Digipak Analysis – Circa Waves

The album artwork is of clouds in a warming blue sky, there is also a boy jumping into the clouds. This artwork links to the album as the Album is called young chasers and the connotations behind clouds is usually dreams and the boy in the picture could be representative of the band as they are all young boys, so the artwork could have a deeping meaning to it like maybe that the young boys are chasing their dreams of becoming a successful band or their dreams of having relations with a female. The boy on the cover also appears to wet and in swim gear and as the band is called circa waves, this could link to the waves part suggesting that maybe the clouds are waves and that he is jumping into them.

Looking at the sky is consider quite a relaxing activity and so is looking at the artwork on the digipak which reflects the band music of the album as the music is not heavy and just makes you feel good. The most popular song on the album is called T-shirt weather which could also link to the album cover as the sky represent a sunny warm day which you would expect to wear a t-shirt in.

Using the rule of thirds the young boy on the cover photo is exactly in the middle of the cover suggesting he is the centre of attention as he is also contrasting colours to the calming whites and blues of the sky. So this tells me there is some significance to the young boy and that maybe he representative of the band chasing their dreams. The proportion of cloud to sky is roughly half which is a nice mixture and gives of an aesthetic feel. I first noticed the boy on the album and then the clouds lead me up to see the name of the band and album as the clouds are slanting up towards it.

The name of the band is the largest thing on the front of the cover and rightly so as it is probably the most important bit of information on there. The band name is written in all caps as well as with a bold/3d effect which should really impact the consumer and hopefully stay on their mind. However the title is still slightly scruffy as well as the album title which looks like it has just been written on with a marker. This reflects the band and indie as a genre as it is a characteristic to do with the scruffy, not really caring look which is also reflecting in their cloths. The marker style writing also continues on the back of the album where the song titles have been listed. The CD itself is simply but effective as it copy’s the album by having the same style band and title as well as having it at the top. This continued font helps build product identity and just by seeing that font consumes will start to associate that with consumers. The CD doesn’t carry on the cloud pattern but does have that nice blue colour which will fit with the album but still stand out as it is block colour

The pictures inside the album show abstract images such as rockets and athletes winning races which are also in the clouds suggesting maybe that they are dreams as its almost stereotypical for children to dream of being an astronaut (hence why the rocket) and maybe one of the band members dreamt of being a famous athlete or maybe the athletes in the picture are inspirations of one of the band members. However, there is one picture of a man in a gas mask in black and white which suggest of ww2 which probably wasn’t a dream and possibly more of a bad dream but this adds the uniqueness of the album which is a characteristic of indie as it is quite quirky. In the top corner behind some clouds which looks like he’s surfing which again links with the band’s name. The back of the digipak is also the sky and clouds which makes the album look more comprehensive as it is all sky and clouds.

There is a little fold out that comes with the album showing pictures of the band. This is a nice feature as it makes feel closer to the band itself as you see them performing etc. The photos on the fold out are in a collage and in Polaroid form which again add to that quirkiness as Polaroid photos are quite old fashioned but have started to come back into fashion because it’s seen as aesthetic. The foldout may really appeal to existing fans of the band as it may tempt them to buy the actually album instead of just buying it online as you won’t receive this on iTunes and it gives a unique insight to the band a fan may want. There is also writing onto of the collage which is hard to make out but is lyrics from songs, this again adds to the messy characteristic of indie as the whole collage as well as the writing on top looks unorganised.