Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Digi-Pack Deconstruction.







OPM Front Cover


The front cover is a cartoon of man sitting on a pavement edge behind a police car on a street of houses. There is a bottle next to him. This bottle is most likely to be a bottle of alcohol. I know this as the word sobriety is used in the album name which is linked with alcohol and being sober.
The album title links well with the image as the man on the pavement edge is smiling but it’s more of a grin. This could be linking to the word menace, as it’s a cheeky smile hiding mischief, typical of a ‘menace’. But also ‘Menace’ is usual someone who commits crimes and disturbs other which is a reason to be involved with the police, so the use of a police car in the cover links to this very well.
The overall album name means…
the colours used are very simple and bright. The style of print is grainy making it look as though it has been quickly drawn. Even by a child, this denotes a sense of childishness, which is very common for misbehavior and acts of a menace.

OPM Inside Cover1


There are 4 men on the inside. Three offset to the left, but close together showing their relationship, as being together, friends, colleagues, which is appropriate as they are the band members. The band member in the front must be the lead singer as he is wearing a bright red top, which stands out, he is brought forward to show his importance compared with his other band members behind him.
They look in there early 30’s late 20’s. They are all Caucasian. The band members and skater represent the stereotypical characteristics of a listener for this genre of music. They are casually dressed, located in a skate park and have tattoos and piercings, also the man on the skateboard isn’t wearing a top. All theses elements show them to be carefree and almost daring. It’s daring in a way to get a tattoo as its permanent also daring to skateboard with no protection especially with out a top on.

The main focus of this is the band members on the left; their facial expressions are blank, no smile just staring in to the camera. The member furthest back isn’t even looking the right way and has sunglasses, again denoting the carefree feel to the attitude and representation of this band.

It’s in colour. The colours used aren’t of a certain code or theme, but they are bright which makes the side stand out when opened.

The frame is tilted to the left; this adds a little more differentiation to the image. Also contributes to the carefree element of this image, not caring that the camera is exactly straight and up right ECT. Almost portraying laziness.

OPM Inside Cover2


The image is a close up of a women’s cleavage in a colourful stripy bikini top. She has a necklace on saying OPM, the name of the band who has created the album.
The woman in the picture isn’t old and is middle aged. I can tell this, as there are no wrinkles so they’re not old, it wouldn’t be a child because that’s illegal.
The colours on the bikini top are bright which makes the image stand out even more. This ties in with the colourfulness of the front cover and other inside image.
The portrayal of women from this image is one that they aren’t very respected. I get this impression, as her face isn’t shown so you only see her cleavage, which is all that matters in this image this is degrading to women.
This image is used well though, the sight of a colourful cleavage isn’t something that is expected and so it stands out a lot and then you see the OPM necklace, keeping you informed that this is to promote the band.
Stereotypes are for filled with this image. As it’s of a women this shows that men are being targeted. The sight of this would be pleasing to a male. This is typical of a rock band, liking women especially for their bodies.
Carefree attitude is connoted here too. The blatant focus on the women’s bust shows they don’t care about the portrayal of women.

OPM Back Cover


The back cover has the band members on too. Again with the lead member more towards the front, showing his importance over the other two in the band. They are in the same order as on the inside part of the digi-pack. The member at the back is again not facing the camera, as if he doesn’t care.
They are offset to left as in the inside part of the digi-pack. This adds some common occurrence in terms of layout through out the covers and inside.
The facial expressions again aren’t ones of joy anger or sadness, one member looks slightly puzzled, another is fairly blank and the final member isn’t looking at the camera. All these expressions aren’t abiding by the stereotypical image that is usually portrayed on any artist’s album. This band looks as though they don’t care. This again links in with the attitude shown by the band on the inside, representing a carefree attitude.

This image shows the band members wearing the same colour and standing close together, this immediately shows their relationship, and they are clearly the band.

The background is a horrible salmon colour with a blurred and faded image of some sort of architectural form. This may be denoting the carefree attitude seen through out. I think this as; the image is blurred meaning it’s not that important. Also the little you can make out of the background suggests they are out of place. They don’t seem to be located in the typical place for a band of this genre, like on the first inside image. They aren’t on a skate ramp, in a studio, or on a stage ECT. This may be connoting their style of music, as maybe not being the usual stereotypical rock/indie bands style of music.

There is a barcode on this cover and some information about the recording company, producers and copyright information, along with the usual, list of song that is on the album. The information about the corporate side of the album is the same simple font and colour as the song titles. This again keeps a certain code on this cover. This is where repetition can be of advantage, but in this case it isn’t. Same font for the 2 aspects on this side confuses me a little as the song words aren’t as proponent as they should be as this is surely what the consumer wants to know about most. So if I were to do this I would have changed to font of the song words to stand out more over the corporate information.

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