DigiPak Analysis – Jay Z and Linkin Park – Collision Course

From the main cover art of this digipak we see the two main artist’s names written across the cover in big blue and white font in a sort of street art font, also we see the MTV logo also entitled “ultimate mash-ups presents” which gives it the hint that this is an important album for MTV and they will have done a lot to ensure that the audience enjoys it. There is a sandy dirt feeling to the album due to the colours in the background that give it the certain gritty feel that plays well with their targeted audience, the orange and separate font used converts attention to what the album is named as collision course is quite a catchy and easy to remember title, it may play well with their target audience of teenagers (mostly boys), the white street art in the back is also stereotypically male and is used to reel in their targeted audience by using this and giving off a rebellious vibe that is quite strong in todays youth.

This panel of the digipak shows bonuses that come along with the CD such as in this case live recordings and mash ups etc.. Also It sticks to the art seen on the previous side by again maintaining is scrapped and ripped feel with the heavy use of stereotypical male colours such as blue, brown and black, the bar code and the parental advisory explicit content sticker are placed on this side of the digipak, the advisory sticker is legitimate however recently it can also be used as reverse gatekeeping and actually attract younger audiences due to the rebellious vibe that is common amongst youth in the 21st century.

It also features all of the publishing companies and funding that made this album possible and this is done to gain them more publicity amongst their target audience.

The care free look of this album hints towards what genre of music is featured in this album to new audiences and institutions.

Instantly from looking at the this panel of the digipak you can see that they are going for a certain dirty, urban feel to attract their audience which is aimed primarily at teenage boys. Its become know that graffiti and street art are quite popular with this target audience hence why they decided to create a cover that used the style such as the spray paint and wet paint that this does. It is apparent that it is aimed more so at boys than girls due to the dark cold colours that make it feel primarily a boys album. Presenting themselves as initials stenciled out of spray paint again gives off the certain gangster, urban vibe that has became ever popular with younger audiences today.

The disc art for this album is very simple, it remains very dark and urban colour-wise, using dark blue and reds along with black to create again a very gangster and backstreet life kind of vibe to appeal to their audience once again. Collision course is printed in red to stand out on the side of the disc, also the two artists are printed at the very top in the same font as on the cover to make the disc recognisable to the album also to maintain the image that has already been gained by the artists in their previous work. Also the spray paint effect again adds on top to the previous statement of the album feeling urban and having a certain gangster feel

Like all the other panels of this digipak this stays with the tone of the rest, and remains dark and in a way colourless as in no colour jumps out and all are dark and almost boring. The artists are branded on the front in a black almost digital painted text. This side of the digipak has a distinct wear and tear feel to it as the whole thing is unsymmetrical and has worn and ripped edges which go back to points on previous sides about the producers aiming for a rough and industrialised feel and tries to show that this is not a particularly happy album but one that points out certain other emotions and I feel that they get this message across quite well throughout the album.

This is the most uninteresting side to the digipak due to there being no reason to add anything of advertising value, there are several images of hands reaching in several directions and grabbing onto several things, this backs up the feeling of the emotions emitted from this album are not the happiest. The disc cover is completely different to the art of the Digipak when compared in this panel, the Digipak as a worn and torn sandy brown where as the disc is a deep blue and light blue, showing individualisation from the Digipak and that this is what the consumer has bought the album for, it could almost be compared to the idea of a chest and treasure in the sense that there is a large brown casing that’s worn and fading however you open it to find the colour rich insides which is what you got it for and this shows that the disc is the most valuable part of the pack.