Analysis of Digipak

This digipak represents the Pop genre as it has an overall 'feel-good' theme to it with primary basic colours such as bright pinks and prominent blues - this represents Pop as the stereo-typical innocent and conventional type of music that people assume its artists are, it also gives a clear idea of the type of music that's going to be featured on this album. For example the album gives a glimpse of the bubbly, 'candy' like song that have been released as singles including 'California Gurls', 'Teenage Dream' and 'Firework'. The actual design of the CD also reflects this as well since one side is a doughnut and the other is swirls much like ones you'd find on a lollipop, once again conforming to the typical expectations of Pop on a whole. 

Also, we see Katy Perry (the artist) posing in various images featured on the pack. On the one at the top of the image above she's posing with cupcakes and other over-sized treats while dressed in the style of a cupcake herself. Not only does this support the reoccurring theme of her album which can help her target audience recognize the factors and be able to know it's a Katy album but also it innocently refers to the more provocative images that are a part of the digipak but at the same time restores the innocence since a lot of fans of Pop are younger and it could possibly cause controversy if she were to be too explicit. In the pictures where Katy is laying on the cloud, she's wearing red lipstick which is traditionally the symbolism of a provocative or seductive women - once again reinforcing how her audience is perhaps around the age of 17+, even if the colour scheme of her album is pink and blue which are usually more novelty and aimed at younger girls such as 9-12 years old. 

The colour scheme of the digipak ranges from bright blues and pinks along with light pinks for the clouds. Since all of these colours are bright and stereo-typically considered 'opposites' blue traditionally being masculine and pink being feminine, we can see how she appeals to her male audience (her provocative image) and her female image (her actual lyrics and themes). Once again the colour of font is pink and blue, connecting with the rest of her theme and colour scheme which has been featured throughout. The writing is bubbly and bold which adds to the whole 'candy' and bubblegum feel that the rest of her digipak is contributing to. 

However, it's also small and not big enough to the point where it takes away from the overall decor which involve images and the contrasting colours. Also, the name 'Katy Perry' on the image at the top of the picture is written in a bubble font which is patterned to look like candy-canes, not only does this differentiate between the text listing the tracks and information about the album publishing but it also places emphasis on the name of the artist. 

Another feature that really sticks out about the font used on this digipak are the 'O's', while the rest of the font for the track listings are in a pink bubble-gum colour, they O's are filled in with a swirly pattern much like the one that appears on the disc - once again mirroring the kind of  swirl you'd see on candy-canes or lollipops. 

On a whole, I think looking at Katy Perry's digipak has made me consider a lot more detailed conventions such as colour schemes, reoccurring themes and defining features that'll appeal to the genre interests of our target audience and conform to conventions that our audience can recognize as mainstream Pop/R&B and then be attracted to as it's the digipak's that sell and appeal to potential audiences. 

All in all, with graphological features and the way Katy Perry appears on the digipak in general I think it's fair to say that she's represented as a typical female Pop artist of the modern day. Her sexualized image makes her eye-catching but also goes with the stereotypical idea of women being materialistic and sexual objects in the industry. However, this image has clearly been a success because on the front of her digipak, the only font that she has present is "Katy Perry" and the title of her album "Teenage Dream" with the parental advisory in the corner. Since this has been enough to draw in her target audience, we can begin to understand that she is already a hugely successful star in the industry as her name alone is selling albums whereas a less established artist may need to include other information, more eye catching and unique images along with maybe their hit songs on the cover. 

This analysis of Katy Perry's digipak has helped me see how everything from the artist's name to the images help contribute to the stars image and everything should be a direct or subliminal reference to the stars overall image - as Richard Dyer theorized, stars have an image rather than a personality, they are not real people. In the case of Katy Perry, she has became the image of a Pop Queen and established the perfect balance between girly innocence and a sexualized womanly persona and everything in her digipak works in correlation with this image someway or another. When it comes to creating my own digipak, I think it'll help me consider the artists image more so that we can make the digipak relevant to them and almost like a visual aid of everything they stand for and have become throughout their career - be it whether they're at the beginning of their fame or at the peak.