Conventions of a Digpak

A digipak is the CD packaging for an artists music. It includes the imagery on the front, back and inside sleeves of the case as well as the design on the CD itself. They are used to promote new music for an artist in order to raise brand awareness of their music and image. 

The front image is the most important due to it being what the audience see first. Therefore it has to be effective and eye-catching as well as reflecting the genre of the artist, e.g. Katy Perry's artwork is likely to be bright colours to match the pop genre of her music.

The inside of a digipak is there to provide extra information about the artist and the songs on the CD. It tends to be more toned down that the outside packaging but is just as important.

Conventions of a digipak

The Front:

• Main image: is usually the artist themselves (especially in pop culture) in order to raise brand awareness of the artist and for the audience to familiarise themselves with them. Other artists from different genres don't do this as much and use concept art instead. Sometimes the image will reflect the name of the album/EP.

• Artists name: this is always on the front cover of the CD and is always in the largest font in order to be eye catching to the audience. The font is specific to the genre as well, for example, cursive or loopy font can represent pop whilst a more formal font can represent indie rock.

• Album/EP name: this too is always included on the front cover, but in a much smaller font than the artists name. It can either be a song from the album, a certain lyric or nothing to do with the sound of the music. 

• Logo: some artists use logos along with their name as a use of brand imaging and so it'll be featured on the front of the digipak, e.g. Ed Sheeran's usage of mathematical signs for his album (debut was + and follow up is [Multiply] x)

• Sometimes the front cover will include promotional text, such as "featuring the hit single..." so that the audience are able to recognise the song and buy more material from the artist.

The Back

• Artwork: The artwork featured on the back of the digipak is generally ties in with the main image with a similar colour scheme or design to maintain the theme throughout

• Track List: the tracklist is also included here so that the audience don't have to go into get depth to get an idea of the songs, how long they are, where they are on the album etc.

• Extra information, e.g. production companies

• Bar code and record label: the record label of an artist can define an artist before the audience has even heard it since they may know of other artists of similar sound on the same label. This can heavily influence a decision to buy or not.

Inside:

• CD: often includes similar artwork to the main body of the digipak or has the same image on the front of the pak.

• Track list booklet: including the information about each song, who wrote it, produced it etc. as well as more photography of the artist or of images reflecting the genre, sound, artist etc.

• Background photography