Lana Del ReyBorn to die

Digipak analysis

THE FRONT COVER

The digipak title “Born to die” juxtaposes the idyllic setting of the background image, which uses high key lighting and saturated primary colours. The fact that the depth of field is shallow, signifies that the setting is a façade which masks the true, dark nature of the songs in the album. It also allows the artist to be the main focus of the album cover. This juxtaposition is used to create an enigma code, intriguing the audience about Lana and her songs, so they want to find out more.

The sky blue colour and her white shirt connotes innocence and happiness, however, this is contradicted by her sultry facial expression and the use of red which symbolises death and sex, linking to the album title “Born to die”. Her facial expression is also very menacing and the camera appears to be shooting from a low angle, suggesting that she has power and dominance.

The font, its central positioning and Lana’s clean white shirt makes the appearance of the digipak very clean cut and pure. She looks beautiful and vintage, as is her brand identity. This links to Dyer’s star theory.

THE DISCThe white background of the disc is associated with purity and the clean cut look seen on the digipak cover. However, the red roses are used to contrast with this, signifying passion, love, lust, strength and beauty.

The white background symbolises Lana’s innocent exterior, whilst the roses symbolises her passionate, transcendent and deeply meaningful interior.

BACK COVERThe red background conforms to what you would associated with a title “Born to die” whereby red symbolises danger and lust. The white font colour gives the appearance of the Digipak a disconcerting feel, as the colours completely oppose each other, linking to the dark nature of the songs.