to the Bruno Mars cover. It is a simplistic design, but it dominates a lot more space than the Bruno Mars cover, but it still has it's empty space area's.

 There is no real mix of colours, similar to the previous digipak, and although the focus point of the cover is quite large, there is nothing else to pull your attention away, other than the + in the bottom right hand corner of the piece. This is what the album is called, and it actually fits in really well with the connotations of the piece.

 Similar to the Bruno Mars, it is a chilled, laid back cover, and instead of having a long title, a very simple sign has been used, which keeps these connotations in place.

The back of the cover maintain the orange background, and use of white colouring, but also incorporates a completely contrasting black colour to the opposite side. The use of black is used very out of place, and is therefore quite entropic, and it is clear to see that here, the producer of the digipak is trying to shake the conventions of the genre in regards to house style, and this is not usually seen.

 The use of white against the orange background for the track list is used well, as it brings out the main focal point well, amongst the shocking black. Also the use of only black and white in regards to font continues the simplistic design we have seen in both digipaks now, as they are the two base colours in our society.

 The use of orange does differ away from this slightly, but the fact it covers the entirety of the digipak keeps to the simplistic design.


When designing my own digipak, after looking at both of these pieces, I think it is very important to keep to a simplistic design, as my artist is very similar to both of these. I really liked the computerized effects on Bruno Mars's front cover, but I accept that this would be hard to achieve, and I also think it is very important that the artist them self features somewhere on the digipak. I think that when taking my shots for my digipak, I will most likely use a close up, like the one used in Sheerans, but attempt to keep to a simplistic design. I will also attempt to keep to a similar house style, and only use 2/3 colours, so as to keep to this style.








This advert for Ed Sheeran's album '+' is very clearly directed at an audience who have a distinct knowledge of him and his music.

 Like on the album cover, the orange filter throughout makes the cover very distinct and eye catching for the audience. The use of orange is also a play on his image, as he has recognisably ginger hair, which is used as a selling point. This is a recurring theme in regards to Sheeran, and allows fans to know when something is to do with him.

 The style of font resembles a typewriter, which fits in with the simplistic house style that occurs in the album cover also. 

The use of white and black fonts distinguishes one thing from another, and this is utilised to promote the different companies that are selling the album.

His face is the main focus point in the advert, which combined with the sharp colour, acts a very good eye catcher.

I really like the use of of white and black colour fonts, to distinguish one thing from another, and I hope to incorporate this within my advert.

As you can see above, album covers in this genre are 2 contrasting types. On one hand you have the simplistic house styles, used for impact, and the use of one focus point brings the reader in. On the other you have much more busy, abstract and entropic house styles, which draw the reader in with the use of colours, or array of images.  In my work, I hope to replicate some of these features within my own work. I particularly like the abstract water colour on the bottom right hand album cover, and also the technological design of Noah and the Whales album.