Digipak and magazine analysis

Wojciech Koszynski

Coldplay Ghost Stories

The front cover of the Coldplay album Ghost Stories consists of a pair of angel wings in the middle as the centre of attention of the cover, which makes it stand out, also the wings are white and the background is dark and dull, which connotes the vibe of the lyrics of the songs. The songs in the album are represented in the cover, such as A Sky Full of Stars is a song and an image in the cover as well a Midnight and Oceans.There is no title on the cover, which is a common convention in Coldplay album covers, however this shows that the Coldplay brand is popular enough to not require a title.

Text positioning

The first cover of the album has no text on the cover, however the back cover and the cd do contain text that is positioned primarily in the centre of the cd and cover. The text that is used for the digipak for Coldplay’s album Ghost Stories is basic as the font is bold and has a bright colour compared to the other colours used in the digipak, which makes it more attractive to the audience. The album name is displayed on the CD, the text is placed at the top centre of the disc as it's an area audiences would usually focus on, also the bottom contains small section displaying Copyright laws. In regards to the back cover, it contains the song list in the album, it's displayed at the centre of the cover, therefore it makes the songs the clear focal point of the cover. Also, some of the song titles are represented with visuals within the digipak.

Typography design

All the texts used in the Coldplay album are very easy to read, this is due to the fact that the font is basic and the colour is gold, which contrasts really well with the other colours and these factors used consistently create a spark of brightness around the cold atmosphere created by the dark background.

Imagery and Colours

Throughout the whole digipak the components used are nearly identical to each other as all the parts of the digipak contain the midnight ocean design background, therefore they all create an overall style of a bright spark within darkness. The digipak doesn’t contain any image of the band, which is highly unusual for a album cover, this may be due the the fact that Coldplay have a large enough brand image to not require images of them for customers to recognise its their album, however the components within this digipak do represent the vibe of the songs and style of the band’s music as the song titles are represented in the cover. For example, the songs Always In My Head, Magic and Another’s Arm are represented by the wings as they could project a guardian angel, so it's a form of magic in some’s head and he is holding onto the arm. The wings could also represent the title of the album Ghost Stories because it's only angel wings, so it could mean there's a ghost angel. Additionally, the song Midnight and Oceans are represented and reflected on the bottom of the digipak and A Sky Full of Stars at the top.

The colour scheme for this digipak it consistent because the same background image is used throughout but only the wings and texts change which have different colours, however the background for the front cover is slightly brighter than the other.

Mag poster for Coldplay Mylo XylotoImagery-The background of the poster contains a wall of graffiti with various vibrant bold colours that contrast with the genre of the pop band Coldplay. The brightness of the colours makes the poster stand out and makes it highly more attractive to the audience, therefore this makes it harder for audiences to not read it because it the whole poster looks interesting. The graffiti could represent the wild and unexpected nature of pop because you never know what type of song will be made for the genre, whether it's slow or fast, so this wall of graffiti shows how different songs in the industry can be, some being more creative than the other. However, despite being different, the background is not highly detailed, this is due to the fact that they want the audience to be focused on the name of the album and group. In addition to the colours, many big fans of the band would notice that the colour scheme is a representation of the colourful piano that Chris Martin uses, this is a method for the big fans to quickly make connections with the two and recognise this is Coldplay’s album and it is also a way to create a wider brand, expanding from just the piano, which is already recognised, to something bigger, so the band is more recognisable. The overall view of the poster contains enough components to target any pop audience members as it has a great variety.

