A look at four different digipaks

1. Research on digipaks

2. What is a digipak?
Before I go and look at a few digipaks i should explain what a digipak is.
Some of you may think it is just the album art work but no a digipak also
includes the CD, Booklet, inside covers, spines, the back cover and
anything else included in the CD’s packaging or contents. The term
digipak doesn’t just cover CD’s but also DVD’s, Vinyls and Video
Games.

3. Looking into digipaks
Trivium - In Waves (Special Edition)
In Waves is the 5th studio album by the American Heavy Metal band Trivium who
released the album through their record label Roadrunner Records. The album was
released worldwide on the dates of August 2nd 2011 and August 9th 2011. It was
released as both a standard edition and a special edition which featured a bonus dick.
In Waves was also the first Trivium album to feature new drummer Nick Augusto.

4. The digipak for
In Waves looks
different to a
normal CD
casing
because it is
made of a card
like material
and also
doesn’t open
and close in
the normal CD
casing way it
doesn’t lock
shut but flips
open flaps like
a leaflet would
do.
The special edition album also features 5 bonus songs which do not feature
on the standard edition of In Waves.

5. The Artwork on the front is a odd bit off art work
but when in an interview with front man Matt he
said “I asked the artist what the cover is and he
“
smiled and said “It is what it is” so he didn’t tell
me what it is. So it follows suit with that same
thing — it’s multi-interpretable. It’s great
because when you look at it, it doesn’t look like
any specific genre, you don’t think metal band,
you don’t think rock band, you don’t think rap
band, it’s just something else.”
As well as having the CD in there it also has a bonus DVD
which is advertised on the front of the album cover for
featuring A 40 minute documentary on the making of the
album, an exclusive 8 track set performed in Chapman
Studios and the music video for the first single off the
album In Waves.

6. Compared to their older
albums like The Crusade
and Ascendancy the
colour scheme for In
Waves digipak is more
dark in that grey/black
colour scheme with the
lighter writing over it
where as The Crusade
and Ascendancy does
have a darker colour
scheme too but they
have more colour then
the gritty grainy feel of In
Waves.
The font is also very consistent. It is used all
the way throughout the front, back covers
and th inside of the case too. The colour
scheme is consistent in the fact that it
doesn’t change half way through the album
it has the same colour no matter where you
look front, back, sides or insides.

7. Biffy Clyro - Puzzle
Puzzle is the 4th studio album from Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro released
in June 2007 then later released in the United States in August. The
album reached #2 in the UK album charts and #17 in Ireland. Puzzle was
voted the best album of 2007 by Kerrang! and Rock Sound magazines.

8. The digipak for Puzzle is unique in using a image which can be taken in
different ways by different people. As it features a photo of a man sitting
naked on a stool in an empty room and looking by his body language
looks depressed or upset but he also looks like he is made of jigsaw
puzzle pieces and one has fallen out on the floor. This is illustrative with
the album name and gives a visual representation of the albums name.
The CD and Booklet also follow
this idea and use the same image
of the puzzle man one being a
close up of him and the other a
silhouette of him for the disk. Yet
again being used to make anyone
looking at it use their imagination
and interprate the image for
themselves and their own
meaning.

9. A B-Side album named, Missing Pieces,
was released not long after Puzzle
featuring the B-sides that didn’t make it
onto the album Puzzle and the theme of
this digipak follows the exact same
themes of puzzle in terms of the artwork,
text, colour scheme and everything apart
from the album cover which looks like it
has been shot in the same room just
opposite the guy on the puzzle artwork.
The text used on and in the digipak is consistent
throughout in font, size and colour, small white in a
bold font. It gives that impression to whoever looks
at it that they are a band who don’t need to use
fancy fonts to grab anyones attention in order to
pick it up like other albums. Same with the album
art most mainstream artists albums feature them
on it but Biffy Clyro do not need to do this as
people will recognise the album and know it is
Biffy.

