Digipak Research (Preliminary)

Before beginning on the production of my Digipak, I thought it best to research thoroughly what makes a digipak an easy purchase and a little bit about why they are so popular and common in the first place, being a 'given' for all modern day CD and audios, even many DVDs now come with a variety of information, extras and 'goodies' to comfort the customer and show a little extra appreciation for their purchases. From personal experience I find a well presented digipack gives a great feeling about the purchase of my item, when I first open it up. It has prooven to be a great alternative to the previous jewel case. Although this can often be classified as a digipak istelf, although personally I prefer a more creative touch.

What is a Digipack?
Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Pak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot" rather than a full plastic tray.

Historically, Digipak was only available in large quantities. However, AGI has recently introduced a new product called digipak i-create for the consumer market. Digipak i-create is a web-supported concept that is aimed at music, photo and creative markets. This new invention prooves highly beneficial for the music market and changes the access of these items, thus the target audience and therefore design of the packs themselves.

I thought it would be a good idea to look at some other digipacks in general and see what is commonly found so I can get an idea, and make my top 5 points about them, to aid my own product in the near future:

1. A list of tracks is necessary, along with all other vital information to the understanding of the album (tracklist) being purchased, such as artist, album name, artist e.t.c
2. Reviews from magazines or newspaper increasing sales and to promote marketing
3. Background information on the genre of music, influences, themes and ideas behind the track, possibly shown through the album title with font or other imagery
4. Scaled images and proportion with text is very important to keeping an image stimulus dominated piece
5. Colour scheme must convey with genre conventions and theme for the album to work for the artist and album itself