Digipak and Promotional Poster Deconstruction: The XX

Digipak Deconstruction, The XX (Self Entitled Album):

The album digipak is highly minimalistic, only adorned with the bands trademark 'X' which is placed on every piece of merchandising and despite having no form of text on the album cover, the band is evident. It can also be noted that the band have chosen to ostracise their own identity in their work through using graphic imagery to represent themselves (an X), rather than the stereotypical posed picture that artists use on their album covers. The 'X' is perhaps metaphorical of their choice to disassociate their image with their music as their philosophy highlights the importance of the music over the aesthetic; which in fact draws my attention more than a typical album as in a record or CD store it would stand out, juxtaposing all other album covers. An album that similarly uses abstract graphic imagery, to highlight the indie trope that the music is more important than the artist, is Sundara Karma's album 'Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect' and ALT-J's album 'This Is All Yours'. The reoccurrence of the 'X' on every aspect of their packaging will ensure that people recognise them easily.

The CD itself also utilises the 'X' logo, instead inverting the white background and black X as seen on the cover, to reveal a white X and black background. Inside the CD, one can see a sleeve with a cut out X inside of it. The lacking of any bright colours on the packaging is representative of their music, which some view as slow and calming indie dream pop. The lack of references to who the band are and no inclusion of a track list on the casing, makes the digipak feeling highly anonymous; which infers that the band will only reveal their identity to you if you buy the album and listen to its contents without prejudice from seeing the track names on the back panel of the digipak. The band typically wear black costumes when performing, with their monochrome aesthetic highly represented in their digipak.

Promotional Poster Deconstruction:

The poster for the bands second album 'Coexist' (as seen in the underground) again features the bands iconographic 'X', however, this time the X is filled in with a gradient like pattern that connotes the pattern you receive in puddles when light is refracted off of them, creating an almost multicoloured effect. The artwork is actually inspired by an iridescent oil spill, as stated by the band members, "The albums title was inspired by the colours visible in iridescent oil." The use of bright colours juxtapose the before black and white colour scheme, inferring to loyal fans that the new album stay's true to the bands roots and first album (with the X remaining the same) however, it has a new flare to it as the bands music develops; this may encourage brand loyalty as it makes the band unique and easily recognisable. The fact that only one edge of the X is predominantly covered in this colour is highly eye-catching.