Complete Digipak Deconstruction - Ellie Goulding: Lights

Because none of my previous deconstructions have released a magazine advertisement, I have decided to deconstruct an entire digipak collection from an artist which I know has released one.

Focus Group

"I love the album but I think that because the album is called 'Lights' it could have been a lot more interesting/bright with the use of different coloured lights all over the album covers and magazine advertisement. The theme just seems a bit too dark for something that is named 'Lights'."

"I like how minimalistic the album cover and magazine advertisement is. It isn't pretentious or trying too hard to attract an audience due to the fact this was Ellie's first album to be produced. She also looks really down to Earth with little make-up or expensive clothing. This helps us, as the audience, to connect with her as a normal human instead of some megastar."

"I really love how the light flows through her blonde hair, I think it makes Goulding look really ethereal and attractive. I also really enjoy how you can look at the photograph and know it has deeper meaning to the artist and metaphorical links can be made with the lyrics/experiences of the artist. This helps the audience believe that the music does really matter to Ellie and that she is not just another artist churned up by the record label to make money."

Lessons to be Learnt

• Highly important to include all of the conventions of a typical album cover artwork, e.g. album title.
• Complex designs with in-depth meanings can be effective when understood by the audience.
• Important to think about how you want the audience to perceive the artist and their values shown through their music. How can my artist's personality be shown through the promotional materials.
• Brand recognition is vital so it is a good idea to use familiar themes, symbols and images that connect your promotional materials to the artist and themselves. It might be worth using the same font as in your music video and the album artwork.
• Can be useful to use the same image for all three promotional materials as it gives the campaign a sense of continuity."
• If we chose to superimpose text or logos onto the image we are using, it is important to think about the colour choice of the image and the text, e.g. will they go? It is also important to think about the positioning of the text, will it be obscured by the colours of the image or will the text block key aspects of the image?