Digipak and Ferdinand de Saussure

A digipak is a form of packaging used for CD singles and albums. They consist of a card outer binding, with one or more plastic trays for the disk(s) attactched inside. "Digipak" has become to describe all soft packaging for disks. This format has become more popular due to the enviromental benifits as card is more widely recyclable compared to the plastic that the hard disk cases are made from.

Most digipaks have 4 or 6 panels in them. This gives the designer space to include photos of the artist, logo, track listing. This also allows space for the price and barcode, credits and thanks to people although thanks and credit may also be put on an insert along with the lyrics to songs. Digipaks also ofter have a running theme throught theme linking to a main song or the genre of the artist. Taking this into consideration I am thinking of making my digipak with 4 panels and using the theme of a card game which we are using in our video. I will also include a picture of Ashleigh (our artist) as putting across the identity of the band/singer is important when trying to sell your CD.

Ferdinand de Saussure is one of the founders of semiotics and developed the concept of the signifier and what it signifies. Saussure says that a signifer as simple as 'cat' can form a different image for different people as says that people may not interpret things as you want. The use of signifiers and what they can signify is something to think about when designing my digipak.

Images from http://gsa2media2011dm.blogspot.co.uk

This is McFly's digipak for their 4th Studio Album 'RadioACTIVE'. It has 6 panels as well as a pull out booklet with lyrics and thank-you messages and a single-panel tour date pull out. Thoughout the entire digipak and the booklet the colours and fonts are the same and makes it look like more proffesional. The tour date pullout contrasts with this and has a lot of red in it and includes photos from past tours.