Thursday 8 November 2012

Coldplay- Mylo Xyloto Digipak Analysis


The Digipak front cover is the image below. It is a very simple cut out of an M and a X. These are the initials of the album. I think that it is very simple and effective. It targets no specific target audience and is quite confusing. It has a foreign name and a confusing layout. There is something very disjunctive about it when related to the names of their songs.


This is the back of the pack. It is again a strange layout. It is upside down to the front cover. (above)The typography is really good. It is just a white cut-out and through that we are able to see the art work behind. There is random writing and graffiti in the background that may give a clue as to what the songs are about or the target audience. There are M’s and X’s all over the wall with lyrics from their songs over it too. The way the lettering over the cover has been placed is really good, for example the OTO on the bottom creates a line of symmetry. The MYL and the OTO are shorter lines to the one on the middle creating a diamond or round shape. The idea of the cover is to get people to observe it closely.



This shows a much stronger colour scheme as we go through the digipak. The left image is more reds and greens and the right image is more concentrated on purples. They are using bright colours to get across a point. The album has a very wide range of instruments used, and song styles. I think they want to get the point across that it’s a very creative and free album for a wide range of people to listen too. The album also has a wide range of stories and themes which may be part of what they are trying to show in the digipak. There is a sense of rebellion and freedom shown in this image too. The words “tonight the streets are ours” on the left may give us a clue and the free roam of graffiti that is plastered across the walls. Graffiti is not something people should do.



This is a spread of Graffiti across three pages.The pages are literally just covered in Graffiti. For the same reasons as the previous picture I think that they are trying to communicate rebellion and freedom in a creative way. Perhaps the song ‘Paradise’reflects this?  Below are the symbols from the back cover that represent each song. A number are on the graffiti board.


This Photo is to give the performance element to the pack. I think that the way the image has been taken, with the lights in the background and the blur of wavy lines, looks really good and mirrors the graffiti that is  through the rest of the booklet. The photo has a very strong vignette around the image and the band is out of focus. This all adds to the chaos of the digipak.




This is the disk for the pack. It has been well designed, sticking to the theme of the graffiti and the colours. I like the continuous line following the shape of the disk. The colours are the same free, rebellious colours used as the ones throughout. 




This is the back cover. The same colours are used, and also the typography that is used for the main album title. I really like how the words have been positioned and the composition of the cover. The symbols on the bottom are there that are repeated throughout the albums graffiti. There are also some clearer pictures on the back too. I think the album artwork, works really well together and it flows from one image to the next really easily.







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