Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Research - Album Packaging + Designs

As we are nearing the end of our music video production, I decided that it was about time I started to research the different types of packaging that are available (by delving into my CD collection of somewhat questionable taste). The most common type is the widely used jewel case, which is made of plastic and features a booklet/liner notes that double as the cover art. Below are a couple of examples which also include 'slipcases' (outer cardboard jackets) which stores such as HMV sometimes offer exclusively. This means that customers are enticed into buying from them instead of a rival store that may be offering the album for the same price, minus the slipcase.


The type of packaging we will be designing, however, is a digipak, which is predominantly made of cardboard or a similar material. A significant difference between the production of these is that digipaks cost more. Because of this, they are often used for deluxe and limited edition versions of albums. For example, below you can see Florence and the Machine's latest two albums, which are both deluxe edition digipaks and apply a similar design, that is, in terms of them having six panels (including front and back) and holding two CDs. However, in terms of the graphics used, that of Lungs (their debut album) features somewhat more abstract imagery with one of the panels showing a photo of various (quite unpleasant looking) fruit.  For Ceremonials, each photo focuses much more on Florence. Another, more significant difference, is the decision for the CDs of Ceremonials to not feature designs that are as striking as those of Lungs (which features more imagery of fruit and Florence holding a rabbit). However, they do match the colour scheme of the back of the album, although they are still quite boring in my opinion.


An advantage of digipaks is the fact that they allow more freedom with the design, as observed with the previous two examples. However, there are artists who use much more simplistic designs for their digipaks. Laura Marling's last two albums, A Creature I Don't Know and I Speak Because I Can implement this, featuring just four panels, two of which (the inside ones) are completely filled with the album's lyrics (in very small print). This eliminates the need for a separate lyric booklet which I find quite interesting. What I also love about these is that the disc designs match the back cover. But an even simpler design is that of O by Damien Rice (another folk singer-songwriter) where the two inside panels have been left completely blank! Understandably, I very much doubt we will be using it for inspiration, but it's interesting to see different design ideas that attempt to compliment the artist and reflect their style of music.


Another type is 'book style' CD packaging, which are similar to digipaks but they open as a book, including pages that often contain the liner notes, additional photos, etc. These are sometimes offered as limited or collector's editions, such as that of Kate Bush and Kate McGill below.


My favourite example that uses this style, however, is for the deluxe edition of Imogen Heap's album Ellipse, which contains the lyrics alongside various beautifully designed graphics that incorporate photographs taken around her house/studio. These photos feature projections not unlike in style to those used in her video for Lifeline, which of course provided major inspiration for our own music video. This leads me to thinking that we could possibly revisit the projection idea for the design of our digipak. I also particularly like the fact that the front and back cover art uses a consistent background, in this case the texture of leaves. I've noticed that many albums implement a similar design aspect, which we could replicate for our own digipak. Nonetheless, below you can see some photos of the said album.


A feature of album artwork that I've noticed after looking at all of these different examples is that artists are usually assigned their own distinct typeface that is associated with them and displayed on their albums, website, merchandise, etc. This applies for Florence and the Machine, with both of their albums using the same script-style font. However, the thickness and colour of it on Ceremonials has been adjusted to suit the style of the album, whilst still being identifiable with the artist. Below you can see this example, as well a couple more from Kate Nash and Ellie Goulding, who both use typefaces that are unique to them.


This is all part of an artist's branding, and Kate Bush is another interesting example of this. Recently, she has established her own label, Fish People, as a division of EMI Records. Her albums have since begun to be re-released, with the disc artwork reflecting her new label. Each CD features 'Fish People' written in a distinct typeface, alongside the label's logo. This design is mirrored for each disc, although the colours differ in order to add some kind of distinguishing factor. I personally have never seen this kind of recurrence in disc designs before and I think it's a good move in creating an identity for her new label.


On a final note, I think this research has definitely helped me in thinking ahead to the digipak we will be designing, which I'm looking forward to. To end with, here is a final photo of two digipaks by two very different artists. However, there is something peculiarly similar in their designs (or at least the layout/positioning)... Hmm.

Tiger Suit (2010) - KT Tunstall + Femme Fatale (2011) - Britney Spears

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