Digipak Research

The Digipak is a new, modern alternative to standard cd packaging. Made mostly from thick card, the digipak is virtually shatterproof and it allows for great graphic display. Originally used for the album packaging of leading musicians, the digipak and digipak family are now priced reasonably enough to be used for any CD or DVD project. The digipak is an extremely versatile packaging. It can be made to accommodate a booklet either by placing in a die-cut slot or gluing onto one of the panels. In addition, the panels can be increased from 4 to 6, 8 or more. The DVD Digipak is a popular alternative to the DVD box. It is now widely used for feature film DVD releases which are special editions because it increases the value and creates a premium product.
I will be working on a 6 panel digipak to accommodate both the album CD and the dvd of video footage. This is the template I worked from:

Using the same measurements and simple, basic design I made a few adaptions to my digipak in order to create a unique one for my artist;

It still has room for two discs but one will have the conventional plastic case and the other can just be attached using a centre button as you can understand better from the pictures below. Where my design becomes individual is the middle panel. As you can see I have made an addition to the original template by including a sleeve which will hold a small information booklet about the band, as when conductin research I noted that most CD's also include a small information leaflet that contains more information about the tracks etc.

Below you can see from the pictures how my digipak has come together and how it will be suitable packaging for the promotion package of my artists new album.

My digipak creation

To learn more about the digipak I have done some research into some existing texts and the most interesting one I came across is 'Lady Gaga's' digipak, I chose to analyse this as she is a female artist as is my own and her values and ideolgies are shared by the artist I am promoting within my digipak. I therefore thought this one would be the most useful for me to look at.

Here is an example of what would be expected to appear within a digipak style product.

These images are from the front cover and inside panels of her digipak titled 'The Fame Monster'. It is can be seen that the same theme, colours, style and fonts are continuous throughout the product. I will be able to adapt the codes and conventions from this into my own creation.