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A2 MEDIA PORTFOLIO
CENTRE NUMBER: 22357
CANDIDATE NUMBER: 5290
Lana Del Rey: Born To Die
Born To Die: colour and image
The use of colour within the album has been consistent and accurate in terms of representing the artist's tone of music as well as lyrics. Red, blue and white are the main colours which recur throughout the album. Red really stands out when it’s in contrast with white and blue which gives the album an edgy feeling. Lana’s origins are American and so the use of white, blue and red seem like an appropriate decision to make when designing the digipak. While red gives a feeling of danger and passion, blue and white together create harmony and feelings of melancholia. Lana’s music is quite nostalgic and contains a lot of harmonical sounds which really ties with the use of white and blue. Overall the creative decisions including colour have been very successful because the visual representation of the album seems to be very accurate and appealing to the target audience (indie pop/chamber pop/dream pop genre fans).
In contrast to this, the use of image within the digipak has been limited but not in a bad way at all - there are two images of the artist, one portrait-like mid shot as well as a close up which is more concentrated on Lana’s face expression and body language. In the close up the audience is allowed to see Lana’s face more clearly while she has a concerned look on her face - perhaps saying the album is quite self-indulgent and retrospective. The hands-near-the-face technique seems to be still very much in tact within pop culture.
 Adele |  Britney Spears |  Demi Lovato |
|---|---|---|
 Beyonce |  Selena Gomez |
Language and how it's used to represent the artist:
The name ‘Born to Die’ instantly suggests a sort of contemplating nature of Lana’s songs and concepts of them. While researching the indie genre I found that indie has become more than a music genre but also a part of the culture in which people identify and express themselves by romanticising and glamorising things such as certain fashion and lifestlye concepts. Lana's story as an artist began early as she sang in bars since a young age; however, now she's able to use that experience in her songs and paint a picture of her life before Lizzy Grant became Lana Del Rey. This really shows in her debut album as it sounds like one big story so the use of laguage in the digipak is representitive of her origins: the names of her songs contain not only themes of love but also North American aspects (Diet Mountain Dew, National Anthem etc).
In terms o presenting that language, the use of typography has been well-thought of too. For instance, there's vivid contrast between Lana's white shirt and the name of the album which almost seems as an ornament within the shirt rather than a digitally-added font. The name of the artist is in big bold white letters which is an important aspect of the cover because, as I mentioned before, this is Lana's first album so self-promotion is an important factor leading to success. To link the front cover with the back, the same font and colour of it is the artist's name is used for the titles of the songs.
Within the digipak, there is a booklet containing song lyrics. A reocurrent motif running through the booklet is the blood stains which seem to be there because of a gun-inflicted wound. I found it to be an interesting representation of love and heart-break which are very recognisible themes within the album.
In conclusion, I found the digipak immensly interesting to analyse because I, as an audience of this sort of music, found it very appealing not only to the ear but also to the eye which in a way proves how effective the visual presentation of the artist within the digipak is. Since minimalistic concepts have been quite a massive tendency in recent years, Lana's 'clear' image and music style is immediately considered of quality because it's conteporary. Evidence of this can be seen in successes of artists like Lorde (Pure Heroine), Ellie Goulding (Halcyon Days) etc.
 Born To Die: cover (back) |  Born To Die: cover (front) |  Born To Die: CD cover |
|---|---|---|
 Halcyon Days |  Pure Heroine: cover (back) |  Pure Heroine: cover (front) |
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