Group 3 A2 2017/2018: Research - Digipak (Tomasz Wojton)

1. Elements of real Digipaks

Front cover: The front cover is the first thing the customer sees so the title is very clear usually along with a picture that has a synergistic effect with the the whole digipak and music. The colour scheme on the front cover is important as it needs to fit the genre in order to attract the customer.
Spine: Not much attention is payed to the spine but often when the digipaks are all stacked in a retailer the sane is the only part visible so its important that the title is shown.
Back cover: The back cover is mainly used for institutional information like bar codes or labels. Less attention is payed to it so it doesn't need to be aesthetically attracting to the customer.
Internal panels: When opened the CD is presented in the internal panels. One side is dedicated to holding the CD still inside the cover while the other internal panel holds the booklet, poster etc. If a digipak doesn't have any other booklets extra information is then shown on the inside cover.

Booklets/postcards/posters: Kept on the inside cover most commonly a lyric booklet is there but sometimes booklets may contain extra information about the album. Posters and postcards with meaningful imagery related to the album are sometimes also given but the whole point behind these is too give extra value and a better reason for a customer to buy the digipak instead of just string the album online on Spotify for example.

2. Retailers

Although digipaks have completely fallen out of fashion and have been replace by cheaper alternatives like online streaming on iTunes or Spotify, they still are distributed in high street shops like HMV. Other shops like B&M also sell digipaks at a lower price but the the target market is very small now and digipaks are only purchased on a regular basis by collectors or a few customers who just enjoy holding their product. Most artists, like i mentioned before don't invest in making digipaks and create simpler designs with just a front and back cover, or just sell online.

3. Digipak nets

This net is very good designing your own digipak as it includes the spine as well as 6 panels including panels for the booklet/postcard

This is an example of a 6 panel digipak. It follows the tan/brown colour scheme and has similar relatable imagery on each panel. The booklet is high quality giving the customer a reason to purchase the digipak.

This is another net but it is a 4 panel design. It is much simpler and doesn't include any booklets. It's purpose is to protect the disk but ti still has a spine so when stacked in a shop a customer can still see the name