This is the first didgipak that I looked at and it is for Imogen Heap's album 'Speak for yourself'. After researching Imogen as an artist, I found that she is an electronica/alternative artist. I think that this digipak reflects that genre with its bright, vibrant and eye catching colour scheme as well as the type of images that are used. Imogen pays homage to her home city of London with a photo of here, riding her bike over on of it's bridges with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background. This way, the audience can assume that she is from London and that she admires her city. There is a consistent pattern of polka-dots throughout the digipak that I believe gives it a futuristic look. Imogen is presented in the form of a 'pop art' drawing on the front of the digipak surrounded by a minimalistic background so the audience's attention lingers on the image.
The side where Imogen is seen riding a bike in the yellow background can be removed to present the audience with a speech from the artist, thanking them for buying the album and crediting everyone who helped to produce it. This creates a relationship between the artists and the audience as every individual person who bought a copy, feels that they have impacted Imogen's life in some way. The digipak also consists of a leaflet in which all the lyrics to the songs are displayed along with additional pictures of the artist.
The polka-dots that appear on two of the sides have a shiny finish in comparison to the matte finish of the rest of the digipak and show different settings. They are also very bright and reflect the tone of the music as well as inspiring the audience. Overall, this digipak is fairly crowed and there are many things for the audience to look at and read. It does, however, comply to the main conventions of other digipaks as it features a thank you note and the album listing inside.
Secondly, I looked at Rihanna's 'Loud' digipak. This one is very different to the previous one I looked at as it takes on a more simplistic approach. At this time, Rihanna has red hair and this is reflective in the colour scheme of the whole digipak from her red lips to the red roses that surround her in some of the images. The album looks very feminine and roses connote femininity which suggests that the artist herself is feminine and that the majority of her target audience is as well.
Unlike the previous digipak where each side has a different image of purpose, the three 'inner' sides of this digipak make up one big image of Rihanna. There isn't a vast amount of text on the actual digipak other than the track listing on the back. However there is a leaflet inside with the lyrics to the songs on the album, along with a small note from Rihanna thanking her fans for buying it, making it more personal. The actual images of Rihanna are very dominating over the digipak and one of her tattoos, 'rebelle fleur' is present in the main image. This tattoo illustrates that Rihanna, although trying to be feminine, isn't always as good as she looks.
The CD's that are inside are covered entirely with an image of a rose with a different opacity level to the rest of the images, making it look faded. However, it shows continuity with the floral theme of the whole digipak and adds to the colour scheme which is quite simply red and pink with small amounts green and white appearing on some of the other images.
The third, and final digipak that I looked at was Katy Perry's 'Teenage dream'. Straight away the style of the artists and her music is shown through the colours and general theme of the digipak. The two CD's in the pack have been designed to look like two sweets, making the idea fun and interesting. This theme is likely to appeal to Katy's younger audience as well as stereotypically representing music from the pop genre. The theme of 'sweets' is also illustrated through the track listing on the back as some of the letters have been made into sweets similar to the pattern of the CD on the right. They are also in red to stand out from the background, corresponding the names of the various writers and producers in blue below.
The main image of Katy, laying on a cotton candy cloud is quite suggestive but playful at the same time. It creates an imaginative tone to the album and comes across in the artists personality. Although this level of nudity normally wouldn't be viewed as acceptable, the contrast with the fluffy pink clouds make it seem somewhat innocent rather that provocative. The main content of the digipak is image based, similar to the one previous, to promote Katy's eccentric style but there is a leaflet inside containing lyrics and a personal note to her fans as is conventional throughout all three of the digipaks.
In various images on the other side of the digipak, Katy is seen wearing a cupcake holder and posing in the style of Marilyn Monroe. Katy's hair and makeup are very dramatic and she looks almost like a pin-up girl in her appearance and with her poses. She accessories with a sweetie necklace and crown, signifying that she is the 'queen' of pop and her overall look makes her appear fun and carefree to her audience.
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