Digipak Analysis (Biffy Clyro - Opposites)

In my groups project we are required to produce a successful digipak (CD cover and jacket, and album artwork) advertising our final media product. To gain insight further into what makes up a digipak we have chosen to analyse some examples that reflect our chosen genre. 

Artist - Biffy Clyro 
Album - Opposites
Genre - Alternative rock
Release Date - January 2013

We have chosen to analyse the digipak of popular alternative rock band Biffy Clyro. We have chosen this as it fits in with our genre of alternative/post-rock rock so it can give us creative ideas when it comes to constructing our own. The album cover shows what is supposed to be the oldest tree in the world, situated in Chile. It is a reference to the strength of the band. There was a 3 year gap, the longest since any Biffy Clyro album, which meant the band had to deliver something spectacular. This image on the cover suggests that the band are as strong as they always where, having strong roots. The bones hanging off the tree have connotations with age, but this can be seen as development of the band as they have grown older. The composition of the graphic images and text on the cover is interesting as the tree is centred on the cover making it the first point of observation, the way it bends makes it fill over half of the frame. 

The text on the album cover shows the name of the band and title of the album. It is situated in the top left hand corner of the album which increases the chance of it being noticed. It is bright yellow in colour which stands out a lot from the sky blue background as they are fairly opposite colours. The typeface for the band is the same as the one that has been used on recent albums so that the audience can easily distinguish the album from other rock albums where browsing. 

This image shows the deluxe version of the album where the DVD is also included. We can see that the back of the CD jacket has another tree, again symbolising strength and growth of the band. The side that shows the track listing has a close up shot of the branches of the tree. Again, yellow font is used to make the titles and important information on the cover stand out to the audience. At the bottom of this side is the familiar barcode as well as the copyright and licensing information in smaller print. This is so it doesn't distract the audiences attention from the main parts - the track listing. The spine on the album cover again has the yellow font displaying the band and title of the album. This is so the CD can be stored perhaps on a shelf or CD rack but its owner and located easily and quickly. 

The print on the CD's themselves also have this ages tree on them. This is interesting as it shows the design is following a certain style, keeping ideas simple yet using nature to symbolise  the characteristics of the band. 

Analysing this digipak gives us creative ideas and influences us to use similar techniques that many bands do of this particular genre. We have decided to follow a certain style when creating our digipak as well as use images to represent things. 

The image above shows the front page on the Biffy Clyro website. Straight away the option to buy the album is shown before entering the site. The website displays the full digipak of both forms of the album (CD and vinyl) showing the different album artworks for each. Offering two formats of the album increases the amount of sales as the company is giving the audience options of what platform to listen to the album on.