[DF] Digipak Deconstruction

Digipak Deconstruction

Jack Johnson – ‘In Between Dreams’

Genre

How is the genre of the track/artist evident?

Jack Johnson is a folk-rock singer-songwriter from Hawaii. The genre is known for its use of acoustic guitar, which is evident on the album artwork as one is slung over his back. It is also known for its warm, calm feel which is portrayed by the orange/yellow and black colour scheme.

Media Language

What visual techniques are used?

The rule of thirds is used and broken in this digipak. On the front, the artist is in the lower left third, the platform takes up two thirds of the bottom third line and the artist and album name is in the upper right third. However, the tree, which could be said to be the focal point, is in the centre of the picture, with the leaves spreading to both left and right thirds of the picture. On the back, the tree trunk is positioned in the right third while the track listings are in the left third.


In terms of a colour there are only two main colours present. The background is a warm orange/yellow (a very gentle gradient going from a more yellow shade in the bottom left to a more orange shade in the top right), whilst everything else (the tree, the artist and the text) is black, with the exception of the album name which is white. This creates a silhouette effect.


On the front cover, the actual subject being depicted is the artist in shorts with an acoustic guitar slung over his back looking up and grabbing a leaf of the tree which takes up the majority of the picture, leaving negative space only in the bottom right and top left corners.

How is meaning generated through these techniques?

Using Roland Barthes’ semiotics we can see that these visual techniques are signs used to create meaning. The rule of thirds is generally used to create an aesthetically pleasing picture, however breaking it with the overbearing tree may be a suggestion of the correspondingly overbearing power of nature. Similarly, the act of the artist grabbing the tree could imply a certain harmony between man and the natural world.

The connotations of that orange/yellow shade in the background are mainly of the sunset, which could be a suggestion of the album’s sonic atmosphere. Similarly, the colours are warm, ‘friendly’ colours which are aesthetically pleasing.

The tree is the main focal point of the picture, and this suggests several things. Firstly, that nature (often symbolised by a tree) is central to life. Similarly, trees are symbols for life and health and so this could also create the meaning that nature is central to human life.

What linguistic devices have been used?

The artist’s name – Jack Johnson – is alliteration which makes it sound more pleasing to say, and as well as this the forename and surname are both quite common, and therefore more relatable to consumers.

The album is called ‘In Between Dreams’. The most obvious connotation of this is sleep and dreams (pleasant, as opposed to their negative counterparts – nightmares). This generates a relaxed and welcoming feel. There is also a possible visual play on the words, with white being used exclusively for the album title, and, as such, is ‘in between’ the black and yellow colours.

Is there any intertextuality or references to popular culture?

There are certainly no explicit intertextual references; however the tree could be a reference to many things, such as the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. This may suggest that human life as we know it is contingent on the tree, and thus suggests a certain harmony between man and nature.

Representation

How is the artist represented?

The artist is represented as a warm, welcoming, chilled-out acoustic guitarist. This is a continuation of Jack Johnson’s metanarrative in that these are all traits he has consistently been attributed from his previous albums.

In terms of Richard Dyer’s paradoxes (‘Stars’, 1998) the artist could be said to be present in that he is shown on the cover, and yet absent by the colour scheme making him a silhouette. Similarly, the acoustic guitar and shorts makes him seem ordinary and relatable to the audience, however the colour scheme again, as well as the enigmatic location, causes him to seem simultaneously extraordinary. This creates an incomplete and incoherent star image.

Institution and Audience

How might this print text be consumed?

This text will be consumed primarily through advertisement – seeing the digipak on a shop shelf, in a television advert, on the internet, etc. This is evident through the use of Dyer’s paradoxes. These paradoxes create an enigmatic, incomplete and incoherent star image that makes the customer want to buy the album in order to answer questions raised by it. Similarly, the digipak advertises the songs inside and on the front displays the artist’s name and the album name, so that people may recognise the artist and want to buy it.