Digipak Analysis (The Kooks - Inside in Inside Out)

The Digipak I am analysing is by british indie band called ‘The Kooks’ and the album name is ‘Inside In Inside Out’. This album was released in 2006 and achieved a quadruple platinum status in the United Kingdom, selling 65,000 copies in the first week of release.

Front Cover

Front Cover

This album cover is very simple including the image of the band gathered round playing their instruments together. This is typical of the Indie genre to have the whole band featured in the front cover of the album and ‘The Kooks’ here have made a very authentic looking album cover and gives their fans an insight how they like to practice and write songs. What backs up this point is none of the band members are looking at the camera and that reveals to their audience that their main focus is to create music. This also shows that the band is not flashy or arrogant which is common in an indie album covers. Every member of the band has skinny jeans and they have long hair like a mop which lets their target audience relate to them as they would be a similar age to them. This image conveys them to be seen as a teenage garage band which again helps them relate to their target audience as many of them will be trying to start up their own band.

All the fonts as a whole on the digipak is simple which creates an image of the band of not caring about their image but controversially creates a cool image of the band to their target audience which is mainly teenagers. They have cleverly put the album title in red which stands out against the grayscale background. This draws their target audiences attention to the album title but cleverly also draws your attention to the band name.

What you get from this front cover as a whole is that the whole cover is easy on the eye and the grayscale image of them playing their instruments shows that they are an indie band all about their music which all you can take away from that image as they are not wearing flashy clothing or jewellery. 

Back Cover

Back Cover

This back cover is very similar to the front which helps the continuity of the digipak. The track listing are neatly placed in the top left hand corner in bold black writing which is listed 1 to 14. The track names are not ever taking up a third of the space on the back panel which is idiosyncratic of a band to have but however it does stand out on the back panel as the image is blurred.

The Image has the same composition from the front cover but has been taken from the drummer’s point of view as you can tell from the mirror reflecting the drummer’s stance. This image gives their audience a personal insight to the band practicing and how they create their songs. This image gives the target audience an insight and makes you feel one of the band which makes the album much more personal for you.

As all back covers this album cover has a barcode, name of the producer, logo of the record label, a url to the bands website and a copyright notice. The font and colour of this is the same as the song listings but smaller.

To conclude the back cover is very similar to the front and continues the authentic indie feel to the digipak.

Inside Cover

Inside Cover

The inside panels of Cd’s are always not looked at as much as the front and back panels because when people open their CD they want to burn it onto their computer or play it.

The Kooks on their inside panel on the left at the top have put in small white font against a black background have written a second copyright notice but also a thank to their fans for purchasing the album which makes the bond between them and their fans greater as it is an unexpected surprise because not all artists put this on their albums.

 There is another image of the band on the the left panel also underneath the thanks and this time they are looking at the camera which emphaisises the thanks and makes it even more personal as it seems they want to look you in the face when they say thanks.

On the right panel of the inside cover is the CD and they have put the colours ‘Inside Out’ which emphasises the album title subtly to the audience. On the CD they also have the record label again and another copyright notice.

The CD design is cleverly done as one of the ‘o’s’ in the band’s name (The Kooks) is the hole where you pick up the CD.

To conclude, the inside cover has a much more personal insight into the band than the outer panels as it looks simple on the outside but in the inside there is a lot more going on and makes you feel one of the band.