10. In Biffy Clyro’s next two album after Puzzle they follow the same pattern in
the way that they keep to the theme on the front and back covers. The
colour schemes stay the same apart from on 2013 album opposites where
the front cover is a lighter less harsh tone unlike on the back where it is
more dark in terms of shades of colours used which may portray the name
of the album.

11. Rammstein - Mutter
Charts (2001)
Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart 10
Austrian Albums Chart
1
Belgium Albums Chart
(Flanders)
7
Belgium Albums Chart
(Wallonia)
45
Canadian Albums Chart 14
Danish Albums Chart
22
Dutch Albums Chart
4
Finnish Albums Chart
7
French Albums Chart
23
German Albums Chart
1
New Zealand Albums
Chart
12
Norwegian Albums
Chart
12
Swedish Albums Chart
2
Swiss Albums Chart
1
UK Albums Chart
91
US Billboard 200
77
Mutter is the third studio album by the
German Metal band Rammstein. Released
on 2 April 2001, through Motor Music, the
album reached a number of spots in charts
around the globe some good and some.
Despite the mixed reviews Mutter reached
324 in the Rock Hard magazine's book of
The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All
Time and acclaimed world wide success as
one of the bands most known albums.

12. The outside covers for mutter
stick to the same colours, font
and themes on both sides and
not change the font half way
through or the colour schemes
and make the album look less
professional.
They have gone with the
same theme of a dead foetus
which is illustrative of the album
name as ‘Mutter’ means
‘mother’ in German.
The white small font works well
against the yellowish green colour
of the foetus skin tone and make it
stand out. The size of the font
works well people that know
rammstein will know it is Mutter
simply because of the album
artwork and even if you don’t it is
big enough to read without the text
taking up too much space and
looking dominant compared to the

13. The inside of the digipak also sticks
to the theme that the outside
portrays. You can easily tell this
because on the back of the booklet
you get it has a heart rate line of a
person presumably a baby and
DNA codes sticking to the whole
‘Mother and baby‘ theme which yet
again illustrates the album name
Mutter.
The colours are also
constant inside as well
as on the outside of this
digipak which like Puzzle
and In Waves before it
makes the albums look
more professionally
done than if the inside
was to be bright blue or
white and the outside
these black and
greenish colours.

14. Job For A Cowboy - Demonocracy
Demonocracy is the third studio album from
American death metal band Job For A Cowboy
released in 2012 it charted at 87 on the Billboard
200 in the first week and racked up 4,900 sales.
Source
Rating
Thrash Hits
4.5/6 stars
Peek from the Pit
9/10
Real Metal Reviews
9/10
allmusic
3/5 stars
Metal Underground
4.5/5 stars
Rockfreaks.net
8.5/10 stars
Metal Injection
8.5/10 stars

15. Like the In Waves digipak this
one for Demonocracy is also
not your traditional plastic glass
like case but is made of that
laminated card like material.
The colours itself are a pallet of black,
dark blue, light blue and some brighter
near white shades. This does
On the back this digipak clearly
stereotypically portray a darker side to
shows the record label by showing
the album but this may not always be the its symbol in the bottom corner and
case. This colour scheme is kept
sticks to the theme that the front
constant on both the back and front of
has by having a close up of the
the digipak and that is the same for the
woman's face on it yet again giving
font colour and style, apart from the
the idea of that political themed
bands logo.
album
The colour scheme on both the back and the
front covers are following the same pattern in
both the colours and images that they show.
The front has a body shot of this woman who
has a rams scull on her head and sword in one
hand and scales in the other like Lady Justice
which suggests maybe a political background
and theme to some songs. This can also be
backed up by the armed guards in the

16. They’ve kept to the same dark colour
palette but have just gone for a simple
black around the edge and when you
open up to see both CD’s you see that
the image behind the CD clearly is the
same image as demonocracy's CD,
keeping that that continuity aspect
Now the inside of this digipak is different as it then
has a second cover inside as the album also
features a second disk, their EP ‘Gloom.’ By doing
this we get an idea that the rams skull is actually
the bands mascot or symbol and we can tell this
by looking to their other album covers and seeing
that same skull on each.
The skull making
appearances on other
JFAC albums