Digipak Analysis and Research // Nirvana's Nevermind

Nirvana - Nevermind

This is the deluxe CD edition for Nirvana's famous Nevermind album. The reason for creating this special digipak edition was because it was for the 20th anniversary, the tri-fold nature of the digipak is effective at housing both CDs that came included in this special edition. The Nevermind album cover was an attempt for Nirvana to break the mould from being the small independent band to a larger mainstream one and companies in America had a problem with its controversial album design, notably for Walmart was not the fact that the baby was going for a dollar that was on a hook but the fact that his penis was in clear view. 

I believe that Cobain and co were anticipating this sort of reaction as they wanted to shock and create a memorable image for the basis of the following three years of their band and attempted to dispute the values that many Americans obtained. The cover had a baby greedily pursing the dollar hooked on a fishing line, symbolising the grubby temptation despite the innocent nature of the young baby, despite the fact that he clearly does not understand the meaning of a currency or it's use, big corporations will hook us in as young as possible, onto the consumerist nature that comes so naturally to many, because of this hook from a young age, this hook on greed, consumerism, ready to fit into the corporate system. 

Original Release CD

The actual digipak its self has a personal touch to it with scanned in copies of the bands scribbles because the second CD included had some of their B side recordings on it and those that would likely purchase the album again would be fans of the original and thus to entice them into buying the deluxe edition this personal element draws them in. The handwritten track listing on both sides is rough and scribbly, which fits even the genre (Grunge) and their general personality. The digipak generally conforms to the traditions of the rock and grunge but the CDs do not as they seem a bit too 'clean' and the design to me seems to simplistic and the design of the CD is simiair to the Bossa Nova digipak I had viewed previously with simple colours, very different to the original CD design that was released, as you see: