The Postal Service Digipack Analysis

CD Digipack Analysis'Give Up' - The Postal ServiceGenre elements Conventions Characters – There are no characters on the front cover and main album artwork of The Postal Service's

'Give Up', but the back cover features a man in a suit looking into the distance off a boat at an empty wedding dress. His hair seems well groomed and his suit suggests that he is middle class. Likewise, the fact that he is on a large boat suggests that he is also middle class. The character, who we can assume is the artist, Ben Gibbard, is looking out towards a ghostlike wedding dress, almost lamenting lost or dead love. We see him as a man who has accomplished a lot, but never quite grasped the love he desires. It remains at a distance from him.Inside cover I - A drawing of a man dressed warm against the cold looking lost and without purpose, flowers stereotypically represent romantic love - representation of heart break or unrequited love. Inside cover II - A mother crying because her son has dropped his ice cream. Stereotypically we see mothers trying to make the situation better, but here it appears she just can't control herself anymore. Representation of tiredness, depression, perhaps recent heartbreak.Inside cover III - What appears to be a typical teenage girl lying asleep next to her bed. Surrounded by tissues suggests she has been crying - heartbreak, emotional strain. Bed is covered in letters which implies the loss of a loved one, perhaps a boyfriend or a relative.Katz' Uses and Gratifications Theory - Myriad different characters are represented unclearly, it makes us think and presents the opportunity for us to identify with the different characters.

Narrative events – Give Up uses a lot of narrative enigma in its album artwork, this can be seen on each of the covers and features a range of characters. Then we must also question how all of these characters are linked. Or, if not, why are they significant?Front cover - We can see an empty double bed in front of what appears to be an open window and the wind blows the curtains forward. It brings to question

Whose bed is it? Why does the bed look so isolated and unused? What is the building outside of the window?

Back cover - A man in a formal suit looks out off the side of a boat at a grey sky and crashing waves where an empty wedding dress appears to be hovering. We ask

What is he doing on the boat? He appears to be there for a reason, but why has he isolated himself to look out

towards the crashing sea? What is the symbolism of the wedding dress?

The sky is grey and the sea is violent. The weather uses pathetic fallacy to create a miserable atmosphere.There are three different and seemingly unconnected narratives on the inside of the digipack, likewise, all presented in a cartoon format. Inside cover I - The artwork entitled 'We Will Become Silhouettes' features a drawing of a man wrapped up against the cold, holding a bouquet of dying flowers. He looks to be unlucky in love, either rejected (thus representing unrequited love) or else left, showing loneliness.The second shows a young boy crying because he dropped his ice cream, and his mother is also crying, which is unusual. In the third, a girl is asleep on the floor next to her bed, surrounded by tissues and open letters which we can assume are from a loved one. What the man with the flowers, the child's mother, and the sleeping girl all have in common is that they no longer appear in control of their emotions; it is as though they have suffered for a long time and no longer feel in control. The artwork is appropriate to the album name, 'Give Up'.

Iconography – Front cover - Bedframe, white drapesBack cover - A man in a suit looking out from a boat to sea, at what appears to be an empty, ghostlike wedding dress.Inside cover I - flowers stereotypically represent romantic love, these flowers are damaged by the blizzard and imply that the love is unreciprocated or broken.Inside cover II - fallen ice cream is a stereotypical cinematographic event which makes children cry, ice cream typically a symbol of happiness has fallen and is inedible, therefore sadInside cover III - tissues suggest she has been crying, upset. Letters on her bed suggest that

someone has recently left her life, a loved one, possibly a relative; it is implied that she has been lamenting their time together.Whilst indie albums such as 'Gossamer' by Passion Pit have a focus on love as a whole, as Steve Neale says, this is not always the case with all artists in the genre. It appears that many indie artists take their own approach to similar concepts ("repetition and difference")

Setting- Front cover - In a bedroom, looking out of the window. The mise en scene of a bedroom usually indicates romance, love, or sexual activity, whereas in this case it looks unused and forlorn, like the owner of the bed has been without romantic company for a long time.Back cover - On a boat, looking out at the sea. Rough waves and a grey sky. Inside cover - three different scenes in cartoon. One on a snowy street, one on a regular street, one in a bedroom. All of these settings have a recurring theme of sadness and isolation, whether it is the empty bed, the man looking out towards the ghost of a bride, a man stood with dying flowers in a street caught in a blizzard, a child and his mother crying because he dropped his ice cream, or a girl asleep on her floor surrounded by open letters and tissues. As the album title suggests, it is as though everyone has 'Give[n] Up'.

Technical and audio codes –

Front cover - Long shot of the bed frame and curtains with emphasised natural lighting from the window and saturated colour editing. Creates an aura of lack of use and drained emotions. The rule of thirds is employed to split the cover in half where the bottom half is the dark mahogany colour of the bed and the top is the bright light coming from the window. Back cover - Camera has been set to or edited to be monochromatic. Long shot of a man looking out to sea, has a slight shallow depth of field to give emphasis to the waves and the dress rather than to the boat. Arguably a two shot of the man looking outwards and the unoccupied wedding dress.Guttenberg Design Principle - Tracks are listed in columns across the axis of orientation along the primary optical to the strong fallow area used with the rule of thirds to only occupy a third of the back cover so as not to spoil the image. Barcode and record label are small and in the strong fallow area; there is a monochrome colour scheme which reflects the mood but also looks very balanced and sophisticated.