We have previously analysed the album artworks of many different albums, covering Escape the Fate and blessthefall. It is only till now that we have realised we didn't include analysis for the insides of those albums. We have chosen 3 different digipaks to analyse where we will concentrate on the insides of the album/EP.
The two we have chosen are Newton Faulkner's 'Studio Zoo' and Fort Hope's 'The Future's In Our Hearts'. One main similarity in the 3 we have chosen is the way they are made from card, as opposed to the plastic CD casing. This allows for the digipak to be folded out in many different ways, rathe than the simple, single opening.
This first digipak is that of Newton Faulkner's latest album 'Studio Zoo' which was released in August 2013. This album was unique in the way it was produced, streaming 24/7 for 5 weeks in Faulkner's home studio. Viewers were able to step into Newton's world all day everyday, viewing different aspects of the day through different cameras, from editing on Camera 4 to having lunch on Camera 1. Newton embraced the network of social media and kept his fans up to date, frequently tweeting updates or posting status' on Facebook to let us know which camera was getting the action at any particular time. Instagram was a big part of the communication with fans too, in particular, the hand written post-it-notes from Emily Coxhead (who took the role of photographer/designer and acted as 'Newton HQ'). The name of the 'live music documentary' and album, 'Studio Zoo' set the theme of animals throughout his home studio in East London and different toy animals became increasingly present as the recording of the album progressed.
All of the above contributed to the album cover/digipak for Studio Zoo. This first image shows the front cover of the album where Newton is sat at his computer, guitar in hand holding his computer mouse. The entire floor on the studio is filled with instruments, from guitar to the harp. Amongst the instruments can be seen the toy animals that appeared throughout his home. The shot was set up with the help of Newton's sister, Lottie, and brother, Toby. Emily Coxhead took the photograph from the position of camera 4. I think this shot particularly captures Newton's personality as we notice his posters on the studio walls, his Tetris lamp and his can of 'BEER'. The album cover is particularly colourful with the addition of a splatter over the image. The font for the artist name 'Newton Faulkner' is the same logo font that has been used throughout his other albums/EPs/singles (excluding Write It On Your Skin), t shirt fonts and advertisements.
The text '#StudioZoo' on the actual CDs is that of Emily Coxhead's which was a photograph that she posted on Instagram within the first few days of the album recording. The colour scheme for the CDs are that of the yellow post-it-note that she originally wrote #StudioZoo on. There is a single disk version of the album and a two disk special edition (which is the one we have here to analyse) and the second of the two disks is just the opposite colour positioning of the first disk.
The second image of the digipak shows the back of the album which is a similar photograph to the front, but instead, Newton has his back facing the camera and is playing one of his guitars. The splatter has been moved over to follow Newton's head as though representing "it's a burst of wonderful thoughts and lyrics and craaaazy things" - as described by Emily Coxhead. The shift of the splatter made room for the track list which is situated to the left of the cover. All text on the back of the album is white, which is a good contrast to the darker background. The font for the track list is a cursive style block capitals (which is the same font as the title 'Studio Zoo' on the front). The cursive font gives a real personal feel to the album; something that was key to the whole digipak after such an exclusive opportunity viewers were given.
On the inside of the digipak there are 3 main photographs, 2 taken by Emily and one by Newton. When opening the first fold of the digipak we see 2 photographs that completely fill the card. The image of the left is the artificial sheep that Newton has always had in his home, and a toy snake that has been places amongst Newton's big jar of sweets. The next photograph on the right is one of Newton's brother Toby Faulkner (left), Emily Coxhead (centre) and Newton's sister Lottie Faulkner (right). This is an important photograph because it shows the 3 people that worked hard with Newton to make the 'documentary' as successful as it was and those who were there with him everyday, from the beginning day which finished with a game of tennis on the Playstation Move, a few days at the Isle Of Wight Festival, and the finishing album release party. This is a candid shot of the three, most probably on some kind of social networking site updating their fans. Newton has captured the typical expressions of the people in the image; Toby was often sat at the back of the studio with his head down at his phone and Emily and Lottie smiling through each day.
When the second part of the digipak is folded out there is a booklet reveled and another photograph on the opposite side to the fold. The photograph shows Newton sat on his sofa with 2 more toy animals in the foreground. Shallow focus has been used in the photograph to concentrate on the toy animals. All of the photographs in this digipak have been taken in Newton's home, showing different aspects of his house. Normally the photographer would be conscious of the background and try to make it free from clutter and distractions, however, this is again an important part to the digipak because his home played such a big part in the whole concept of the 'live documentary'. Inside the booklet can be found hand written lyrics for each of the tracks with images from the whole 5 weeks. These photographs were again taken by Emily Coxhead.
No comments:
Post a Comment