Smoke and Mirrors
Imagine Dragons
Front Cover
The cover of the album follows convention in some areas, yet is unconventional in others. It is conventional for the band not to appear on the album cover, as this puts an emphasis on the music the band produces rather than the band members themselves. However, it challenges convention by making the band name larger than the album name, which removes some of the effect of not having the band on the front cover, as it directs the audience's attention more to the band. The front cover also sets the general motif of the rest of the digipak - which is magic and trickery - and it reflects the album name as well which is culminated into an overall theme that the album should convey.
Back Cover
The back cover is incredibly minimalistic, providing only the track names and a faint grey cross in the background. This minimalistic design choice reflects the bands indie style and focus on music rather than appearance, as it uses rather dull and unappealing colours. This minimalist style is also done to avoid detracting from the front cover, and give that as much focus as possible and not distract the audience from it.
CD
The CD is designed to link with the front cover, as it is made to look like the same material and colour the person on the front cover is wearing. Furthermore, much like the front cover, the band name still takes more prominence, as while both band and album name are the same size and font this time, the band name is in bold, which shows that they're more important.
Behind the CD
Much like the CD, the panel behind provides a clear link to the front cover, with the hand protruding from the bottom-centre, the birds in the shot, and the large amount of black space in the shot. This also follows the motif of magic as procuring doves from nowhere is a commonly known magic trick. The 5 birds on the picture could also represent the 5 band members who worked on the album, and the image could be suggesting that after the success of Night Visions (the album the band previously worked on) they have more freedom - whether it is artistic freedom from making a name for themselves or monetary freedom from the album's success.
Inside-Left
The inside-left part of the digipak is concurrent in some aspects with the rest of the album, as there is a lot of black space surrounding this person, and the bird sitting atop his head links in with the image behind the CD case. However, the man in the image hasn't appeared anywhere else on the digipak, or at least hasn't shown his face, as he may well have been either of the hands on the front cover or behind-the-CD image, yet there has been no clear indication to show that either of those are him.
Inside-Middle
This image is the only place in the album that the band members themselves make an appearance. This image is given prominence as it is over two pages in the album booklet, which could suggest that the band's appearance is more important than the music, similarly to the size of their band name in comparison to the album name. This is also the only picture in the digipak to not have any clear link to magic and trickery, breaking the album's motif just to include the band
Inside-Right
This part of the digipak provides a very clear link to the motif of the album, and also gives a sense of mystery and relaxation with the use of fog and soft blue colours. On the other hand, the background doesn't follow the same style as the rest of the album, as it uses the aforementioned blue instead of the dull, minimalist blacks and greys that have been used so far.