Sophie Nutt Digipak/Artwork Analysis Diplo Express Yourself The name of the artist and the name of the

e album is written in a bold, clear font, which is then repeatedly printed around the perimeter of the main image. By doing this, the audience is directed straight to the most important piece of information displayed on the cover the artist. The method of repeating the album title and artist is so that this information is more likely to be remembered by the audience as it is read/visualised more than once. The main image works as an incentive for the audience to go further and look inside the case or on the back. This is because the image is very abstract, seemingly having no real relationship to the artist of the album name Express Yourself therefore the audience are tempted to learn more. This use of an enigma code makes the consumer want to try and create a relationship between the image and the artist and try to create a possible narrative to the album, whilst also making them want to listen to the tracks to try and find reasoning for them. This album doesnt conform to the artwork convention that the artist publishes themselves for promotional reasons and therefore stands out amongst other artworks. However, when researching further into this genre, I found that artists within this genre rarely use images of themselves and incorporate the element of disjuncture into their Digipak: steering away from the mainstream chart album conventions that are significantly based on star image. This artwork has a base of a black background to make the above layers (both the image and text) stand out to footfall. As the text is in white font against the black background, this makes it stand out and look particularly bright to attract the audiences attention. It takes a more aggressive approach being in a fairly big font size and the contrast of colours. The main image has a film grain filter, making it appear slightly distorted and even more abstract, yet again this relates to the already disjunctive image.

Sophie Nutt James Blake James Blake This artwork uses three main layers, the closest to the audience being the artists name (which is also the album title). This is written in capital letters and a clear text to make it stand out slightly however as it is not in a bold, big font and has a soft focus surrounding it, the text appears to blend in to the background slightly. It uses the rules of third by being placed along one line of interest. With the text heading being placed across a disorientating but noticeably star image photo and it being a name, it suggests to the audience who this person is and how the album is self-entitled with no other obvious text or indication showing otherwise. The image fills around two thirds of the album, following the conventions of the typical star image photography artworks. It is a mid shot of the artist, which is another conventional feature. However, the star image does challenge conventions due to the nature of the photo. James Blake is photographed using long exposure, creating a disorientating effect, which confuses the audience and reflects the neo-psychedelic and new wave genre of the music that the artist produces. The album cover style incorporates the majority of conventions that are linked to star image covers. After research into these range of artworks, it can be seen that they all use either a close up or mid shot of the single artist with the text spread across the image as the foreground layer the background is conventionally one blocked colour however some incorporate locations. These are always single artist albums because of the need for bigger advertising campaigns as the artist has a significant influence on the purchasing of an album as the style can be promoted and seen through the image of the artist. The artwork uses varying shades of blue: the lightest blue being used within the background and the darker shades of blue on the artist figure so that James Blake still stands out. The text James Blake is in white so that this stands out further however as the whole artwork uses soft focus and lighting, this makes it less harsh on the eye and so the aesthetics do not stand out amongst each other as much as when hard lighting is used.

Sophie Nutt The Crookes Hold Fast The golden spiral theory suggests that the customers attention is directed initially to the top left hand corner of the album, in which this case, they will find the bands name and the album title. The text is in a simple and clear font: capital letters are used and the black colour scheme of the text (which is consistent throughout the design) contrasts with the white background on which it is layered. The text is as simple as this in the headline and the small text below stating the track listing, so that it does not distract the audiences attention from the interesting four main images that fill almost the whole album cover. These main images offers information to the audience as it follows the conventional photography of the star image, however repeating this four times for each band member. This goes against the conventions of the genres approach to album artwork, as indie bands do not promote star image as heavily and take a more abstract approach leaving the audience to question what the band is about and wanting to find out more. However, these images have simple aesthetics and use a simple black, white, and grey colour palette. The unusual writing on the faces of each band member also intrigues the audience and makes the audience subconsciously question the meaning of this and how it relates to the tracks on the album. Every band member has their eyes closed in the images, with the exception of the top left male. This also adds to the intriguing artwork and leads the audience to question why this has been done purposely it may imply that this member is the leading artist in the band and holds most significance. The colour palette is particularly important to attract the target audience. As the album takes a fairly simplistic approach, it needs to use colours and contrasts in a simple way. If the artwork incorporated bright, harsh colours then the artwork would consequently appear chaotic and busy contradicting the simplistic text and images. Many present albums are very different, using complicated disjunctive art or large bold images, and this is why this album particularly stood out for a small indie band.