Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Digipak
10th November 2015
Front Cover
The front cover for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' album The Heist uses a similar approach to Beyonce, by keeping a relatively plain background, and including only the name of the album and artists. This focuses the audience directly towards what's important - the album and music.
The typography used is professional and powerful, as they have written using serif font. This creates an important feeling and look. The word "heist" implies they're taking expensive objects, connoting the wealth within the album and artists. The colour gold is used to display the writing, which is effective as it stands out against the dark background, but also presents the wealth of the artists, showing they are above the audience.
The background is relatively simple, as it's mainly black, with gold detailing used to create a snake skin effect. This once again presents the wealth of the artists.
Whilst looking at my other analyses, it appears the most common way to present the album cover is to use a close up of the artist. Macklemore and some others such as Beyonce go against this convention, to present themselves as different and interesting.
Back Cover
The same patterning and colour scheme continues onto the back, ensuring a theme fits between all elements of the digipak. The snake skin effect and gold detailing continues the wealthy look, appealing to the audience as the album looks classy and expensive. It also shows how successful the artists are, creating appeal as many people will want to see what people are liking so much.
Like the other album covers I have analysed, The Heist album back cover includes the bar code at the bottom, as well as record label information, to prevent distraction from the rest of the album.
The titles of the songs are written vertically through the centre of the album back cover. This draws attention to them, whilst also making them clear and easy to read. The use of serif font is also continued, making for clear writing and a professional looking finish.
Disk
The disk for the album "The Heist" takes the gold colour from the detailing on the front and back covers, and uses this as a background. The disk looks like crumpled paper, with "THE HEIST" written across the top. This suggests it's a plan for the heist (robbery) that may not have been the final edit. This shows how well thought out and put together the album is.
The typography continues in the same font as before, and the serif font is also continued. This again shows the professionalism and importance of the album. On the disk, differing from the front cover, the title is underlined. This emphasises its importance, and also draws attention straight to it.
Similarly to other album disks, the design is plain, containing simply the title. This keeps more important information on the front and back covers where it will be seen. The disk is more to the point, keeping the audience interested.