Research for Ancillary Products... Digipak Themes Relating to My Artist

I have taken inspiration from artists that are similar to mine. Looking at the fact that my artist is unsigned, it was hard to get inspiration for their musical style. I've had to improvise. My main influences have been Lykke Li, Avril Lavigne, and an artist my teacher (Dan) introduced to us as a group earlier in the year when we were doing research for our music video. This cd cover of Lykke Li (as I would say.. ) is absolutely brilliant. I enjoy how the imagery of her face had been manipulated into what looks like modern art, the reflections - even though indirectly - look back onto the video, and how there was mirror images used but it's been done so subtly that you don't really look at that side of it. Also the font that has been chosen is very simple and unique, underlined to draw attention to itself and the colour scheme has been so minimised. I think it's very clever how the creator of this digipak used colours that were very plain and just went along nicely with each other to avoid major contrast or colour.

The same with this Avril Lavigne album 'under my skin' way back when we did our pitch we did mention her as an influence even back then. The photo that has been capture of her here gives her great depth because of her facial expression, it looks like "buy this cd, I have a lot to say". Another interesting thing about this cover is the colour scheme the majority of it is grey scale except for the red cross, and to not make that look ridiculous and out of context it has been accompanied by some red font. It does follow the typical conventions of having the artist's name in larger font than the album name. Her music style and image have been conveyed through the use of imagery and text. The reason I say text is because the font that has been used is very peculiar, the are big bold letters and then other 'skinny' letters, I think this reflects upon the fact that the album will provide big provoking songs and other fragile and sensitive ones giving you a sense of variation... or am I just looking too much into it?
Last but not least my last example of Buriel's 'untrue' album provides a different perspective. The Lykke Li album did have a sort of photography in it which was combines with visual effects, Avril Lavignes cover looked like pure photography and now we move onto pure graphics. The 'wall art' is conveying a certain type of emotion which influences the buyer and reflects upon a particular style. In Buriels case it's electronic. Electronic music styles and related graphics often have a pattern, and that pattern it a particular symbol. There is a funny looking symbol next to the artists name (which if I may just point out is the largest piece of text on the page - typical  where as the name of the album is hardly even seen) that looks like an X. I know that the electronic theme of 'tektonic' music has a symbol of an eagle. All of these examples have shown me one thing. Keep the colour scheme to a minimum, especially for my artist that my group and I are doing, use clear fonts to outline the style of the music and create a trade mark that only this artist will have and doesn't share with anybody else. Best form of colour: grey scale: blacks, greys and whites.