Text- The album title Mylo Xyloto is Balinese for “The Love. Of Mine” This would help the band express themselves as more emotional people their audience because the title reveals they are quite romantic people and it shows they have passion for what they do and the people they love, so that could attract people with similar values. The font of the title is see through with an outline to display the text, which makes the text slightly more confusing and difficult to read because the background is visible in the void. The text is positioned in the middle of the poster with the largest font size so the audience could recognise the name of the album. However in a smaller font size, above the album name is the name of the band in the same font type, which shows that the band is popular enough that it doesn’t require to focus on marketing their name on the poster instead they can focus on getting the album greater attention. Also, underneath the main title is the release date of the album, therefore the audience can clearly recognise the release of the album and right at the bottom the poster displays a method to purchase the album on iTunes and their website, this is presented in a smaller font and more bold font so it accommodates the smaller font so it's readable, however the reason why its smaller is because not everyone uses iTunes or wants to visit their website, but it's a way to get their audience to interact more with their music and the band.

OneRepublic Native

The front cover of the digipak for Onerepublic’s Native contains 5 unique animals in the centre of the cover, these represent the 5 members of the band as each member represents one of the animals which include a mountain tiger, fox, owl, gazelle and bison. The wide variety of colours used in the cover are quite flamboyant as they express different moods as the red in the middle bonds the passion of the band, whereas the other colours coming from the animals such as the blue that arises shows the personality of the member that represents the owl. Also, the name of the band is displayed in the centre with a large tribal font, with the album name below it in a smaller font. These are used to help increase the brand image of the band.

The CD for OneRepublic’s album Native has a slightly dull and plain design because the colour is plain white accompanied by some text and art designs which possess a orange, this could be a way to reflect on the word “Native” because an individual’s native place is somewhere easily known to the person, so it doesn’t require analysis to get around, which could in terms of the band mean they have gone back to their roots in music as they want to do something they are familiar with. The text on the CD is placed at the bottom, similar to the front cover the name of the band is bigger than the album name, again an attempt to make the name “OneRepublic” more recognisable and popular, also the type of font is the same, however the institution involved have their logos placed at the bottom as well. Finally, similar to the front cover, the CD has 5 lines at the top to represent the band members, each line has a different design to represent the personality or character of the band member, for example, one of the lines has 2 lines crossing each other which could mean that member is close to his family as it looks like a DNA helix.

The design of the back cover differs to the other components of the digipak, this is due to the fact that the base colour is primarily cream, however the colour of the text is consistent as they have kept the orange, which represents happiness, therefore it shows that they are happy with their product and want to spread the happiness of their song onto other people/ their fans. The main text displays the names of all the songs in the album and this is placed in the centre of the cover, which makes it the focus point of the back cover, this was done because they want to make sure the fans will remember these songs. Also, in the bottom left corner the copyright laws and institution logos are displayed as information for the consumer. Finally, in the bottom right corner the website of the record label and band are displayed because this can get the fans more interacted with the band and label, this could also be used for future informational purposes.

Imagery

The main image is a long shot of the band in the centre of the poster, the poster shows everyone in the band, which gives the impression that their work is a team effort not an individual’s works, which represents that everyone’s contribution is equal and as worthy as anyone else in the band. Also, the lighting of the shot shows that the spotlight is on them to shine, which adds to the fact that the album as a whole encourages people to move into the spotlight and move forward.

Titles

The album title name “Waking Up” gives the impression that this is the band’s moment to get up of their feet and return their former glory or this album could be seen as the waking of the beast, as this could be the band’s breakthrough into the big world to compete with bands like Coldplay. This could be an inspiration to audiences as it will encourage people to follow suit of the band’s attitude of moving forward in life. Also, the “new hit singles” will attract audiences as it will persuade them to buy the album as it contains widely recognised songs

Additionally, the bottom right corner has the logos of all the institutions involved for informational and marketing purposes of the audiences so they can find what other bands in the genre they work with. Also, the bottom left corner contains website URLs for the audiences so they can get more interacted with the activities and releases of the band.

Typography

The typography used in the poster are pretty basic and simple in white, orange and blue, which indicates that they don't produce anything out of the genres capability, for instance they won’t make hybrids of genres, they will stick with the core of pop, which would attract audiences that specifically like pop genre songs.