Digipak - Pop

Front Cover:

• Bright, bold and colourful 
• Plain Background to emphasise the artist
• Features the artist
• Different fonts used
• Design matches the artist
• Close-up/Mid shot of the artist
• Simple 
• Pictures of the band members
• Props are often link back to the genre of the music or are something that features more than once in the video

Back Cover: 

• Long shot of the artist
• List of all the songs
• Bar code so it looks professional
• Copyright information
• Record company logo
• Image takes up roughly half of the back 
• Follows the colour scheme

The front cover of Rihanna's album Loud, shows an extreme close up of the artist. The close up nature of the photograph outlines the lack of imperfections in the artist. The bold colours of the album cover ties in nicely with the title "Loud". There's a lot of saturation and exposure on the album cover to really embolden the lines, shapes and shadows of the cover.For example the eyelashes, hair, jawline and lips all jump out from the photograph. At the same time the picture is very soft, because of the filter the artist has chosen to put on the image there are no blacks and no whites, making the picture in all a very gentle one. Which in a way goes against the title, Loud, so does the font of the title, being very thin and spaced out it comes across as very meek and gentle, compared to the meaning of the word. The red hair and red lips have connotations of sexual energy and attraction, and the enviable dark, long lashes are iconic symbols of beauty and will push the large portion of female fans Rihanna has to see her as stunning and an idol.

The back of Rihanna's album, "Loud" has the same filter over it as the whole album seems to, making it seem a very soft, gentle almost vintage/retro image. This theme is made more obvious by the retro style clothing Rihanna is wearing on the back cover and the American flag just visible at the back of the shot. The set up of the shot is also very retro; consider the faded off white curtains and old floor boards.

 The digipak has a consistent theme running throughout of flowers. The digipak unfolds first with the artist lying on a bed of roses, suggesting the meaning of the songs on the album are mostly about love and romance. Roses are commonly a metaphor these themes. The floral theme then runs onto the actual CD itself which is a pale pink rose as well following the theme throughout. However with the drastic change in colour on the CD it could suggest an innocent of love to the album instead of the harsh red colour suggesting dangerous. I think that this creates a pattern within the digipak and by having a theme it allows the digipak to look more professional and together. It also allows the audience to understand Rihanna's album more before even listening to the album.